Pac-Land, such a disappointment on the Amiga

[ZEUSDAZ]

I loved Pac-Land in the arcade, I remember playing it (BADLY) at a seaside resort many moons ago and remembering how different it was from all the other Pac-Man games that were released up to that point.


Fast forward several years later and Grandslam (yes the same comapny who gave us The Running Man) decided to port it to sevaral home computers including the Amiga, I got hold of a cracked copy at the time, loaded it up and was just horrified at what I saw on my TV, it was choppy, very slow, Pac-Man was drawn terribly and it felt that every time he jumped you were on the Moon's surface because of the ridiculous distances you would jump, it played like a snail carrying a load of heavy shopping after it had worked out at the gym.


This weeks edition of Shit Game Time is showcasing this game, it was requested by youtuber "I Love Roaming" to go into the vault of shitness,...and way overdue too!


At the end of this video I show a mysterious Amiga version which was never released, far superior to the official Grandslam version we got, so the question is who programmed it and why was it shelved?!


PAC-LAND "Shit Game Time" Review: [ Show youtube player ]

[saimon69]

More than else i wonder if is possible with a disassembler modify the unfinished version so to have something similar to a complete port

[CCCP alert]

My friend played it all the time in our local arcade, it looked a bit rubbish compared to the other games so I never played it until a few years ago on the C64. It's OK, still think I spent my 20p coins wisely back then in the arcade though lol

[stx2199]

the game pac land was played in the era 99% only by girls
If someone saw you playing pac land in the local arcade automatically suspected that you were gay

of course I never played such crap

[Cris1997XX]

As always, Jotd would be able to do this game justice with an A1200 port

[BigD]

I remember that I had the choice between this game or Pac-Mania for my birthday one year. I chose Pac-Mania luckily!

[blackcornflake]

There are so many shoddy coin-op conversions, Pac-Land is far from alone.

I wasn't an industry insider in the 80s (being a kid and all) so can only speculate, but my speculation is that as long as the conversion looked about right, to hell with how it played. Get it on the shelves.

It's obviously great that today we - i.e. talented people like Jotd - can create proper, accurate, amazing conversions, righting past wrongs like Video Game Quantum Leap, but even that can't undo the sucky memories and childhood trauma of crap ones.

What we need is a support group and a time machine. Screw you, US Gold

[Bren McGuire]

where can we find that other version where did it come from? the video makes absolutely no effort into explaining a single thing about it wasted some dear time hoping for some answers

[kremiso]

i think i have played this on C64 bitd

i remember a strange 'track n field' way (fastly moving left and right the joystick) to do the long jumps, as to reach to pass ie the water lakes?

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by kremiso

i think i have played this on C64 bitd

i remember a strange 'track n field' way (fastly moving left and right the joystick) to do the long jumps, as to reach to pass ie the water lakes?

In the arcade i seem to remember you had to press the jump button continuously to have some kind of floating

[Belgarath]

When you use the springboard you have to repeatedly push the joystick right rather then left and right.

[Bren McGuire]

i'm still waiting for anyone to shed some light o what was shown at the end of this video

Originally Posted by Bren McGuire

where can we find that other version where did it come from? the video makes absolutely no effort into explaining a single thing about it wasted some dear time hoping for some answers

[gimbal]

I do a simple google for "Amiga unreleased pacland" and this is the first hit:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2021/03/pac-land-v1/

[TCD]

Originally Posted by gimbal

I do a simple google for "Amiga unreleased pacland" and this is the first hit:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2021/03/pac-land-v1/

Oh wow. Thank you for pointing that out I've added a note about that version to HOL.

[PatmanQC]

I don't get the heat for this game on the Amiga. Sure it's not perfect but it was still fun

[copse]

Originally Posted by PatmanQC

I don't get the heat for this game on the Amiga. Sure it's not perfect but it was still fun

Imagine that you do not like a game or are bad at it. Do you admit that or do you declare that the game is bad and no-one could possibly like it? Is this your first EAB thread? Just pop over to the thread on Shadow of the Beast vs the ST version and the fun police are there as well declaring it a bad game, probably the same cohort. It's almost like watching NPCs in a computer game :-)

[Cris1997XX]

Originally Posted by copse

Imagine that you do not like a game or are bad at it. Do you admit that or do you declare that the game is bad and no-one could possibly like it? Is this your first EAB thread? Just pop over to the thread on Shadow of the Beast vs the ST version and the fun police are there as well declaring it a bad game, probably the same cohort. It's almost like watching NPCs in a computer game :-)

Cut the BS about this "fun police" already, I know you can't accept criticism on Shadow Of The Beast but it's genuinely a turd wrapped up in a nice box. P.S: The unreleased Pac Land prototype is way better, you should actually play it

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by Cris1997XX

, I know you can't accept criticism on Shadow Of The Beast but it's genuinely a turd wrapped up in a nice box.

It is not. Dont over exagerate neither the other way.
SoTB isn't a "turd". You surely are perfectly allowed to dislike it but this isn't a general opinion.
Not at all.
I'll go even further because if you consider this game a turd, then you should really consider what the Amiga is anyway,, since it is definitively, like it or not, a milestone in the Amiga History, IMHO (maybe you've forgotten these 4 letters before posting ?)

[Megalomaniac]

Haven't we got enough threads arguing over Shadow of the Beast already? Not everybody thinks that the gameplay is great, and (despite this myth being repeated yet again) it's not because they found it difficult. It's a milestone because it's technically amazing, and undoubtedly sold Amigas all by itself - not necessarily because of the gameplay. Nobody minds that people enjoyed it then, or enjoy it now - but not everybody did, or does.

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by Megalomaniac

Haven't we got enough threads arguing over Shadow of the Beast already? Not everybody thinks that the gameplay is great, and (despite this myth being repeated yet again) it's not because they found it difficult. It's a milestone because it's technically amazing, and undoubtedly sold Amigas all by itself - not necessarily because of the gameplay. Nobody minds that people enjoyed it then, or enjoy it now - but not everybody did, or does.

That doesn't make this game a turd. I agree that CCCPAlert argument were excessive but in the contrary it isn't necessary to demolish it by now as it was commonly accepted by everyone.