Video Gamers Oasis - The Meek Geek Video Game Blog Review - Podcast - December 22, 2008
Special Thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org
Recently, I was beamed up into a giant mothership of the Space Invaders, and had the privilege of interviewing a representative for the alien collective.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Thank you for allowing me to speak with you, Space Invader.
Space Invader: It is not necessary to thank us. We have allowed you to live and speak with us in order to relay our message to earth.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: What message would that be?
Space Invader: Surrender your earth or be destroyed.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Ha! You guys have been trying to do that for over 20 years! We’ve defeated you many times!
Space Invader: But there were times when we did conquer your earth. Do you have any legitimate questions, or are you just wasting our time?
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: (Ahem!) Yes. Tell us briefly about your gameplay.
Space Invader: Space Invaders is a two-dimensional, fixed shooter game in which the player controls a laser cannon by moving it horizontally across the bottom
the screen and firing at aliens. The aim is to defeat five rows of eleven aliens - some versions feature different amounts - that move horizontally back and forth across the screen as they descend towards the bottom of the screen. The player defeats an alien, and earns points, by shooting it with the laser cannon.
As more aliens are defeated, the aliens’ movement and the game’s music speed up. Defeating the aliens brings another wave that is more difficult; a cycle which
can continue indefinitely.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Yes. I’ve noticed that. You just keep coming and coming. How many of you guys are there?
Space Invader: That number is classified, but I will tell you this - we are able to clone ourselves indefinitely, so we never really die.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: I see. That would explain why the game never ends. Please go on.
Space Invader: We attempt to destroy the cannon by firing at it while they are approaching the bottom of the screen. If they reach the bottom, the alien invasion is successful and the game ends. A special “mystery ship” will sometimes move across the top of the screen and award bonus points if destroyed. The laser cannon is partially protected by several stationary defence bunkers - the number varies by version - that are gradually destroyed by alien fire.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Yes. When I play your game, I often use those bunkers as shields. Now, Space Invader, please tell me how your game was first developed.
Space Invader: Space Invaders was created by Tomohiro Nishikado, who spent a year designing game and developing the necessary hardware to produce it. The game’s inspiration is reported to have come from varying sources, including an adaptation of the mechanical game Space Monsters released by Taito in 1972, and a dream about Japanese schoolchildren who are waiting for Santa Claus and are attacked by invading aliens.
Nishikado has also stated that he was
inspired by Atari’s arcade game Breakout, and aimed to create a game that featured the same sense of achievement from completing stages, but with more
complex graphics.
Early enemy designs included tanks, combat planes, and battleships. However, Nishikado was not satisfied with the enemy movements; technical limitations made it difficult to simulate flying. Humans would have been easier to simulate, but Nishikado thought that shooting them was immoral. After seeing a magazine feature about Star Wars, he thought of using a space theme.
Nishikado drew inspiration for the aliens from H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds and created initial bitmap images after the octopus-like aliens. Other alien designs were modeled after squids and crabs. The game was originally titled Space Monsters, inspired by a popular song in Japan at the time (”Monster”), but was changed to Space Invaders by Nishikado’s boss.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Fascinating! Now, tell me about your hardware.
Space Invader: Because microcomputers in Japan were not powerful enough at the time to perform the complex tasks involved in designing and programming Space
Invaders, Nishikado had to design his own custom hardware and development tools for the game.
The game featured raster graphics on a CRT monitor, monaural sound generated by analogue circuitry, and used an Intel 8080 central processing unit. Despite the specially developed hardware, Nishikado was unable to
program the game as he wanted - the Control Program board was not powerful enough to display the graphics in color or move the enemies faster - and considered the development of the hardware the most difficult part of the whole process.
Space Invaders was first released in a cocktail-table format with black and white graphics. The Western release by Midway was in an upright cabinet format,
and used strips of orange and green cellophane over the screen to simulate color graphics. The graphics were reflected onto a painted backdrop of a moon
against a space background.
