Hello, I'm interested in running this game a bit, currently doing some IL attempts. Quick question however. What is the difference between the American and Japanese Arcade Versions, and why do those differences require the need of making separate categories?
Thank you in advance.
Hi. There's a few differences between the U.S. and JPN versions, but only one makes it significant enough to separate them.
To start off, there's 3 different Japanese roms, which are Japan older, Japan old and Japan new. As their titles suggest, they're most likely different revisions of the game.
The significant difference that all the Japanese versions share compared to U.S. is Pac-Man's running speed and falling speed. Pac-Man sprints at a slower speed, and he is more floaty since his falling speed is low. Therefore, the Japanese versions are slower to run, so U.S. has the advantage. One minor difference is a graphical one. In U.S., Pac-Man has human-looking eyes much like the TV show, while Japan retains his black, retro Pac-Man eyes.
In terms of individual differences between the Japanese versions, Japan older and Japan old don't appear to have much of a difference, but Japan new contains the level select in the beginning of the game just like the U.S., but the other Japanese versions do not. Interestingly, Japan new also has scores under each level of the level select, whereas U.S. does not.
Hope this summarizes the overall differences between each version. There may be some other minor ones, but the most important is the reduced running and falling speed. But the Japanese category is there nonetheless for those who want to run it without having to compete with the faster U.S. runs.
Hello LivinLikeLoca. I just submitted a run for the game, however, I am only able to select TG16 in the platform section. I am not able to select TG16 in the category. Any help is much appreciated.
Hey LattMackey. I added TG-16 as a subcategory alongside with "Arcade" and "NES." So your run will be under there. Since the Arcade and NES versions are more "approachable" and more likely to be used, they were the only subcategories for the time being. Additionally, the TG-16 version had cutscenes which the others do not. Therefore, it's sufficient enough to make it a subcategory. Platforms like Amiga and C64 may also get their own as well if people submit them. If so, I'll see how the leaderboards will be arranged with that much variety of platforms. For now, the only ones are the Arcade (US and JP), NES, and TG-16. Good luck with future runs.
Thank you! As you've probably noticed, a lot of improvement to be made, but, glad to finally submit a run to the category.
