Pac-Man Plus (partially found mobile port of arcade maze game; 2007): Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 00:33, 17 February 2024

Title screen.

Status:
Demo Version: Found
Full Version: Lost

Date found: 28 Aug 2022 (Demo)

Found by: ShiroTourmaline and CosmicToons (Demo)

Pac-Man Plus is an arcade maze game released by Bally Midway in 1982, it is an upgrade kit for the original Pac-Man that adds some new features and twists (which includes new bonuses, disappearing mazes and ghosts and faster gameplay speed). In 2007, Namco Networks ported the game to mobile devices, and according to the partially broken archive of the Namco Games website, it was exclusive to Sprint and Boost Mobile users, though since the archive of the website is from 2008 (and there have been versions of the website after 2008), odds are it could've expanded. This release features even more new twists than the original game and has some very noticeable changes. A demo of this port has also been preloaded on only 3 Sprint devices, these being the Samsung SPH-M800 Instinct, Samsung SPH-M540 Rant, and LG LX290. As of recently all 3 demos have been dumped.

Differences

This port of Pac-Man Plus, while retaining many of the gameplay twists from the arcade version (such as the invisible ghosts and mazes), also adds some new features and changes, these being new detailed graphics, new maze colors, new intermission themes (based on Pac & Pal), the ghost that matches the maze color being immune to power pellets, and the effects of the bonus fruit being dependent on the level. The gameplay speed also matches that of the original Pac-Man.

The port also includes a fully playable demo of the original Pac-Man

Availability

On August 28th, 2022, two demo builds of the game were uploaded to the Internet Archive by user ShiroTourmaline. They were obtained by extracting the game data from the firmware of the Samsung phones they were preinstalled into.

On February 16th, 2024, the LG LX290 demo was dumped and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user CosmicToons after obtaining the phone with the demo.

Gallery

References

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{InfoboxLost
+{{InfoboxFound
 |title=<center>Pac-Man Plus (mobile port)</center>
 |image=PPlus splash.gif
 |imagecaption=Title screen.
-|status=<span style="color:red;">'''Lost'''</span>
+|status=<br>Demo Version: <span style="color:green;">'''Found'''</span><br>Full Version: <span style="color:red;">'''Lost'''
+|datefound=28 Aug 2022 (Demo)
+|foundby=[https://archive.org/details/pac-manplus-demo-j2me ShiroTourmaline] and [https://archive.org/details/pacplusj2medemolx290 CosmicToons] (Demo)
 }}
-In 2008, '''Namco released a mobile phone version of their arcade game, ''Pac-Man Plus'''''.<ref name=" Ref 1">[http://web.archive.org/web/20101012145204/http://www.namcogames.com/mobile/pacman-plus_25.html Older version of the Namco Games webpage.] Retrieved 10 Jun '22</ref> There are notable differences between this port and the arcade original. Aside from being on a mobile phone, the graphics are more detailed, the color of the maze varies between levels, and certain ghosts become unaffected by the power pellets only when the maze color matches the color of the aforementioned certain ghost.<ref name="Ref 1"/><ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20220610044014/http://www.namcogames.com/game_detail.php?gid=51 Archived Namco Games webpage for the game.] Retrieved 10 Jun '22</ref><ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20131024190649/http://pacman.com/en/pac-man-games/pac-man-plus.html The now deleted Pacman.com page for Pac-Man Plus.] Retrieved 10 Jun '22</ref> Unlike the arcade version, where certain ghosts become unaffected by power pellets completely at random.
+'''Pac-Man Plus''' is an arcade maze game released by Bally Midway in 1982, it is an upgrade kit for the original Pac-Man that adds some new features and twists (which includes new bonuses, disappearing mazes and ghosts and faster gameplay speed). In 2007, Namco Networks ported the game to mobile devices, and according to the partially broken archive of the Namco Games website, it was exclusive to Sprint and Boost Mobile users, though since the archive of the website is from 2008 (and there have been versions of the website ''after'' 2008), odds are it could've expanded. This release features even more new twists than the original game and has some very noticeable changes. A demo of this port has also been preloaded on only 3 Sprint devices, these being the '''Samsung SPH-M800 Instinct''', '''Samsung SPH-M540 Rant''', and '''LG LX290'''. As of recently all 3 demos have been dumped.
+==Differences==
+This port of '''Pac-Man Plus''', while retaining many of the gameplay twists from the arcade version '''(such as the invisible ghosts and mazes)''', also adds some new features and changes, these being new detailed graphics, new maze colors, new intermission themes (based on Pac & Pal), the ghost that matches the maze color being immune to power pellets, and the effects of the bonus fruit being dependent on the level. The gameplay speed also matches that of the original Pac-Man.
-The mobile computing platform(s) that this game was released on is not specified in any official material, but it is known that it was not released on smartphones in any form. As of 2022, there are no known official or unofficial methods of downloading this port. All official webpages for this game have been taken down except for the [http://www.namcogames.com/game_detail.php?gid=51 the surviving webpage on the partially broken Namco Games Website], which has no feature that allows the person browsing the site to buy the game.
+The port also includes a fully playable demo of the original Pac-Man
+==Availability==
+On August 28th, 2022, [https://archive.org/details/pac-manplus-demo-j2me two demo builds of the game] were uploaded to the Internet Archive by user ''ShiroTourmaline''. They were obtained by extracting the game data from the firmware of the Samsung phones they were preinstalled into.
+On February 16th, 2024, [https://archive.org/details/pacplusj2medemolx290 the LG LX290 demo] was dumped and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user ''CosmicToons'' after obtaining the phone with the demo.
 ==Gallery==
-<gallery mode=packed heights=170px>
+<gallery mode="packed" heights="170">
 File:PPlus ani.gif
 File:PPlus play.gif
@@ Line 17: / Line 26: @@
 File:Game pacmanplus4.jpg
 File:Game pacmanplus51.jpg
+File:Rofqtln0hu961.jpg
+File:User Guide - PAC-MAN Plus-002.jpg
 </gallery>
-==External Links==
+==See Also==
-*[http://web.archive.org/web/20071215173234/http://www.namcogames.com/_guides/User_Guide_-_PAC-MAN_Plus_by_Namco.pdf Archived PDF of the game's user guide.]
+*[[Count Pacula (found design documents for unproduced "Pac-Man" spinoff game; 1983)]]
+*[[Pac-Man Ghost Zone (lost build of cancelled PlayStation 3D platformer; 1996-1997)]]
+*[[Pac-Man VR (found virtual reality arcade game; 1996)]]
+*[[Paccie (non-existent PlayStation 2 game; 2004)]]
+*[[Super GPS Pac-Man (lost build of cancelled WonderSwan Color maze game; 2001)]]
 ==References==
@@ Line 25: / Line 40: @@
 [[Category:Lost video games]]
-[[Category:Completely lost media]]
+[[Category:Partially found media]]