Wow, I don't think that there have ever been videos or photos of the original Crazy Otto online before besides that one blurry screenshot from Time from the '80s. Watching it in action, I kind of expected there to be more differences between this and Ms. Pac-Man -- it looks like Midway really changed very little from this version, even the intermission scenes (which I suppose was a good idea, considering how popular the game wound up being).
@ScrewAttackEurope I've talked with the president of the American Classic Arcade Museum in New Hampshire and people who actually worked on Crazy Otto, and they confirm that this is the real Crazy Otto. Again, Crazy Otto was itself a hack of the original Pac-Man, but I did find it interesting that they put these particular ROM-boards into a Ms. Pac-Man cabinet. Probably because there never was a dedicated "Crazy Otto" cabinet.
@ScrewAttackEurope Nope. The original protos did get as far as the standard field-testing phase that was common for new arcades at the time, and somehow managed to find its way into an '81 issue of "Time" magazine. From there, it didn't take long for Midway to catch wind of the game, and since Crazy Otto was already a heavily-modified version of Pac-Man, the only necessary changes were the ghosts and 'Pac' sprites to better fit the canon.
@ScrewAttackEurope GCC would move on to create Jr. Pac-Man, and Midway...sensing a gold mine when they see it...decided to expand the series past GCC's creations, including the Pac-Man cartoon and the much-despised Baby Pac-Man arcade/pinball hybrid. I'm sure you know the rest of the story from here: GCC gets angry at Midway for exploiting Ms. Pac-Man, Namco gets angry at everyone for exploiting Pac-Man as a whole...Very ugly stuff.
@ScrewAttackEurope The story goes was that Midway was getting impatient waiting for Namco to make the next Pac game (That was to be Super Pac-Man), and it just so happened that GCC was in the right place at the right time with Crazy Otto. I think Pac & Pal/Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp came after Super Pac-Man. TheGameroomBlitz will have to back me up on that one.
And you make a good point: I don't know why Midway had the Pac-Man license, but Atari was responsible for the awful 2600 port.
@ScrewAttackEurope According to Wiki, Atari handled US/Europe distribution of that one, so I'm guessing that was after the fallout with Midway. I'll have to guess that the first Pac-game distributed by Namco in the US was Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures on the SNES/Genesis.
Jess is fine, but he's insisted that he's done with video reviews. I'd love to convince him otherwise, but he's pretty much focused on his GRB site and his stint on 1up's Retronauts blog.
@ScrewAttackEurope He recently ported GORF to the GBA, but it didn't get much exposure from the classic and indie game sites. Sad, too: It really was a good port, and it deserved more than it got.
@Freakservo The reason why Midaway handled releasing Pac-man in the US was because Midway had up until the multiple unofficial Pac-sequel debacle had been liscenced by Namco to handle the US distribution of their games in the arcades in the states starting with Galaxian in 1979. Atari Corp. on the other hand only had only bought the licensing rights to make home ports for the 2600 and other systems which at the time was their main interest at that time anyway.
@ScrewAttackEurope Midway wasn't "chosen" for the Pacman license, no one else wanted it. Midway didn't want it at first, and finally then company president Stan Jarocki gave it the green light. It was even given the brush off at the1980 AMOA show. The big stir was about Defender.....
Those monsters looked like fish bowls every time an energizer was consumed.
pythonfan1 5 months ago in playlist My Vlog
Wow, I don't think that there have ever been videos or photos of the original Crazy Otto online before besides that one blurry screenshot from Time from the '80s. Watching it in action, I kind of expected there to be more differences between this and Ms. Pac-Man -- it looks like Midway really changed very little from this version, even the intermission scenes (which I suppose was a good idea, considering how popular the game wound up being).
evenmorebetter 1 year ago
Wow, is the original Crazy Otto? Or a Hack of Ms. Pac Man to the original sprites? (Like the Beta Super Mario World and Ocarina of Time Betas were)
ScrewAttackEurope 1 year ago
@ScrewAttackEurope I've talked with the president of the American Classic Arcade Museum in New Hampshire and people who actually worked on Crazy Otto, and they confirm that this is the real Crazy Otto. Again, Crazy Otto was itself a hack of the original Pac-Man, but I did find it interesting that they put these particular ROM-boards into a Ms. Pac-Man cabinet. Probably because there never was a dedicated "Crazy Otto" cabinet.