Later Japanese releases also used colored cellophane. The cabinet artwork featured large, humanoid monsters not present in the game. Nishikado attributes this to the artist basing the designs on the original title, Space Monsters, rather than referring to the in-game graphics.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Interesting! Now tell us about the legacy you have left over the years.
Space Invader: Space Invaders is considered one of the most successful arcade shooting games. After the first few months following its release in Japan, the
game became very popular. Specialty arcades opened with nothing but Space Invaders cabinets, and Taito produced 100,000 arcade machines for the Japanese
market over the next few years. In the United States, 60,000 machines were sold. The arcade cabinets have since become collector’s items with the
and cabaret versions being the rarest. A shortage of 100-yen coins in Japan was attributed to the game, and this led to an increase in production of these
coins. By 2007, it had generated almost US$500 million in revenue. The 1980 Atari 2600 version was the first official licensing of an arcade game and became the first “killer app” for video game consoles by quadrupling
the system’s sales.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Yes! I remember playing that game on the 2600! Fond memories! Please go on…
Space Invader: Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto considers Space Invaders a game that revolutionized the video game industry; he was never interested in video games before seeing it. Several publications attribute the expansion of the video game industry from a novelty into a global industry to the success of the game.
Edge attributes the shift of video games from bars and arcades to more mainstream locations like restaurants and department stores to Space Invaders. According to The Observer, the home console versions were popular and encouraged users to learn programming; many who later became industry leaders.
1UP.com stated that Space Invaders showed that video games could compete against the major entertainment media at the time - movies, music, and television.
IGN attributes the launch of the arcade phenomenon in North America in part to Space Invaders. Game Informer considers it, along with Pac-Man, one of
the most popular arcade games that tapped into popular culture and generated excitement during the golden age of arcades. In 2007, Guinness World Records
listed it as the top-rated arcade game, and IGN listed it as one of the “Top 10 Most Influential Games”.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Very impressive!
Space Invader: As one of the earliest shooting games, it set precedents and helped pave the way for future titles and for the shooting genre. Space Invaders was the first video game to have an intermission between gameplay, and to popularize the concept of achieving a high score. IGN lists it as the number eight “classic shoot ‘em up”. Space Invaders has inspired the development of several games, and led to multiple sequels and re-releases.
Arcade games, like Namco’s Galaxian and Galaga, were modeled after the gameplay and design of Space Invaders. In 2002, Taito released Space Raiders, a third-person shooter reminiscent of Space Invaders.
Space Invaders has been re-released on numerous platforms, and spawned many sequels. Re-releases include ported and updated versions of the original arcade game. Ported versions generally feature different graphics and additional gameplay options - for example, moving defence bunkers, zigzag shots, invisible aliens, and two-player cooperative gameplay.
Ports on earlier systems like the Atari home consoles featured simplified graphics, while later systems such as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and PlayStation featured updated graphics. Later titles include several modes of gameplay and integrate new
elements into the original design. For example, Space Invaders Extreme, released on the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable, integrated musical elements into the standard gameplay.
An upcoming spin-off for WiiWare, Space Invaders Get Even, allows players to control the aliens instead of the laser cannon. Different ports have been met with mixed receptions; the Atari 2600 version was very successful while the Nintendo Entertainment System version was poorly received.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Now tell me, were there any re-releases or sequels?
Space Invader: Taito has released several arcade sequels that built upon the basic design of the original. The first was Space Invaders Part II in 1980; it
featured color graphics and new gameplay elements. This version was released in the United States as Deluxe Space Invaders (also known as Space Invaders
Deluxe), but featured a different graphical color scheme and a lunar-city background. Another arcade sequel, titled Space Invaders II, was released exclusively in the United States. It was in a cocktail-table format and featured a competitive two-player mode.
During the summer of 1985, Return of the Invaders was released with updated color graphics, and more complex movements and attack patterns for the aliens. Subsequent arcade sequels included Super Space
Invaders ‘91, Space Invaders DX, and Space Invaders ‘95. Each game introduced minor gameplay additions to the original design. Like the original game, several
of the arcade sequels have become collector’s items, though some are considered rarer.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Wow. I wonder how much a collector would have to pay for those games today? Go on.
