Pac-Man Ghost Zone Leftovers

This is a sub-page of Pac-Man World (PlayStation).

Pac-Man World more or less started life as a Super Mario 64/Tomb Raider-styled platformer called Pac-Man Ghost Zone, which was in development for a good 13 months (eight of which it spent without a finalized title) and shown off at E3 1997, only to be brought to a screeching halt due to company politics and quality concerns. So far, no build has been released to the general public.

Notably, the final game has lots of Ghost Zone leftovers among its files. Pac-Man World has a hard-coded file system of folders, each containing the specific data for a specific scene in the game.

Graphics#

VRAM folders 178-185, 288, and 290 are all unused and contain some Ghost Zone assets such as sprites and textures.

Pac-Man's Face Textures#

Pac-Man has a total of 51 face textures which are used for various facial expressions that he makes, present in every folder mentioned above. Descriptions are written based on found footage and the game's design document.

Opening Cutscene

Watch on YouTube
Pac-Man falls flat on his face and sits back up all dizzy after falling from the sky. This was used later on in development.

Pac-Man looks around at the Ghost Zone.

Pac-Man looking down at his hands.

Pac-Man looks around again, dumbfounded.

"Pac-Man" screams, realizing he turned into Pac-Man.

Gameplay

Pac-Man looking around.

Pac-Man breathing heavily.

Pac-Man eating.

Pac-Man jumping out of a ledge grab.

Pac-Man collects a key.

Pac-Man teleports.

Pac-Man dies from being hit.

Pac-Man hangs on a ledge.

Pac-Man loses his power-up.

Pac-Man holding his breath.

Pac-Man running with his tongue sticking out.

Pac-Man holding his breath underwater. (This graphic is only found in 184_VRAM.)

Pac-Man sucks in some air...

...and blows it out.

Pac-Man takes damage.

Pac-Man's default smile.

Pac-Man completes a level.

Pac-Man gets squished.

Pac-Man gets hurt from a fall.

Pac-Man aims his Pac-Dot.

Pac-Man whistles, puts his hands on his hips, and taps his foot.

Pac-Man obtains a power-up, such as flight or ice gloves.

Pac-Man pulling a big grin.

Pac-Man yelling, apparently. (Probably used when he jumps.)

Pac-Man spits out a ghost's eyes.

Misc. Pac-Man Textures#

Purpose unknown. This goes with a set of alternate colors (pmblue.mtl) for Pac-Man found in Bernie Bernstone's "Art Asset" release.

This graphic would be rendered over Pac-Man's upper body when you pressed the shoulder buttons to look around, in order to hide the fact that Pac-Man wasn't really round.

Pac-Man's shadow. Pretty self-explanatory.

Enemies#

Battery.

Bits.

Blade Runner.

Buzzy.

Capacitor.

Circuit Trooper.

Cyphon.

ED The LED.

Electroshooter.

Ice Ghost.

Jumper.

Master Blaster.

N.C. Hammer.

Rebreather.

Red Snapper.

Scuzzy Snake.

Shockz.

Spin Boxer.

Transformer.

Transistor.

Ghosts#

Each ghost has 2 face animations, one for searching and one for pursuing. There is a 5th palette for when Pac-Man eats a Power Pellet.

Ghost eyes. These eyes would appear once Pac-Man shoots or eats a ghost.

Bosses#

Switch Boss.

Delete Boss.

Data Stream Boss.

Kill-O-Watt.

The Ghost Lord.

Models#

Surprisingly, very few actual models are left over from Ghost Zone, especially compared to the sheer amount of textures and sprites present. Some of the models are in S3D format, while a few are extension-less without vertex coloring.

Strangely, there are lots of animations left over for models that don't exist anymore, stored in A3D files. (These may be something to look into, since Ghost Zone used vertex animation and A3D files hold vertex positions. It may be possible to recreate lost models from these, even if they aren't 100% accurate.)

WO.S3D#

Unknown what this is meant to be. We know it's a Ghost Zone leftover because of the uncompiled file path in the S3D file, I:\GZART\NPC\WOR.

B1#

Bit 1. These would fly around and try to punch Pac-Man.

B2#

Bit 2. Same as the other. They can combine to create a byte.

PB#

This is the Pin Bug enemy. He would crawl around and try to attack Pac-Man. His face texture is completely missing from both the art assets and the game files.

CP#

This is the Capacitor enemy. He runs towards you and explodes.

PF#

Power Flower. Only seen in one area, a small interior map with blue walls. It sits in the center and releases glowing orbs that hurt Pac-Man.

TR#

This is the Transistor enemy. He would bounce around trying to land on Pac-Man and hurt him. Just like the Pin Bug enemy, he's exclusive to the game files as he's non-existent within the art assets.

CT.S3D#

Circuit Trooper. Design documents state that they would have fired bolts of electricity from their staff.

NB.S3D#

Nibble. This enemy would go around Pac-dot paths and eat them before you do, reducing precious ammunition. According to a concept level map, he was considered to be repurposed for Pac-Man World before being cut.

His face texture is not present in the game files, but it is among the art assets.

Levels#

This needs some investigation.
Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.
Specifically: Find a way to extract the UVs.

ONTW folders 11-35, 85-99, 147-163, and 289_LIST contain a bunch of leftover levels from Ghost Zone that managed to slip into Pac-Man World's file system.

While these levels are completely inaccessible in-game, every single "NONAME" file contains level geometry, UVs, normals, and vertex coloring. The triangles of the level geometry are intertwined, which was a technique used in every other level in the game. Every level except 289_LIST (the maze level) has missing textures.

Bios#

First world of the game (after the tutorial they added later on). The third and Boss levels are sadly missing. These are all seen in the PlayStation museum build of the game.

Bios #1

Bios #2

Bios #4

Bios #1 (Revisit)

Bios #2 (Revisit)

Maze Level#

289_LIST contains the maze level from the game. This is the only leftover level in the game's files that is fully complete as every other leftover level has non-existent textures.