I could possibly shed some light on Pac-Mania's arcade sound vs. the Genesis sound. The Arcade Pac-Mania uses the Namco System 1 arcade board which has three different sound chips: the Yamaha YM2151, the Namco C30 and two YM3012 DACs. The YM2151 or OPM is a 4-operator FM synthesizer which has eight voices, the Namco C30 is a wavetable tone generator with eight voices as well and the YM3012 is an 8-bit DAC with two voices. In the game, the OPM takes care of the music while the DAC handles sound effects. The C30 I have no clue what it's doing. It's why the music is so clear and crisp while the sound effects are a bit more crunchy. The Genesis Pac-Mania uses the Genesis sound hardware of a Yamaha YM2612 and customized Texas Instruments SN76489A. The YM2612 or OPN2 is also a 4OP FM synthesizer with six voices and the SN7 is a square wave tone generator with three tone channels and one white noise generator. The sound effects in the Genesis version sound worse because most of them use the SN7 square channels. Any PCM sound effects use the YM2612's sixth voice which can be set to a PCM DAC mode where the samples sound more crunchy and distorted. As for why the music sounds different between the two, the original Pac-Mania arcade game was composed by Junko Ozawa, Yoshito Tomuro and Yuriko Keino using basic but simple FM instruments, whereas the Genesis version was rearranged by American composer Paul Webb. While it makes sense for the sounds to be a one-on-one translation with each other since both the OPM and OPN2 are 4OP FM synth chips, American composers weren't too familiar with creating instruments with FM synthesis and Paul Webb happened to be one of them. I hope this helps better explain why the music and sounds are different in both versions. Thanks for listening to my ramblings.
Apparently the Master System version of Pac-Mania has a secret coin maze by eating every dot in the first maze but leaving the power pellets (the coin maze it just a visual thing)
I think my one complaint in this video is, during the sound design segment, you could have had a brief pause in your narration to emphasize the sounds and/or music. Then again, you play the music throughout the reviews, regardless, so it's maybe not too troubling. Anyways, fine analysis. Don't quite get what seperate Sue from the original ghost gang, if at all. Surprising version winner. Stoked for the next installment's review. I always thought that the ghosts looked like those DOTS gumdrops (which I recall having had glow-in-the-dark Halloween variants).
those DOTS are probably why i always thought they looked like gummies too lol. as for the music, yeah since i play it throughout the rest of the video i figure its not worth padding out the video to sit there and play the music, but if i have something specific to say about it i probably would do that, but that likely won't happen unless it's a soundtrack i really love
I was watching a longplay of the NES port, and it actually looks like it might be better than the Genesis port. The simplified graphics actually look a bit nicer in my opinion, and I think the camera might be zoomed out a bit. It doesn't have all of the Genesis port's options and I don't know if it has continues, but it still looks pretty solid.
Ya that port looks way better with the limited color palette for the mazes. The Genesis port seems to be based on the NES port looking at the maze colors
Great video, goes really deep with the analysis It is astonishing to me that the Genesis port looks and sounds as ugly as it does. You mentioned that the fruit graphics looked like placeholders, but I wonder if some of the other sprites were too. The Power Pellets have no shading at all, and the bottoms of the ghosts have extra black parts filled in for some reason.
i've seen it, it's a really well done mod. i was considering mentioning it in the review but i wouldn't know the first thing about applying such a mod to a genesis rom and didn't really have much to say besides "it exists" so i cut it from the script
great video, kind of interested in seeing the Arrangement Version Versus, as the only different version i can think of is the GBA version which Speedrunners use, unless you're comparing the Arcade and PSP games which are completely different games, ah well, to me Arrangement Arcade is always been my favorite game
the arrangement video will indeed be between the arcade and psp versions! while they are VERY different to the point of being almost entirely separate games, they do share the same name and a lot of the same core ideas. i view psp arrangement as somewhat of a reimagining of arcade arrangement's ideas, and that's just close enough to get the VV treatment
@@ahbeef alright then, that's fair, though there's also Arrangement+ which is just Arrangement PSP but with different visuals and music but i doubt it'll go in depth aside from a brief mention
@@ahbeef i have big nostalgia for arrangement psp so im looking forward to that one (never owned a psp but it was on ios under "Pac-Man Remix" when i was younger)
i don't think you understand what a port is. these where 2 completely different developments. one is 3d software and the other is 16bits. you can't port 3d to 16bit. that's imposable you have to make them completely deferent it's not even close to the same methods. a port is when you directly port a game form one system to the other not completely remaking a game from scratch.
As someone who’s played the genesis version of this game, the reason pacman flashes like that is because of the boost mode that you use in the options that the port has, i dunno why it does that at all but hey it’s there. And the crazy part is that this got ported to a Pac-Man MyArcade Pocket player handheld using the genesis version, and the music in that game ranges from atrocious like the original genesis port to downright earrape, especially in the last cutscene and Jungly steps.
brilliant video. i never realized how weird the genesis port of this game really was. i also personally rly like the jungly steps theme as i feel its ominous tone fits well, tho the loud bell-type instrument things make it somewhat unpleasant to listen to so i understand not liking it. also, i swear to god i have jumped over spunky before in some of my sessions of playing this game. its rly rly difficult but its possible, i swear. (most of those were on the gba port im pretty sure so maybe thats an innaccuracy of that port)
I remember going to the arcade and finding this cabinet set off to the side. It was off and I had no idea what the game looked like but seeing the six ghosts on the cabinet made me want to see what it was all about so bad. Years later I got Namco Museum Vol. 5 on PS1 and finally got to play it lol
I disagree with the outcome of this comparison. Tengen may have an options menu for difficulty, but something you forgot to bring up is that the arcade version actually does have an options menu. If you enable the service mode dip switch, you have the ability to change the minimum score requirement for a 1up, enable or disable the level select, change continue settings, the amount of lives you start out with, and even a difficulty option for the ghost to easy, normal, hard, and crazy. The only option the genesis version has over the original is the pacbooster, so I feel like those extra points you gave the Genesis version weren't deserved. Also, I think a reason why you have such a hard time dealing with the ghosts in the arcade version is because for some reason the US version is on hard mode by default, while the Japanese version is set to normal. Other than that Id say this is a great comparison between the versions. EDIT June 24th, 2024: When I wrote this I completely brushed aside the Genesis version due to the inferior presentation, but 6 months later my tune has changed slightly. I definitely still prefer the arcade version, but I can now say I'm absolutely in love with the Genesis port. The Pac-Booster may be a little OP but it makes the game so much more addicting.
yeah, i didn't know any of that about the dip switches. lots of arcade games seem to have these customizable options but theyre hidden away in a very unintuitive way and the vast majority of (at least commercial) arcade emulations dont bother to include options for them, so i just wasn't aware of all these different options for pac-mania. that would explain why Museum+'s version of this game doesn't have continues despite it being default in both the NA and JP versions. thanks for the comment! regardless though, i still stand by my slight preference for the genesis version if for no other reason than the pac booster. without it, i just find the arcade version to be really slow and boring, specifically in the early game.
@@ahbeef Fair enough, It's too bad there isn't a truly definitive version of this game, as this is my personal favorite Pac-Man game ever. All the ports have way worse presentation, the emulated ports aren't as customizable (and occasionally have minor glitches), and the regional differences of the arcade originals have almost equal pros and cons which means even between the two original releases there isn't a definitive version!
agreed. while i gave tengen pac-mania the win in the video, it's still definitely not an ideal experience given all the issues, especially the graphics and music. a fan recreation with plenty of customization options could really do wonders for modernizing this game and making it truly timeless
@@ahbeefHey here's an update 6 months later, the genesis version has definitely grown on me a lot more since, so I definitely see where you're coming from now haha. I wonder how the other Pac-Mania ports compare to these two. 🤔
I prefer genesis version The music is good Ans because have the boost and you can choose the dificult Others versions you can't start the game with this high speed(hard+boost)
i thought that this video was going to feature the hack that makes the graphics of the MD/Genesis version pretty much just like the arcade, thus making that home version even better.
i was aware of the hack but felt like the video was already long enough as is and i didn't really know the first thing about genesis rom patching anyway so i left it out. in hindsight i probably should have at least mentioned it
@@ahbeef yeah i would've been happy with just a mention. it's still a good video though. by the way, i first heard of you because of EPG's Pac-Man World video, but i never checked your channel until now. i'm honestly glad i did. your reviews did teach me more about these games.
Another great video with deep analysis ahbeef! I remember that I first started playing a home version of Pac-Mania from Tengen for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) back in 1991 and frankly, that version looked pretty whack to say the least. The music and the graphics of that version looked weak and choppy. The home version that I play now on the Super Pac-Man Partycade and the Legacy Cabinets for both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are like the original arcade version but without "pixel smoothing," which tries to make the games look like the originals played on a classic CRT but instead, looked blurry and greased up. With "pixel smoothing" turned off, the game looks very clear and playable.
i haven't played the arcade archives version, but given the experience ive had with other arcade archives releases, it's probably fine, but you'd get a better experience emulating on PC anyway
I'm curious how the Version Versus on Pac-Man Arrangement is gonna go, since to my knowledge, there's really not any notable differences in the GBA port. Just a lack of multiplayer and a zoomed-in camera.
@@ahbeef Ohhh. Pretty different from the other Version Versus videos I've seen, since they're really not different versions of the same game, but rather, two completely separate games. It's like doing a VV on Sonic 1 and Sonic 06 because they both have the same name. But if you are doing that, will you also cover Pac-Man Arrangement Plus from the Japan-exclusive Namco Museum Vol. 2 on PSP (not to be confused with the PS1 game)?
i wouldn't really count sonic 06 since its intended to be a reboot, but in the case of arrangement 05 it very clearly shares a similar DNA aside from just the name, even though there are a lot of differences, so i figured it was worth the comparison. and yes, arrangement+ is factored into the comparison!
