Pac-Man Turns 25 246
blacklily8 writes "CNN Money is running a story about Pac-Man's 25th birthday. After going on a bit about the history of our favorite pizza sans one slice, the article waxes a bit on why the game was (and is) such a success, with some quotations from Namco's marketing manager: 'He's very colorful, very safe. It's definitely different than the trends going on in games. He just has an appeal.' I think it's because the game is just plain fun, with no need to rely on tech-demo thrills to attract attention. Time to dig out the X-Arcade." It's also *hard*, proving that challenging games are what people have always been looking for.
Pac Man's Obit (Score:5, Funny)
IIRC others (Score:2)
Game over:eeweewee wawa
GUComics (Score:5, Informative)
Re:GUComics (Score:5, Funny)
Re:GUComics (Score:3, Informative)
Re:GUComics (Score:3, Funny)
There's also a Pac-Man (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:There's also a Pac-Man (Score:5, Funny)
Re:There's also a Pac-Man (Score:2, Funny)
Farnsworth: Can you put that in the form of a question?
Fry: Uh, What if that thing I said?
Re:There's also a Pac-Man (Score:5, Insightful)
Sometimes you just want to pick up a new game and play for a while without learning new complicated things. Heres to the games you can play with a beer in one hand!
Re:There's also a Pac-Man (Score:4, Interesting)
Absolutely. The article is dead wrong on this, it was popular because it *wasn't* hard. You could drop in a quarter and start playing instantly. No instructions to read, no learning which buttons to press, etc.
It was also hugely popular because it was non-violent. Women loved the game, especially with most games being shooters of some sort.
Re:There's also a Pac-Man (Score:3, Funny)
How is Pac-Man "non-violent"?
The game is based apon eating these little, defensless yellow balls. Oh, and you have four ghosts that can kill you at any moment... errr... well unless you have a power-up that allows you to "eat" them and send them back to their "graveyard".
(Yea, I know I'm streaching a bit bit here, but you see my point...)
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be (Score:2)
In this fast changing world it is nice to find something familiar from the 80s that you can do without getting busted or hurting that crook knee. I get my kicks by walking down to the hen house and gathering some freshly laid eggs, but I figure most NYC apartments don't feature a hen house.
First of a Flood (Score:4, Insightful)
Wrong (Score:3, Funny)
I think yours is, however the first of a flood of predictions predicting a flood of articles.
Re:First of a Flood (Score:4, Insightful)
I foresee thousands of discussions on the UltraWeb (or whatever they decide to call it) about these games, and how kids these days just don't understand good game design.
Re:First of a Flood - /. in 25 years (Score:2)
Does that include Slashdot of 25 years from now? Where a DIY project posting will include a holographic walkthrough for site visitors.
Re:First of a Flood - /. in 25 years (Score:2, Funny)
Re:First of a Flood - /. in 25 years (Score:4, Funny)
I'm not even going to mention... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh bugger, I just have. Must - poke - out - mind's - eye
Re:I'm not even going to mention... (Score:2)
Re:I'm not even going to mention... (Score:4, Funny)
You know, that's probably one of the best captions for that image going.
=)
There's Alright a 3D Ultra-immersive Environment (Score:5, Funny)
Re:There's Alright a 3D Ultra-immersive Environmen (Score:2)
Re:There's Alright a 3D Ultra-immersive Environmen (Score:2)
Re:There's Alright a 3D Ultra-immersive Environmen (Score:2)
Re:First of a Flood (Score:5, Insightful)
Because on an emulator you haven't paid $0.25 to play it. There aren't people around to shoulder-surf you when you reach an insane level. Because there's no anonymous competition with the guy you trade highscores with on the same machine, week after week.
Pac-Man and other arcade classics don't hold up as emulated games because a lot of what made them fun were specific to their context. As arcades died out, and gaming moved to the PC and the console, things like 'points' and 'lives' became less important as gameplay elements, in favor of persistent games with longer-term goals like 'items' and 'unlockables' (and got a hell of a lot more complicated - Half-Life's Hazard Course was an acknowledgement of, and brilliant solution to, that phenomenon).
A typical game review today includes a note about how many hours long the game is. For an old arcade game, that's so irrelevant as to be meaningless - how 'long' is Pac-Man? Average game length? Time it takes to get to the 'key' levels for an expert player? Time it takes to learn all the patterns? Or 'as long as you wanna hang out and spend quarters'?
Re:First of a Flood (Score:3, Interesting)
Indeed, in 1980 I was working in Italy and the hotel we stayed in had a PAC-MAN console in the bar.
You had to stand in line to get a turn. After a few weeks we found out that a good and strategic kick against it would give a free play, since then it quickly became boring.
