How to play Ms. Pac-Man online
- Steer Ms. Pac-Man: arrow keys
- Skill level (starting fruit): – (the keypad * key) on the selection screen
- One or two players: = (the keypad # key) on the selection screen
- Start: Enter
- Pause and resume: P; press P and then Enter to start a new game at the same level
- Player 2 (alternating turns): I J K L
- Full screen, save states: the emulator toolbar
No fire button is needed.
Gameplay
Clear every dot from the maze while four ghosts chase you. Dots are worth 10 points each and the four energy pills 50; eat a pill and the ghosts turn blue for a few seconds, when you can eat them for 200, 400, 800 and 1,600 points in turn. Shortly before the pill wears off the ghosts flash and the music changes, which is your cue to stop chasing. Fruit appears twice on every screen and bounces around the maze rather than sitting still.
You start with five lives and get one more at 10,000 points. Clear a maze and you move up to the next level automatically. Three short cartoon intermissions break up the game: after Strawberry, after Apple, and after the random-fruit maze has been cleared twice, when the stork pays a visit. The game ends when the last life is gone.
Skill levels and mazes
On the selection screen the * key steps through eight starting levels, each named after its fruit. Teddy Bear is the easiest; Cherries matches the arcade machine’s difficulty. After Banana the fruit is picked at random and the game keeps getting harder. There are four mazes. Maze 1, the easiest, is used for Teddy Bear, Cherries and Strawberry. Maze 2 serves Orange, Pretzel and Apple. Maze 3 is the hardest; it is used for Pear, Banana and the first two random-fruit levels, after which it alternates with the easier Maze 4.
| Level / fruit | Points |
|---|---|
| Teddy Bear | 50 |
| Cherries | 100 |
| Strawberry | 200 |
| Orange | 500 |
| Pretzel | 700 |
| Apple | 1,000 |
| Pear | 2,000 |
| Banana | 5,000 |
Tips
- Wait by the pill. Hover next to an energy pill until the ghosts are close, then eat it and turn on them while they are bunched up.
- Know the tunnels. Each maze has its own escape routes, and ghosts move more slowly inside a tunnel.
- Run on cleared paths. Eating dots slows her down, so when a ghost is behind you, use a corridor you have already emptied.
The story behind Ms. Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man began as Crazy Otto, an enhancement kit for Pac-Man machines built by programmers at General Computer Corporation (GCC). A legal settlement with Atari stopped GCC selling such kits without the original maker’s consent, so the company showed its game to Midway, which bought it and released it as Ms. Pac-Man in early 1982. Four mazes, fruit that moves and less predictable ghosts made it a hit; trade papers listed it as the top-earning arcade game of 1982.
Atari’s home versions were also written at GCC. AtariProtos credits the 5200 cartridge, model CX5243, to Allen Wells and Steve Szymanski, with a final build dated 13 May 1983; Atari released it in September 1983, seven months after the Atari 2600 cartridge. Computer Games magazine felt the 5200 and IBM PC versions suffered from their machines’ limitations but were enjoyable all the same. AtariProtos calls it a pretty good conversion that plays a little slowly next to the 2600 and 7800 versions, with chunky ghosts. Both the 2600 and 7800 versions are on this site.
