KCMunchkin / Videopac 38 / Happelaar

Released: 1982
Genre: Strategy
Format reviewed: Odyssey 2
Publisher: Philips
Developer: Philips
Submitted by: Mark Vergeer
Way back in 1982 (I was 12) pacman was a big hit in the arcades, that success resulted in quite a number of pacman versions on the various consoles that were out there at the time. And magnavox / philips created KcMunchkin. It was quite a controversial title bacause it closely resembled Namco's Pacman. It was actually pulled of the shelves because of a lawsuit. Still it remained on sale in Germany if I remember correctly. I remember I felt quite proud to own it back then – still do!
In the Netherlands, most of my friends that owned a console had a 2600 in those days. When my birthday came up my parents decided to get a console for me and my brother. They got me a g7000 philips videopac sysem together with KCMunching – Videopac no 38 and No 39 Freedom fighters. At first I was disappointed because it wasn't the 2600 I was hoping for. But later I learned to appreciate the blocky graphics.
In time I even preferred it over the 2600's pacman – because of the fast pace and the fact that all those pills moved around the screen! The cart had some nifty options like:
1. program your own maze – without a grid it's too hard let me tell you.
2. play with an invisible maze
3. play with a forever changing maze
This game get's me in 'the zone' (if that exists at all) when the scores comes to 240, by then it's all reflexes and neurons firing in your cerebellum & spinal cord. My mom always got very nervous when she saw the muncher speeding around the screen and me controlling it together with that super nerve wrecking blip blip blip tweet tweet tweet sound that kept on going faster and higher. Even today (on the g7400 (videopac+ system) all my reflexes still work and I get pretty decent high scores.