Pac-Man, Dig Dug, & Galaxian on the NABU Computer

What is the NABU Computer you may ask? Well, from my very limited understanding, it's a computer that was "ahead of its time". It could connect to a network of sorts via Television Cable, where you can play games. It was also used for education and businesses. Though it was not very successful, and it even went defunct in 1985, 3 years after it was founded in 1982.

However, despite the computer's obscurity, it had sort of a resurgence in 2022. The RetroNET Preservation Project revived the network capabilities of the computer, even enabling homebrew support. In this video I use a variation of MAME that only emulates the NABU PC (the network functionality was downloaded separately) to play 3 classic Namco games ported to the system.

Pac-Man: This port is fairly good, even keeping the intermissions. The safe spot surprisingly works as well. The ghost AI doesn't seem right though, especially with Clyde, since he's supposed to retreat to the bottom left when the player gets close. The bonus fruit spawns out of nowhere rather than the instant Pac-Man eats enough dots for it to appear. This seems to be the only port that's not on the "World of Games" page, to access it go to "Shortcut" and type "QA Pac-Man".

Dig Dug: Not the best port in the world, but certainly not bad. Collision with enemies is less than ideal. Fygar shoots fire without warning, like some other ports of Dig Dug. Dirt colors change too early (on rounds 4, 8, 12, 16, etc. rather than 5, 9, 13, 17, etc.). Music does not restart when entering a new stage (only on death) and there was even a strange bug where the enemies exploded themselves despite me not firing the harpoon at them, not game breaking but very noticeable. Some sounds are very off but all in all, it's tolerable.

Galaxian: Perhaps the most hardcore version of Galaxian I have played yet. Enemies fly down at you the moment the game starts (and when a new round begins), leaving no breathing room. They also fly down at a weird jagged zigzag motion, which is odd. Not too much else to say about this one.