Baby Pac-Man

Pinside rating

This game received 64 approved Pinsider ratings and currently rates 7.305 /10

7.305

Top 100 ranking

This game ranks #208 in the Pinside Pinball Top 100.



Score breakdown

Score breakdown in the 4 main categories:

Game Design: 7.278

Artwork: 7.566

Sounds/Music: 6.662

Other Aspects: 7.621


Pinside staff rating

This is how we, the very knowledgeable (wink wink) Pinside.com staff & moderators rate this game. 2 of us have rated this game.

6.905

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Found 48 ratings (with comment) on this game

There are 48 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
Currently showing results page 1 of 2.

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8.505/10
20 days ago
Shifting from arcade to pinball never seems to get old. Very fun and challenging.
8.000/10
10 months ago
Baby packy in all it's galore. Was first introduced way back in the old two story arcade. It was in the corner and drew a few heads. It's a small field with a video topper which was two games in one. It even had trick balls. The gameplay is alright and has some replay value like extra points and it's mini montage. It's a fun pinball like 60's and 70's states. Cool.
7.788/10
10 months ago
Baby Pac-Man is one of the few pins I've brought home that the whole family has enjoyed. It's easy to understand what to do, but getting a great score can be tough. The pinball and arcade parts are blended well together. Overall its a fun game that is appealing to most anyone. I would happily recommend this game to anyone who has casual players over / in the house. I could see pinball pros getting bored of it over time, but for the rest of us, its a great game with last-ability.
5.807/10
2 years ago
This thing tries to combine pinball and video games to (hopefully) achieve an experience that combines the best of both! Unfortunately, this one doesn't live up to the hype! I was never a big Pac Man fan and the truncated board just reduced the fun! The same can be said for the pinball playfield. I was left with a less than stellar feeling for this one!
9.560/10
2 years ago
In my opinion, this is one of the most underrated games on this list. Pacman and Pinball combined? What better combination could there be? And so well executed, too! The fact that the maze is so hard without energizers is key to a really fun and challenging game. Considering the year, this video/pinball machine was way ahead of its time.
8.378/10
2 years ago
Baby Pacman is Pacman and pinball together. What's not to like?!? Seriously however, while that sounds great, it is not for everyone. The Pacman portion is VERY hard by design. If it were not hard or had patterns, then you would not need the Pinball part and people would be marathoning this thing (remember operators wanted short games). That being said it is possible to get good at this game with practice by skillfully using the pinball with the videogame. Also the settings regarding extra Pacman and the starting number of Pacman also really determine how much play it will get.

The artwork on the playfield is great BTW and with cool white LEDs, the whole thing "pops". It is a super unique game that your visitors will gravitate to and is definitely a conversation piece.

If you want a great pinball game, you should pass. If you want a great Pacman game, you should pass. If you want an addictive hybrid, this game is for you. Frankly, regular Pacman is so easy to get via emulation these days that if you are space limited and like Pacman, you are better off playing Pacman in MAME and getting this for your collection. It is way more collectable, not-emulatable, and gives off the Pacman vibe in spades.

A major complaint of mine however is that the video game portion does NOTHING with the Baby theme. They could have done a ton with this and changed the character, the "fruits", and the mazes, etc. to look like things a baby would interact with. No such luck. Pretty lazy there. Ripe for a ROM mod someday...
7.299/10
2 years ago
This is a hard game to rate based on the fact that there were only 2 of these hybrid style pinball/arcade combos. That being said, this was the first of the two and after the second hybrid release didn't do so well, that ended a creative, but short-lived fad. As far as just the pinball aspect of the game, it is very basic with very little flashy toys or gimmicks, but what it lacks in certain areas, it makes up for in Lastability. If you are fan of pac-man games, then you will love this one, even if you aren't a really big "pinball" person. Understanding what this game offers and brings to the table, I think it's a great game.. Just very hard to rate by pinball standards
8.116/10
2 years ago
Lots of fun, unique design with the pinball and arcade in same cabinet. Tough to initially get the concept, then once you grasp whats happening it sucks you right in. You need to get the hang of the pinball part to do well in the arcade.
7.460/10
2 years ago
This is the predecessor to Pinball 2000. Art is good. The play field is challenging and fun. The maze graphics are not near as good as PAC Man. This game is still really fun and will provide hours of enjoyment.
8.648/10
3 years ago
The pin-arcade hybrid idea was so unique - makes it enjoyable! My friend owns this game and I could play it for HOURS ... when it's working! There always seems to be a problem with one of the boards. The arcade part of the game is a VERY difficult version of Pac-Man. The red ghost is the worst! The background sound is kind of annoying when you are in the pinball mode.
9.130/10
3 years ago
Overall a really fun experience, it has an ok arcade game and a meh pinball feild, but it somehow manages to make them work great with each other. Other than the lame art and a few other small grievances, I think the game is amazingly unique and great.

I could not stop playing...
7.204/10
4 years ago
The playfield is difficult and fast pace due to the small overall size. Great theme if you grew up on pacman. Overall a boring game but unique how the game switches between pinball and arcade. Definitely a collector's item for the pacman fan.
9.297/10
5 years ago
EDIT: I scored my own Baby Pac-Man and owning this machine is WAAAAY better than the rare times you see it in the wild!
Baby Pac-Man has extreme replay value. It’s not a game I play every week, or even every month. It’s the type of game you sit down and end up playing it several times a week for hours on end. It’s a uniquely addicting game: you could suck and get demolished by the brutally hard ghosts for 10 games in a row and want to give up, then you get to the pinball portion and suddenly light EVERYTHING score an extra baby and the game just takes OFF! When you lay down the law on Pinside (ba-dum-ts) the video portion becomes an entirely different game!

