Pac-Man: Player Controls dialog box

Joystick Control

To control Pac-Man with your joystick, select the Joystick Control check box.

Calibrate Joystick

Opens the Joystick Properties dialog box, where you can calibrate your joystick for accuracy in maneuvering Pac-Man.

Keyboard Settings

To change a keyboard setting, click the arrow next to the setting you want to change, and then click the key you want to use. Avoid setting the same key to more than one action.

Cancel button

Restores the player control options to their previous settings.

Default button

Resets the player controls to the following keyboard settings:

To move Pac-Man	Press
Left	LEFT ARROW
Right	RIGHT ARROW
Up	UP ARROW
Down	DOWN ARROW


Pac-Man: Customize Game dialog box

Game Settings

To change a game setting, click the arrows next to the setting you want to change.

Reset High Score button

Resets the high score to zero.

Full-Screen Update

Select the Full-Screen Update checkbox if you are experiencing any difficulties with your game graphics. Restart the game for the selection to take effect. Selecting Full-Screen Update may slow game performance.

Cancel button

Restores the game options to their previous settings.

Default button

Restores the game setting options to the following:

Option	Setting
Number of lives	3
Points needed for bonus lives	10,000
Game difficulty	Standard
Game speed	100
Pac-Man speed	Normal
Monster speeds	Normal
Monster movement	Normal


Dig Dug: Player Controls dialog box

Joystick Control

To control Dig Dug with your joystick, select the Joystick Control check box.

Calibrate Joystick

Opens the Joystick Properties dialog box, where you can calibrate your joystick for accuracy in maneuvering Dig Dug.

Keyboard Settings

To change a keyboard setting, click the arrow next to the setting you want to change, and then click the key you want to use. Avoid setting the same key to more than one action.

Cancel button

Restores the player control options to their previous settings.

Default button

Resets the player controls to the following keyboard settings:

To	Press
Move Dig Dug up	UP ARROW
Move Dig Dug down	DOWN ARROW
Move Dig Dug left	LEFT ARROW
Move Dig Dug right	RIGHT ARROW
Activate the air pump	SPACEBAR


Dig Dug: Customize Game dialog box

Game Settings

To change a game setting, click the arrows next to the setting you want to change.

Reset High Score button

Resets the high score to 10,000.

Full-Screen Update

Select the Full-Screen Update checkbox if you are experiencing any difficulties with your game graphics. Restart the game for the selection to take effect. Selecting Full-Screen Update may slow game performance.

Cancel button

Restores the game options to their previous settings.

Default button

Restores the game setting options to the following:

Option	Setting
Number of lives	3
Points needed for first bonus life	10,000
Points needed for subsequent bonus lives	40,000
Dig Dug movement speed	Normal
Pooka movement speed	Normal
Fygar movement speed	Normal


Galaxian: Player Controls dialog box

Joystick Control

To control Galaxian with your joystick, select the Joystick Control check box.

Calibrate Joystick

Opens the Joystick Properties dialog box, where you can calibrate your joystick for accuracy in maneuvering your ship.

Keyboard Settings

To change a keyboard setting, click the arrow next to the setting you want to change, and then click the key you want to use. Avoid setting the same key to more than one action.

Cancel button

Restores the player control options to their previous settings.

Default button

Resets the player controls to the following keyboard settings:

To	Press
Move your ship left	LEFT ARROW
Move your ship right	RIGHT ARROW
Fire a missile	SPACEBAR


Galaxian: Customize Game dialog box

Game Settings

To change a game setting, click the arrows next to the setting you want to change.

Reset High Score button

Resets the high score to zero.

Cancel button

Restores the game options to their previous settings.

Default button

Restores the game setting options to the following:

Option	Setting
Number of lives	3
Points needed for extra bonus life (Only 1 granted per game)	7,000
Player's ship speed	Normal
Player's ship rate of fire	1


Pole Position: Player Controls dialog box

Joystick Control

To control Pole Position with your joystick, select the Joystick Control check box.

Calibrate Joystick

Opens the Joystick Properties dialog box, where you can calibrate your joystick for accuracy in maneuvering Pole Position.

Mouse Sensitivity

To change your mouse sensitivity, use the slider. The less sensitive your mouse, the easier it is to control your racing car.

Keyboard Controls

To change a keyboard setting, click the arrow next to the setting you want to change, and then click the key you want to use. Avoid setting the same key to more than one action.

Cancel button

Restores the player control options to their previous settings.

