Baby Pac-Man Opinions

Scuba Steve

New member
Joined
Apr 20, 2008
Messages
974
Reaction score
13
Location
Dallas, Texas
What's everybody's opinion on Baby Pac-Man? I'm contemplating if I should add this to my collection or not. I have vague memories of playing it as a kid in the local arcade and can't remember if it was any good or not. From watching YouTube videos it looks like a cross between a difficult version of Pac-Man and a shallow/hardly used pinball game. Also, I understand this machine is prone to failure that isn't cheap or easy to repair. But then again I love Pac-Man & pinball. It seems like a really cool combination. What are your thoughts?

 
I always thought it was a very cool combination too. So much that I purchased a project one without even playing it. Then I played it at the last pinball expo. It went on craigslist the next week. While a cool idea, to me it was everything that you said. A hard pacman game, a shallow pinball game, and a very difficult and expensive game to repair. Very cool in theory, very poorly executed. My wife and couple of friends that were with me thought the same thing. All my opinion though, as some people really love this game.
 
There are some folks who seem to really enjoy this hybrid - but I'm not one of them..

I've played it many times - the pinball section looks good, and for what it is, plays well enough - it's all about adding features to the video part of the game.

Problem for me is the video part was poorly implemented. Very crude graphics, and (the killer for me), it doesn't play much like Pac Man - the ghosts reverse direction at will, and as you noted, it's a "hard pacman game" at best.

Nice cabinet, nice playfield, decent audio - but the video game portion disappoints in my opinion. I've had the opportunity to pick up several of these, fully working, for under $300, and I pass every time.

I wouldn't consider it any harder to repair than 70's Bally pinballs - the boards are a bit different, but seem readily available. Throw a cap kit on the monitor, and I'd think it'd be solid as well.

If at all possible, I'd recommend go putting a few games on one before pulling the trigger on a purchase. Like most hybrid games, it doesn't do either very well unfortunately.
 
I owned one for a few years and really liked it. I got kinda bored with it,but if another one came along for the right price I might try it again. Mine never gave me any real problems.
 
owned one for a couple years and I am very gladly sold it for $500 a couple weeks ago.

When I bought it I was in the mode where I would buy any pin that came around. It was in good shape from troxel, a member here, and it saw a lot of action. He had replaced all the connectors and it was almost fully working.

I tried to LED it and ran into some insane problems. Lindsey really knew his stuff here.

The pacman part of it caused a problem with Bally and Namco. The ghosts follow no rules besides the red being the fastest, then green. I never really played pacman and loathed the PM part of it. I simply am not good enough to do it and it caused frustrations for me.

You only get power pellets in the pinball area.

I have read a strategy guide and would follow the basics for good games. That really is the only way to play it. Stay in the pin part as long as you can.

I still have tons of parts for BPM. I should offer them up for sale here actually. The guy I sold it to is just using it as a machine to trade up to another, better machine.

Normal peeps would come over and like it, because they did not know better. It is a quarter sucker and made most mad because you die so easy. They never did well, but liked the mix of vid and pin. the pin part is boring as hell. I had a few folks who were pretty good at it. When you get up in the pac levels strange things happen like walls disappear and it makes it pretty fun.

I never had problems with the interconnection between the pin and vid via the vidiot board. Clay had a whole page just for BPM. The game is just not a quality product physical wise in my opinion. The playfield can be lifted, but is not hinged and if you place it wrong you will smash switches and just mess stuff up. The light sockets are horrible and they do not sell replacements. When I called Steve Young of pinball resource he spent a few good minutes shredding the machine on how dumb it was made. It made me bleed so many times and it just made me hate it more.

I would never own it again unless I found a beautiful one from someone who had no idea how much it was worth and I could just turn it for profit. I doubt I would play it a few times while in my possession.

* takes a deep breath *

If you are going to go look at it, make sure the horseshoe works to get the 2 power pellets. make sure the feet are adjustable. Check the quality of the screen. If you really want it and know how the game plays then go for it.
 
Last edited:
It is a nice piece to look at in the gameroom. Mine gets use from time to time, maybe once every two weeks. It also is much more difficult than Pac or Ms. Pac.
 
I picked up 2 of them in a deal about 3 years ago. I was told that between the 2 I should be able to get 1 ..........PLAYER.......... Level baby-PAC up and running. Well , 1 CPU repair $100 and later on a new to me used play field $140 shipped and lastly a working 13" WG monitor $75 it was working!!!! YA!
So one of the 2 was so bad off I parted it out. And the cost of the main deal $250.

I did have it in my lineup for for a wile and I also thought about fixing it up with new artwork and the works. But the gameplay for me was just too hard on the pacman part.

After weeks and weeks of having it for sale it sold for $325 with all the extra parts I had to go with it. Even tho I took a loss on the project I had lots of fun getting it working over playing it ;)
 
I have one and it's a keeper. But I really like pacman and pinball. This winter I'm going to restore it with a new CNC cut cabinet, artwork, and playfield overlay. BTW, if anyone has an original joystick for BabyPac, PM me.
 
I wanted one for years without ever playing it, then I played it at Pinwiz in NH....I was sooooooo happy I never bought one. The pin part was weak and the arcade part was too far off from real Pac.. I have read they are $$$$ to maintain as well... Again, just my opinion...
 
I have one that is in line to be refurbished. I really like the game. But also my interests, in addition to centering around great-playing games also center around innovative and unusual pinball games, so I tend to like anything that is slightly off-center from traditional pinball like Spectrum, Granny & The Gators, SC, RFM, W?D, Varkon, Joust, etc. I think the game is essential in any nice-sized pinball collection. It was a ground-breaking game.
 
I think the game would be 10x the game it is if they came out with a "speed hack" for the video portion. As stated before... the video portion is the weakest link in the game...
 
It's an interesting piece of art....but it's a horrible Pac-Man game and a horrible pinball machine. Even as a kid, I was like "WTF!?" ...the character graphics and maze designs weren't up to the standards of the other Pac-Man games. It's really not fun compared to other Pacs.
 
Gotta agree - this game is a real stinker over all. As a Pac series enthusiast, the video mode sucks (agree with speed hack remark), and the playfield itself is .... well ... pretty darn weak for the "fun" factor.

Truth be known I too was going to buy one without EVER playing it before because it looked down right cool. Luckily the seller was a complete douche and tried the ole being on the phone when I arrived "Another guy just offered more can you beat it" trick. And then listening to his SOB story how he just got out of jail and needed money because he was being kicked out his place so I told him, "There's a reason you were in jail and clearly you didn't learn what the meaning of "thief" is you prick " and I walked off without it.

Years later I now see I owe that thief an apolgy. He saved me from making a mistake heh heh.

I think if a person has fairly unlimited space and an equally unlimited expense account it's worth having one because it is pretty darned to cool to look at.
 
I couldn't remember which was the first hybrid - found the following:

Caveman - Sept. '82
Baby PacMan - Oct. '82
Granny & the Gators - Jan. '84

Given how close Caveman & Baby Pac came out, I wonder who truly had the idea first...

Not really counting Star Wars Ep. 1 & Revenge from Mars since you didn't really have a completely separate video game portion - just a CRT replacing some playfield and DMD features on the video screen.

Am I missing any?

Of those, I'd probably rank Baby Pac as the least desirable - I've only played it in Visual Pinball, but Granny & the Gators seems better overall, and I've always thought the video game portion of Caveman was fairly well done.
 
Back
Top Bottom