Space Invader: The game and its related games have been included in video game compilation titles. Space Invaders Anniversary was released in 2003 for the
PlayStation 2 and included nine Space Invader variants. A similar title for the PlayStation Portable, Space Invaders Pocket, was released in 2005. Space
Invaders, Space Invaders Part II and Return of the Invaders are included in Taito Legends, a compilation of Taito’s classic arcade games released in 2005
on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC. Space Invaders DX and Space Invaders ‘95 were included in Taito Legends 2, a sequel compilation released in 2006.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Now, tell us, how has your game influenced our culture?
Space Invader: Our scanner screens have inspected your earth for many years and we have detected that our game has appeared in numerous facets of popular
culture. Multiple television series have aired episodes that either refer to the game or parody it and its elements; for example, DangerMouse, That ’70s
Show, Scrubs, and Robot Chicken. Elements are prominently featured in the “Raiders of the Lost Arcade” segment of “Anthology of Interest II”, an episode of Futurama.
Many publications and websites use the pixelated alien graphic as an icon for video games in general, including video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly, technology website Ars Technica, and concert event Video Games Live. Video Games Live has also performed audio from Space Invaders as part of a special retro “Classic Arcade Medley”. A French
street artist known as Invader has made a name for himself by creating mosaic artwork of Space Invader aliens around the world.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Oh, that’s amazing!
Space Invader: There is more! In 2006, the game was one of several video game related media selected to represent Japan as part of a project compiled by
Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs. In the same year, Space Invaders was included in the London Science Museum’s Game On exhibition meant to showcase
the various aspects of video game history, development, and culture.
At the Belluard Bollwerk International 2006 festival in Fribourg, Switzerland, Guillaume Reymond created a three-minute video recreation of a game of Space Invaders as part of the “Gameover” project using humans as pixels. The GH ART exhibit at the 2008 Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany included an art game, Invaders!, based on the Space Invaders gameplay. The creator later asked for the game to be removed from the exhibit following criticism of elements based on the September 11, 2001 attacks.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Scary stuff. Well, Space Invaders. Thank you for allowing me to speak with you tonight. I must be going now!
Space Invader: Why so soon? Won’t you stay for dinner? Our dinner!
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Uh-oh! I’m in trouble.
Space Invader: Heh-heh. Space Invader humour. Yes, you may go now. Tell your your fellow earthlings to keep playing our game, but resistance is futile.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: I will, but we will beat you!
Space Invader: We doubt that, but keep trying! Ha! Till next time.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Bye.
Special Thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org
Pac-Man, an immensely popular video game originally known as Pakku man, was first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. It was first developed as an arcade game by Namco and licensed for distribution in the U.S. by Midway.
Pac-Man is universally considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. The game became a social phenomenon that sold piles of merchandise and also inspired, among other things, an animated television series and music.
When Pac-Man was released, most arcade video games in North America were primarily space shooters such as Space Invaders, Defender or Asteroids.
The most visible minority were sports games that were mostly derivative of Pong. Pac-Man succeeded by creating a new genre and appealing to both genders. Pac-Man is often credited with being a landmark in video game history, and is among the most famous arcade games of all time. The character also appears in more than 30 officially licensed game spin-offs, as well as in numerous unauthorized clones and bootlegs.
According to the Davie-Brown Index, Pac-Man has the highest brand awareness of any video game character among American consumers, recognized by 94 percent of them.
I recently had the privilege of visiting one of the many mazes in Pac World and interview not only Pac-Man, but his wife, Ms. Pacman and their son Baby Pacman.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Thanks for letting me speak to you folks!
Pac-Man: Your welcome!
Ms. Pac-Man: Your welcome!
Baby Pac-Man: Your welcome!
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: …Tell me little guy, how old, are you?
Baby Pac-Man: I’m 38 years old.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: …(Ahem). Oh! That’s very good!
