Talk:Baby Pac-Man

Non-Namco Pac-Man
It's important to point out that Baby Pac-Man was developed in-house at Bally-Midway, likely without consent from Namco. The game doesn't look, sound, or feel anything like an official Namco Pac-Man title!

The monster movement in particular is frustratingly random... unlike the real Pac-Man games, the monsters reverse direction almost constantly, making it impossible to slip past them if they're in an adjacent corridor. Pac-Man was all about anticipating the movement of the monsters and acting accordingly, but Baby Pac-Man makes this impossible. --M.Neko 10:50, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
 * No source, no addition to article. —  SMcCandlish   Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 01:14, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Distribution
Has anyone else actually played one of these machines? The only place that I ever saw one was in the late 80's on the England side of the Dover - Callais hovercraft crossing (no chunnel then). I can't imagine that there were many of them. --Falcomadol 00:31, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

There weren't many of them, and the few that did exist were hard to keep in working order. There actually was a Baby Pac-Man machine in a mini golf center just outside of Lansing MI, but it was removed in the early 1990's, probably due to a combination of its age and the aforementioned maintenence difficulties. --M.Neko 10:50, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

I can remember playing one of these machines when a little kid around 1987 or so, in a restaurant near Cortland, New York. Sadly the machine has been gone for almost 15 years (and the restaurant closed a few years ago). Many fond memories of having breakfast with my dad and playing a few rounds. --PhoenixFlare 19:30, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

The Major Magic's (similar to Chuck E. Cheese if you don't know -- pizza place with an arcade) I frequented as a kid in the Metro Detroit Area had several Baby Pac-Man machines. Hardly anyone ever seemed to play them. 76.226.105.131 (talk) 06:41, 26 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I played this game in Brighton (somewhere around Palace Pier) (UK) and downtown Frankfurt (Germany), it was really frustrating. Still... I find it very strange, I'm quite sure that the pinball part was based on two levels, you could use the ball (or controls? I don't remember exactly it's just a long time since...) to control Pacman's movements and the ball would stop for that period of time. Changes between screen- and ballplay were very sudden. The optical appearance was great, but it was definitely too hard to be fun.... And I used to be an advanced pinball player in these years... --Nemissimo (talk) 22:37, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Not only have I played this machine but I also own one! And you are right, they are very difficult to maintain, currently there is sound on my machine but no picture, the pinball still works fine but you have no idea where you are on the maze in the video portion. Any questions, dont hesitate to post. Ron, 8/13/08


 * This machine was common throughout the Las Vegas, NV, area. I've played it about ten times. I can list the places from memory, and remember, these machines were removed during the 1990s, except one: Scandia (machine was there until place closed, didn't work after 1995), a Korean arcade, two different pizza parlors on the east side of the valley, Union Plaza arcade, GameWorks (machine removed for not working at all within a few days), Palace Station arcade, Mini Grand Prix, Pistol Pete's (various locations), Arizona Charlie's arcade. I'm sure there were more, but I was on a bike as a kid/teen! Coffee5binky (talk) 04:06, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

(Outdent) That's enough, really. Article talk pages are not chat forums. This thread has already established that the game wasn't particularly rare; we don't need any further "sighting reports". —  SMcCandlish   Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 01:14, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Legal framework
How could they distribute this system without a proper license? Where there any legal consequences??--Nemissimo (talk) 22:37, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes. This was one of several games that Midway created without Namco's consent.  It lead to Namco severing ties with Midway, such that Midway no longer had the rights to distribute any new Namco games. &mdash; KieferSkunk (talk) &mdash; 21:57, 13 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Namco didn't get any American copyrights until around 1990, when they started making TG-16, Genesis and Game Gear games, and releasing their games without Atari Games' help. Most Namco games before 1990s were released by Tengen (owned jointly by Atari Games and Namco, from legal paperwork I've read back in the 1990s during college). Midway had the exclusive on Pac-Man in the arcade, and Atari, Inc., (not Atari Games) had the exclusive on home consoles and computers, with Namco feeling free to do whatever they wanted with their terms and games. Coffee5binky (talk) 04:09, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

This clearly should have an article
This is one of very few pinball / video game combo units. That alone is notable. Moreover, any arcade game by Bally-Midway, even though not a Namco product is encyclopedic. This is part of Pac-Man history, a hybrid rarity, adequately sourced, and an interesting subject which people would want to read about. I've created a stub article which goes over the mechanics of the game and contains the promo poster and a screenshot. - super &beta;&epsilon;&epsilon; cat 05:59, 2 July 2010 (UTC)
 * That is trivial. It needs reliable references discussing the pinball game. Your version provides none, and your argument suggests that being important to Pac-Man is being important to the real world. - The New Age Retro Hippie used Ruler! Now, he can figure out the length of things easily. 14:50, 4 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Not sure what "that" refers to. This doesn't have huge distribution like the Pac and Ms. Pac games, but I can't imagine that any Bally-Midway Pac-Man sequel isn't a notable topic. Especially when combined with the rarity of hybrid arcade units - anyone interested in classic arcade games or Pac-Man would find an article on this machine interesting. Would you feel comfortable with a 3rd opinion, or an RFC? I don't want to waste time expanding this article if it's going to be reverted. - super &beta;&epsilon;&epsilon; cat 18:17, 4 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I think we can work this out before it ever has to get to an RFC. You need to have references from reliable sources: try using this GameSpot reference. I'll see what I can dig up for you in the coming days but no guarantees I'll find anything spectacular. In the meantime I'd work the GameSpot reference into the article to talk about the gameplay. -- Nomader (Talk) 19:50, 4 July 2010 (UTC)

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Namco did authorize Midway's Pac-games.
Jr. Pac-Man, Professor Pac-Man, Pac-Man Plus, and Baby Pac-Man all being unauthorized creations by Midway behind Namco's back is simply untrue. It's a baseless rumour that's been circulating online for years. In reality, Namco gave their permission and received royalties for all of those games. The head of Namco and the head of Midway were actually very good friends, there was no bad blood between the companies causing them to terminate the license. All of this is explained in the 2021 book, Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon. While I don't have the page number at hand, here is a Tweet from the co-author of the book discussing the topic https://twitter.com/365ofpac/status/1272911496486572036 2A00:23C5:B9B:3D01:59BC:1642:7B5D:9563 (talk) 17:34, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Can you provide a page number or something more specific? That they got royalty checks doesn't mean they authorized the game, and the licensing issue is something the book I added addresses. - Aoidh (talk) 12:46, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
 * I took a photo of page 182 in Pac-Man Birth of an Icon. https://i.ibb.co/5YV6Nkk/IMG20230203182920.jpg 2A00:23C5:B9B:3D01:596E:DCE8:A136:F835 (talk) 20:24, 3 February 2023 (UTC)