Believe
It Or Not
Some versions of
the Pac-Man ROMs have a "rack test" feature,
allowing the cabinet owner to skip ahead to the next level of play
whenever they want. To date, the only known way to legitimately
get past level 256 is by using the rack test switch inside these
machines.
The result is that the game loops back around to the
first board, but with the score intact and the ghosts still
behaving as though it were level 21 or above. Many of the Pac-Man
ROMs available for use with the MAME emulator also have this rack
test feature, making it relatively easy for those without an
arcade version handy to quickly get to the split-screen and
beyond.
For decades,
Pac-Man enthusiasts worldwide have heard the whispers about
a "secret trick" allowing a player to get past level
256 and continue playing without using the aforementioned rack
test. Several players have boasted having acquired this holy grail
of Pac-Man knowledge over the years, but no one has been
able to make good on their claims by actually proving it.
This
topic became so hotly debated in the upper echelons of the arcade
gaming community that Billy Mitchell-who was convinced it
was impossible-offered a $100,000 cash prize to the first
player to prove they could legitimately get past level 256,
leaving the challenge open for a full year. The prize money went
unclaimed.
In spite of the
evidence against there being a way to get past level 256, rumors
still persist and can occasionally be found in classic gaming
forums online, yet no one has been able to back up their words
with indisputable proof. It's hard to imagine why anyone who could
legitimately get past the level did not collect Mr. Mitchell's
prize money to be sure.
Still the occasional whispers can be
heard. Perhaps it is simply natural for people to want to believe
in the possibility as opposed to not-like Santa Claus or the
Easter Bunny. Then again, maybe there is some middle-aged Pac-Man
junkie out there who is withholding secrets to a 30 year-old
amusement device for his or her own unfathomable reasons. Stranger
things have happened. You be the judge.
References and Further Reading
-
Splitting
Apart The Split Screen,
Don Hodges
-
Pac-Man's
Ghost Behavior Analyzed And Fixed,
Don Hodges
-
Pac-Man
Source Code With Comments,
Chris Lomont
-
Pac-Man
Emulation Guide,
Chris Lomont
-
The
Virtual Pac-Man Museum,
Chuck and Vicki Gill
-
Pacman:
The Phenomenon - Part 1,
Marty Goldberg
-
The
History of Pac-Man,
Doug Trueman
-
Pac-Man
Entry At Arcade History,
Alexis Bousiges
-
Pac-Man
ghost behavior revealed,
Twin Galaxies forum topic
-
Pac-Man
ghost AI question,
AtariAge forum topic
-
Reawakening
The Sleeping Giant: The Pac-Man CE Interview,
Christian Nutt
Appendix A: Reference Tables
(click image for full size)
Table
A.2 - Difficulty Specifications
There
is a small spot on the Pac-Man PCB where you can solder two pads
together to set the game to "hard" difficulty. The
only difference in hard difficulty is that five of the levels (1,
3, 6, 19, and 20) are eliminated from play. The system does not
eliminate any of the bonus symbols, however, causing much
confusion as to what level you're really playing.
Level two is the
first board in hard difficulty for example, but the cherry symbol
is used instead of the strawberry. It's still level two in terms
of gameplay, but with cherry symbols in place of the usual
strawberries. Also, the bonus point values are changed to match
the current symbol being used. You can determine the difficulty
setting of a machine by observing which ghost kills Pac-Man during
the attract mode demo game.
In normal difficulty, Pac-Man gets
captured by Inky in the lower-left area of the maze. If the
difficulty jumper has been connected, however, he is captured by
Clyde near the same location.
Normal
|
Normal
Bonus
|
Hard
|
Hard
Bonus
|
1
|
Cherries
|
-
|
-
|
2
|
Strawberry
|
2
|
Cherries
|
3
|
Peach
1
|
-
|
-
|
4
|
Peach
2
|
4
|
Strawberry
|
5
|
Apple
1
|
5
|
Peach
1
|
6
|
Apple
2
|
-
|
-
|
7
|
Grapes
1
|
7
|
Peach
2
|
8
|
Grapes
2
|
8
|
Apple
1
|
9
|
Galaxian
1
|
9
|
Apple
2
|
10
|
Galaxian
2
|
10
|
Grapes
1
|
11
|
Bell
1
|
11
|
Grapes
2
|
12
|
Bell
2
|
12
|
Galaxian
1
|
13
|
Key
1
|
13
|
Galaxian
2
|
14
|
Key
2
|
14
|
Bell
1
|
15
|
Key
3
|
15
|
Bell
2
|
16
|
Key
4
|
16
|
Key
1
|
17
|
Key
5
|
17
|
Key
2
|
18
|
Key
6
|
18
|
Key
3
|
19
|
Key
7
|
-
|
-
|
20
|
Key
8
|
-
|
-
|
21+
|
Key
9
|
21+
|
Key
4+
|
APPENDIX
B: Easter Eggs & Tricks
This
section is meant to contain not only the easter egg below, but
also tricks-interesting ways players have found to create
unexpected behavior in Pac-Man.
I have seen a few of these curious abuses of a Pac-Man
machine before, but
I don't know how to recreate them.
As such, I am asking for any
help the readers of this guide can provide towards expanding this
section. Please send any Pac-Man
tricks you may know
me for inclusion in the guide; full credit will be given for your
altruism and ingenuity.
NAMCO
Easter Egg
There
is a secret message hidden in Pac-Man by the developers at
Namco. To see it, put the machine into service mode and wait for
the settings screen to appear. Now quickly toggle service mode off
and on (an alignment grid will appear on the screen).
While
holding down the player 1 and player 2 buttons, toggle service
mode off and on again very quickly (if done properly, the
grid will stay on the screen), and then push the joystick in the
following directions: UP x 4, LEFT x 4, RIGHT x 4, DOWN x 4. The
message "MADE BY NAMCO" will appear sideways on the
screen, spelled out using energizers.
APPENDIX
C: Hardware Information
Specifications:
-
Platform -
NAMCO 8-bit PCB
-
CPU -
Z80A at 3.072 MHz
-
ROM - 16K
in four, 4K chips
-
RAM -
Almost 2K
-
Display -
Raster
-
Orientation -
Vertical
-
Resolution -
224x288
-
Colors -
16
-
Attributes -
Eight 16x16 hardware sprites
-
Refresh rate -
60.61 Hz
-
Sound -
Custom monophonic 3-voice waveform sound
generator chip
-
Controls
- One 4-way leaf joystick, 1P/2P
buttons
-
Models
- Upright, Mini, and Cocktail
Midway
Operator's Reference Books:
APPENDIX
D: Vintage Guides