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Moving on. Pacman, you have become an icon of video game culture during the 1980s, and a great deal of Pac-Man merchandise was marketed with the character’s image, from t-shirts and toys to hand-held video game imitations and pasta. The Killer List of Videogames lists Pac-Man as the #1 video game
of all time on its “Top 10 Most Popular Video games” list. Pac-Man, and other video games of the same general type, are often cited as an identifying cultural experience of Generation X, particularly its older members, sometimes called Baby Busters.
Your success of the Pac-Man series has resulted in Guinness
World Records awarding the series eight records in Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition 2008. These records include “First Perfect Pac-Man Game” for Billy Mitchell’s July 3, 1999 score; “Most Successful Coin-Operated Game”; and “Largest Pac-Man Game”, when, in 2004, students from New York University created Pac-Manhattan, a real life reenactment of the game, in which people dressed as Pac-Man and the four ghosts chased each other around Manhattan city blocks. Each player was teamed with a controller who communicated the player’s positions using cellular phones. Is that not so?
Pac-Man: Ah, thanks there. Yes, we have earned a lot of recognition over the years.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Pacman, how did you got to this point?
Pac-Man: My game was developed primarily by…
Ms. Pac-Man: (Ahem!)
Pac-Man: Sorry dear, heh. OUR game was developed primarily by Namco employee Toru Iwatani over eighteen months. The original Japanese title was pronounced Pakku-man; it was inspired by a Greek word, onomatopoeic, which describes the sound of Pacman’s mouth movement when opened widely and closed in succession.
The character’s shape reportedly was inspired by a pizza missing a slice, Iwatani admitted in a 1986 interview that was only a half-truth; the character design also came from simplifying and rounding out the Japanese character for mouth, kuchi, as well as the basic
concept of eating. Iwatani’s efforts to appeal to a wider audience -
beyond the typical demographics of young boys and teenagers - would eventually lead him to adding elements of a maze. The result was a game he named Puck Man.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Puck Man? Interesting. I didn’t realize that!
Pac-Man: You see, when Namco first launched me in Japan, our game received a lukewarm response, since Space Invaders and other similar games were more popular at the time.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Yes, before Pac-Man, Space Invaders was an extremely popular arcade game!
Pac-Man: The following year, Bally division Midway picked up our game for manufacture in the United States under the altered title Pac-Man.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Pardon me Pac-Man, why was your name changed?
Pac-Man: For the North American market, the name was changed from Puck Man to Pac-Man. Why? Because of concern that vandals likely would be tempted to change the P in Puck to an F, forming a common expletive. Puck Man machines can be found throughout Europe.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Oh, I can see. That makes sense.
Pac-Man: When Midway released Pac-Man in the United States, the company also redesigned the cabinet’s artwork, as the Namco-style artwork was more costly to mass produce. Puck Man was painted white overall, featuring multicolored artwork on both sides with cheerful Pac-Man characters in different poses. However, Pac-Man
was painted yellow, with very simple and easy-to-stencil artwork on both sides, front and back.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: That artwork of yours has become a highly recognized graphic image to this day.
Pac-Man: Yes, it has been. American audiences welcomed a breakaway from conventions held by Space Invaders. This resulted in unprecedented popularity and revenues that rivaled its successful predecessor. Even Iwatani was impressed with U.S. sales. The game soon became a worldwide phenomenon within the video game industry, resulting in numerous sequels and merchandising tie-ins. Our success bred imitators, including an entire genre of maze-chase video games.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Yes, I’ve noticed that! I’ve played a lot of maze games, but they have never matched the enjoyment of your game!
Pac-Man: Thank you. Our unique game design inspired game publishers to be innovative rather than conservative. They were encouraged to try new game designs that broke from existing genres. Pac-Man introduced an element of humor into video games that designers sought to imitate. They appealed to a wider demographic than the teenage boys who flocked to the action-oriented games.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Oh yes! I remember as a kid, spending countless hours at arcades and roadhouses playing your game! So much fun!
