In early October a post in a Facebook arcade group and the kindly help of a cooperative stranger would send me scouring the seven seas for the lost history of another beloved nautical knockoff of everyone's favorite bright yellow dot-chomper... So steady your sea-legs and dive into the deep with me! This be the twisted tale of...

Spinning Tales at the Tavern

On October 3rd, 2021 a post made in the Facebook group Arcade PCB Repair, Conversion and Mod Logs would catch my attention. The post author was having issues with a game in his possession... a game none other than the pirate-themed Pac-Man bootleg Buccaneer!

Although the monitor was struggling to set sail, there was no mistaking our bandana-capped hero and his undead assailants wanting nothing more than to drag him to the depths of Davy Jones' Locker. Of special interest is the strange sea-green maze palette- look familiar? Why, it's the same swarthy colors as our fishy friend Barracuda! Peaking my interest immediately, I commented back and forth with the OP several times until he shot me a PM over Messenger.


Planning the Voyage

Over Messenger I explained to our kindly stranger the tools and process required to dump roms- to my surprise (and appreciation) he was interested in joining the effort and picked up his very own eprom programmer. After dumping all 12 2716 eproms and packing them up, our ally sent them off my way via email and I popped them into a hex editor to began digging for lost treasures.

Setting Sail

Finding the Treasure

Land, Ho!


Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum