From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pac & Pal
Japanese arcade Flyer of Pac & Pal.
Developer(s)	Namco
Publisher(s)	Namco
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release date(s)	1983
Genre(s)	Retro/Maze
Mode(s)	Up to two players, alternating turns
Input methods	4-way joystick; 1 button
Cabinet	Upright and cocktail
Arcade system	Namco Super Pac-Man
CPU	2x M6809 @ 1.536 MHz

Pac & Pal (パック＆パル, Pakku & Paru ^?) is an arcade game that was released only in Japan by Namco in 1983. The game ran on Namco Super Pac-Man hardware, and the object of the game was for Pac-Man to eat all the items before he was caught by the ghosts. Most of the items are fruits from the original Pac-Man game with a few new additions. Their value varies, starting with cherries at fifty points. The items had to first be unlocked by turning over cards distributed around the maze (instead of eating keys like in Super Pac-Man). Very few units still exist, as this is the possibly one of the rarest Pac-Man titles to be released.

"Pal" character

Introduced in this game is an exclusive character: Miru (ミル ^?), the "Pal" of the title. She is a green female ghost (denoted by her hair bow) that looks like a gooseberry with legs. When an item is unlocked, she will wander around, giving Pac-Man some time to try to get the item. After some time, she will take it into the ghost house where it would be lost forever. This might help in clearing the level, however, and if she brings the last one there, it automatically clears the level. Due to the ability of using this advantage, it may be the reason she is called "Pal". She is not affected by the other ghosts. In order to get the maximum points from the items, Pac-Man had to eat them first, or intercept them from Miru.

An alternate version of this game features Chomp Chomp, Pac-Man's dog from the animated cartoon series, in place of Miru, and the game's name is changed to Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp.

New feature

Another new feature for a Pac-Man game (besides Miru) is a shooting capability. Instead of having energizers, two of the collectible items were the level's particular bonus symbol, which line up at the bottom of the screen as each new level is reached. The first two are the flagship from Galaxian. Later symbols included a red car from Rally-X, a trumpet, a snowman, and even another Pac-Man. When Pac-Man eats these, instead of the ghosts turning blue, he turns blue, and momentarily has the power to shoot a ray, smoke, musical notes, freezing rays and little Pac-Man at the ghosts (who turn purple and sometimes blue, depending on the item used to stun them). This stuns them and yields the familiar point value of 200, 400, 800, and 1600 for each ghost shot. While ghosts are stunned, Pac-Man can pass right through them. If the stunning effect wears off before the ray-shooting ability wears off, Pac-Man can shoot the ghost again for another 1,600 points. The point values carry over when Pac-Man eats the other bonus symbol before the effect wears off.

Every few levels have a bonus round with the maze containing only cards that yield an increasing number of points, until the player flips over a card with Blinky under it. At that point, the round is over, but no lives are lost. Each level also has a simple musical background, unlike the other Pac-Man games before it.

Rarity

To many, this is known as the rarest Pac-Man title. However, games such as the JAKKS Pacific Namco Plug N' Play, Namco Museum Remix, and Namco Museum Virtual Arcade made it possible for people in the United States to be able to play it, also making the game slightly more common.

External links

• Pac & Pal at the Killer List of Videogames
• Pac & Pal guide at StrategyWiki
• Japanese arcade flyer scans

From StrategyWiki, the free strategy guide and walkthrough wiki

Pac & Pal
Developer(s)	Namco
Publisher(s)	Namco
Japanese title	パック&パル
Release date(s)	1983
Genre(s)	Action
System(s)	Arcade, GameTap
Players	1-2
Preceded by	Super Pac-Man
Series	Pac-Man

Wikipedia has an article about:

Pac & Pal

Pac & Pal is easily the least successful, and most misunderstood of all the early Pac-Man games. Its design moves farther away from the original formula that debuted in Pac-Man and continues with the momentum of changes established in Super Pac-Man, chasing away many Pac-Man purists. Aside from a the introduction of a new character to the game, one of the game's most radical changes is that Pac-Man no longer eats the ghosts. Rather, he powers up and stuns them in order to pass safely through them while they remained stunned.

As the title suggests, Pac-Man has a new "Pal" in the game, a green character (who coincidentally resembles Lala from the Adventure of Lolo series) named Miru (or Mil) who wanders about the maze along with Pac-Man and the ghosts. But this so-called Pal has some behaviors that can easily become a source of frustration for Pac-Man. When Pac-Man flips a card in order to open the gates that lead to fruit or an item, Miru heads toward it and tries to collect it. If Pac-Man does not get to Miru before she deposits the item in the ghost pen, the item is gone forever. This can lead players to question exactly what kind of pal Miru is. Miru is intended to be depicted as an absent-minded, yet well intentioned friend of Pac-Man whose hoarding instinct is not meant to get in Pac-Man's way.

This game was only officially released in Japan, but a variant of the arcade program looks as though Namco may have intended to release the game outside of Japan under the title Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp. In this variation, Miru is altered to resemble Pac-Man's dog from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon. As a dog, Chomp Chomp seems a little more suited for the role of someone who absent-mindedly gathers items in one place (such as in a freshly dug hole in the back yard.) However, this version was never officially released. The game was rereleased as part of Volume 3 of the Namco History Collection for Windows 95 in Japan. In 2006, the original version of the game appeared on Jakks Pacific's Super Pac-Man TV game.

Story

Pac-Man must once again clear every stage by consuming every item contained behind gates, and avoid the ghosts. But Pac-Man has another problem on his hands in the form of Miru, a green creature who wanders the maze in search of items to add to her collection.

Table of Contents

• How to play
• Walkthrough

Gameplay summary

• You control Pac-Man through the maze with the joystick.
• You must eat every item that is found behind locked gates. You must flip over cards to unlock the gates.
• You must avoid contact with the ghosts unless they are stunned.
• If you eat the stage power-up, you can fire a beam the stuns ghosts which come in contact with it.
• Ghosts travel at half speed through the orange section of maze and around parts of it.
• Miru will wander around the maze and try to take freed items back to the ghost pen. There is no penalty if she succeeds.
• In bonus rounds, you must flip over as many cards as you can without uncovering Blinky.

Title screen

Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp

From Wikia Gaming, your source for walkthroughs, games, guides, and more!

Pac & Pal is an arcade game released in 1983. It is Namco's official follow-up to Pac-Man and Super Pac-Man. This is perhaps the rarest Pac-Man title to even exist.

Gameplay

Pac-Man moves through a maze "eating" cards, two of which will reveal a bonus prize that must be eaten before Pal the green friendly ghost gets to it.

This installment puts a nice spin on the Pac-Man series. Pac-Man doesn't ever eat any ghosts in this game; he blasts them with the Galaga tractor beam, the smokescreen from Rally-X, musical notes, etc. There are no side exits on the screen, but there is an orange area in the center of the maze that slows down the monsters when they pass through it. The placement of the red monster on the bonus rounds is random, and it appears to not follow any pattern.

Only three doors can be unlocked at any given time. "Pal", the friendly green ghost, often steals the unlocked prizes and takes them to the monster base where they are lost forever.