Ms. Pac-Man
1981 · Maze · Arcade
Overview
Ms. Pac-Man (1981) grew from a Pac-Man enhancement kit into Midway's best-selling game, with four mazes, moving fruit and less predictable ghosts.
Deep Dive
Ms. Pac-Man began as Crazy Otto, an enhancement kit for Pac-Man made by the team at General Computer Corporation, which Midway licensed and released officially. It keeps the original's pellets and power pills but rotates through four different mazes, sends bonus fruit bouncing around the board, and gives the ghosts more varied behaviour so fixed patterns work less reliably. It outsold Pac-Man in North America, and many players consider it the better game.
Developer Story
Ms. Pac-Man began as an unauthorised enhancement kit called Crazy Otto, developed by a group of MIT students at General Computer Corporation. Midway licensed it from them when they discovered it in 1981, and worked with Namco to release it officially. The game featured maze variations, faster gameplay, moving fruit, and semi-random ghost behaviour — improvements so significant that many players and designers prefer it to the original.
Did You Know?
- Ms. Pac-Man was originally an unauthorised hack called "Crazy Otto" created by MIT students — Midway discovered it and licensed it rather than filing a lawsuit.
- The ghost AI was made more random than in the original Pac-Man, making the game less amenable to pattern memorisation.
- Four different maze layouts appear as the game progresses — a major improvement over the original's single maze.
- Fruit bounces around the maze rather than appearing in a fixed location, forcing players to chase it at their own risk.
- Ms. Pac-Man outsold the original Pac-Man in North America, making it Midway's best-selling game despite being a modification of another company's IP.
Sources & further reading
- Ms. Pac-Man — Wikipedia
