The Namco Legendary Pack is out for Atari 50. Puck-Man is back
Another module has been added to the Atari 50: Anniversary Collection. The Namco Legendary Pack became available on the 13th. Namco and Atari are back together again. But they're just friends.
Pac-Man, Galaxian, Galaga, Dig Dug, and Xevious, are all now available as part of the DLC, with an entire interactive module talking about the beginnings of the Atari-Namco. Full of flyers, artwork, and interviews, the module contains more information than you thought you would ever need. It is, however, centered around one of the best selling titles of the the Atari 2600's history, and that is Pac-Man.
I learned that Namco is the short version of Nakamura Manufacturing Company. They used to make ride on horses for supermarkets, and Masaya Nakamura used to polish and repair those himself. Namco helped Atari get noticed in Japan. They then bought, and ran the Japanese division of Atari after a few hits after they manufactured Breakout and Pong Arcade machines. All this was before Puck-Man was available in Japan. Galaxian was actually before the Pac-Man arcade game, and it wasn't until two years later we would see Pac-Man at home for the states.
Tod Frye, the developer of Pac-Man VCS talks a lot about his process in porting this game over to the Atari 2600. He talks about how he had limitations, obviously. He speaks on not using the black screen background, how he killed the argument about the flicker with the ghosts, and what royalties he saw from the sale of 8 million copies.
The ear wax that is Pac-Man for the 2600 is readily available, whether you go through the module or not. Pac-Man is also available for the 5200, and the Atari 800 for this compilation. Sadly, there is no arcade version. Also left out of the arcade version are both Galaxian and its sequel, Galaga. There are versions of these games for the 2600, 5200, and 7800, but that's where it stops. There are arcade versions of Xevious, and Dig Dug, and yes, Dig Dug is just as addictive.
You can download the add on for $7.99USD. If you haven't added any of the modules to Atari 50, there's a DLC bundle for them all for a little over $20 USD, or buy the game with DLC for $50 USD. It's not a bad compilation at all, and the games that come with span all the way to the Atari Jaguar. I absolutely loved it in my review, even though it left me wanting more. I'm puzzled on why Galaga, Galaxian and Pac-Man arcade versions aren't here, but I guess I can't have it all. I'll just fire up the Arcade 1up, and try to beat my own high scores, but that also means all my plans are cancelled for the evening.
