Essentially, the game was originally created as an unofficial upgrade to Pac-Man arcade games by a third party, GCC. GCC then licensed Ms. Pac-Man to Namco, with a contract stipulating that they were due royalties for any Ms. Pac-Man coin operated games, as well as any electronic distribution of Ms. Pac-Man. Namco then forgot about the contract after Ms. Pac-Man went out of production in the mid-80s, meaning that the extremely broad "electronic distribution" term was never renegotiated.
In the early 2000s, Namco started releasing Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga multigame cabinets without paying GCC's successors royalties, so they sued Namco. The arbitrator decided that "coin operated game" meant that GCC's successors were due royalties from any Ms. Pac-Man machine with a coin slot, but not machines without coin slots meant for home use. More importantly, they decided that because the contract defined "electronic distribution" as "any use in which the game is broadcast or in any other way transmitted to other receiving devices", this meant that GCC's successors were due royalites for rereleases of Ms. Pac-Man on any device with internet connectivity.
Around 2018, Namco reached out to GCC's successors in an attempt to buy out their royalty rights. Before negotiations completed, AtGames, a company that mostly focuses on rereleasing old games, significantly outbid Namco. Namco contacted AtGames saying that if AtGames didn't rescind their offer, Namco would permanently stop licensing their titles to AtGames and ensure that "there is zero income stream delivered pursuant [to the GCC] agreement".
Since that point, the only new Ms. Pac-Man rereleases have been standalone games that fall under the "not coin operated" loophole. In 2022, they delisted most existing Ms. Pac-Man rereleases, likely to cut AtGames off from receiving any Ms. Pac-Man royalties at all. Additionally, Namco has started editing the Ms. Pac-Man character out of rereleases of other Pac-Man games in favor of a new "Pac-Mom" character (likely as an attempt to reduce awareness of Ms. Pac-Man to further devalue AtGames's purchase).
I wonder if the copyright covers all female gendered Pac-Man characters?
I can't imagine the IP is so precious that consumers wouldn't accept a "pac-sis" sister in her place or some doughy-eyed infant version "pac-girl" with a pacifier and bib.
I'd have to assume such obvious derivatives are covered. But maybe not?
As much as I've never heard of, don't care about, and had no particular trust in the "Pac-Man Museum+" videogame, I am nonetheless disappointed in them for altering their history without credit or footnote. I expect more from Museum-branded shovelware.
Yeah, it seems by naming the game "Museum", they're trying to appeal to a preservation angle, but then modifying the games seems to undermine the point
FWIW, the original "museum" games by Namco (in the PSX era) were set in a virtual museum, A 3D space that you walked through in first person perspective. Each game was set in its own gallery with a bunch of paraphernalia hanging around it that you could look at and get more info about. I don't think preservation was implied, it was just a skeuomorphic display metaphor. The name stuck, even if the UI changed.
Huh. I feel like a Ms Pac-Man/Galaga multigame in the corner of a laundromat or restaurant is really the most common way for anyone to run into Pac-Man now, and yet here's Namco trying to retcon her out of existence.
I think the omnipresence of Ms. Pac-Man is a US only thing, I'm not sure the cabinet was even released elsewhere. So the most common for you and me, but not most people.
Was skiing in Maria Alm, Austria when I was a kid (~late '80s, early '90s). Hotel vis-a-vis Wilder Kaiser mountain had a Ms. Pac-Man and a Ghosts'n'Goblins cabinet.
Definitely not. The most likely place is at home or on their phone.
The most recent new Pac-Man release was in 2022. The longest gap in a release was between 1987 and 1993. Since then there has been a release every year or three. These are specifically Pac-Man titles and not games with Pac-Man in them (Mario Kart has a Pac-Man outfit you can unlock with a Pac-Man amiibo) and not including compilation software packages.
A few years ago I made a pac-man clone with unity for android where the only difference was that you controled Pac-man with your left thumb and Ms Pac-man with your right thumb, called Pac-men if I recall correctly, it was a bit frustating but the innovative mechanics was a bit of fun by itself, both could eat ghost when powered-up, the ghosts movement logic was the classic one too (so it only took into account one the first pac-man to chose paths), not much later it was taken down from the play store for trademark infrigement, in my naiveness I assumed nobody care about such thing due beign such an old game and forgot to check beforehand, boy was I wrong. I considered changed the sprites and release again with a different name/ip but lazyness took the best of me, probably wouldn't have catched anybodys atentton with some other name anyway.
I never noticed that none of the official art for Ms. Pac-Man includes her beauty mark, which is kinda key to the sprite. It's the only thing that distinguishes her from regular Pac-Man other than the bow.
