Pac-Man (Arcade)

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Pac-Man (Arcade).

Maze Sketch#

To do: Might be worth drawing a mock-up with the final tileset

This is a sketch that the creator of Pac-Man, Toru Iwatani, did for the game's maze and layout:

Prerelease	Final

There are several differences between this sketch and the final game:

• The maze itself has a very different shape and layout, further lacking the wraparound tunnel.
• The maze has several dead-ends, notably along the left and right sides. The final maze has no dead ends.
• For whatever reason, the "2UP" text is crossed out.
• All the dots visible in the maze are the same size, suggesting that Power Pellets had not yet been created.
• The pathway to the left of the ghosts' home base appears to have a block or other obstacle covering the top half. The Pac-Man drawings there don't make it clear what its purpose was, though.
• The high score (denoted as "HI SCORE") is displayed below the maze, rather than above it. Also, all three score displays are capped at 99,990, whereas the final game caps the "HIGH SCORE" counter at 999,990 and rolls the others back to 0 should a player reach 1,000,000 points.
• The reserve lives display has the Pac-Man icons spread a bit further apart from each other.
• There is no fruit indicator, suggesting that the fruits were not present at this point.

This sketch would eventually be realized in the iOS/Android port as the "Minty" maze.

Characters#

Concept art of Pac-Man's sprite, showing various attempts at getting his size right. The smaller ones resemble the size used for the life icon.

Concept art of Pac-Man, the Ghosts, the dots and the Power Pellets. A medium-sized dot is present as well, graphics for which still exist in the final game. Pac-Man's death animation would end up being redrawn in the final game to be less angular, and the Ghosts' second movement frame and their stiched together "fabric" seen in the third intermission cutscene were slightly redrawn as well. What appears to be sprites of a Ghost stuck in a tight space are present on the bottom right, which don't exist in the final game.