Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (SNES)

Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures is an "interactive cartoon" starring Namco's iconic mascot, Pac-Man. In this game, rather than controlling the hero himself, you influence his behavior by either shooting objects with a slingshot (including Pac-Man himself!) or telling him to look in a certain direction.

Debugging Feature#

Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 82BE5F05 (82BE5305 in the Japanese version) will enable two hidden options on the title screen. Simply move the cursor past ))STEREO(( to select them (note that both options are blank).

Option 1#

Unknown function. The game appears to start normally, but then crashes immediately after the intro scene ends. May reference debugging code that is no longer available.

Option 2#

Used to access both an animation test (PAC TEST) and a sound test (SND TEST), both of which are completely different from the ones normally available via passwords.

PAC TEST#

Press B or tap Start to access PAC TEST, where you can view all of Pac-Man's animations. The number next to Pac-Man indicates his current pose; press Left or Right to highlight a number, and then press Up or Down to change it (don't go past 5A6 or the game will crash). You can also press L or R to change Pac-Man's face, which will then be displayed for all subsequent poses (leading to some hilarious results).

Pressing Select will change the 000 on the right side to 200, as well as shuffle the dots in the hex grid around. What the dots actually represent is currently unknown.

SND TEST#

Hold Start to access SND TEST, which is (oddly enough) a sound test. Press Up or Down to choose one of the five sets of numbers, and press Left or Right to change it. Press L or R to cycle the number next to SND TEST between 5, 7, and 8 (this seems to limit the number of available sound channels or something).

The available options are:

• DATA NO. - Selects which bank of sound data to load. Takes effect immediately.
• P.0 to P.3 - Correspond to SPC700 ports 0-3. Sending a value to port 0 will select a music track (press B to play). Note that most values will crash the SPC700.

Playing sound effects from this screen isn't possible, since the game plays sound effects by sending the value F0 to port 0 before sending the sound effect number, and the available values in the sound test only range from 00 to 7F.

Sending values directly to ports 1 through 3 doesn't do anything, since the game's sound driver only uses those ports to receive data when loading a new sound bank.

Sound and Pattern Tests#

More polished versions of the sound and pattern tests can be accessed by entering the following passwords:

• Sound Test: BGMRQST (international), PAC*OTO (Japan)
• Pattern Test: PCMNPTT (international), PACFACE (Japan)

However, while they are more polished, both tests are missing music and graphics that are available in the unused versions.

Secret Password#

Enter PCMN0VR. You'll appear outside of Pac-Man's house. Enter the house to view the credits.

Unused Music#

The opening of "Haste Makes Waste", the theme for the Mountain area, is unused in-game, as the song always starts as the loop area. It can still be heard in the Sound Test however. This part of the song is completely absent from the Genesis port.

Unused Areas#

"Secret"#

Enter the Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 7E050203. This is a glitched Pac-Man's House, but in the Japanese version this is called "himitsu" or "secret", seemingly for no reason. In the English version it's just labelled Pac-Man's House again. It should be noted that there is no solid ground here, so Pac-Man will instantly fall.

Debug Room#

Enter the Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 7E05021F. It is a debug room taking place (appropriately?) in the Old Game Center. There are 13 targets. Shooting the target reticules will make Pac-Man do certain actions automatically. The Japanese version labels this room as "Renshuu", which is the same name as the tutorial.

Unused Graphics#

A face of a horrified(?) mouthless Pac-Man can be found in Pattern Test. While this (And the face below) technically aren't unused, they're never seen in-game, and can only be seen here. They are also present in the Genesis version.

Two faces of a happy-scared(?) Pac-Man, also seen in Pattern Test.

Developer Credits#

A list of developers' names can be found right at the beginning of the ROM:

(C)NAMCO
-STAFF- 
YUMISAKA
  KATO  
 ONODA  
KITAMURA
 OKAMOTO
  WADA  
 HANDA  
 SAKAKI 
 TAJIMA 
 SAITA  
KUMAGAI 
 SAITOH 
TAKAYAMA

It is unknown who most of the developers are, but Tajima is Katsuro Tajima, the game's sound composer.

Regional Differences#

Namco Screen#

International	Japan

In the Japanese version, the Namco logo is replaced with the Namcot logo, which belonged to Namco's former Japanese console publishing division. Additionally, there is an animation where the logo's wordmark glows slightly, accompanied by a voice stating, "Presented by Namcot." Furthermore, Pac-Man's design is altered; he lacks the heavy shading present in the international version.

Opening Introduction#

Although the music remains unchanged, the voice that announces the game's title is different in the Japanese version, where the game is called "Hello! Pac-Man."

Strangely, while the European version is also called Pac-Man 2, it uses the "Hello! Pac-Man" voice in the intro.

The entire Pac family appears a bit different between versions. The international versions mostly employ heavier shading, while Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Jr. (apparently not Jr. Pac-Man) received a bit of a facelift in the Japanese version, only the ghosts and the Ghost Witch of Netor remain the same in both versions.

Title Screen#

Japan	US	Europe

Slight alignment difference with Europe.

Tutorial#

International	Japan

In the Japanese version, the tutorial is labeled as such. In the international version, it is titled "Pac-Man's House."

Cues#

In the international versions of Pac-Man 2, the terms "Higher" and "Faster" are used for the hang-gliding and minecart sections, respectively. In the Japanese version, these are replaced with "UP!" and "SPEED UP!" "Look" remains the same in both, although the voice is different between versions.

Music#

The music plays slower in the European version due to not being optimized for the PAL standard.

Passwords#

International	Japan

The password system uses different characters depending on the version. As was common at the time, the international releases exclude vowels (A feature that would later appear in the GBA port of Pac-Man World 2, which also used password-based saving). Additionally, the special passwords differ between versions: