Arcade Gold featuring Pac-Man

Arcade Gold featuring Pac-Man is a "plug & play" game compilation featuring eight Namco arcade titles. It was developed by HotGen and released by Jakks Pacific in 2007 under the "Plug it in & Play TV Games" brand. It is officially considered "Edition 4" of the Pac-Man plug & play series; it is the successor to the Super Pac-Man Collection plug & play, and would be followed by Retro Arcade featuring Pac-Man.
== Overview ==
The Arcade Gold featuring Pac-Man console features a circular, yellow and black-colored base with a molded Pac-Man and three 8-bit Ghosts. It features a red joystick and a green fire button; a faux-coin slot appears on the front of the unit. This console is based on Sunplus hardware, as is the case for the majority of Jakks Pacific plug & play systems. The player's high scores are saved into memory, and can be erased from the game selection menu.
== Games ==
Arcade Gold featuring Pac-Man's game list is effectively a combination between the titles seen on the first Pac-Man plug & play and the Super Pac-Man Collection (while swapping Rally-X for New Rally-X). As such, it includes the following eight games:
*Pac-Man (1980)
*Pac-Man Plus (1982)
*Super Pac-Man (1982)
*Pac & Pal (1983)
*Galaxian (1979)
*New Rally-X (1981)
*Bosconian (1981)
*Dig Dug (1982)
The game ports were developed by HotGen Limited, and are closely modeled after their arcade counterparts. All games feature close approximations of the original graphics and sound effects, though some of the games have their sound pitched an octave higher or lower (depending on the title). Several of the games have their life indicators and scoring information moved to the righthand side of the screen. The player can pause and/or exit out to the game selection screen mid-game by pressing the "Menu" button.
The included Pac-Man titles are identical in performance to the versions seen on the Super Pac-Man Collection system. New Rally-X, Bosconian, and Dig Dug are based on the versions previously released in certain Ms. Pac-Man plug & play variants, with the latter two having audio improvements over the Ms. Pac-Man releases. Galaxian is a newly-created port for this plug & play.
== Trivia ==
*A prerelease image of Arcade Gold featuring Pac-Man uses a slightly different (though conceptually similar) design compared to the final product. This version features a larger molded Pac-Man that extends off of the rounded base, and only shows two ghosts instead of three.
*Unlike prior Pac-Man plug & plays, all included games have their copyright notices removed; with plain text stating the games' titles in place of the copyright strings. Legal information credited to Namco Bandai Games is still present within the opening splash screens.
*The Sunplus-based plug & play port of Pac-Man is connected in code to a port of Ms. Pac-Man; however, Ms. Pac-Man is not natively accessible on any Pac-Man-branded system (or vice-versa). The games can be switched between each other (on a technical level) via a one-byte code change.https://tcrf.net/Ms._Pac-Man_Collectionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzWtTwsDhL0
*As with many Jakks Pacific plug & plays, a Debug Mode can be accessed by entering a command on the copyright splash screen (hold Up, press and hold A, release Up, and press Down). This mode includes (in order) a hardware test mode, a save data test, a color test mode, a music test mode, and a "Pac-Man" color test (featuring rows of Ghosts).
**The music test mode notably allows the user to play nearly the entire sound sets of the included games, featuring all music tracks and sound effects (including those of the unused Ms. Pac-Man game).
*The front of the console's packaging labels it as featuring Rally-X instead of New Rally-X. While presumably done in error, this further suggests that the Arcade Gold release was intended to act as a "combination" of the Pac-Man and Super Pac-Man plug & play titles.
*This is the only Jakks Pacific Pac-Man release to not have at least one alternate SKU variant.
== Gallery ==
Jakks-loose-arcade-gold-featuring-pacman.jpg|Original console, loose.
== References ==
Category:Games
Category:Compilations
Category:Consoles
Category:Merchandise