Gameplay
The core gameplay of ''Jr. Pac-Man'' is similar to its predecessors. The player controls the eponymous Jr. Pac-Man (who wears an animated propeller beanie), and scores points by eating all of the dots in the maze, while four ghosts (Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Tim) chase him around the maze and attempt to catch him. Eating a power pellet turns the ghosts blue, briefly allowing the player to eat them for extra points. Once the maze is cleared, a new maze is presented and the gameplay continues. The mazes are now two times the width of the monitor and scroll horizontally. A total of seven mazes appear throughout the game, and five of them have six power pellets instead of four, but none of them have tunnels that wraparound (video games), wrap around from one side of the screen to the other. Bonus items (such as tricycles, kites, and balloons) appear in each round, starting above the ghosts' lair and moving around the maze as in ''Ms. Pac-Man''. As an item encounters dots, it changes them into larger dots that are worth 50 points instead of 10, but they also slow Jr. Pac-Man down more than regular dots. If an item has been out for long enough and encounters a power pellet, it self-destructs, taking the power pellet with it. When Jr. Pac-Man gets caught by a ghost, the larger dots disappear; if there are only a few left, they revert to their original size. The between-level intermissions show the developing relationship between Jr. Pac-Man and a small red ghost named Yum-Yum who is apparently the daughter of Blinky.Ports
An Atari 2600 version developed by General Computer Corporation (the designers of the arcade version) was released by Atari Corporation in 1986 with mazes that scroll vertically rather than horizontally, but is otherwise a faithful adaptation. ''Jr. Pac-Man'' was later ported to the Commodore 64 and IBM PC compatibles. Ports for the Atari 5200 and the Atari 8-bit family were finished in 1984, but were scrapped along with ''Super Pac-Man'' when the home divisions of Atari, Inc. were sold to Jack Tramiel. An unofficial port for the Atari 7800 was published in 2009 by AtariAge.References
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