Default button

Resets the player controls to the following keyboard settings:

To	Press
Turn left	LEFT ARROW
Turn right	RIGHT ARROW
Accelerate	UP ARROW
Switch gears	SPACEBAR


Pole Position: Customize Game dialog box

Game Settings

To change a game setting, click the arrows next to the setting you want to change.

Reset High Score List button

Resets the high score to 12,000.

Cancel button

Restores the game options to their previous settings.

Default button

Restores the game setting options to the following:

Option	Setting
Additional time to qualify	0
Additional time to complete race  (After the player's completed the qualifying race)	0
Car skidding	On


Introducing Pac-Man

Pac-Man is a legendary game with an enthusiastic following from around the world. Since its introduction in 1980, Pac-Man's image has been splashed across magazine covers, television screens, T-shirts, and bumper stickers. Created by Japan's Namco, and distributed in the United States by Bally, Pac-Man is an icon of 1980's popular culture. For more information about the making of Pac-Man, see History of the game.


Playing the game

Your object is to help Pac-Man avoid the monsters and rid the screen of dots. When Pac-Man eats an energizer, the monsters are rendered harmless and turn dark blue. Now it's Pac-Man's turn to eat them and earn points.

To play Pac-Man

1	Click 1 Player Game on the Game menu, or press F2.

To play with another person, click 2 Player Game or press SHIFT+F2. (During a two-player game, players switch each time Pac-Man dies.)

2	To move Pac-Man through the maze, use the arrow keys or your joystick.

3	To quit a game, click Exit on the Game menu.

Tip

To access the menus, commands, and mouse pointer, you must pause the game by pressing F3 or the PAUSE key. To continue the game, press F3 or PAUSE again.

_______________________________________________

See also

Changing the game settings

Changing the player controls

Tips and tricks


Scoring information
Scoring

The more Pac-Man eats, the more points you earn.

	Dots are worth 10 points each.
	Energizers are worth 50 points each.
	Blue monsters increase in value: The first monster is worth 200 points. The second is worth 400 points. The third is worth 800 points. The fourth is worth 1,600 points. If Pac-Man eats all four monsters, you earn a total of 3,000 points.
	The cherry is worth 100 points. It appears during the first level of game play.
	The strawberry is worth 300 points. It appears during the second level of game play.
	The orange is worth 500 points. It appears during the third and fourth levels of game play.
	The apple is worth 700 points. It appears during the fifth and sixth levels of game play.
	The pineapple is worth 1,000 points. It appears during the seventh and eighth levels of game play.
	The Galaxian spaceship is worth 2,000 points. It appears during the ninth and tenth levels of game play.
	The bell is worth 3,000 points. It appears during the eleventh and twelfth levels of game play.
	The key is worth 5,000 points. It appears during the thirteenth and all subsequent levels of game play.


Tips and tricks

Delay eating energizers until the monsters are near. The longer Pac-Man waits, the closer the monsters get, and the easier it is for Pac-Man to eat them once they have turned blue.

Once the monsters turn blue and run away, help Pac-Man eat all the dots that he can. After he clears the screen of dots, you advance to the next level.

Turn Pac-Man into the tunnel to escape from monsters, and watch him emerge safely on the other side of the screen.

Stall Pac-Man from entering the tunnel and then, just before the monsters reach Pac-Man, duck him into the tunnel. By attracting the monsters to one side of the screen, you reduce Pac-Man's chances of meeting them when he emerges on the other side of the screen.

Hide from the monsters. The T-valves provide shadowy places where Pac-Man can rest while the monsters speed by, frantically searching for him.


Constantly pursued by monsters, Pac-Man has moments when he can turn and chase them all away.


Save the energizers until Pac-Man really needs them. There are only four energizers per level.


Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde live to eat Pac-Man.


Pac-Man can earn bonus points by gobbling up fruit and other objects that appear in his path. Watch for cherries, strawberries, oranges, and bells.


After a monster turns dark blue, he is harmless and can be eaten for points. When a blue monster starts flashing, look out! He is about to transform back into his former ravenous self, only to chase Pac-Man again.


To move quickly to the other side of the screen, guide Pac-Man into the tunnel -- an excellent way to escape pursuing monsters.


T-valves are a good place to hide from monsters.


Changing the game settings
To change the game settings

You can customize the number of lives Pac-Man has, Pac-Man's speed, the game speed, the number of points needed for bonus lives, the monsters' speed, the monsters' movement, the game difficulty, and the overall game speed (both Pac-Man's and the monsters' speeds).