After having Baby for 9 months, I can honestly say that it has just grown on me more and I cannot imagine parting with it anymore.
The funniest piece is how the artwork has grown on me over this time! I really wasn’t too fond of the weird pac-baby and the odd playfield art, but after seeing it everyday I started loving it. The best part is the bezel, the ghosts and fruits with pax-Dots. I wish the original Pac-Man featured art like this!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I finally got a chance to play Baby Pac-Man a few weeks ago and I played it probably 8 times in a row.

Baby Pac-Man is addicting and cruel, and I love it.

It's a game you either love or hate.
I love the unique quirk to it. It's such a weird, awkward, strange game the someone comes together and plays wonderfully!

The video portion is so insanely hard it draws me in. Good luck clearing the first maze. If you're good you might make it to the 3rd one.

The pinball portion is very very smooth and somehow the half-sized playfield really is a dream. It has an incredible flow and really helps the game immensely. The strategy and technique is all in the pin.
Done with LEDs the playfield looks beautiful.
My only complaint is the left flipper shot to the right upper post sends the thing SDTM and it pisses me off. On my last game I hit that twice in a row and immediately drained the ball... that really ruins the mood pcassionally.

I really loved this game so much I'm currently on the look out for one!
5.597/10
6 years ago
Hated it when it was new, had a chance to play again recently, and I still hate it. Boring game, awful design that exploited the Pac-Man craze of the early 80s.
8.027/10
6 years ago
I really get a kick out of this game! It is so weird that I immediately want to play another game. The pinball portion of it it is kind of lame, but married with the video game it is awesome!
8.132/10
6 years ago
This game is both fun and sentimental so I might rate it a little higher then others. :) My wife and I purchased this for my one year cancer free results. As others have stated if you don't like Pacman or are terrible at pinball you will probably hate this game. This is the most brutal Pacman/Pinball game I have ever played. The ghosts do not follow a pattern as they do in the dedicated arcade versions. Also with the playfield being so small the ball can get moving super fast. You have to do well in the pin to be able to survive the arcade game. We don't ever plan on getting rid of ours. We still play it regularly, or at least till we are so ticked off at the super smart lock on Pinky ghost and have to give it a rest a couple days. When people come over they gravitate to this machine first. Many people have never even seen one.

Updated score: After owning this pin hybrid for years now it is still the most played game in our home. Something about this game keeps us coming back for more even though it is so simple. So I bumped my rating just a tad higher as it to me is well deserved considering this is pin is played almost every day while others in our collection go in spurts.
7.448/10
7 years ago
Good fun game, I enjoy playing this on the rare occasions I see it. A really fun combination of a video game and pinball. Proper sized flippers and ball but a much shorter playfield with less on it but most of the time you will be playing the video game which is what you should be doing, it is Pac-Man!
7.876/10
7 years ago
I want one!

First off, the video mode is wicked. Those ghosts are not friendly...much harder than Pac Man itself. Got through 2 levels and thought that was a miracle.

THe playfield is also nice considering the size. Great satisfaction going from side to side hitting the FRUIT lanes. Also like the Godzilla radar-like shot in the middle. Always enjoy hitting those even when they aren't that important.

Video mode could have used some real color. This is kinda greenish...reminds me of the crappy atari port for Pac Man back in the day.
8.899/10
8 years ago
This is a fun, but very hard game! Takes many quarters to get in the ranking. Perfect game for competitions. Very good for home-use, small and quiet.
5.868/10
8 years ago
A very bland pinball machine and an equally bland video game. The pin/vid hybrid was a great idea, but Baby Pac Man fails to deliver. Also, owning this game is not advised for people not well versed in arcade machine repair. They are known to be very problematic. Hopefully, someday, a kit is made that will both enhance the game as well as make the electronics (particularly the Vidiot PCB) reliable.
5.625/10
8 years ago
Not a great pin... not a great video game. But if you put them together they kind of work. You need to realize that things you do in the pinball part have much to do with what happens in the video game part.
6.118/10
9 years ago
Neat little piece of history. The ghosts in the vid section are unforgiving! I restored one and it'll always be a special game to me because of the work I did on that one cabinet. :)
7.836/10
9 years ago
This is the most unique machine in my collection. It's a bit hard to rate as purely a pinball machine as it's a video game + a pinball machine. The video game part is Pac-man with different three different mazes and very fast and pretty tricky ghost. The cool thing about it is there are no power pills as they must be earned by playing the pinball part of the game. You can also increase the fruit values and tunnel speed on the pinball side of play. I always clean up some dots and go for the pinball part as soon as possible (via tunnels on the video playfield). The table is short so play is somewhat different from a full size pinball table and takes getting used to. If you are not a fan of video games, this one is not likely for you. Some of my non video gamer friends just can not play this game very well at all. So far my Baby Pac-Man has been reliable(cross fingers). Very unique and interesting game.
6.807/10
9 years ago
A fun game, but hard to give a true rating since it incorporates pinball and an arcade game. From a nostalgia factor it's a great addition to the game room, but game play is hard do to unrelenting ghosts and the pinball portion is pretty uninspired. With that said it looks cool and was a great concept, especially back in 1982. I wish this game had the arcade game truer to Pac-Man and the pinball side had a little more to offer. Slings that were active, instead of passive would have made a big improvement in my opinion.
6.650/10
9 years ago
I feel like this game would be an absolute classic if the ghosts weren't ruthless killing machines who show absolutely no mercy.
There are 48 ratings (that include a comment) on this game. Currently showing results page 1 of 2.

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