Pac-Man hits 30 without losing its way

[Police Moderator]

Pac-Man hits 30 without losing its way
In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, Google.com allowed visitors to play the classic video game in the shape of the Google logo.

By Harold Goldberg
Sunday, May 23, 2010

The fact that Namco's Pac-Man has been around for 30 years can make you feel ancient.

Pac-Man is one of the few early games to have survived the novelty of the arcade era. The addictive video offering with that minimalist chomping circle has been tweaked and remade repeatedly; there have been more than 50 versions of the landmark maze game. More than 10 billion games of Pac-Man have been played worldwide. Back in the day, Namco licensed nearly 294,000 arcade editions of the original, and its success spawned numerous ancillary cottage industries. The awful, funky rock of a song called "Pac-Man Fever," for instance, didn't stop the song from climbing quickly to No. 9 on the Billboard charts. It went gold in March 1982 and eventually sold 2.5 million copies.

How exactly did Pac-Man mania happen here and throughout the world? When Pac-Man was introduced, there still weren't that many arcade games from which to choose. After the success of Pong and Space Invaders, there was a constant, frantic search for the hot new game. But the demand for something new and creative outpaced the supply of what was new and creative.

Then came Namco. Before it made games, Namco was a small Tokyo company, founded in 1955 and offering electronic rocking-horse kiddie rides at department stores. When arcade games hit the back rooms of bars in the '70s, Namco successfully riffed on the Space Invaders theme with Galaxian, which featured dive-bombing alien ships instead of the marching, menacing, slowly descending aliens of Space Invaders.

Read more: washington post

[ScarlettP]

I was never much into Pac Man. But I don't want to think about how many quarters I spent on Galaxian. I was good at that one.

[Bob]

May 24, 2010 6:16:15 GMT -5 ScarlettP said:

I was never much into Pac Man. But I don't want to think about how many quarters I spent on Galaxian. I was good at that one.

Yeah me too. Thought I was good at space invaders until the bar I worked at had a contest. Watched a guy go through the entire set of "levels" over and over (for hours)

[daworm]

I used to be "that guy" back in the day on a few games. I could play Space Invaders as long as I wanted to. I rolled the score on Defender once, just to see if I could. Took too long to try it a second time.

Then games got hard, and I didn't get any better. Nowadays I am pure, unadulterated frag bait.

[BlackFox]

I thought I was good at Defender until I just read DaWorm's post above. As I look back, I think my fatal flaw was not making full use of that button that would just blow up everything on the screen. Probably left a few too many of those on the table.

[el Gusano]

Galaga was my game. I could play it as long as I wanted to on one quarter. I would often get free tokens if I would go play something else because Galaga was so popular at the time.

[BlackFox]

May 24, 2010 13:15:22 GMT -5 el Gusano said:

Galaga was my game. I could play it as long as I wanted to on one quarter. I would often get free tokens if I would go play something else because Galaga was so popular at the time.

They still have the same Galaga game up at Sports Pizza in Cleveland that they had when I used to go in there a lot back in the mid 80's. I used to get the high score everytime I went in there, but I couldn't play it on and on like you did.

[el Gusano]

When you turn it over, it goes back to zero, so if you get killed, it actually shows a low score. That's why, I would play and play, then kill myself just before turning it over to get my name on all the high scores. (Then some jerk of an employee would reset them all, grumble, grumble.)

[Warkitty]

I've never been good at any video game. I have a friend that takes them very, very seriously though. Has a whole room just to house his games.

[Bob]

May 24, 2010 15:56:44 GMT -5 Warkitty said:

I've never been good at any video game. I have a friend that takes them very, very seriously though. Has a whole room just to house his games.

Which friend, worm or dabone....

[grin]

[Warkitty]

HAH! Believe it or not, neither! Fella named Nik.

[daworm]

I don't do games much, but DaBone once had half a duplex just for the games that weren't loaned out.

[Bryan Stone]

I'd love a working 'old school" arcade style video game @ my house to add to my retro-ness. Pac-Man is as old as I am.

oh and I don't play video games. unless i had an arcade game at my house. then I'd play that one

[ScarlettP]

I think the day I found out that I was a dinosaur was the day I walked over to an arcade video or pinball machine that was occupied and "Put my Quarter up". The kid said "Thanks!" Having to explain that I was not giving him a quarter, that I just wanted the next turn... *sigh* It was like dieing a little.

[daworm]

I have a working (mostly) 1976 Atari Night Driver in my basement.

No, you can't have it.

[Jay]

I like my PS3!

[heckfarr]

I must have Night Driver!

May 25, 2010 8:30:50 GMT -5 daworm said:

I have a working (mostly) 1976 Atari Night Driver in my basement.

No, you can't have it.

[ScarlettP]

WoW is calling me.

[dabone]

I've still got a few machines, they are just stashed at the office.

This one is in the server build room, booted pacman on it for the pic.



(I used to have too much free time....)

Later,
dabone

[Jay]

Cool little machine you have there, Dabone.

[heckfarr]

Just waved, "Good Morning" to Dabone from my front porch.
I still have Peterson's Atari Football game in my house that he bought from DaBone.
(the one w/ the roller ball controllers and push buttons for plays for the X's & O's on the screen)
Actually, it's in my kitchen under a box of hot sauce bottles.