Pac-Man: We appreciate that. Competitors and distributors were taken completely by surprise by Pac-Man’s success in North America in 1980. Marketing executives saw Pac-Man at a trade show before it was released. They completely overlooked the Pac-Man game (along with the now classic Defender), while they focused on a racing car game called Rally-X as the game to outdo that year. Pac-man’s appeal was such that the game caught on immediately with the public; it quickly became far more popular than anything seen in the game industry before. Pac-Man outstripped Asteroids as the greatest selling arcade game of the time, and would go on to sell over 350,000 units.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Very interesting Pac-Man! Now, moving on to gameplay. For those in the audience who are new to Pac-Man, please tell us how a person plays the game.
Pac-Man: The player controls Pac-Man through a maze, eating pac-dots. When all dots are eaten, Pac-Man is taken to the next stage. Four ghosts (Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde) roam the maze, trying to catch Pac-Man. If a ghost touches Pac-Man, a life is lost. When all lives have been lost, the game ends. Pac-Man is awarded a single bonus life at 10,000 points by default — DIP switches inside
the machine can change the required points or disable the bonus life altogether.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Ok…
Pac-Man: Near the corners of the maze are four larger, flashing dots known as power pellets that provide Pac-Man with the temporary ability to eat the ghosts. The ghosts turn deep blue, reverse direction, and usually move more slowly when Pac-Man eats a power pellet. When a ghost is eaten, its eyes return to the ghost home where it is regenerated in its normal color. Blue ghosts flash white before they become dangerous again and the amount of time the ghosts
remain vulnerable varies from one board to the next, but the time period generally becomes shorter as the game progresses. In later stages, the ghosts do not change colors at all, but still reverse direction when a power pellet is eaten.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Fascinating! Please, tell us more.
Pac-Man: In addition to pac-dots and power pellets, bonus items, usually referred to as fruits (though not all items are fruits) appear near the center of the maze. These items score extra bonus points when eaten. The items change and bonus values increase throughout the game. Also, a series of intermissions play after certain levels toward the beginning of the game, showing a humorous set
of interactions between Pac-Man and Blinky (the red ghost).
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Haha! I love those intermissions! They give me a chance to breath, and lighten tension from the game!
Pac-Man: Yes they do for us too!
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Pacman, tell us more about the Ghosts.
Pac-Man: The Ghosts? Oh yes. Well. Initially, Pac-Man’s enemies were referred to as monsters on the arcade cabinet, but soon became colloquially known as ghosts.
The ghosts are bound by the maze in the same way as Pac-Man, but generally move slightly faster than the player, although they slow down when turning corners and slow down significantly while passing through the tunnels on the sides of the maze (Pac-Man passes through these tunnels unhindered). Pac-Man slows down
slightly while eating dots, potentially allowing a chasing ghost to catch him.
Blinky, the red ghost, speeds up after a certain number of dots are eaten (this number gets lower in higher levels). The accelerated Blinky is unofficially called Cruise Elroy.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Ha. That’s funny.
Pac-Man: Heh. Indeed! Unless your’e being chased by him!
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Yes. Uh, of course!
Pac-Man: Ms. Pac-Man, please tell him the Ghost’s names and nicknames.
Ms. Pac-Man: Yes dear.
The ghosts are introduced during attract mode by the following names and nicknames:
From Original Pac-Man:
Red: Oikake - Translation: chaser - Nickname: Akabei - Translation: red guy Alternate Character: Urchin - Alternate Nickname: Macky -
From American Pac-Man: Shadow - Nickname: Blinky
From Original Pac-Man:
Pink: Machibuse - Translation: ambusher - Nickname: Pinky - Translation: pink guy Alternate Character: Romp - Alternate Nickname: Micky - From American Pac-Man: Speedy - Nickname: Pinky
From Original Pac-Man: Cyan: Kimagure - Translation: fickle - Nickname: Aosuke - Translation blue guy Alternate Character: Stylist - Alternate Nickname: Mucky - From American Pac-Man: Bashful - Nickname: Inky
From Original Pac-Man:
Orange: Otoboke - Translation: stupid - Nickname: Guzuta – Translation: slow guy
Alternate Character: Crybaby - Alternate Nickname: Mocky -
From American Pac-Man: Pokey - Nickname: Clyde
Ms. Pac-Man: (Phew). Baby Pac-Man, please tell the nice man about their behavour please?
