Munchman (tabletop electronic game)
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Munchman is a tabletop electronic game that was released under license in 1981[1] in the UK by Grandstand. It is a rebadged version of the Tomy game known as Pac Man in the US and Puck Man in Japan.[2][3]
Overview
The game is based on Namco's Pac-Man arcade game with obvious limitations due to the relative simplicity of the technology found in typical portable electronic games of the time. The game has a distinctive visual style due to its unique circular shiny yellow casing.
Hardware
The game runs on six volts DC and can be powered by four 'C' type batteries or alternatively via a low voltage mains adaptor. The display is based on VFD technology, allowing bright, multicoloured in-game elements to be rendered on a relatively small screen area. The VFD display is manufactured with the pre-formed, immutable in-game objects effectively fixed in place onto a dark background. Each element can be individually lit or unlit during play, giving the illusion of animation and movement. Although, in-game objects cannot touch or superimpose one another.
Gameplay
As with most Pac-Man derived games, the player must guide the Pac-Man character around the maze, eating all the dots whilst avoiding the ghosts. Notable features of this version are that the maze is small, containing only eighteen dots plus two power pills.[2] Also, dots are only eaten if the player happens to move over them from right to left. There is a bonus cherry item sometimes available near the centre of the maze and horizontal warp tunnels can also be used by the player. The score is kept at the top of the display area, above the maze.