Celebrating National Video Games Day - Quarter Arcades Ms. Pac-Man (2020)

I sometimes quip that anyone can call anything a "National Day" at any time, and it becomes so. While I definitely don't take these so-called "holidays" very seriously, they do at least provide excuses to feature relevant items here from time to time. Thus, when I learned that September 12th is "National Video Games Day" (note the plural, as at least one source suggests that the singular "National Video Game Day" is July 8th, just in case you needed another reason to recognize how silly this stuff is), and apparently has been since at least 1997, I decided that this was a good time to feature my favorite video game, Ms. Pac-Man (strangely, for the first time ever on this blog).

First, a bit of history. After Pac-Man became a massive hit in 1980, Midway (the American company who licensed and distributed the games domestically for Japanese creator Namco) was eager for a sequel. This sequel came through programmers at General Computer Corporation, hired by Midway without Namco's initial consent. This led to some issues between Namco and Midway in later years, but Namco was able to arrange for the same royalty payments on Ms. Pac-Man as they had for her predecessor, and they have since been happy to accept Ms. Pac-Man, released in 1982, as a true part of the franchise... with a caveat we'll get to later.

Ms. Pac-Man takes the basic Pac-Man formula and adds multiple mazes, harder-to-predict enemies, moving bonus items, and makes for an all-around more engaging play experience. I'm particularly fond of cabinets that incorporate a speedup, whereby the entire game moves much faster than standard Pac-Man, but this option was apparently a hack never actually licensed by Midway or Namco.

The cabinet you see here (alongside God Ginrai, for scale reference) is part of Numskull's "Quarter Arcades" line which, as the name implies, is a one-quarter scale replica of the original Ms. Pac-Man cabinet, utilizing the original arcade ROMs to replicate an authentic experience as closely as possible. Standing over 16 inches tall, its controls are easily playable, but I find the size a bit unwieldy to keep on display for any extended period of time, so it sadly stays in storage more often than not. Unfortunately, Numskull no longer has Ms. Pac-Man units available, though you might be interested in some of their other "Quarter Arcades," available through their web site.

For many years, it was possible to buy modern playable versions of Ms. Pac-Man through a variety of means. Sadly, this is not currently the case. Long story short, General Computer Company retained royalty rights to Ms. Pac-Man after settling a legal battle with Midway back in the mid-1980s, while Namco otherwise owns the Ms. Pac-Man intellectual property. GCC's royalty rights were later acquired by AtGames (a company that makes home-playable classic arcade games in a variety of formats), but when AtGames then attempted to market Ms. Pac-Man games, Namco sued them (again, Namco is still the actual rightsholder to the game), and although the case was settled in 2020 (undisclosed terms), Ms. Pac-Man has been quietly removed from availability ever since. The character of Ms. Pac-Man, herself, has similarly been erased, often replaced by a stand-in named "Pac-Mom," apparently to avoid infringing upon whatever rights AtGames still possesses (and, thus, to avoid paying any royalty money to them). It really is a pity, because Ms. Pac-Man is easily one of the best games, if not in fact the best, in the entire franchise. Thankfully, over the span of nearly 40 years worth of old cabinets, cartridges, and other variations, there are plenty of ways to play this game still out there. Have fun!