Ms. Pac-Man & Galaga: 20 Year Reunion

Ms. Pac-Man & Galaga: 20 Year Reunion is a compilation arcade game celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Galaga and Crazy Otto Ms. Pac-Man.

Notably caused a lawsuit from General Computer Corporation, the creators of Ms. Pac-Man, as they hadn't been paid royalties (which Namco had promised them for each coin-operated system manufactured featuring the game in a contract from 1983). This led to an infamously complicated controversy regarding who owns the game and what elements from it can be used in post-2005 Pac-Man games, which is still being disputed to this day.

Sub-Page#

Bugs

Developer Message#

These are found in all revisions.

The message from Ms. Pac-Man is still present at 0x97D0.

Found at 0xC020 (linebreaks have been added):

PACMAN (c) 1980, namco. 
MS PACMAN (c) 1981, namco. 
GALAGA (c) 1981, namco. 
kernel (c) 2000 cosmodog, ltd. 
http://www.cosmodog.com

Development Tool Leftovers#

The game writes this text to the Z180 ASCI port and listens for incoming commands. The text can be found at 0xF866:

MS PAC-MAN/GALAGA
arcade video system
    version 1.01
(c) 2000 Cosmodog, Ltd.
>

Found in revisions later than 1.02 at 0xC7C5 is a list (and descriptions) of possible commands:

d
w
f
d'
w'
f'
de
ee
we
reset
in
irq
di
ei
dip
pac
mspac
gal
test
gamesel
state
boom
step
run
out

 enter "? cmd" for help on a specific command.  available commands:
  ?, d, w, f, d', w', f', de, ee, we, reset, in, irq, di, ei, dip, pac,
  mspac, gal, test, gamesel, state, boom, step, run

 d [start [end]] -- dump memory.  if no start address is given dump from one
  byte past last dump.  if no end address is given dump one page (256 bytes)

 w addr val1 [val2 [val3 [val4 ...]]] -- write bytes starting at addr

 f start end fill -- fill range from start to end with pattern fill

 d [start [end]] -- dump second memory

 w addr val1 [val2 [val3 [val4 ...]]] -- write bytes to second memory

 f start end fill -- fill range in second memory

 de -- dump entire eeprom

 ee [addr] -- erase eeprom word at addr.  if no address given erase device.

 we addr val -- write eeprom word val at address addr.

 reset - reset the system

 in - show the state of the inputs

 irq - clear vblank interrupt

 di - disable vblank interrupts

 ei - enable vblank interrupts

 dip - show state of DIP switches

 pac - run Pac Man

 mspac - run Ms Pac Man

 gal - run Galaga

 test - run test mode

 gamesel state - set the game select bit (0 = pacman/ms. pac, 1 = galaga)

 state - dump some useful details about the game state

 boom - make a noise

 step [frames] - step game this many frames (default = 1)

 run - allow game to run endlessly (no freeze)

 out port val - write a value to an i/o port

Secret Game#

Insert a credit, then press Up (×3), Down (×3), Left, Right, Left, Right, Left. If done correctly, the extra life sound will play and Blinky (the red ghost) will turn into Pinky. Now press Start on Ms. Pac-Man and you will boot into Pac-Man.

Speed-Up/Rapid Fire#

Insert a credit, then press Left, Right, Left, Right, Up (×3), Fire. If done correctly, the fruit gobble sound will play. When starting Ms. Pac-Man, she will be sped-up, while in Galaga your shots will be fast.

References#