1982: Pac-Man Eats Into Pinball Profits1982:

1982: Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man Pinball
Platform: Arcade Pinball
Developer: Bally Midway
Publisher: Bally

Yes, it wasn't long into the Pac-Man craze before Namco and its various licenses realized there was an entire group of arcade-going junkies who had no intention of ever dropping a single quarter into a Pac-Man arcade game. But a Pac-Man pinball game? That's a whole different story.

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Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man Pinball was released by Bally in May of 1982, and over 10,000 of the machines were produced. The pinball was standard fare that we all know and love, but it had a Pac-Man theme: You could enter a Pac-Maze and earn extra balls by spelling out P-A-C-M-A-N in true traditional pinball style. Other than that, it was typical pinball: You got three balls and had to get as many points as possible. If a ball fell between the two lowest flippers at the bottom of the machine, you lost a turn. Although this Pac-Man pinball game nowhere near achieved the success of the original game, it was still an enjoyable title.

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1982: Baby Pac-Man Pinball
Platform: Arcade Pinball/Coin-Op
Developer: Bally Midway
Publisher: Bally

A hybrid of an arcade game and a pinball game, Baby Pac-Man was probably one of the more ingenious creations that Pac-Man inspired. You controlled Baby Pac-Man on a small dot matrix-type screen in traditional fashion. You ran around munching on dots and escaping from the usual invasion of ghosts. But unlike Baby's parents (Baby Pac-Man's sex was indeterminate), Baby Pac had no power pellets to assist him (or her). Instead, Baby Pac could flee down one of two tunnels that led to... the pinball field. From there, you would assume control of the pinball machine's flippers and bounce the new steel Baby Pac around. Various power-ups could be accumulated for the return to the digital playing field, such as fruits, speed boosts, and temporary energizers. Death (and the loss of either a Baby Pac or a steel Pac) would result from ramming a ghost or watching as a steel Pac slipped between flippers into the endless void of the pinball machine.

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Baby Pac-Man was a moderate success for its time, mainly due to the hybrid nature of its gameplay. Pac-Man wizards had a new challenge, and pinball junkies had to learn the intricacies of running through a 2D maze with death at almost every turn.