Pac-Man (Mazooma fruit machine series)
In the early 2000s (?), UK-based company Mazooma released a series of Pac-Man "fruit machines". There are four "main" games in the series, each of which has multiple variants.
Contents
Overview [ ]
Fruit machines are a type of slot machine seen across several European countries; they are often found in general arcades and amusement locations rather than casinos. Additionally, while fruit machines are proper gambling machines, the actual money payout is often somewhat small (e.g. £5-£15 as the maximum jackpot payout).
Multiple different models of each Pac-Man title were produced, all of which have considerably different playfields and gameplay elements. Some models are considered "amusement with prize" (AWP) machines, while others are labeled "club" machines; some versions feature notices prohibiting people under 18 from playing, while others do not. The known machines include:
- Pac-Man (year unknown) - four different versions; a German-language version was also produced
- Pac-Man Plus (2001 [?]) - two different versions
- Pac-Man Club (2002) - two different versions
- Pac-Mania (2002) - two different versions
Trivia [ ]
- When the player gets a jackpot in some machine models, a voice clip plays saying "I've got a big red one"; [1] this clip is taken from a "staff only" episode of British children's TV series Rainbow. This episode - as it was designed for staff use - is entirely comprised of sexual innuendos, with the "big red one" referring to one of the puppets' private parts; making the usage of this clip in the game particularly questionable.
- The machines use renditions of the Pac-Man intro and intermission theme, the theme to the second Ms. Pac-Man intermission ("The Chase"), and the opening music to Pac-Jr. (a bonus game in Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures).
- It is unknown what year the machines were actually released; though some later machines (e.g. Pac-Mania) first appeared on the official website in 2002, suggesting 2002 was those models' release year. Due to, ironically, the "I've got a big red one" voice sample, it can be verified that the machines were produced some time after 1996, as the Rainbow episode had not been publicized before that point.
- Certain models of the Pac-Man Mazooma machines were "rebuilt" and distributed by QPS Interactive. [2]
- Mazooma also developed a Pac-Man coin pusher machine; the coin pusher reuses the music seen in the Pac-Man fruit machines.
- While no home ports of the Pac-Man fruit machines were released, recreations of some models (using the original ROM data of the machines) can be played in the somewhat-obscure "MFME" emulator for Windows.
