Any history on why Ms. Pac-Man is so fast?

morbidboy

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I had a customer asked me, "Why is Ms. Pac-Man so Fast?" and I told him about the fast chip that I installed...

But even when I was a little kid, I remember (maybe a false memory) Ms. pac-man always moving fast. Is there a history behind the fast chip? Is there a reason why a Ms. Pac-Man machine wouldn't have a fast chip?

Anyone know? I just want to know so I have something to tell people when they ask me.
 
Faster, faster

I remember playing it slow at some point, but more times than not it was a fast version. If I am not mistaken I have seen it on different machines at different fast speeds...

My cocktail is pretty quick, but I was in an arcade in Gatlinburg over the holidays and thy had a machine that ran at warp 9.

-Scott
 
the speed up hack makes the game faster paced, easier, and more enjoyable, in my opinion.
 
IIRC, the slower speed is original. The faster speed was a hack that just gained alot of popularity that it became a pretty standard option. Gamer's really competed for high scores back in those days so many operators probably went for the faster option to gain collections.
 
IIRC, the slower speed is original. The faster speed was a hack that just gained alot of popularity that it became a pretty standard option. Gamer's really competed for high scores back in those days so many operators probably went for the faster option to gain collections.

Ditto here. It came out with the original slower speed. That eats quarters faster, but is less enjoyable for the layman, and a complicated fake believe algorithm somewhere says "Lots of happy quarters > a few unhappy ones." I.e. people playing a slow unenjoyable Ms. Pac won't play again but people playing a fast, fun one will play again and again even though the game might last 30 seconds less.
 
Ditto here. It came out with the original slower speed. That eats quarters faster, but is less enjoyable for the layman, and a complicated fake believe algorithm somewhere says "Lots of happy quarters > a few unhappy ones." I.e. people playing a slow unenjoyable Ms. Pac won't play again but people playing a fast, fun one will play again and again even though the game might last 30 seconds less.

My take back in that day was that the hack was purely to rob the average player of more quarters in the space of five minutes than was possible with the unhacked speed. At normal speed, a novice could survive far longer in comparison to when the speed was ramped up. Once you got the hang anticipating direction changes with the joystick, the fast Ms Pac Man meant that you could easily outrun the ghosts, but for the casual player, I noticed that the fast Ms Pac was the equivalent of driving a really fast car - players would just smash into the ghosts because they couldn't get the hang of controlling Ms Pac's speed properly. They'd end up spending a few more quarters before finally giving up, and the operator wouldn't have napped those additional quarters in the same space of time if the machine was set to "normal" speed.
 
was it an option when Ms. Pac-Man came out and was offered to arcade owners or was it something that come out later for home modification?
 
the speed up hack makes the game faster paced, easier, and more enjoyable, in my opinion.

Faster, more enjoyable but I wouldn't necessarily say easier. Sure it lets you get to later levels quicker, but they get positively MANIC and tense. I Love my "Ms. Crack-Man" and I wouldn't have her any other way. :)
 
I'm on the other end of the spectrum. I find the speed up versions too easy and incredibly boring. The last one I played I was 10 boards in and just wanted to fucking take a nap. Maybe it was just that machine, I dunno. If there's no tension when you can outrun everything, no need to have good reflexes in tight spots, and you're allowed to just not think very hard -- there's no real drive to keep eating imaginary electronic dots.

On original Ms. Pac-Man I struggle to hit the third wave of boards. I like that. Take away the challenge and video games become what our parents claimed them to always be: very mundane affairs.
 
was it an option when Ms. Pac-Man came out and was offered to arcade owners or was it something that come out later for home modification?

Pac & Ms. Pac Boards use a chip for the speed. I don't think it was ever licensed. Jr. Pac had a dip switch option in MAME so my guess would be it's the same with an original board.
 
Let's throw in some maths:

Original Ms.Pac : Fast Ms.Pac = Galaxian : Galaga


Same audience diffrence IMHO. Quick, lazy and easy vs. strategy and skill.

I hate ALL speed up hacks and it was the first thing I made undone on my Ms.Pac
 
Pac & Ms. Pac Boards use a chip for the speed. I don't think it was ever licensed. Jr. Pac had a dip switch option in MAME so my guess would be it's the same with an original board.

The speed option dipswitch in MAME was just a MAME hack. All the Pac games had it at one time, and they removed them when they put the actual speed up ROM in. There is a fast Jr ROM out there, but it's not in MAME, so you can't actually play it fast in the more recent versions. I don't know when the speed up ROMs actually came out, but I don't think Midway had anything to do with them.
 
In my opinion slow pac or mspac is boring for the first several levels. They are definitely easier with the speedup, at least for me. It was never offered from midway as far as im aware of. Same goes for jrpac, it was a rom hack just like the pac one.
I have sold a ton of pac/mspac over the past few years and it seems to be a 50/50 split on speed preference. I think regular speed might be slightly more popular.
 
I prefer normal speed - I have the speedup versions on the 8-1 multipac in my ms. pacman, and I don't find them as fun as the normal versions. I know this has nothing to do with the history of the speed-up chip, but everyone else is throwing out their preference so I will too! :)
 
The speed option dipswitch in MAME was just a MAME hack. All the Pac games had it at one time, and they removed them when they put the actual speed up ROM in. There is a fast Jr ROM out there, but it's not in MAME, so you can't actually play it fast in the more recent versions. I don't know when the speed up ROMs actually came out, but I don't think Midway had anything to do with them.

Oh, I see. Thanks for clearing that up.
I thought MisFitMame had the switch?
Twistywristarcade I believe sells the speed up chips and I also believe they were released.
Midway did not have anything to do with them.
I have used an 8D speedup ROM hack file from Riptor, renamed it jrp8.bin, and swapped out the file in MAME. It now plays fast.
Anyone know what the "Unknown" dip switch setting in MAME does in Jr. P?
 
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