Subject: [MsPacMan (i)FAQ] Another Cheesy Japanese Video Game, Revisited
From: (Shaun Patrick Mcisaac)
Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 22:05:57 GMT

A while back on, Milo D. Cooper complained about Jr Pac Man 
being so damned hard.  I responded by telling him to play Ms Pac Man
instead, one thing led to another, and this happened.

Ms Pac Man Frequenty Asked Question type guide v1.4 release2

Basic junk:
Monster: 	See ghosts.
MsPacMan:	The star of our game.
Ghosts:		The enemy.  They come in four flavors:
	Red:	Blinky 	aka Shadow
	Blue:	Inky
	Pink:	Pinky
	Brown:	Sue	aka Clyde

Guy, Life, Man:	General references to one MsPacMan.  
	Ie, you get killed, you "lost a man," "lost a life," or "lost a guy."

Walls:		Borders of the maze.
Dots:		Little white things you eat for 10pts.
Power pellets:	Flashing dots, aka pills, energizers, etc..  50pts each
Maze:		Uhm...
Stage:		A single maze.  They come in six flavors:
	1-2:		The cherry.
	3-5:		The apple.
	6-9:		The chase boards.
	10-13:		The blue junior boards.
	14-17:		The pink boards.
	18-21:		The red junior boards.

Not so basic junk:
	After stage 21, the last four sets of stages repeat, in fours.  
	There are also no more 'acts.'

22-25:		The chase boards.
26-29:		The blue junior boards.
29-32:		The pink boards.
33-36:		The red junior boards.

37-40:		The chase boards.
41-44:		The blue junior boards.
45-48:		The pink boards.
49-52:		The red junior boards.

53-56:		The chase boards.
57-60:		The blue junior boards.
61-64:		The pink boards.
65-68:		The red junior boards.

69-72:		The chase boards.
73-76:		The blue junior boards.
77-80:		The pink boards.
81-84:		The red junior boards.

85-88:		The chase boards.
89-92:		The blue junior boards.
93-96:		The pink boards.
97-100:		The red junior boards.

101-104:	The chase boards.
105-108:	The blue junior boards.
109-112:	The pink boards.
113-116:	The red junior boards.

117-120:	The chase boards.
121-124:	The blue junior boards.
125-128:	The pink boards.
129-132:	The red junior boards.

... And that's it.  After that, a bug causes the game to 
malfunction.  I'm told you can play through the malfunction 
for 8 stages, after which Ms Pac Man decides that it's 
REALLY had enough and will shut down completely.

	This happens on the 17th stage, and every stage after 18.  Power
	pellets don't work AT ALL.  If you hit a pellet and a ghost at the
	same time, you will get a special death scene, but still die.

Chapter II:

Stage descriptions:  I'd like to add a pic of the boards here, 
but gamefaqs doesn't have HTML faqs last I checked.

	Dot 		10pts
	Power Pellet	50	pts
	Cherry		100	pts
	Strawberry	200	pts
	Orange		500	pts
	Pretzel		700	pts
	Apple		1000	pts
	Pear		2000	pts
	Banana		5000	pts
	After eating a power pellet, blue or flashing ghosts provide the
	following awards:
		1st Ghost	200	pts
		2nd Ghost	400	pts
		3rd Ghost	800	pts
		4th Ghost	1600	pts

Perfect boards:
	A perfect board happens when you get:
	A) both of the fruits
	B) all four ghosts for every pellet
	C) don't loss a life
	Up to stage 7, the perfect board scores are calculable, because the #
	of dots, pellets, ghosts, and the type of fruit is held constant.
	(After stage 7 the fruits come out of random type.)

	To get a really good high score, you need to be able to get perfect 
	boards for the first several stages consistently.  Getting all four 
	ghosts all four times is worth considerably more than the fruit, 
	especially the random fruit which is usually pretty low in value.

	During the first three stages, the ghosts will take an extra amount of
	time to go through the tunnels.  After the orange, this doesn't

Hitting a power pellet:
	After eating a power pellet, all of the ghosts will reverse their
	direction.  Even if you are in "no blue time", the pellets still have
	this effect.  The ghost AI will also reverse, so that they run away
	from you instead of coming at you.

The Ghost House or Ghost Box:
	The Ghosts will ALWAYS exit their little box to the left.  HOWEVER, if
	you hit a pellet while the ghosts are still in there, they'll
	immediately flip directions, after getting out.

Ghost motion:
	The monsters essentially DO NOT turn around.  Ie, if you get behind one
	of them, you can follow them and they WON'T turn around.  This is
	somewhat strange, but occasionally useful.

	If you start a stage, most notably the 3rd through 5th, and live long 
	enough without getting killed the ghost will do a flip.  So, if they
	were tailing you, they'll suddenly run away for a second.  This also
	happens wherever you take too long to finish a stage, which is easily
	observed when you "trap" the ghosts.  That is described below.  Oh, and
	this flipping phenomenon is why it's a bad idea to "follow" the ghosts
	that can't turn around (see above).

	When a flip occurs, all will do it simultaneously, unless they are in 
	the box. If a ghost is in the box, that one will delay and flip upon 
	leaving the box.

	The flips also occur when a pellet is hit, even if you do not get any 
	blue time at all.  This helps somewhat on later stages, since the 
	pellets aren't very accessible in the junior boards.

	The first flip comes near the start of the stage, the second many 
	seconds later.  They keep happening, over a LONG period of time, 
	if the ghosts are trapped.

Fruit release:
	Happens after you eat X or Y dots.  X is about 1/3 of the dots on the
	board and Y is about 2/3.  If, while the first fruit is on the field,
	you eat 2/3 or more of the dots, the second fruit will try to come out
	right after the first leaves, but then disappears in a glitch (you lose
	the fruit, but not the game).

Chapter III:

Scattering effects:
	Tunneling out, hitting a power pellet, using a flipping effect.
Grouping effects:  
	Being near the ghost house or the pellets (except on the
	pear/pink mazes)
Death traps:
	A place in which the ghosts tend to trap you very quickly and
	efficiently.  They are:

Cherry:		none.
Apple:		The top "T" pattern.
Chase Boards:	Lower "T" pattern, top-center area.  The lower corners are too,
		if you don't get them when you get the pellet.
Juniors:	Everything and nothing.

	It is possible to walk through a ghost.  It's essentially random, but
	it can be "induced" to a limited extent.  "If they're not looking at
	you they can't eat you.".. right?;)

Tunneling out:  
	Basic escape technique, this allows you to get some breather room.
	This is also a scattering effect.  Usually you get 2-3 of the ghost 
	arranged around you like this:


Ghost   You	Tunnel


	So the three ghosts will follow you over to the tunnel, and they 
	usually won't follow you through (it depends on whether your on 
	the junior or pink/pear boards, and how close they are to you 
	when you go into the tunnel).  This gives you some free time.  If they
	*do* go through, usually it will only be one of them, so you're in a 
	much less stressed position.  Remember that the slowing down of 
	the action is exactly what allows good/great players to play for 
	upwards of 30minutes (and in fact upwards of a few hours);
	you clear out a small section of the board, then regroup back at 
	the tunnels, and allow yourself some thought time.  
	There are other methods to long playing time, but I find this 
	to be more comfortable as the momentary breaks that tunneling 
	out gives you let you think about how you want to get a part 
	of a maze cleared.

Special tunnel techniques:
	This amazing technique is basically essential for clearing the
	pear/pink boards effectively.  If you travel through the tunnels 
	on either of these two mazes with a ghost tailing you and exit 
	the tunnel down, they will *never* follow you.  The ghost will 
	*always* exit the tunnel left or right.  Now this is great, 
	because by letting the ghost pass "over your head" and then 
	moving up against the wall, you can "rest" while the ghost figure 
	out where you are.  But you can then simply repeat this 
	process by stringing the ghost along to the other side, and 
	rest again.  Do this for a little while (you don't have to make 
	sure the ghost is even trailing you, they'll just get more confused), 
	wait for an opening, take it, tunnel out, repeat.  Harder than it
	sounds, and requires some judgement.

Double fruit sound:
	This unusual glitch is pretty much useless, but easy enough to set up
	that you can do it without disrrupting your game too much.  Eat a 
	power pellet while a fruit is on the board, then pursue the fruit.  
	Eat the fruit, and then get a ghost right afterwards, while the sound 
	for eating the fruit is still playing.

	If you time this right (it's not too hard) you'll eat the fruit, 
	get the sound for it, and then get the sound for it again.  You 
	don't get any bonus points for this beyond the normal fruit value,
	but oh well.

Favorite clearing patterns... ( up to stage 92 anyways ):

Cherry:  None worth listing.
Apple:  Left, Down, Right, Down, Right Up, Right, Up, Right Up Left, wait for
flipping effect.
Pear/Pink boards:  Clear the bottom centre "T", then tunnel out.
The Juniors:  Left, Up Left Down Right Up Right... and keep moving.

Ghost traps:
	Unusual AI glitches; you can put yourself in certain places on 
	certain stages, with the ghosts coming at you from a certain 
	pathway, and have the ghosts just run around and around in a 
	circle.  Easiest way to do it is on the apple stage.  get the 
	ghosts onto the lower half of the playing field by whatever 
	means.  Run up to the space just below the top-left power pellet, 
	and wait for the ghosts to come at you.  They'll turn left 
	just before your ledge, and go around that little "?" 
	type-section for a LONG time.  Oh, and the brown ghost has such 
	an unusual pattern, that it will run itself through the trap