Play Paclone from Amstrad Computer User in your browser

Paclone was a type-in listing I wrote that was published in Amstrad Computer User (ACU) January 1992. Below you can play the game, and see the original listing as it appeared in the magazine. Click the game window to activate it (including sound), and then use the cursor keys to play.

About the Paclone type-in from ACU

This game is a simple Pac-Man clone, written for Amstrad Computer User magazine. That's probably overselling it: at a glance, it looks like a classic muncher clone, but the enemy movement is different, there are no power-ups, and the controls are a bit sluggish. Working within the limitations of BASIC and the type-in format, it's okay, but this listing has not aged as well as some of my other Amstrad listings.

The enemies in this home in on you, so the game is more about cornering them behind walls than outrunning them. One of them can jump over walls, which makes them potentially deadly. I have completed the game to get to the next level, but it's pretty hard. If I were designing it today, I'd make sure there were no dead-ends where you can get trapped. I'd also try to speed it up. And take out the crazy music.

The keys in this are a bit sticky. It's frustrating when your character stumbles headlong into a baddie instead of turning the corner as you mash the keys. This is a bigger problem with this emulator running in the browser than it is with an offline emulator such as Winape.

One fun feature in this game is that it includes speech if you have a DK Tronics Speech Synthesiser connected.

I've made a few modifications to this version of the game compared to the original listing, mainly to the keys used to control the game and to the presentation with a new title screen.

Paclone includes a stereo sound effect called Transound and the sprites were created using my Amstrad CPC Sprite Designer.

Download my disc of Amstrad games and utilities to use in your favourite emulator here.

The Paclone listing from ACU

Load another game into the Amstrad CPC 6128 emulator

• Play The Further Adventures of Fred
• Play BAS Invaders (an Amstrad Addict type-in)
• Play Alien Intervention (an Amstrad Action type-in)
• Play Gribbet (an Amstrad Action type-in)
• Play Wallbuster (an Amstrad Computer User type-in)
• Watch Fishtank (an Amstrad Computer User type-in)
• Play Misfit (from my book The Basic Idea)
• Play Paclone (an Amstrad Computer User type-in)
• Play Chords Tutor (an Amstrad Computer User type-in)
• Play 3D Mapper (an Amstrad Computer User type-in)
• Use the User Defined Graphics generator
• Reset the machine and program something yourself
• How to embed the Amstrad CPC 464 / CPC 6128 emulator in your website

You can download my Amstrad CPC games and utilities disc to use these programs in your favourite emulator.

Where next?

• Sean's Amstrad CPC homepage, including Amstrad type-ins and my Amstrad BASIC programming tutorial.
• Download my disc of Amstrad games and utilities, including Paclone and many more.
• Read my books to learn to program in Python or Scratch