Pacman Begins
A downloadable game
Pacman Begins!
Before there was a maze, there was only an alley...
Pacman begins is the prequel you never knew you wanted. Inspired by the game 'Paku Paku' by Abagames, it is Pacman stripped down to the bone – one line, one pill, one ghost. In creating this I wanted to add as many features from the original arcade game as possible, whilst maintaining the flow of 'Paku Paku'. The additions from the arcade include:
- Graphics much closer to the arcade
- three lives + bonus lives every 10k
- Pacman is slowed down by eating pellets
- Ghosts can pass through the tunnel
- Fruit bonuses appear after a certain number of pellets are eaten
- Ghosts eaten in quick succession increase in value from 200,400,800 and 1600 points.
- Four different ghosts appear as the difficulty increases
- Arcade intro tune and sound effects
This game is free but feel free to leave something in the tip jar, or consider joining my Patreon. Patrons get all the Spectrum work I've done included. Everything helps keep the cassette tape rolling.
Thanks in advance!
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Good game and fun to play, thank you. I also added that to my New Games On ZX Spectrum from February 2024 -video too.
Awesome !
Best game
Cool game. Thanks.
Thank you for this game.
Great game.
I don't want to sound like a critic, but in my opinion it would be better if the ghost moved slightly faster than Pacman rather than the opposite, even from the first level of the game. This is exactly the behavior of the original https://abagames.github.io/crisp-game-lib-11-games/?pakupaku
This forces you to play strategically, deciding based on the position of the power pill whether to run towards it or run towards the edge of the screen to get to the other side.
it doesn't take long before the ghost is faster than you, at least when eating the pills. I decided to make the first couple of levels very easy so that even kids could get the idea and a feel for the game.
The intention was never to be a clone of Paku Paku, since it already exists and would be too easy to copy. Instead I used it as an inspiration as to what I would do with the premise, and as an exercise in game design and balance. I had half a dozen people playing it whilst I was coding it and you'd be surprised at the variation in how easy or difficult people found it.
as with another of my games, Lunar Rescue, I may well add the option to have a regular or hardcore mode.
Nice game!
Really classy and polished version, and I love seeing all the slight gameplay differences in all the various takes on the original. Only thing I don't like is three lives - this is definitely a one-life game, especially as the Speccy incarnation is a bit easier than the others.
Yes, you could be right, perhaps one life with the chance to get another at 10,000