Again I find myself reviewing a game that if given a chance by the more patient player is actually quite good, but has a major flaw relegating it back to an average overall score.
Beyond that, this a reasonably competent Pacman clone from Croatia. (Press 'I' to start the game). The game uses CURSOR key layout. Of course I'd recommend using a "keystick" emulation mode in most emulators. The game is written mostly in BASIC but does use some machine code routines. It is apparent that the system variable CHARS is POKEd on the main menu screen, so don't break out of the program at that point. (It is restored during the main game loop however).
The major problem with this game is the stilted, discrete movement of Pacman and the ghost sprites, such that it looks like you are watching a 1-frame per second CCTV footage of the game being played. All sprites move in jumps of 16 pixels at a time - this is too much. How unfortunate it is that this wasn't improved. An upgrade of this game to pixel-based movements would've made it great, although no doubt would cause it to suffer from some colour clash. It seems to me though that casual players could be put off by the "stop-frame" sprite motion.
Anyway, once you get beyond this major issue, everything else about the game is correct. The size of the maze is about right, not too big. The sprites are colourful and of the right size. The eyes on the ghosts move around with them, although to me they look like they are asleep.
The mazes have the usual bonus items such as fruit etc.. which pleasingly stack up along the bottom left of the screen as you progress from one level to the next. The ghost AI is suitable, and it's quite amusing to see the ghosts cowering in the bottom corners of the maze when a power pill is eaten. They really do look like they are trying to avoid the Pacman.
The first couple of levels start off trivially easy, but don't be fooled as later levels are more difficult due to speeding up of the ghosts, making them much more lethal later on. The difficulty curve seems pretty much spot on. I'm guessing there's an optimal route around the maze for the later levels. Sound effects are good and exactly as expected for a Pacman clone.
So, this one is a challenge for die-hard Pacman fans only. The discrete movement of the ghosts reminds me very much of the 1980's handheld LCD game "Mini Munchman". It could have been so much better though with a more advanced sprite routine.