Nah, Ms. Pac Man absolutely slays. Lara Croft is unnecessarily sexualized. I'm definitely going to be unbothered by the first one if we're gonna ignore the second.
Love the side and base art. It's got such a cabaret vibe. Like the ghosts were supposed to be carrying her but at the last minute they decided to switch the arms to be neutral.
> After all, this would be like if Nintendo re-released a Super Mario game and swapped out Princess Peach for a Princess Pineapple or Princess Pumpkin and just acted like it wasn’t weird.
Yeah, that'd be weird, but swapping Princess Peach for Princess Toadstool was fine?
I believe that in Mario lore they are explicitly the same character - either her name is “Peach Toadstool” (i.e. its surname and first name), or the
Princess Toadstool is a title - like how the Prince of Wales, Queen Mother, and Princess Royal are all titles in the contemporary British monarchy.
"In Japan, her name has always been Princess Peach (ピーチ姫 Pīchi-hime), but in the West, she was originally known as "Princess Toadstool", due to Nintendo of America renaming her when localizing Super Mario Bros., feeling that "Peach" was irrelevant to the theme of the Mushroom Kingdom."
Mario saves Pauline in Donkey Kong / original game, and Pauline didn't come back into mainstream Mario games until Super Mario Odyssey (2017).
Princess Toadstool / Princess Peach seem to be the same character, much like Bowser / King Koopa, or Dr. Eggman vs Dr. Robotnik. The strange changing of names over the years has happened to other characters, but I think in-game cannon is that Princess Peach truly is Princess Toadstool.
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Still, with Princess Rosalina in Super Mario Galaxy, I'd say that Mario has definitely tried the "Princess Swap" move already.
Or really... Pauline was already swapped out for Princess Toadstool.
Pauline comes back in Super Mario Odyssey as the mayor of New Donk city.
And the Super Mario Land (Gameboy) series introduced Princess Daisy as a potential love interest- she’s now a mainstay of the series and often romantically linked with Luigi.
Very much like Dr Robotnik (western) becoming Dr. Eggman (Japanese) in Sonic titles since the late 90’s. In this case Eggman is played as an offensive nickname Sonic has given Dr. Robotnik.
This strange name translation sometimes just due to misunderstanding. When they translate the hulk tv in 1960, the guy mistook the doctor meant medical doctors. I always confused why there is no medical thing involved. Then Dr strange come along. The translator thought it is a phd doctor.
Anywhere for lady name, you would expect colony will be good. But queen was translated wrongly as well. Hong Kong has a king’s road and queen’s road. The queen road is wrongly translated as king console instead queen. And the road is in the center of occupation as well, cutting thru Central. Well.
"outrage piece" or not, there's a bunch of interesting history in the article. Also, Ms. Pac man was/is a better game then Pac Man, and a more interesting character design -- It's a shame if she goes away forever.
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Essentially, the game was originally created as an unofficial upgrade to Pac-Man arcade games by a third party, GCC. GCC then licensed Ms. Pac-Man to Namco, with a contract stipulating that they were due royalties for any Ms. Pac-Man coin operated games, as well as any electronic distribution of Ms. Pac-Man. Namco then forgot about the contract after Ms. Pac-Man went out of production in the mid-80s, meaning that the extremely broad "electronic distribution" term was never renegotiated.
In the early 2000s, Namco started releasing Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga multigame cabinets without paying GCC's successors royalties, so they sued Namco. The arbitrator decided that "coin operated game" meant that GCC's successors were due royalties from any Ms. Pac-Man machine with a coin slot, but not machines without coin slots meant for home use. More importantly, they decided that because the contract defined "electronic distribution" as "any use in which the game is broadcast or in any other way transmitted to other receiving devices", this meant that GCC's successors were due royalites for rereleases of Ms. Pac-Man on any device with internet connectivity.
Around 2018, Namco reached out to GCC's successors in an attempt to buy out their royalty rights. Before negotiations completed, AtGames, a company that mostly focuses on rereleasing old games, significantly outbid Namco. Namco contacted AtGames saying that if AtGames didn't rescind their offer, Namco would permanently stop licensing their titles to AtGames and ensure that "there is zero income stream delivered pursuant [to the GCC] agreement".
Since that point, the only new Ms. Pac-Man rereleases have been standalone games that fall under the "not coin operated" loophole. In 2022, they delisted most existing Ms. Pac-Man rereleases, likely to cut AtGames off from receiving any Ms. Pac-Man royalties at all. Additionally, Namco has started editing the Ms. Pac-Man character out of rereleases of other Pac-Man games in favor of a new "Pac-Mom" character (likely as an attempt to reduce awareness of Ms. Pac-Man to further devalue AtGames's purchase).