Crazy Otto CAX

FrizzleFried

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Question: Does anyone know if the Crazy Otto that was at CAX is authentic? I ask because (A) It was in a PAC cab (which I guess is right), (B) It was listed as a PAC MAN on the CAX sticker. (C) It was stuffed far far away from the protos. (D) Most proto's are indicated as such and NOTHING was mentioned about this being a proto or any such thing. You wouldn't know it was Crazy Otto unless you stopped to check out the gameplay.

Real proto or a hack to make a Ms. Pac look like Crazy Otto?
 
It was official, Steve Golson from GCC brought it himself and apparently attended the rest of the show.
 
Yep. It was legit. Bummer that it wasn't "advertised" more. It's a pretty interesting story and a true bit of arcade history right there. And I don't know if it's every been seen in public before this.
 
Anyone know if the roms are going to be released into the wild?

facepalm.jpg


wow...
 
I actually forgot about it even being there. I must have walked by it 20 times too.

I agree. I think there should have been more advertising. Maybe a banner or something up above it.
 
It's Ms. Pac Man...

A few sprite changes... and a slightly different pitch when eating the dots... but that's about it.

That's not all. ;)
It had to be genuine, everything was spot on if it was a hack. After all, Jr. Pac was in a Pac-Man conversion with generic paint and golf side-art.

BTW, it was really cool meeting you, Friz!

Supposedly Steve just plugged in the ROMS in the extra Pac-Man cab at about 3:00ish on Sat. I didn't meet Steve, but I met his son. :(
 
Yep. It was legit. Bummer that it wasn't "advertised" more. It's a pretty interesting story and a true bit of arcade history right there. And I don't know if it's every been seen in public before this.

It has. I have played it. And, I made a video of it here:

 
Here's the back of Steve Golson's head, right after he installed the board and booted it up. Check out those funny lookin' monsters.

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Here is a picture of Steve installing the Crazy Otto board.

After seeing videos of Otto at PAX, I got the idea of inviting Steve and his board out here for Crazy Otto's 30th birthday.

You see, we don't need to load a whole cabinet into the airplane.
All we need is the board.
Even better, This is exactly what Steve did 30 years ago when he showed Crazy Otto to Midway games in Chicago.

Otto was put inside a "Pac-Man" cabinet on site.

I presented the idea to Jon, and we got the green light to make it happen.

The speech was excellent.
It was completely recorded so, it should be online eventually.

So. Yes, this was all authentic!
Yes, we should have had a cabinet topper, or a big sign or something.
No the roms will never be released, because General Computer continues to receive royalty checks for Ms Pacman from Namco.
Releasing those roms could have bad consequences.
The roms are very well protected, tested and work in Mame.
Steve has also recently had other Work in progress floppy discs rescued and backed up, some of which was shown at the show.

He is passionate about the history of General Computer and favors both communities.
His son has the all time high score in Crazy Otto. of course because there is only one.

You may have also noticed Super Missile attack looked a little different.
That was Super Missile Attack: Courtroom edition.

GCC made a special version of the game over the weekend to try and appease Atari during the $15 million dollar lawsuit.
As you know, Atari chose instead to drop the lawsuit and Hire General Computer.
 

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Here is a picture of Steve installing the Crazy Otto board.

After seeing videos of Otto at PAX, I got the idea of inviting Steve and his board out here for Crazy Otto's 30th birthday.

You see, we don't need to load a whole cabinet into the airplane.
All we need is the board.
Even better, This is exactly what Steve did 30 years ago when he showed Crazy Otto to Midway games in Chicago.

Otto was put inside a "Pac-Man" cabinet on site.

I presented the idea to Jon, and we got the green light to make it happen.

The speech was excellent.
It was completely recorded so, it should be online eventually.

So. Yes, this was all authentic!
Yes, we should have had a cabinet topper, or a big sign or something.
No the roms will never be released, because General Computer continues to receive royalty checks for Ms Pacman from Namco.
Releasing those roms could have bad consequences.
The roms are very well protected, tested and work in Mame.
Steve has also recently had other Work in progress floppy discs rescued and backed up, some of which was shown at the show.

He is passionate about the history of General Computer and favors both communities.
His son has the all time high score in Crazy Otto. of course because there is only one.

You may have also noticed Super Missile attack looked a little different.
That was Super Missile Attack: Courtroom edition.

GCC made a special version of the game over the weekend to try and appease Atari during the $15 million dollar lawsuit.
As you know, Atari chose instead to drop the lawsuit and Hire General Computer.

It's a bummer they didn't get a shot of the Otto PCB. :eek:

I really didn't think his son having the all time high score really matters all that much since the game may as well be considered Ms. Pac-Man if it was for score since the scoring, AIs, etc are all identical.
 
The crazy otto board is a PAC-man board with the original game roms replaced with "CO" roms.
So, no picture required.
In fact, if I heard it right, Steve aquired the pacman board fairly recently.
 
The crazy otto board is a PAC-man board with the original game roms replaced with "CO" roms.
So, no picture required.
In fact, if I heard it right, Steve aquired the pacman board fairly recently.
How about the daughtercard?
Yes, I also have heard that too. What I've heard is that Steve acquired the Otto board and ROMS from a former Namco employee.
 
How about the daughtercard?
Yes, I also have heard that too. What I've heard is that Steve acquired the Otto board and ROMS from a former Namco employee.

Sir, you are misinformed.

Steve Golsom is the Co-Creator of Ms Pac Man.
Namco has nothing to do with it.

Namco pays royalties to Steve Golsom, among others for the version Namco put out on cell phones, xbox, wii, etc....

History of GCC
http://gccprinters.com/corporate/history.html

History of Ms PacMan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man

http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=ms.-pac-man-upright-model-no.-595&page=detail&id=1698&o=2
 
Sir, you are misinformed.

Steve Golsom is the Co-Creator of Ms Pac Man.
Namco has nothing to do with it.

Namco pays royalties to Steve Golsom, among others for the version Namco put out on cell phones, xbox, wii, etc....

History of GCC
http://gccprinters.com/corporate/history.html

History of Ms PacMan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man

http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=ms.-pac-man-upright-model-no.-595&page=detail&id=1698&o=2

What I understand is that GCC turned over the boards to Midway, and eventually Midway turned them over to Namco eventually.
 
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