Baby Pac-Man: Ok. A ghost always maintains its current direction until it reaches an intersection, at which point it can turn left or right. Periodically, the ghosts will reverse direction and head for the corners of the maze (commonly referred to as “scatter mode”), before reverting to their normal behavior. In an interview, Iwatani stated that he had designed each ghost with its own distinct personality in order to keep the game from becoming impossibly difficult or boring to play. However, while players generally agree that the behaviors of each ghost add depth and challenge to the game, no consensus has been reached on exactly how to describe those behaviors.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Okay.
Baby Pac-Man: Despite the seemingly random nature of some of the ghosts, their movements are strictly deterministic, enabling experienced players to devise precise sequences of movements for each level (termed “patterns”) that allow them to complete the levels without ever being caught. A later revision of the game code altered the ghosts’ behavior, but new patterns were soon developed for
that behavior as well. Players have also learned how to exploit other flaws in the ghosts’ behavior, including finding places where they can hide indefinitely without moving, and a code bug occasionally allows Pac-Man to pass through a non-blue ghost unharmed. Several patterns have been developed to exploit this bug. A common rumor speculates that this only happens when Pac-Man’s mouth is completely closed.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Intriguing! Pacman, tell me, is there a “kill screen?”
Pac-Man: Why yes. Now that you mention it. There is. The 256th split-screen level is unplayable because of a software bug. Pac-Man technically has no ending—as long as the player keeps at least one life, they should be able to continue playing indefinitely. However, because of a bug in the routine that draws the fruit, the right side of the 256th board becomes a garbled mess of text and symbols, rendering the level impossible to pass by legitimate means. Normally, no more than seven fruits are displayed at any one time, but when the internal level counter (stored in a single byte) reaches 255, the subroutine erroneously causes this value to “roll over” to zero before drawing the fruit. This causes the routine to attempt to draw 256 fruits, which corrupts the bottom of the screen and the whole right half of the maze with seemingly random symbols.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Very interesting!
Pac-Man: Through tinkering, the details of the corruption can be revealed. Some ROMs of the game are equipped with a “rack test” feature that can be accessed through the game’s DIP switches. This feature automatically clears a level of all dots as soon as it begins, making it easier to reach the 256th board very quickly, as well as allowing players to see what would happen if the 256th board is cleared (the game loops back to the first level, causing fruits
and intermissions to display as before, but with the ghosts retaining their higher speed and invulnerability to power pellets from the later stages). When the rack test is performed in an emulator, a person can more easily analyze the corruption in this level.
Ms.Pac-Man: Pac-Man and the ghosts can move freely throughout the right half of screen, barring some fractured pieces of the maze. Despite claims that someone with enough knowledge of the maze pattern could play through the level, it is technically impossible to complete since the graphical corruption eliminates most of the dots on the right half of the maze. A few edible dots are scattered in the corrupted area, and these dots reset when the player loses a life (unlike in the uncorrupted areas), but these are insufficient to complete the level. As a result, the level has been given a number of names, including “the Final Level”, “the Blind-Side”, and the ending. It is known more generally as a kill screen.
Baby Pac-Man: Mom! Dad! Let me tell him about the perfect play!
Pac-Man: Alright.
Ms. Pac-Man: Go ahead sweety.
Baby Pacman: A perfect Pac-Man game occurs when the player achieves the maximum score on the first 255 levels (by eating every possible dot, energizer, fruit, and monster) without losing a single life, then scoring as many points as possible in the last level. As verified by the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard on July 3, 1999, the first person to achieve the maximum possible score (3,333,360 points) was Billy Mitchell of Hollywood, Florida, who performed the feat in about six hours.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Wow, that was an impressive achievement!
