Professor Pac-Man
| Professor Pac-Man | |
|---|---|
Arcade flyer (1983)
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| Developer(s) | Bally Midway |
| Publisher(s) | Bally Midway |
| Designer(s) | Rick Frankel |
| Composer(s) | Marc Canter |
| Series | Pac-Man |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Quiz |
| Mode(s) | 2 players can play simultaneously |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | Midway Astrocade |
| CPU | 1x ZiLOG Z80 @ 1.789773 MHz |
| Sound | 2x Astrocade @ 1.789773 MHz |
| Display | Horizontal orientation, Raster, 304 x 224 resolution |
Professor Pac-Man is a quiz arcade game that was produced by Bally Midway and is the seventh title in the Pac-Man series of games, which was released in August 1983. Like Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man Plus, Baby Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, it was created without authorization of Namco, who are the original creators of the Pac-Man series. It is also the last of only seven games from Bally Midway Manufacturing to run on their Midway Astrocade hardware.
Designed to capitalize on the perceived quiz game niche, Professor Pac-Man presented simple visual puzzles, and required the players (or "pupils", as they are called by the game) to solve each within a short time limit. Despite the game's usage of Namco's ever- popular Pac-Man character, Professor Pac-Man did not fare very well in the arcades, due to its slow pace and its abandonment of the famous maze-based gameplay that made the previous titles so popular (except Pac & Pal which never made it to the US).
The game is for one player or two (in a two-player game, the player who is the first to answer a question correctly receives its points) and consists of answering multiple-choice questions before the time runs out. The timer is the original Pac-Man, eating a row of pellets. The more pellets left when the players answer correctly, the higher the scores awarded. As the questions progress, Pac-Man eats the pellets more quickly. Bonus questions are awarded after a player answers between two and six questions correctly on his or her first try. The game ends when a player runs out of fruits (the game's equivalent of lives, which also serve as a difficulty indicator). Midway had also originally planned to release three different versions of this game: Family (appropriate for all ages, but geared towards younger players), Public (appropriate for general audiences, but geared towards arcades and bars), and Prizes (for casinos).
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