1	Click Customize Game on the Options menu, or press F9.

2	Click the arrows next to the settings you want to change, or click Default to restore Pac-Man to its original settings.

3	Click OK, and then restart the game for the new game setting(s) to take effect.


Changing player controls
To change the player controls

You can customize the keys you use to control Pac-Man, or you can play Pac-Man with your joystick.

1	Click Player Controls on the Options menu, or press F8.

2	To change the keyboard settings, click the arrow next to the control you want to change, and then click the key you want to use. Avoid setting the same key to more than one action.

- or -

To play Pac-Man your joystick, select the Joystick Control check box.


Changing the screen size
To change the screen size

Click Full Screen on the Options menu, or press F4. Press F4 again to reduce the screen size. You can also resize the screen with your mouse.


Turning the sound on and off
To turn the sound on and off

On the Options menu, click Sound. When the game sounds are turned on, a check mark is displayed next to the command name.


Turning Quick Help on and off
To turn off Quick Help

Click Quick Help on the Help menu, and then select the Skip Quick Help at Startup check box.


History of the game

Pac-Man was first introduced to the arcades at the end of 1980. The voracious little critter caught the hearts and imaginations of the public like no other game and is the hallmark of the golden age of video games.

A place in video game history

"Pac-Man is the most universally known arcade game," said Chris Lindsey, director of the National Video Game and Coin-Op Museum in St. Louis. "Everybody knows about Pac-Man. And, I've noticed, most everybody can play Pac-Man pretty well. Pac-Man makes just about the best use of the joystick one can imagine. It's so intuitive that it puts other games to shame in terms of how easy it is for a person to walk up, stick a quarter in the machine, and start doing something meaningful. At the time, Pac-Man introduced a completely unique style of game play and was also highly identifiable in terms of its music. With Pac-Man, everything was there. The video game industry needs another game that captures the public's heart like Pac-Man, and so far, no one has been able to come up with it."

The great 25-cent escape

"People expect to see Pac-Man when they come into the museum, and without fail, when they see it, they want to play it," Lindsey said. "People remember spending hours and hours at Pac-Man. They like to see how good they are now when they play it. And I would say that, perhaps more than any other game, the same playing skills still apply. Perhaps it's because of the intuitive game play. You don't have to memorize the behavior of a wide array of enemies as you do with some other games. You just have to remember that when the ghosts turn blue, you only have seconds, until they start seriously blinking, to go and get them. And Pac-Man is a little bit looser in its style of game play -- more open. For instance, you can kill time in the lower left hand corner until you see an opening between the ghosts, and you can strategize a bit more: You can play with the tunnels, you can play with the position of the ghosts in relation to the energizers. Even people who haven't played in years remember those strategies."

After all these years, the challenge of Pac-Man still remains.

"You can also get into some really fun jams, when you've got a ghost on your tail and you have to make a decision about whether you're going to go left, or right, or straight at the next junction, which is in .03 seconds," Lindsey said. "It gets to be pretty tense, especially when those ghosts start moving really fast and the energizers aren't lasting as long. Pac-Man can be a real heart-thumping game."

Namco notes

Ever wonder why Pac-Man is yellow and round, or how he got his name?

Namco engineers report that Pac-Man was inspired by the idea of an animated pizza pie who runs around and eats things, instead of being eaten. Hence, the round, yellow character, with a slicelike mouth, that is always chomping. Namco also reports that Pac-Man's name emerged from the Japanese word for eating, "paku-paku."


The late 1970s and early 1980s marked the golden age of video games. Each year, billions of dollars in quarters were plunked into machines that had captured an entire nation's imagination. The word "Pac-Man" entered the popular vocabulary for describing everything, from a voracious appetite to the acquisition of one company by another. While magazines such as Time and Newsweek wrote of the wondrous worlds and great escapes one could find for a quarter, Psychology Today and Education Digest addressed concerns about the future of youngsters who were becoming addicted to games that would rob them of their lunch money and imaginations. At the height of the arcade mania, some towns even passed laws barring children from playing the games.


Opened in June 1991, the National Video Game and Coin-Op Museum is operated by the Edison Brothers Stores Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a home for classic video arcade games that might otherwise be lost because of the practice of placing newer games into existing cabinets. The museum has a shop to maintain the games, and visitors can play the more than 75 classic arcade machines that are on display.