Without using the 'rack test' feature on Pac-Man PCBs, the splitscreen would have probably never been fathomed. It would mean a near 5-6 hour game to try and do that every time for literally hundreds of games. Therefore, gamers in the early 80's practiced the splitscreen on either privately owned cabs, or used arcade machines in 'stay behinds' at chosen arcades, with the rack test switch either operated by a friend, or a switch was sometimes fitted to the cab. Chris Ayra, who is widely regarded as possibly the greatest Pac-Man player (Pac-Man & Ms Pac) indeed had switches fitted to his own personal cab to do this exact thing. He had 3 switches. One for rack test (or advance), one for pausing the screen and one for switching between the 3 boards in the cab. He had Pac Man, Ms Pac Man and Junior Pac Man plus boards in there. Chris held the speed run record for many years before Dave Race took over.
This way of breaking down the secret of Pac-Man has never agreed with me, sometimes controversially so. In '83 I deliberately tried to point press to achieve a higher score, with the knowledge that there was indeed an finite ending to the game. Grouping the ghosts to achieve maximum points possible was the way forward. Tom Asaki was the leader of the US team of players who deliberately set out to group the ghosts in Ms Pac Man during 1982. This grouping was then employed within Pac Man and the idea that a truly huge score was discovered.
As far as passing the splitscreen goes, under normal circumstances (like BITD) it was impossible.
When I say impossible, I mean inserting a coin and playing until you use your Pac Men up. Not opening the machine up and flicking dip switches around.
In my many thousands of games of Pac Man, I never saw a yellow Midway cab anywhere, let alone players opening up the cab in a pursuit to 'beat the game'
Of course there were many more cabs and gamers in the US than here, but I take stories with a pinch of salt about claims for passing the splitscreen.
In answer to your question for passing the splitscreen? Yes, it's possible.
That would mean clearing the L/H side, getting the key and advancing the dot count past 244. This would mean more than 6 lives to take advantage of the re-spawning 9 dots in the splitscreen.
Apparently, this is possible in MAME. One of the reasons I'm not a fan of it. I enjoy pure gaming when being competitive like I've been over the years.
Here's the recent splitscreen game I did live on TwitchTV -
http://www.twitch.tv/pacman83/b/391343084
You will see freehand grouping employed throughout and if you look from 6hr 28min, the splitscreen being played.
Pacman832013-10-31 00:20:23
