Pac-Man Connect and Play - Longplay

The original arcade version of Pac-Man has an infamous bug that occurs on Level 256. Basically, Pac-Man's level number is stored as an 8-bit byte, so it rolls over to 0 after passing 255. This causes the routine that draws the fruits for the level counter to experience unintended behavior, and as a result, it draws 256 "fruits" into increasing locations in video memory whilst also pulling data way beyond the table where the fruits are stored. There will be resources linked at the bottom of this description with more in-depth information on this bug.

Well, Bandai Namco apparently felt guilty that most of their compilations don't really give the player the opportunity to "experience" this bug in action for themselves. So, they created a variant of Pac-Man called "Pac-Man 256" (not to be confused with the iOS game of the same name, in later revisions of this console it's called Pac-Level 256). In this, the player starts on Level 255 with the maximum number of lives available. This means that all you have to do is clear Level 255, and boom. You get to play the real split screen level for yourself. It's worth noting that the back of the box states that "only a few people in the world" have ever completed this level, even though the level is literally impossible to beat. Talk about misleading information.

The way they did this was by emulating the original game's code so that this same bug would occur when Level 256 was reached. It could be assumed that if you played Pac-Man or Pac-Man Plus on this compilation, you would also get the split screen on Level 256/0.

Pac-Man 256 is the star of the show for this console, but Bandai Namco obviously knew it wouldn't be enough. So, they released it on a Plug 'n Play-like console along with the original Pac-Man and 10 other Namco classics:
0:00:00 - Bootup
0:00:45 - Pac-Man (1980)
0:11:28 - Super Pac-Man (1982)
0:22:48 - Pac & Pal (1983)
0:32:54 - Pac-Man Plus (1982)
0:37:28 - Pac-Man 256 (2012)
0:40:28 - Mappy (1983)
0:57:22 - Galaxian (1979)
1:02:03 - Galaga (1981)
1:15:03 - Dig Dug (1982)
1:26:44 - Xevious (1982)
1:39:12 - Bosconian (1981)
1:50:48 - New Rally-X (1981)

An observant person might notice that this compilations shares 11 out of 12 games with the Retro Arcade Featuring Pac-Man Plug 'n Play released by Jakks Pacific just a few years prior, with Pole Position being the one replaced by Pac-Man 256. It's hard to say whether this was intentional or not, but I have a feeling it was. 11/12 games is too much to be a coincidence, even if they're obvious picks.

That being said, this is not just a repackaging of the Retro Arcade with Pac-Man 256. EVERY game on this compilation has been completely remade using the original code, resulting in sound, graphics, and mechanics being a lot more accurate to the arcade originals. There's still a few minor inaccuracies, and some of the games suffer from lag when an abundance of activity occurs, but it's still a much better experience than previous Plug 'n Plays. You also have the option for 2-player games in this compilation, something previous Plug 'n Plays didn't offer at all.

The box and console are really cool for display purposes. The box is designed similarly to the original Pac-Man arcade machine, with a pictured frame of the in-game screen inside. The controller operates on 4 AA batteries and is shaped like Pac-Man. The back of the controller can be opened up for the wires to be placed inside, so the console can be stored and displayed properly without wires getting in the way. The only gripe I have is with the joystick: It's not awful, but it is very touchy, doesn't use notches at all, and I had some issues getting it to respond to direction changes throughout this video.

I would say this game improves on the Retro Arcade in just about every way imaginable. It's still not perfect, and there are still plenty of better ways to get these games, but if you want a Pac-Man shaped console with 11 of Namco's (and Midway's, for Pac-Man Plus) best, this sure is the way to go. I mean, what beats playing Pac-Man on Pac-Man?

P.S. I've never seen that graphical glitch in Dig Dug (where I got the title screen graphics to show up in stage 1 due to inserting a credit and starting too quickly). I spent about 5 minutes trying to recreate it after this recording and couldn't figure it out.

Retro Game Mechanics Explained's video on the Pac-Man split screen:    • Pac-Man Kill Screen Explained  

Don Hodges' article with more detailed information, as well as a fix for the split screen: http://donhodges.com/how_high_can_you...

Played and recorded using the original Pac-Man Connect and Play.