I was thinking about Pac-Man Vs. the other day, and how I had it in my collection at one time but never got around to playing it. It seemed like an interesting take on the Pac-Man formula, and was a good example of the "dual-screen" gaming gimmick. The Wii U and therefore the Switch can probably trace their heritage back to this Shigeru Miyamoto tech demo. You know what else has the potential for dual-screen gaming? - the Dreamcast. This is one of those shower thoughts - someone could have a go at doing a homebrew version of Pac-Man Vs. on the Dreamcast. And I was imagining lots of different mode possibilities. 1. Traditional mode - one player has Pac-man on the VMU screen, and three players control the ghosts on a split-screen TV, just like the Gamecube original. The Pac-man player is more handicapped though, as they can't see the full maze like on the Game Boy Advance. 2. Reversed mode - one player controls Pac-man on the TV, while three players control the ghosts on their VMU screens. They would need to face away from the TV though (which would vindicate the cable from the dreamcast controller coming out the bottom when sitting 180 degrees from the TV). 3. Online mode - Everyone gets a TV screen in the comfort of their own home. Or Pac-man is in one room with the ghost players on one system is another room/house/country. 4. Dreamcast Taisen/Vs link cable - players split over two dreamcasts and two TV screens - which would facilitate a 1 vs 4 mode with all 4 ghosts in play, something that the Gamecube couldn't do. 5. Neo Geo Pocket? - Can the NGPC be used like a controller for the Dreamcast? Or does it only work to transfer data. 6. VM2 mode? - the new VM2 has a higher resolution screen, so a version of Pac-man Vs. that uses this extra screen real estate could be a nice showpiece for the device. I know this is just like one of those "I've got a cool idea for a hack, someone make it for me" threads, but I just thought it was a cool idea. And I know the homebrew scene has done stuff with the VMU screen before (Alice Dreams Tournament) and online homebrew games are a thing now (Dream Strikers), so it should be theoretically possible. And if there are Namco copyright concerns, you could base it on Sega's Pacar instead. Pacar is not strictly a Pac-man clone, but a sequel to an earlier Sega game Head-On, which pre-dates Pac-Man. Sega seems a bit more relaxed about copyright infringements.
Bold of you to assume they'd care for Pac-Man after what happened to Ms. Pac-Man! Really neat ideas, we just need someone to cook.
Interesting idea! I've written Dreamcast code before so I can't help but think of the technical hurdles. It's surprisingly hard to write Pac Man. Like obviously it's not impossible, but harder than you'd think. I've tried and gave up on doing it before. Granted that was years ago. There's a really nice article on how the game works, focusing mostly on the ghost AI, which would need less focus in this version. I've done some networking before, but definitely not on Dreamcast. Due to the rarity of the broadband adapter, you'd have to have support for the dial up adapter if you go that route. I've never worked with VMU or NGPC. Ideally you'd have the Dreamcast doing all the logic, and just have the smaller device just acting as a display (and input in the case of the NGPC), but depending on how the interface works that may not be totally possible. I have no idea. It'd be extra nice if every controller had a VMU, because then you wouldn't have to pass a device around like with Pac Man Vs. Though speaking of that, you'd need logic for dealing with all VMU configuration scenarios. As for avoiding IP issues, make it a Crazy Otto or K.C. Munchkin game.
This is the mode I'd go with by default - the VMU being both small and monochrome almost completely destroys the experience for the Pac-Man, but works perfectly for the ghosts, and I assume it'd be far easier to do than the networked options.
I think Reversed Mode would be the worst way to go. If this hypothetical port went in that direction, there would be nothing stopping the people playing as the ghosts to just look at the screen and cheat. The VM2? Also, I think both the resolutions of the VMU and the VM2 would be too small to really support the gameplay. Considering the sheer amount of fangames and unofficial remakes for the Pac-Man franchise, I think BNEI would very likely not give much of a damn if this was made as a Pac-Man fangame. The last time BNEI took down a Pac-Man fangame, they did it to a Pac-Man remake on Scratch in 2010. Nowadays on Scratch, you can find hundreds of Pac-Man fangames, and BNEI is not doing anything to any of them.
