Snapman 20 has arrived for the Commodore VIC-20, with homebrew developer Beamrider tackling one of arcade gaming’s most familiar designs on a machine that first appeared more than four decades ago.
Released on 7th September 2026, the new game is written in assembly and requires a PAL VIC-20 fitted with a 35K RAM expansion. It is presented by Beamrider as a conversion of Namco’s Pac-Man, rather than a loose game built around the same maze-chase idea.
That distinction shows up in some of the features being carried across. Snapman 20 includes the arcade ghost movement patterns and the intermissions that break up progress through the original game, rather than stopping at the basic formula of dots, ghosts and a maze.
A bigger Pac-Man job for the VIC-20
The rules remain immediately recognisable. The player clears the maze by eating its dots while avoiding the ghosts, with the next level following once the screen has been completed.
A joystick controls movement, with the fire button used to begin the game. Beamrider has also included cursor-key adjustment for positioning the display, something intended to help when playing on CRT hardware.
There is a practical reason for that extra control. Beamrider notes that the display fits on a CRT, but some of the blue perimeter walls may sit outside the visible area depending on the setup. That does not affect the underlying playfield.
The hardware requirement is equally specific. This is not a game for a stock VIC-20 pulled straight from the box, with the 35K expansion doing the heavy lifting needed for Beamrider’s conversion. It is also PAL-only rather than a release currently listed for both PAL and NTSC machines.
Beamrider has been busy on Commodore’s first VIC machine this year. Other 2026 releases include a VIC-20 conversion of BurgerTime and Space Panic DX, both also written in assembly and designed around expanded hardware.
Snapman 20 continues that run with an especially recognisable arcade target. Rather than reinventing Pac-Man, the project is about seeing how much of its original structure can be carried onto an expanded VIC-20, right down to movement patterns and between-level sequences.
The game is available as a downloadable ZIP through the VIC-20 Software Releases of 2026 thread on the Denial forum, where Beamrider has also posted the requirements and controls.
