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From the Steam version of Namco Museum Archives Volume 1 (see entry 1787): I extracted the ROMs from the Steam version using MArchiveBatchTool: https://github.com/farmerbb/RED-Project and played them in Mesen.
These look designed for square pixels; at NTSC screen ratio they are slightly too wide: oval Pac-Man, rectangular Dig Dug dirt, etc.
Pac-Man Championship Edition
Faster & smoother than the non "demake" version.
Namco/M2 didn't create NES CE; they polished an unacknowledged, unreleased 2008 homebrew port by Japanese 8-bit console port hobbyist @coke774 ( https://www.youtube.com/@coke0774 ):
2007
CE releases on Xbox 360
2008
coke774 posts video of their "FC VER."/"NES" CE to YouTube and Niconico, and screenshots to their personal website
2009
A presumed copy of coke774's 2008 NES CE video appears on Vimeo
https://vimeo.com/2581153
2013
coke774 tweets (Google Translate) "It's been a while since I received an email from a foreigner asking for a Pac-Man ROM"
2014
A Twitter user shares a photo of a Famicom cart w/ a sticker on it saying "PACMAM Championship Edition DX"
2015
According to Namco's NES CE director in a 2020 interview, Namco "negotiates" & starts work on a never-released stand-alone 3DS port of NES CE
2018
coke774's YouTube NES CE video nears 150K views
2019
coke774 sets their NES CE videos private & takes down their personal web site
2020
- Namco teases their "new," NES version of CE
- Namco's NES CE director says "While there are some people who knew about this project beforehand, I bet even they will still be surprised at the finished game!"--no mention of coke774
- Official NES CE release as flagship game in the "Namco Museum Archives Volume 1" collection, credited entirely to M2
- Confronted by Ars Technica, Namco half-assedly admits "In the case of Coke774, his work was highly appreciated by our team and we worked with him officially to implement his design into our game"
- TCRF analysis: M2 polished the FX, replaced the sound, added more fruit
Sources:
- https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/we-traced-namcos-new-pac-man-demake-to-its-source-a-2008-fan-romhack/
- https://medium.com/attract-mode/so-about-that-pac-man-championship-edition-demake-a39c92ab6e6e
- https://www.siliconera.com/pac-man-championship-edition-demake-started-out-as-a-3ds-game/
- https://www.mobygames.com/game/146704/namco-museum-archives-vol-1/credits/windows/?autoplatform=true
- https://www.google.com/search?q=twitter+tweet+412916369680629760
- https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Pac-Man_Championship_Edition_(NES) |
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| | | | As noted by https://www.shacknews.com/article/122931/the-best-game-released-in-2020-was-an-nes-demake-from-2008, M2 also added the stuff on the menus: , and the menu stuff: Extra mode, in-game achievements, replays, sound test. |
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