On a quiet April day, after a busy day filled with ghosts and pills to swallow, Pac-Man returns home to be greeted by his cheerful wife and little daughter, but something strange – only those who know the game perfectly can detect it. original – came out of it. otherwise idyllic family picture: Miss Pac-Man is gone, replaced by Pac-Mom. The variation was revealed with the release of Pac-Land in the Arcade Archives series on April 7, 2022 (viewable at 4:40 in the video below), and will be further confirmed with the launch of the Namco Museum+ in May.
That’s not a huge change given that it’s limited to a variation on the hairstyle and the character’s primary color, but it’s certainly odd that there are reprints that should be extremely faithful to the historical classic of 1984. What happened to Miss Pac-Man? What are the reasons behind him secretly replacing Pac-Mom?
It turns out that there was no mistake behind this change, but that copyrights, copyrights, legal battles and, of course, money had a dark history. Okay, maybe not all that cloudy, but it’s definitely interesting and interesting, first of all because it hits the classics in a significant way, probably due to a series of little-known events. In fact, behind this variation, Bandai Namco has a very specific decision to go with one. forced replacement gray elite that, for economic reasons, and perhaps because of some kind of grudge against AtGames, must have bothered the huge Japanese publisher enough to somehow push them to change a video game icon to have nothing to do with it. You have to go back a few years to 2019 to understand what’s going on… or rather, you better start directly from 1982.
birth of a hero
Perhaps not everyone knows that Miss Pac-Man was born from what can be considered one of the first anti-litteram mods in video game history. In 1982, a few years after the original was published, some guys at the General Computer Corporation Pac-Man “modification kit” For the Crazy Otto arcade machines. These kits were quite common in the early years of cabinets: building a new game from scratch required significant production effort in terms of software and especially hardware, but modification kits changed some marginal aspects of the game, allowing to create alternatives or true sequels. another title so that it does not have to completely rebuild the machines, but simply by changing some aspects and thus introducing a new product to the market without breaking the production chain.
The boys, who had previously been scalded by a lawsuit with Atari regarding the replacement of Missile Command, decided to tread cautiously in this situation and recommended the project to Midway, which owns the rights to Pac-Man in North America, bought the project, and commissioned the GCC. developers to create a real one Follow For the game, which partially replaces the main character with another character, she is characterized by a red bow on her head and essentially becomes a woman who is a friend of the historical hero.
The guys who also questioned Namco’s Masaya Nakamura, Ms. They gave shape to a real new game called Pac-Man, but it is considered by many to be superior to the original for some improvements implemented in gameplay and level design.
The situation that ensued was clearly strange, perhaps due to a certain lightness Midway used in handling the Pac-Man license in its enthusiastic welcome to the GCC project, but it was also somewhat romantic and emblematic of a pioneering era of video game development. In any case, a triple paternity in Mrs. Pac-Man can only create legal chaos, which is essentially over forty years later. First deal was for Midway copyrights to GCCwhile maintaining control of the rights of the character and related video games. When the licensing agreement between Namco and Midway was signed in 1984, the Japanese publisher simply changed the American company and practically did not change its relationship with the GCC, which continued to receive royalties for the appearance of Ms. Pac-Man in video games, licensed products. and property. Then, AtGames took the stage in 2019.
a controversial lady
in games It’s best known for its “Flashback” series of home cabinets and mini consoles, particularly the notorious Sega Mega Drive reproductions that never quite worked flawlessly (especially when compared to the official Mega Drive Mini that came later), but it also played an important role. Role in the mysterious identity substitution imposed on Miss Pac-Man. When did the company enter into a legal dispute? Bandai Namco He accused AtGames of producing and distributing mini-lockers inspired by Miss Pac-Man in the “Arcade Legends” series, which led to a rather original solution: buying the character’s rights from GCC executives, done. After a quick bargain in 2019. As part of the new deals, AtGames replaced GCC as the owner of certain rights to Ms. Pac-Man, making it able to collect royalties from every appearance of the hero in various games and products.
It goes without saying that Bandai Namco did not respond well to the operation, but we did not expect such a clear response as it has been revealed recently. The situation remained confused for years, regardless of the displacement of various players on the field: i Rights The management of characters and video games isn’t exactly disputed, as they’re wholly owned by Bandai Namco, but in fact, every time Miss Pac-Man appears in a video game or any product, it’s a colleague of the publisher, far less beloved by Bandai Namco than the former GCC. AtGames, which is the affiliate, has to pay royalties, which has resulted in a definite cut.
Goodbye Miss Pac-Man, welcome Pac-Mom!
The final solution is extremely simple and fast, but above all it is striking because it comes 40 years after the original came out. raised the bow and she added red boots, a pink hat with gloves, and elegant shoes with the same color heels, and that’s it: Miss Pac-Man disappeared and was replaced by Pac-Mom, with a slight variation, but that all meant royalty payments and image rights sharing. It’s hard to imagine the financial liability being particularly burdensome for a giant like Bandai Namco, plus the decision to cut ties with AtGames was made easier given how the relationship with it started with a legal dispute and then sadly ended. offers to pay. In fact, Ms. Pac-Man’s last official appearance was at the Pac-Man Museum in 2014, but relations between the parties have remained strained since then.
The result of this variation can already be seen in Arcade Archives Pac-Land, released April 7, 2022, and can also be seen at Namco Museum +, arriving May 27, 2022, investment not only in the adult female character, but also in Pac’s little girl makes. The man was reluctantly involved in this change, in agreement with his mother. It’s strange to see Pac-Man returning home in the typical skit at the end of Pac-Land and not blinking at the replacement of his wife 40 years later together: the variation applied is just one change of appearance Pac-Man for the same character, who now wants to be known as Pac-Mom, but basically has the same personality and digital spirit. It’s definitely a nicer thought than the forced change that upsets a family’s harmony (who, by the way, is already grappling with pill and ghost issues) for financial reasons.
Source: Multiplayer
