Super Pac-Man is one of the many Pac Man games that kind of fall to the wayside when people think about the series. So you might not have played it, and might not have learned everything there is to know about it.

So here's a pointer.

You see the corral in the upper-middle of the screen? the one that the monsters regenerate in? You can't get in there, right?

Wrong!

You totally can go in there. Now you normally wouldn't even dream of such a thing, since the monsters' touch is lethal, but if you've just eaten a power pill, go on in there and go to town.

Just be kind of careful, though. The monsters don't have to go real far to regenerate, and they're primed to smack you down if you're not careful.

You know Donkey Kong the game right? Rescue the girl from the gorilla at the top of a series of construction sites, yeah? The thing is, though, Jumpman (later known as Mario) is extremely fragile. If he falls more than a few inches, it's instadeath for him, so you probably don't just jump off of girders willy-nilly.

Even though you totally can.

The edges of the screen are distinct boundaries. If you hit one while on the ground, nothing especially exciting happens, but if you hit one while jumping, you kind of bounce off of it and fly back the other direction. I pretty much only use this tip to grab the hammer on the left side of the final board.

It's not really that useful of a tip, I know, but it is showy. And you can't be Pro without being a little bit of a showoff, it's just too much fun.

If you've ever played Marble Madness, then you've probably seen this screen.

You'll notice also that there are these numbers on the ground kind of outside the regular field of play.

If you use the conveniently-placed ramps to get your little marble over there, then you get a nice bonus.

1,000 points times the number you landed on. Pretty awesome for pretty much no effort.

Oh, and this works on the NES port, too.

Qix is kinda old, but there really hasn't been a game like it since.

You have a marker that you have to use to block off portions of the playfield. The portion you get is the smallest area that doesn't contain the Qix (which is the pulsating line-thing in the middle of the screen.

You can either draw fast or slow. Slow gives you more points, of course, but is way more dangerous. So, what you want to do is carve up little sections using your fast draw

And then make the last section with your slow draw

Bam! Huge points!

You all know Pac-Man, the little guy that eats the dots in the mazes. His games are pretty tough, and they don't give you much of a chance to breathe.... Unless you know a little something about it.

There is one safe location in the maze, but the thing is, it's not always safe. It's the little area just to the right and up from where you begin each board.

Now, in order for that to be safe, you have to enter it while all the monsters are looking away from you. If they don't see you go in, they can't find you. It's kind of tough to keep your eyes on five points in the maze at the same time, but it is doable. You'll know that you did it correctly if you sit there for more than a few minutes and the monsters don't eat you. They kind of go in this repeating pattern of wandering aimlessly around (although they do come perilously close to your hidey-hole).

I was able to sit there for ten minutes before I went on to something else, but you could stay there for a lot longer if you want.

Going all the way back to 1983 today since being pro means that you play more than just games that came out in the last five years or so.

So, in Crystal Castles you have to make your bear gather up all the gems in each level. Once all the gems are collected you move on to the next one.

But what if you want a bigger challenge... or just want to skip ahead a bunch of levels?

From the first stage, walk up to the back corner of the playfield. It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but that's mostly because my bear is behind a giant wall.

When you get there, jump. Then you jump ahead several levels where the enemies are more plentiful and more dangerous. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Let's start at the beginning, so we all know where we come from.