One of the strangest arcade games there ever was

[Misery]

Today I have something extra bizarre for you.

You probably know Pac-man, right? You may have also heard about Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man, and even perhaps Professor Pac-Man (which was a quiz game, actually).

But... how about Baby Pac-Man?

The weirdest game in the entire franchise, this is an unusual combination of video game and pinball. Note that this is an actual, physical table that existed in arcades; what I'm playing here is basically an emulator that recreates actual tables. I've seen the actual physical table of this before, but that was like 28 years ago... I'd long wondered if I'd just imagined the bloody thing. But I finally found it, and managed to get a rom & table file for it.

Took forever to get the emulator to work, but I got it.

This video will seem a bit choppy at times, but that's not the emulator, it's something with the recording software. When I'm playing it, it's very smooth. Have a look:

To explain how it works: Most of the points you score are purely in the video mode; it is hard to score on the pinball table itself. But, the maze starts out with zero Power Pellets, and a brutal layout that means it is incredibly risky to try for the upper half of the maze if there are none of them on the board.

So, you use those tunnels at the bottom to drop down into the pinball table, and in there, you basically try to earn the power pellets, which spawns them into the maze when you go back in. You earn those by using that long row of drop targets at the top, which lights up the stuff in the middle. You get back into the maze in one of two ways: either get into one of those holes when they are flashing (there is one on each side), or by draining the ball. If you get back into the maze by draining, the exits on the bottom will lock. If that happens, you either beat the maze right now, bringing you to a new maze with the gates opened, or you lose a life. If you entered via one of the holes, one of the gates will always be open for you to escape to the table again. Run out of lives in the video mode and it's game over.

There's a bit more to it than that but I've not quite got the table rules entirely figured out just yet. It is an exceedingly difficult table... absurdly fast with a lot of very risky and difficult shots. I *do* in fact know what I'm doing when it comes to pinball and my skill level is pretty high, but even I think this table is stupidly hard. The table did not do very well back when it was actually out, and is remembered by very few... I suspect the extreme difficulty is a big part of why that is.

Anyway, I was just super excited to finally get my hands on this. Pinball has become one of my major interests (seriously I have SO FREAKING MUCH OF IT on this computer), and THIS table is practically the holy grail as far as I'm concerned.

So there it is! Baby Freakin' Pac-Man. Wild ride, I tell ya.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

There’s also that rumored mysterious arcade game Polybius which is an urban legend. A lot of people think it’s just a fictional game but then the photos of an arcade cabinet with the name Polybius makes it seem slightly plausible. There was also this arcade game that literally broke players’ hands because the pad you punch for gameplay had a solid metal backing that would get hit if the pad was worn out.

 

[tkcartoonist]

Polybius was debunked a while ago. The "newspaper accounts" that mention it don't exist, plus the "photographic evidence" has too many Photoshop inconsistencies to be real. A guy on Youtube called Ahoy did a video on the subject quite a few years ago.

 

[Misery]

Polybius was debunked a while ago. The "newspaper accounts" that mention it don't exist, plus the "photographic evidence" has too many Photoshop inconsistencies to be real. A guy on Youtube called Ahoy did a video on the subject quite a few years ago.

Not to mention that it's very, very easy to literally build that very cabinet. Heck, plenty have already done so. Not for the purpose of owning an "actual" polybius cabinet, but moreso as a "skin" for their multicade setup. Seen plenty of photos of people who have done that. Heck, sounds like something I'd do.

Also yes I'd recommend Ahoy's video about it to anyone who might be interested in the Polybius story.

On a side note, a game with the name Polybius does now exist. You can find it on Steam. A wild VR game, I've done some video footage of it.

 

[Darkkin]

It is not an arcade game, but parts of Aladdin on SNES were a little trippy. e.g. The levels in Genie's lamp when you had to jump onto his moving tongues...

 

[Richelle-H]

Because pinball came up early on and the fact I used to have a great deal of fun playing a good pinball game, I thought I would share something.

Back in 2000, I took the ferry across the Bass Strait from Melbourne to Tasmania. The Ferry had a game room and the game room had a single quarter Pinball machine. Due to the nature of the currents in the strait, the ferry can roll from side to side so that if you are walking from one side of the ship to the other, you can be climbing up hill one moment and trying to keep from running down hill the next. This created an interesting dynamic in the pinball machine.

The ball would sometimes roll upward, sometimes downward, and sometimes stop dead in the middle of the game area, all without the possibility of a tilt. I played the game for over an hour on the same quarter and finally walked away from multiple free games that I had earned while playing. Best pinball game ever and technically I was not cheating!

 

[tkcartoonist]

I think someone at IREM was doing some hardcore psychedelics when they came up with this game.

 

[Darkkin]

This...