Japanese VIC-1001 cartridges Pac Man and Avenger

[ka20]

I recently picked up a some Japanese cartridges intended for the VIC-1001. I was surprised by the minimilist packaging that Commodore used for these. Especially for a hit game like like Pac Man, you would think they would want to promote the thing by putting it in a box that stands out. It’s even a pretty decent version of Pac Man at that (Commodore released it as Jelly Monsters in other parts of the world).

[Mayhem]

Welcome

Great pickups there... if you consider selling them, I'd definitely be VERY interested in purchasing them. And if not, think of me if you find Pac-Man, Rally-X or Galaxian in your travels heh. Do you have any other Japanese VIC-1001 carts? I have the computer (bought about 9 years ago) but none of the official Vic-1001 carts yet... I live in hope heh.

And yes, Commodore tried to release Pac-Man as Jelly Monsters in Europe, but Atari (who had the home rights) threatened them with legal action, and the game was withdrawn. It was actually Commodore UK that the action was taken against, and with that piece of information, maybe not surprising that the UK is the best place to try and find a copy of Jelly Monsters. I'm not even sure it made the US, as you rarely see the game being sold from that location on eBay.

[highinfidelity]

I completely ignored that there was a true Commodore Pac-Man cartridge for the VIC, as they had their clone named Cosmic Cruncher and I thought that was their "best option available" for this game, basically.

Is this game identical to the one released by Atarisoft for the VIC20?

[Mayhem]

Is this game identical to the one released by Atarisoft for the VIC20?

No, it's the same as Jelly Monsters. Atarisoft Pac-Man is a different game.

[ral-clan]

Thanks for posting those photos. I had never seen the VIC-1001 cartridge packaging before.

[Boray]

Seems the amiga logo was an old Commodore design then...

[ral-clan]

It's interesting that there's no actual Japanese on the box exterior - even though these were almost exclusively sold in Japan.

[ral-clan]

Thanks for posting those pictures. I had never seen the Japanese VIC-1001 cartridge packaging before.

[orion70]

I've always been fascinated by the "serious" side of the VIC. Some brochures and early ads were advertising it as a home and business machine, with games as an alternative diversion. It's nice to imagine how all the hardware and software packages would have looked like if they were marketed with this "Japanese engineer" style. Also, the "big V" is very nice. Maybe they didn't use it in the West because of another, more mainstream, "V"

[ral-clan]

Well, Commodore did sell some of its utility (brown case, metal label) Cartridges in North America with the "V" or "lightning bolt" design, as I like to call it.

I wonder --- if the VIC-20 had 40 or even 80 columns natively, would it have been a competitive business machine - i.e. on the level of the Apple II? I think the 22 column screen, while making it affordable for the home, was what prevented it from ever being taken seriously as a productivity machine.

It's interesting, because really, in many other respects it was as capable as the Apple II (6502, real keyboard, much more affordable, disk drive) or more-so (colour, more sound voices, true lower case).

Perhaps Commodore should have marketed a VIC-20H (for the home) which would have been what we actually got, and a VIC-20B (business machine with 80 columns and 16K, perhaps only monochrome) at a slightly higher price point for the productivity user.

But I suppose the PET was really the VIC-20B.

[Jeff-20]

I know it's just Cosmic Cruncher, but I would love to see screenshots or video of the Pac-Man game.

[Mayhem]

It's Jelly Monsters Jeff heh, same code

[ral-clan]

It's kind of interesting that a major company thought it could just use the name Pac-Man and copy the arcade game-play accurately (for the time) without any repercussion.

As far as I know, the only arcade license Commodore had was with Bally/Midway.

[Mayhem]

No, I believe it has been revealed that Commodore did sign a licence with Namco for Pac-Man, Galaxian and Rally-X. But it only applied to Japan, which is why it came unstuck when trying to release the games in the West. Hence the name changes.

[Jeff-20]

It's Jelly Monsters Jeff heh, same code

Yeah, Jelly Monsters. But I thought it had different title text. EDIT: Now that I look, Jelly Monsters had no text. haha