Pac & Pal

Pac & Pal (Japanese: パック＆パル, Hepburn: Pakku ando Paru) is an arcade game that was released by Namco on July 30, 1983 exclusively in Japan. It runs on Namco Super Pac-Man hardware, and the object of the game is for Pac-Man to eat all the items before he is caught by the ghosts. Most of the items are fruits from the original Pac-Man game, with a few new additions. Their value varies, starting with cherries at 50 points, and ending with keys from 700 to 5000 points. The items had to first be unlocked by turning over cards distributed around the maze (instead of eating keys like in Super Pac-Man). Very few cabinets still exist today, and this is possibly one of the rarest Pac-Man titles to find in playable format outside Japan.

"Pal" character

Introduced in this game is an exclusive character: Miru (ミル), the "Pal" of the title. She is a small green female ghost (denoted by her hair bow), that looks like a gooseberry with legs. When an item is unlocked, she will wander around, giving Pac-Man some time to try to reach the item. After some time, she will take it into the ghost house, where it will be lost forever. This might help in clearing the round, however, and if she brings the last one there, it automatically finishes the round. Due to the ability of using this advantage, this may be the reason why she is known as "Pal". She is not affected by the other ghosts. In order to get the maximum amount of points from the items on each round (and a perfect bonus at the end), Pac-Man must either eat them first or intercept them from Miru.