My Arcade Ms. Pac-Man Mini Arcade Machine - Micro Player Table Top Arcade Machine, Portable Handheld Game, Retro Gaming Console, Mini Retro Games Machines for Kids & Adults

This miniature 6 inch high replica of an arcade cabinet includes a bright full-colour video screen display and a D-Pad (with screw-in mini-joystick) for playing Ms PacMan. Sound, visuals and gameplay are great. You can power the unit with 4 AA batteries or a Micro USB cable / phone charger (not included). The cabinet also has a headphone socket and volume controls on the back. The coin slot area is a large on/off push-button and there are 'Start' and 'Reset' buttons above the joystick. No other buttons are needed to play the game; it's purely about moving around the maze to eat up all the dots, while avoiding or chasing the ghosts.Admittedly what you get is not the absolutely authentic original arcade game. You can easily tell because many of these early NAMCO arcade games used a vertical monitor in the cabinet; here you get a horizontal display. The scores appear alongside the action, not above or below it. What you're actually playing is a modified 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) version of the game. But it's as colourful as the arcade and has all the right sound effects. Purists may note that the colours and ghost behaviour are not exact reproductions of the arcade version. Sadly the game does not have a high-score table, nor does it retain the best high score when you switch it off or reset it.But for that reason, I'd suggest getting Ms PacMan over the original PacMan where the price difference is still small. PacMan only has the one maze, and just keeps getting faster. But mastering it won't necessarily make you a king of proper arcade PacMan. Ms PacMan on the other hand is simply more entertaining in this form. The main difference is that every few levels the maze layout changes, and the mazes come in different colours. The fruit bonuses also move around the maze instead of staying in one place, and more famously the player's puck character sports a red bow!I've bought four of these 'MICRO PLAYER' mini arcade games so far and love them all. My opinion on the games available are as follows:'Galaxians' is your straight-up left/right/fire clone of 'Space Invaders' but in colour. 'Galaga' is the sequel and the better game as it features swooping and dive-bombing enemies, and the secret ability to double-up your player's ship at the cost of a life.'Mappy' is a platform collect-the-objects game with trampolines instead of a jump button, and probably the most fun of these games that you've never heard of. It has loads of different levels and bonus rounds. If you can get it for much less than the other games it's well worth it.'Dig-Dug' and 'Burger Time' don't look so great and are for die-hard fans of the original games only.'Caveman Ninja' (or 'Joe & Mac') and 'Heavy Barrel' are pretty poor imitations of the arcade originals converted to run on the 8-bit NES-type hardware inside these units. There's a lot missing and the graphics just aren't anywhere close to what you may remember from the arcade.Of the newer ones to come out (including Ms PacMan), 'Bubble Bobble' is a really fun adaptation, though for one player only. The sprites tend to flicker if you blow too many bubbles in one place. But the playability is definitely there, as is the famously jaunty music.'Elevator Action' may be another one for die-hard fans of the original game only, as it all looks and moves a bit simply and repetitively. The next one I'm interested in is 'Rolling Thunder'. The graphics aren't quite up to the arcade original, but it looks like a fairly good reproduction of the gameplay. But a warning that the arcade original is brutally tough on the player and by all accounts that was carried over into the official NES version. So I guess I'm one of those die-hards I was talking about!I just wish they'd consider making mini-machines of Sky Kid, Mr. Do, and especially Time Pilot.Finally, a note on returns. I ordered this 'Fulfilled by Amazon' with an Amazon Prime subscription, and it turned up at my home around 6:30 pm the following day (Saturday), which seemed fairly late, but at least it was next-day. Some clue as to when it would show up would have helped.Anyway, it turned out to be faulty - a permanent bright green line across the top of the screen and two sets of three defective vertical lines. Amazon didn't have a 'replacement' option so I filled out the standard return form (giving the reason as 'defective'), printed the label, put it back in the shipping box and put it in an Amazon locker on the Monday. The next day it was marked as collected. I chose a credit rather than complete refund and that showed up immediately, so I ordered another and it was in the locker again Wednesday afternoon for me to pickup, and the new one works fine. Bit of a shame I got a defective one, but very happy with the (automated) process of getting it resolved.

I was astonished to find no attract mode on something which is essentially a desk ornament. The controls aren't very good on these as anyone knows, so it's not the place to brush up on your Pacman skills. Especially seeing as this is the sub standard NES version, and not the arcade rom.So that just leaves looking at it. And you are essentially buying a static backlit screen which says 'Ms Pacman'So don't.