Baby Pac-Man: In December 1982, an eight-year-old boy named Jeffrey R. Yee supposedly received a letter from U.S. President Ronald Reagan congratulating him on a worldwide record of 6,131,940 points, a score only possible if the player has
passed the Split-Screen Level. Whether or not this event happened as
described has remained in heated debate among video-game circles since its supposed occurrence. In September 1983, Walter Day, chief scorekeeper at Twin Galaxies, took the US National Video Game Team on a tour of the East Coast to visit video game players who claimed they could get through the Split-Screen. No video game player could demonstrate this ability. In 1999, Billy Mitchell offered $100,000 to anyone who could provably pass through the Split-Screen
Level before January 1, 2000; the prize went unclaimed.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Very impressive, Baby Pac-Man! But can you tell us when and where the first Pac-Man World Championship was held?
Baby Pac-Man: Of course! On June 5, 2007, the first Pac-Man World Championship was held in New York City, which brought together ten competitors from eight countries to play the new Pac-Man Championship Edition just prior to its release on Xbox Live Arcade. The top two scorers, Robert Glashuettner of Austria and Carlos Daniel Borrego of Mexico, competed for the championship in a single five-minute round. Borrego was named Pac-Man World Champion and won an Xbox 360 console, specially decorated with Pac-Man artwork and signed by Toru Iwatani.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Well done guy! Your son is very knowledgable, folks!
Pac-Man: He’s a chip off the old yellow block!
Ms. Pac-Man: Thank you. We’ve worked hard raising him.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Moving on to Ports. Pac-Man is one of the few games to have been consistently rereleased for over two decades. Pacman, please tell us the various systems you have played on.
Pac-Man: In the 1980s, it was released for the Apple II series, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, the Atari 8-bit computers, IBM Personal Computer, Intellivision, Commodore 64, and Nintendo Entertainment System (1987 and 1990). For handheld games, it was released on the Game Boy (1991), Sega Game Gear (1991), and Neo Geo Pocket Color (1999), as well as Pac-Man: Special Color Edition for the Game
Boy Color (1999), Pac-Man Collection for the Game Boy Advance (2001), and an unlockable in Pac ‘n Roll for the Nintendo DS. However, it has been most widely distributed in Namco’s long-running Namco Museum series, first for the PlayStation in 1996 and for many major consoles released since, as well as the handheld systems Game Boy Advance, PSP, and Nintendo DS. An Xbox 360 port was
released via Xbox Live Arcade on August 9, 2006. Pac-Man is also available in its original form as part of the GameTap service. On September 12, 2006, a port was released for play on the popular iPod music player. There have been efforts to hack the pre-existing Ms Pac-Man cartridge (as well as other variants in the Pac-Man series) to create the original Pac-Man.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Hmmm. I see.
Pac-Man: Namco has repeatedly rereleased this game to arcades. In 2001, Namco released a 20-Year Reunion cabinet featuring Ms Pac-Man and Galaga that permits the unlocking of Pac-Man for play. In 2005, Namco released a board openly featuring all three of the games on the 20-Year Reunion board in honor of Pac-Man’s 25th Anniversary. The NES version later became a Classic NES Series
title for the Game Boy Advance, and was also released for download via the Wii’s Virtual Console service in May 2007.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: YES! I love it when they bring back the classics to the new game systems.
Pac-Man: Namco’s wireless division, Namco Networks America Inc., released a line of Pac-Man games for cell phones in 2002, starting with the original arcade version and following up with Pac-Man game extensions like Pac-Man Bowling and Pac-Man Pinball. This division also launched a networked game, Ms. Pac-Man For Prizes, in 2004. Pac-Man mobile games are available on both BREW and Java
platforms across major cellular carriers, as well as on Palm PDAs and Windows PC phones. There is a port of Pac-Man for Android[30] which can be controlled not only through an Android phone’s trackball but through touch gestures or its on-board accelerometer.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Now, Pacman. I know the following subject may be unpleasant for you, but please, tell us about The Atari 2600
Pac-Man: (Sniff) I’m sorry, I get so emotional every time it comes up.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Take your time.
