Review by p13z on 01 Apr 2012 (Rating: 5)
There are only a handful of arcade conversions, over the entire history of the Spectrum, which could come close to being described as 'arcade perfect'. 30 years on, Simon Owen delivers a perfect rendition of one of the greatest and most iconic coin-op games ever.
As the name suggests, this game works by interpreting the original Namco ROM from the arcade cab. So it is effectively using the Spectrum ( +2a / +3 only ) as an arcade cab emulator. You have the option of running in monochrome or colour, where there is slight, but ignorable, attribute clash. The audio is spot on, and the speed / feel of the game is indistinguishable from the arcade machine.
An epic technical and artistic achievement, which shares the superb playability of the Namco classic. This can only be awarded a 5.
Have to agree with p13z's review. It's an amazing thing to see essentially the original pacman arcade-cabinet ROMs running on the ZX Spectrum (+2A/+3) platform.
With user-switchable colour emulation available now too, the game as far as playability is concerned is 100% completely intact.
I have played the original game for many years in MAME, but for me there's a lot to be said for having the ability to play this under speccy emulation too. Perhaps it's simply because of my greater familiarity with speccy snapshot formats and use of POKEs etc... This gives me some more scope to mess around with the game, for the sheer fun of it.
Also this really is the final word on how good a pacman game can be on the speccy. Makes me wonder what other Z80-based arcade classics could also be given similar treatment?
Definitely worth checking out, but even if not for the technical admiration, then simply for the timeless, outstanding game-play.
