I'm not a fan of using cheats to get to places I haven't personally seen in a game, and only use savestates if I have to split and come back to a game, which isn't often.
I have actually seen the blue boards on MsPac. Once. Four years ago...and quickly lost ---my bottom--- on the first board. For some time, my requirement was to get through the first five boards on one pac - not just because I needed them, but because I felt it was then worthy of going all the way. However, for a while now, I just haven't been able to meet that. Add in the desire to make the first two boards 'perfect' (or at least as far as eating ghosts); sometimes I haven't made it past the first two, so involved have I been in the task. And I'm so intense about it that I just reset the game at the first death. No hesitation.
Next.
Well, tonight....after probably fifteen consecutive resets....finally, tonight, I've made it through board five on my first pac, and then some!
Woohoo, second red board!

Ah, lost two. Fourth board, though!

....and intermission!!

Second (or maybe third?) blue board!

AND.....I would've passed the fourth board....all I had to do was hit the tunnel on the left, which I was planning on, and then finished it right up....

...but the stick ---fouled up beyond all recognition--- me! They was chasin me hard, westward across the lower part of the board, and I missed going up, right at the last, partly because of the round restrictor in my U360. (Almost doesn't count...but, well, I didn't save the state. Perhaps I should've.) This is definitely one game where I can see why people want original or at least reunion sticks.