Pac-Man (original) - high scores and discussion

[Nemoide]

So I've been on a serious Pac-Man kick lately and feel like this game needs a thread! Playing the Atari 2600 version is one of my earliest video gaming memories and while I've always liked Pac-Man, I've never really played it seriously. But it has the reputation for being simplistic in that once you learn patterns, you can play until the game crashes... I figure that's something I'd like to try to do! So I'm practicing a lot just to get more of a feel of the game and I ordered a couple old books on the subject (Mastering Pac-Man by Ken Uston which had a reprint just last year and Pac-Man: The Ultimate Key to Winning by John D. Mulliken) and once I get my hands on those I expect to take my game to the next level.

I've mostly been playing on a Namco TV-Games Plug & Play that's over a decade old and enjoying it but finding that the controller becomes a pain to hold after a while and the joystick feels kind of stiff/awkward. So today I traded in Bing-points for Xbox Live money and got myself the Pac-Man Museum so I can play with my fancy-pants arcade stick for the 360... BUT OH MAN, THE GAME IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT! The ghosts seem to move a little differently, they don't seem to stay blue as long, and the controls don't respond as much as I'd like them to. So I'm wondering... does anyone have a favorite console version of the game? I'm curious if other ports have any differences. I don't know where the closest arcade cabinet to me might be, so I'm not sure which of my versions is the more accurate version.

I'd also like to find out what kind of high scores people have. Post yours of any port (or arcade/MAME) and I'll update this post to include them!

OFFICIAL RACKETBOY PAC-MAN HIGH SCORES LIST:

Arcade/Emulation:
1) Nemoide - 59,500 (Pac-Man Museum - Xbox 360)

Namco TV-Game Plug & Play:
1) Nemoide - 41,180

[BoneSnapDeez]

Oh man I played the hell out of a Ms. Pac-Man arcade cab just last week while I was on vacation.

As far as ports and whatnot go, I suppose if I wanted to play Pac-Man I would just go with one of the Namco Museum titles. In fact, I fire up the PS2 one about once a week as my daughter has Pac-Man Fever. I also have that Namco plug n play but I admit I haven't done much with it.

[Nemoide]

I plan on trying some hardcore Ms. Pac-Man down the road. I'll admit that it's a better game but I like the idea of learning patterns to play indefinitely and rack up millions of points!

And if this Wiki is to believed the Namco Museum version isn't actually a 100% perfect port/emulation. (At least the Xbox 360 version I'm playing should be good.)

I got my copy of Mastering Pac-Man today and while I only had time to skim a little bit but it seems there are two modes resulting in different games: a fast game and a slow game. I'm wondering if the Plug N Play version is really just the slow game or if Jakks Pacific botched their port. Either way, I guess I'll stick with the 360 version for now, although it doesn't have any options for fast/slow.

[Erik_Twice]

I don't think there are two modes, simply that speed hacks were extremely common back in the day hence the existence of "fast" and "slow" Pac-Mans.

[Nemoide]

MAYBE! I can only find references to it in older things back when a lot of people didn't necessarily fact-check things. But here's what the 1982 book Pac-Mania (I found a PDF of) says on the subject:

The original Pac-Man game could be preset to play either a slow or a fast game, giving rise to the theory that there were two different machines. Actually, there was only one machine, and it could be set by technicians to play at either speed. Here's how to tell the difference, either before or after you've slipped in a quarter:
Before the quarter goes in:
Its a slow game if Pac-Man gets eaten by a light blue monster in the sample game; a fast game if the orange monster eats Pac-Man.

After the quarter goes in:
Its a slow game if only two monsters emerge from their base immediately; a fast game if three emerge.

The difference in the attract screens make me think it's more than a speed-hack but I really don't know! I'm no arcade machine expert.

EDIT: Actually I'm now thinking it's probably this difficulty mod that's the difference. Meaning the TV Games version is an inaccurate port.

[strangenova]

My favorite port is the unlicensed Tengen cart for nes. I play that and Donkey Kong on nes all the time. I can't recall what my high score is. But next time I play I'll post my best score for that go