Ms. Pac-Man Imitations

Considering she started life as a hack of her partner's arcade game, really Ms. Pac-Man herself is an imitation. What imitates the original, also imitates an imitation. Got that?

Hangly Man - Bootleg versions of arcade Pac-Man abounded after the game became a runaway success. Many were simply Pac-Man without proper licensing, but a few actually introduced new ways to play the game. One of the better known bootlegs, Hangly Man, actually warrants its own Games of Atari entry.

K.C. Munchkin - This title for the Magnavox Odyssey2 has a few differences in gameplay, namely, you only get one life and the dots move around the maze. Still, the games are similar enough that Atari sued to have K.C. Munchkin pulled from store shelves.

Jawbreaker - Lots of candy dots to eat, playmates roaming around trying to tag you out, and a maze that looks rather familiar when turned sideways. Sure enough, Atari's lawyers went after this one too. Interestingly enough, however, Atari didn't win this time, and publisher Sierra was allowed to continue selling the game.

Munch Man - While Atari published a version of Pac-Man for the TI-99/4a, Texas Instruments also offered their own knock-off of the game. Instead of dots to eat, the title character appears to lay a trail as he munches through the pathways of the maze. Perhaps this was enough to stay under the radar of the Atari lawyers, who left T.I. alone even while pursuing other companies for infringement.

Taxman - This Apple II release is Pac-Man in all but name only. So obvious is the translation that when Atari's lawyers came calling, Atari decided to accept the source code as part of a settlement, and then re-released it as a bona-fide Pac-Man!

Super Taxman 2 - Not content to sit back while another company made money off their code, the makers of Taxman came back with a new game. This effort isn't quite the dead ringer for Pac-Man that the last one was, but its inspiration is still unmistakeable.

Pesco - As "homebrewing" for the Atari 2600 became popular at the turn of the 21st century, many enthusiasts decided they could produce a Pac-Man that was far better than Atari's official release. Most of these efforts started with hacks of existing games, such as Ms. Pac-Man. Eric Bacher of Ebivision, however, created a Pac-Man port completely from scratch. His version is considered to be one of the best by those who have played it, but it has never been openly released. Instead, Ebivision offered Pesco, a slightly different game based on the same code. Interestingly, Pesco was later hacked into yet another Pac-Man clone called Hack 'Em. See the Games of Atari entries for both Pesco and Hack 'Em for more on the story.