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Ms. Pac Man was a popular video game in the 1980s, the sequel to Pac-Man. It was first released in arcade form by Midway in 1981. Many consider it better than its predecessor.

Ms. Pac-Man was originally conceived as a hack of Pac-Man called Crazy Otto, created by programmers under employ at the General Computer Corporation (GCC).

The programmers, surprised at the quality of the game they had created, showed it to Midway, Namco's American distributor of the original game. Midway had become impatient in waiting for Namco to release their next Pac-Man game (which would be Super Pac-Man), and were enthusiastic that such a game had come to their attention. They bought the rights to Crazy Otto, changed the sprites to fit the Pac-Man "universe," renamed the game Ms. Pac Man and released it into arcades.

After the game became wildly popular, Midway and GCC undertook a brief legal battle concerning royalties, but because the game was accomplished without Namco's consent, both companies eventually turned over the rights of Ms. Pac Man to the parent company, fearing a lawsuit.

The game added a few improvements over the original:

• The character controlled by the player is now Ms. Pac Man, instead of normal Pac Man
• The ghost Clyde has been replaced by Sue. (Inky, Pinky, and Blinky remain.)
• Non-deterministic artificial intelligence for the ghosts, making it harder for enthusiasts to follow set patterns through levels.
• A variety of different mazes used through the game.
• Bonus items (such as cherries and pretzels) entered the maze and bounced through it, rather than appear in a set location as in the original, making the player go out of his way to attain it.
• Brand new sound effects, including a new "death" sound and opening theme.

It was also one of the more successful of early arcade games in the female demographic, which has been attributed to Ms. Pac-Man being a girl - although the Ms. Pac-Man sprite was little more than Pac-Man with eyelashes, a bow, lipstick and a dimple.

For these various reasons, Ms. Pac Man was even more successful than the original, and can generally be found in modern arcades with greater frequency than Pac-Man.

The game featured new intermission scenes that showed the meeting and eventual marriage of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, and the birth of Junior.

External link

• Classic Gaming.com Page