disappears. Once all the items are gone, the level ends and the player earns bonus points for each item eaten, receiving a larger bonus for preventing Miru from taking any of them into the box. An orange area immediately below the center box causes the ghosts to slow down whenever they are inside and obscures both them and Pac-Man, leaving only the ghosts' eyes visible. The third level and every fourth level thereafter is a bonus stage with 10 cards and no ghosts; one card shows Miru, one shows the ghost Blinky, and the other eight have dollar signs. Points are awarded for each card flipped, and Miru's card doubles the total. The stage ends immediately if Blinky is found, but the player earns a larger bonus for finding him last. The player loses one life whenever Pac-Man touches a non-stunned ghost, but can safely run through Miru at any time. When all lives are lost, the game ends. Development and release Pac & Pal was developed and published by Namco in July 1983 in Japan. It is the third game in the Pac-Man series that was made by Namco themselves, as Pac-Mans North American distributor Midway Games had produced many of their own sequels that Namco had little involvement with. Pac & Pal is largely based on Super Pac-Man, Namco's own sequel to the original, and retains a similar graphical style and many of its mechanics. With the Pac-Man brand increasing in popularity in Japan, Namco sought to produce a follow-up that matched its success. Super Pac-Man was largely unsuccessful, so Pac & Pal was made to improve on its flaws and update its core features. Yuriko Keino, who is best known for her work on games such as Dig Dug and Xevious, composed the soundtrack. Namco and Midway had plans to release Pac & Pal in North America under the new name Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp, which replaced Miru with Pac-Man's spherical dog from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series. Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp was never released in North America due to the market being over-saturated with Pac-Man games. A limited run of 300 arcade units was produced for several European countries. Pac & Pal never saw a home release until 1998, where it was included in the Japan-exclusive arcade collection Namco History Vol. 3 for Windows 95. Toy manufacturer Jakks Pacific included the game in many of their Pac-Man-branded