Ms. Pac-Man

Introducing the One, the Only...Ms. Pac-Man!

Ms. Pac-Man is completely dazzling with her red ribbon and long eyelashes. With classic style and tradition, she munches her way through maze after maze. Round and round, back and forth she races to gobble up dots, energizers, fruit, and pretzels.

But can she escape the marauding ghosts that inhabit every maze? Will she ever make it out of the mazes and be able to live happily ever after? (And consume a more balanced diet?)

Find out by helping Ms. Pac-Man through 25 different mazes and many levels. Play hard, then put your feet up and enjoy the entertaining Pac-cartoons between certain levels.

Getting Started

Follow the steps listed below to start the game:

1. With your Lynx system switched off, insert the Ms. Pac-Man game card as described in the Lynx Owner's Manual.

Warning: Do not touch the game card connector pins. Do not expose the contacts to static or extreme heat. Do not bend, crush, or attempt to clean the game card.

2. Press ON. The Ms. Pac-Man Title/Level Selection screen displays.

3. To select a difficulty level, move the joypad until the icon for the level you desire appears on the screen. The level icons are from easy to difficult: Cherries, Strawberry, Orange, Pretzel, Apple, Pear, and Banana. The ghosts move faster as you progress to the higher levels, and the length of time they remain blue gets shorter. (See Playing the Game)

4. Press OPTION 1 to select more complex mazes. These mazes are larger and contain the lightning power up! Press the A or B button to begin the game.

Optional Game Controls

To enhance play, the following optional game controls allow you to modify the display, and pause and restart the game.

To flip the screen 180 degrees and reverse the controls, press OPTION 2 and PAUSE at the same time.
To pause the game, press PAUSE. Repeat to resume play.
To return to the title screen press OPTION 1 and PAUSE simultaneously.
To display the high score during game play on the title screen, press OPTION 2. After several seconds the high score vanishes and the current game score is automatically displayed. If you don't want to wait, press OPTION 2 to immediately return to the current game score display.

Playing the Game

The object of the game is to help Ms. Pac-Man gobble her way through each maze level. She must consume all the dots in a level before she can progress to the next level. That can be pretty tough, because at the same time she must dodge mean old gobbling ghosts!

Ms. Pac-Man can defend herself against the ghosts. When she swallows one of the four energizers, the ghosts change color to blue. And while the ghosts are blue, they are edible! She must chase them down and eat 'em up before they change back to their original colors. When the ghosts are blue, they are unable to harm Ms. Pac-Man.

There are two sets of mazes in Ms. Pac-Man. The first set consists of four standard arcade-style mazes, difficult enough for even an experienced Ms. Pac-Man player. But the second set of 21 mazes is so unique and challenging that Ms. Pac-Man needs some extraordinary help to get through them alive!

In these mazes Ms. Pac-Man must be on the lookout for lightning bolts that magically flash into existence for a short time. These lightning bolts increase Ms. Pac-Man's speed. Once she spots a lightning bolt she has to hustle to retrieve it, because the bolts only materialize for a few seconds and then POOF! they vanish again.

Ms. Pac-Man can hang on the lightning bolt until she really has the need for speed. When that time arrives, press A or B to have Ms. Pac-Man use the lightning bolt. Down the hatch and zoom, she bolts through the maze with lightning speed for 15 seconds. Then she returns to her normal pace.

If Ms. Pac-Man loses a life while holding a lightning bolt, she loses the bolt, too. And a bolt must be used on the level on which it is found. Ms. Pac-Man cannot carry a bolt from one level to the next. If Ms. Pac-Man loses a life in a level before the lightning bolt appears in that level, the bolt will not appear in that level.

At the beginning of each level, a new fruit or a pretzel appears in the top right corner of the screen, and the chase continues. Faster and faster Ms. Pac-Man must run, zipping around a corner here, avoiding a trap there. The ghosts aren't far behind!

Ms. Pac-Man has three lives, so if the ghosts grab her she can return to continue the fight. She earns an extra life after she earns 10,000 points. But once the last life is gone, that's the end of the game!

You earn points by consuming things in the maze: dots, energizers, fruit, and ghosts.

Intermissions

Three cartoon breaks immediately follow the Strawberry, Apple and second Random Fruit mazes. This gives you an opportunity to relax, stop chasing ghosts, put your feet up, and enjoy a Pac-cartoon.

Strategy

Make sure Ms. Pac-Man eats the dots as quickly as she can, but remembering that she moves more slowly when she's eating.

Don't let Ms. Pac-Man eat the energizers too early, or she'll lose her only weapon against the ghosts. Wait until they start to gain on her. Then she can tease them toward the energizer before she gobbles it up and turns the chase on them.

Learn to maneuver the ghosts into a group by luring them into certain areas of the maze. This makes it easier to clear areas of the maze and earn big points.

Look for temporary hiding places where Ms. Pac-Man can hide form the ghosts. But remember, the hiding places are only temporary. Ms. Pac-Man can't hide forever!

Remember: Each maze has escape tunnels that lead offscreen and back again. They could save Ms. Pac-Man's life because the ghosts move more slowly in the tunnels.

Capturing fruit can significantly increase your score. Learn to anticipate its path and intercept it.

At higher levels, ghosts do not turn blue and edible when Ms. Pac-Man consumes a power pill. They just reverse directions.

Scoring

	Levels			Symbol			Points
	1			Cherry			10
	2			Strawberry		200
	3			Orange			500
	4			Pretzel			700
	5			Apple			1000
	6			Pear			2000
	7			Banana			5000
	8-above			Random			100-5000

	Eating Things						Points
	Dot		........................................10
	Energizer	........................................50
	First Ghost	........................................200
	Second Ghost	........................................400
	Third Ghost	........................................800
	Fourth Ghost	........................................1600
	
	After the first 10,000 points, you earn one extra life.