Party of One: The Jeff Gerstmann Home Game: Questionable Ports of Smash TV & Pac-Man

Da old games!

Smash TV on Game Gear definitely brings back memories for me. I played the heck out of that version. I've played the arcade game, too, but I actually played more of the Game Gear port.

I am so glad that my first experience with a port of Smash TV was the SNES version. I remember thinking it would be the perfect system because of the controller layout even before it was announced, and I was happy to see I was right about that.

Jeff loves dem oldies, even if they’re not necesssrily goodies.

Oldies but baddies?

This video was great, and needed the Coleco and Tomy versions of Pac-Man on the Internet Archive for completion's sake.

Jeff talks about Atari having the rights to Pac-Man home versions in the U.S., but wasn't Midway putting out Pac-Man games in North America at that time as well? Pac-Man got around, it seems.

EDIT: Oh he plays Kick Man later in the video, that's a Midway game that contains Pac-Man, so there you go.

I need to play Smash TV now.

@kevin_cogneto: Midway had the US arcade licence. Much to Namco's annoyance Midway also felt it meant they could make their own Pac-Man games, which is where Ms Pac-man comes from, in addition to Baby Pac-man, the arcade/pinball hybrid. It's a curious past for Pac-man in those days...

Weird timing when this popped up: I'd been playing SNES Smash TV for a couple of days before this video landed. Man, Smash TV and the SNES controller were made for each other.

But I'm a bit bummed Jeff didn't play the C64 version of Smash TV, which is an excellent conversion. Some concessions had to be made: the number of sprites onscreen at once; potential colour clash leading to the (correct) creative decision to make all floors black; the condensing of a couple of levels into each other. But it's still great to play and has control systems to accommodate dual stick play (I always used one joystick to move and keyboard to fire). It's a game I have great memories of finishing as a kid; even typing about it now makes me want to dig the disk out and have a crack.

Last time I whipped my block chain out I got put on a list.

Can't get enough of these Jeff. Keep 'em comin'.

Pac-Attack is always strangely compelling, despite the Pac-Man pieces never moving the way I feel they should.

Good Stuff!

Assholes nowadays say videogames cost too much money, and there was Jeff back in '82 dropping $80 for an Atari port of Pac-Man.

Is that a Pringles stash?

@jeff - Any plans on getting the C64 Mini?

I don't need one but I kinda want one.

The first game I ever bought with my own money was Professional BMX Simulator for the ZX Spectrum in '88. No regrets.

Back then streaming from home was all fun and games, now it's a ghost town.

Game Gear Music sounds like a demented robot whistling