Freakservo 1 year ago
@Freakservo Interesting, so was Crazy Otto ever officially released in arcades? (Aside form testing places)
ScrewAttackEurope 1 year ago
@ScrewAttackEurope Nope. The original protos did get as far as the standard field-testing phase that was common for new arcades at the time, and somehow managed to find its way into an '81 issue of "Time" magazine. From there, it didn't take long for Midway to catch wind of the game, and since Crazy Otto was already a heavily-modified version of Pac-Man, the only necessary changes were the ghosts and 'Pac' sprites to better fit the canon.
Freakservo 1 year ago
@ScrewAttackEurope GCC would move on to create Jr. Pac-Man, and Midway...sensing a gold mine when they see it...decided to expand the series past GCC's creations, including the Pac-Man cartoon and the much-despised Baby Pac-Man arcade/pinball hybrid. I'm sure you know the rest of the story from here: GCC gets angry at Midway for exploiting Ms. Pac-Man, Namco gets angry at everyone for exploiting Pac-Man as a whole...Very ugly stuff.
Freakservo 1 year ago
@Freakservo Interesting, so the next Pac-Man game developed by Namco themselves was Pac and Pal?
But I've always wondered why Namco chose Midway for Pac-Man, when all their other titles were handled by Atari.
ScrewAttackEurope 1 year ago
@ScrewAttackEurope The story goes was that Midway was getting impatient waiting for Namco to make the next Pac game (That was to be Super Pac-Man), and it just so happened that GCC was in the right place at the right time with Crazy Otto. I think Pac & Pal/Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp came after Super Pac-Man. TheGameroomBlitz will have to back me up on that one.
And you make a good point: I don't know why Midway had the Pac-Man license, but Atari was responsible for the awful 2600 port.
Freakservo 1 year ago
@Freakservo That is interesting though, they did dump Atari after a while, Was Pacmania the first title they did on their own?
How is Jess by the way? I really miss his stuff! He was one of the greats on here!
ScrewAttackEurope 1 year ago
@ScrewAttackEurope According to Wiki, Atari handled US/Europe distribution of that one, so I'm guessing that was after the fallout with Midway. I'll have to guess that the first Pac-game distributed by Namco in the US was Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures on the SNES/Genesis.
Jess is fine, but he's insisted that he's done with video reviews. I'd love to convince him otherwise, but he's pretty much focused on his GRB site and his stint on 1up's Retronauts blog.
Freakservo 1 year ago
@ScrewAttackEurope He recently ported GORF to the GBA, but it didn't get much exposure from the classic and indie game sites. Sad, too: It really was a good port, and it deserved more than it got.
Freakservo 1 year ago
@Freakservo The reason why Midaway handled releasing Pac-man in the US was because Midway had up until the multiple unofficial Pac-sequel debacle had been liscenced by Namco to handle the US distribution of their games in the arcades in the states starting with Galaxian in 1979. Atari Corp. on the other hand only had only bought the licensing rights to make home ports for the 2600 and other systems which at the time was their main interest at that time anyway.
Evilmonkey66699 1 year ago
@ScrewAttackEurope Midway wasn't "chosen" for the Pacman license, no one else wanted it. Midway didn't want it at first, and finally then company president Stan Jarocki gave it the green light. It was even given the brush off at the1980 AMOA show. The big stir was about Defender.....
Gtrtech 1 year ago
@Gtrtech Really? Oh, if only they knew :D
ScrewAttackEurope 1 year ago