Platform: Arcade
Region: NTSC-U
Country: United States of America
Developer(s): Dave Nutting Associates
Publishers(s): Bally Mfg. Corp. | Midway Manufacturing
ReleaseDate: 1983-08-12
Players: 2
Co-op: Yes
Professor Pac-Man
Professor Pac-Man is a 1983 arcade quiz video game developed by Dave Nutting Associates and released by Midway Manufacturing in the USA on August 12, 1983. Professor Pac-Man is the seventh game in the Pac-Man series and the fourth game in the Pac-Man series to be developed without Namco's involvement. The game is for one player or two (in a two-player game, the player who is the first to answer a question correctly receives its points) and consists of answering multiple-choice questions before the time runs out. The timer is the original Pac-Man, eating a row of pellets. The more pellets left when the players answer correctly, the higher the scores awarded. As the questions progress, Pac-Man eats the pellets more quickly. Bonus questions are awarded after a player answers between two and six questions correctly on his or her first try. The game ends when a player runs out of fruits (the game's equivalent of lives, which also serve as a difficulty indicator). Fruits are lost for a wrong answer on a regular question (but not a bonus question), and fruits can also be earned for answering a bonus question correctly (but not lost if answered wrong). Midway had also originally planned to release three different versions of this game: Family (appropriate for all ages, but geared towards younger players), Public (appropriate for general audiences, but geared towards arcades and bars), and Prizes (for casinos). There were also to be new question upgrades every three months to keep people from memorizing the answers, but the game never caught on. Although most of the questions have nothing to do with Pac-Man, certain questions (asking: "How many left/right turns to the fruit?") show the original Pac-Man maze (with a regular wall in the place of the ghost regenerator) and a line of pellets leading to a fruit in the center, and another question (which first requires the player to study a city scene) asks "Where would you go to play Prof Pac-Man?", while others require the player to fill in the blank lower-right square of a 16-square grid, with four different fruits (or Pac-Men facing different directions) in each row. On the questions which first require the player to study table settings ("Which was the correct sequence?" or "How many plates were (shape)?"), fruits would appear on the plates and Pac-Man would move from right to left as he ate them, if they were answered correctly, and for the questions which first require the player to study the light-up keys on giant telephones of various colors ("Which number was dialed?"), the receiver would come off the telephone and Pac-Man would appear to speak into it (again, if they were answered correctly).
Trailer: YouTube
ESRB Rating: E - Everyone
Genre(s): Quiz