The Video Game Project
A Closer Look At The Prototypes That Became Your Favourite Games!
Munchkin
Munchkin, released in North America as K.C. Munchkin! (an inside reference to then president of Philips Consumer Electronics, Kenneth C. Menkin) was released in 1981 for the Magnavox Odyssey 2. Designed and programmed by Ed Averett, Munchkin is very heavily based on Namco's 1980 arcade game Pac-Man, but not a direct clone. It was, however, similar enough for Atari to sue Philips and force them to cease production of Munchkin. Atari was exclusively licensed to produce the first play-at-home version of Pac-Man, but Munchkin hit store shelves in 1981, a year before Atari's game was ready. Atari initially failed to convince a U.S. district court to halt the sale of Munchkin, but ultimately won its case on appeal. In 1982, the appellate court found that Phillips had copied Pac-Man and made alterations that "only tend to emphasize the extent to which it deliberately copied the Plaintiff's work." The ruling was one of the first to establish how copyright law would apply to the look and feel of computer software.
A top-down maze puzzle game with a concept very very similar to Pac-Man. The player controls a "Munchkin" whose goal is to eat all of "munchies" on the screen, all the while being chased by three "Munchers" who are trying to eat him.
By eating a glowing munchie, all of the Munchers will turn purple and can be hunted down for a limited time, successfully doing so results in a score bonus. Once a Muncher has been "munched out" (term used in the manual), it will return to the center of the maze to recharge for a short time before setting out for revenge once again.
As players eat more and more munchies, the remaining munchies begin to move faster and faster around the maze. When there is only one left, it will be moving at the same speed as the player. You'll then have to hunt it down while avoiding the Munchers.
The game offers 4 pre-built mazes, as well as invisible versions of these mazes (the walls will only appear when you run into them). However, it includes the option to design custom mazes through a programming mode. Players can base a design off of presets or start from scratch.