Pac-Man: The Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man was developed by programmer Tod Frye and published in 1982 by Atari. It was the first port of the arcade game, Atari being the licensee for the video game console rights. Although it sold seven million units to a user base of 10 million, this port’s quality was widely criticized. Having manufactured 12 million cartridges with the expectation that the game would increase sales of its console, Atari incurred large financial losses from remaining unsold inventory. This was one of the catalysts that led to the North American video game crash of 1983, second only to the home video game version of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in terms of unsold inventory.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: I’m so sorry about that Pacman. But look at you now! You’re outdone yourself!
Ms. Pac-Man: Yes he has.
Baby Pac-Man: I’m proud of you dad.
Pac-Man: Thanks.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Now folks, there have been numerous Pacman spin-offs. Tell us about them, Ms Pacman.
Ms. Pac-Man: Pac-Man spawned numerous sequels, the most significant of which is Ms. Pac-Man. Originally called Crazy Otto, I was an unauthorized hack of Pac-Man, created by General Computer Corporation and sold to Midway without Namco’s permission. The game features several improvements to and changes from the original Pac-Man, including faster gameplay, more mazes, new intermissions, and moving bonus items. Some consider Ms. Pac-Man to be superior to the original, and even the best in the entire series. Namco sued Midway for exceeding their license. Eventually, Bally Midway struck a deal with Namco to officially license Ms. Pac-Man as a sequel.
Pac-Man: I’ve been in love with her from the moment we met!
Ms. Pac-Man: Heh.
Following Ms. Pac-Man, Bally Midway released several unauthorized spin-offs, such as Pac-Man Plus, Baby Pac-Man, and Professor Pac-Man, resulting in Namco business relations with Midway. These other titles were generally considered inferior and unimportant, serving to oversaturate the market for Pac-Man games.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: I’ve always enjoyed your version Baby Pacman. Pacman, I believe that Microsoft and Xbox Live came up with a new version?
Pac-Man: Yes. Twenty-six years after the original Pac-Man, Microsoft worked with Toru Iwatani and Namco Bandai to produce a remake of the game, Pac-Man Championship Edition. It was released for the Xbox Live Arcade on June 6, 2007.
Of course, as we discussed earlier, many unauthorized pirate versions of the game were also created in order to profit from Pac-Man’s fame and playability.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Yes. They are the TRULY inferior games! Pacman, any non-video games out there for die-hard fans?
Pac-Man: Why, yes! In 1982, Milton Bradley released a board game based on Pac-Man and another based on Ms. Pac-Man. Several other pocket games and a card game were also produced.
A group of students from the Computer Science department of Simon Fraser University had developed a “life-sized” Pac-Man system, using laptops and mobile phone tracking to track the location of the dots, ghost, and the Pac-Man. It has become a regular activity of Computer Science Frosh Week, and is usually played in Downtown Vancouver.
A real-life version of Pac-Man has also been played around the Washington square park area of New York, in a game-christened PacManhattan.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Haha! I would love to go to Vancouver and New York just to see those games!
Ms. Pac-Man: (Whispering): Dear…Tell him about the movie!
Pac-Man: Oh yes! In 2004, Crystal Sky Pictures announced they were producing a theatrical film adaption titled Pac-Man: The Movie. It will combine live-action and special effects. The film was included in a $200 million deal with Grosvenor Park.
Baby Pac-Man: Dad! Tell him about the fruit machine!
Pac-Man: Heheh. In the early 1980s in the UK, JPM released a fruit machine called “Fruit Snappa”. Numbers on the reels move the “Pac-Man” around a maze, eating prizes.
VGOTheMeekGeekVGV: Wonderful! Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Baby Pac-Man. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me this evening!
Pac-Man: Thank you! Now if you don’t mind, we have to chomp on some power pellets and Ghosts! Come on folks! Bye!
