499 Words About: Pac-Man for Atari 2600
Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 is…a videogame. I guess.
I’ll be honest, I don’t like this game at all, because it reminds me too much of a game I actually enjoy.
But I still played it because I’m a nerd.
I’ve written about Pac-Man before and plan to write more essays about it because, honestly, I’m intellectually obsessed with Pac-Man. Since I watched Tim Roger’s Action Button Review of Pac-Man I’ve started reading books, online essays, and playing any and all versions of the game that I can get my hands on. This continual play of what is essentially the same game is illuminating to me, mostly because it shows how much aesthetic choices can dramatically alter gameplay loops, and sometimes how technology can make or break a software interface. There are plenty of versions of Pac-Man that are fun to play, and some that are not.
Pac-Man for Atari 2600…is.
What it is is difficult to say.
Like I wrote before, I don’t enjoy playing this version of Pac-Man, but I don’t believe it’s a bad version of the game, or that it offers nothing in the way of interactive entertainment. Players still control Pac-Man, however unlike the arcade game, this Pac-Man has eyes and he is not a round circle. The maze is horizontally rectangular and the edges of the walls are sharp rather than smooth. Instead of pellets there are bars, and this can cause confusion because they’re the same color as the borders of the maze. Like the original game there are four ghosts, but they are all the same color and their unique AI has been largely abandoned, and the hardware is such that they flicker in and out of existence. This becomes especially difficult when Pac-Man consumes a Power pellet, or, Power-bar? I’m not sure. The ghosts turn blue, but actually they just fade to even lighter shade. I also note the Atari’s sounds are sharp electronic clangs that have all the charm of pots crashing.
What’s most difficult is that victory is short lived. Consuming every bar immediately begins a new game with no real pause between sessions.
Whenever I’ve read reviews of Atari’s Pac-Man it’s overwhelmingly negative, and characterized as a cheap cash grab. While there’s some merit to this criticism, my intellectual approach is instead to note that it’s just different. Rather than label it purely good or bad, Atari’s Pac-Man is shifting a game from one technology to another, and I note that the superficial difference becomes second to the primary reality. Pac-Man for Atari 2600 is just different.
When I drink a cup of coffee with sugar and vanilla syrup it has a lovely taste. When I drink plain black coffee it has a sharp taste. Neither is inherently better, but I know what my preference is. Approaching restructured games I focus on those differences and try to understand what the aesthetic goal is.
Atari’s Pac-Man doesn’t fail as a game, it’s just sharper.
Not as sweet.
Different.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
7.7.2025
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