About some other comments; yes girls liked it too, the receptionist Christina was by far the best at it. :)
Why do I remember that name after all these years?
His real name! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:His real name! (Score:3, Interesting)
yep, and they changed it because it was such a obvious target for kiddies who would have scratch part of the 'P'.
*wink* *wink*
Re:His real name! (Score:2, Funny)
And If you've seen Family Guy (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:And If you've seen Family Guy (Score:3, Interesting)
Admit it /. editors (Score:5, Funny)
No better tribute... (Score:2, Insightful)
Happy Birthday Pac-Man! (Score:3)
"Pizza sans one slice"? (Score:5, Funny)
So, was I the only one to find Ms PacMan, what with saucy bow and full red lips, sexy?
Really? Me neither.
Some people are WAY too much into Pac-Man (Score:3, Funny)
First Game I ever played... (Score:3, Interesting)
I am thankful that the article did not mention the atrocity that was the 2600 port, the brutal Saturday morning cartoon, or Pac-Man's bland sequel, Pac-Man Jr.
Cashing in on the craze nearly ruined the franchise then (its partially responsible for ruining Atari and top 40 radio as we know it), but it gave me endless arcade fun back in "the day".
definitely a tech-demo thrill (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's because the game is just plain fun, with no need to rely on tech-demo thrills to attract attention.
Twenty-five years ago, Pac-man was a tech-demo thrill. Compare it to Space Invaders, the previous blockbuster game, and it's a night and day difference in graphics, sound, and presentation.
But apart from that, I think one of the things that really made pac-man was being the first truly funny game to come along. And to invest each of the ghosts with a personality, and even make them chase differently, that's just genius.
And don't get me started on having the intermission shows, the fantastic sound effects, and the fruit prize intended to lure greedy gamers to their doom. It wasn't until the mid-80s, with Zaxxon, Pole Position, and especially Marble Madness, that Pac-Man lost its luster for me.
Re:definitely a tech-demo thrill (Score:2)
Let me help you have a quick trip down memory lane for a minute:
beep..beep..bipbipbip...beep
Seriously, I'm of the Pac Man generation, but I never but mildly enjoy the game: the "great graphics and sounds" were truly crap, and the ghosts had no personalities at all (unless you're talking about some evolution of Pac Man I'm not a
Re:definitely a tech-demo thrill (Score:2)
Re:definitely a tech-demo thrill (Score:2)
You never noticed that the ghosts chase you differently?
Re:definitely a tech-demo thrill (Score:2)
Hey, I wonder. Did Pac-man introduce the cutscene to the gameplaying world, or was there another before it?
Re:definitely a tech-demo thrill (Score:2, Informative)
No.
Space Invaders Part II (Taito 1979) has a cut-scene between levels...
A mothership grabs your "base" and flies around the screen as you "scream" SOS!
Re:definitely a tech-demo thrill (Score:3, Interesting)
Definitely. The way the different ghosts chase you are basically axioms in modern video game AI. You have a chaser, a cut-off, a predictor and a completely random type of enemy. The idea being someone cuts off your back door, another your front door, another guessing your escape route and finally one making up for standard deviation. It's really brilliant and keeps the game-play unique and ch
Correct (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes. One game out of thousands proves your point.
No.
I like the anorexic version (Score:5, Funny)
Memories... (Score:5, Funny)
Object
|-> MovableObject
|-> Enemy
|-> Ghost
|-> AttackingGhost
AHHH!!
Excel programming (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Memories... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Memories... (Score:2)
To top it off - I had points deducted for not having a class representing objects that made sounds! I'm just glad it was an intro course, so they didn't make me do something stupid like set up observer patterns for every character in the game.
So Ms. Pac-Man would be? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So Ms. Pac-Man would be? (Score:3, Funny)
Oh yeah, real safe. (Score:5, Funny)
At night, I can sometimes still hear the screams.
Re:Oh yeah, real safe. (Score:5, Funny)
You live in fear of Fozzie Bear? Are his jokes really that bad?
Not older? (Score:2)
Great game though.
Too bad I won't see a Free implementation of the game in my lifetime though, unless I am lucky to live to be 103 (and no new copyright term extensions happen).
True Story of Pacman (Score:5, Funny)
The true story of Pacman has been exposed [vgcats.com].
Obligatory Pac Man quote (Score:4, Funny)
-- Marcus Brigstocke
Re:Obligatory Pac Man quote (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory Pac Man quote (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory Pac Man quote (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory Pac Man quote (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory Pac Man quote (Score:2)
Doesn't mean that he's the first to have said it - I've heard Dara O'Brien rip off a lot of Eddie Izzard material (although I'll defend him with extenuating circumstances - a couple of comics had dropped out of a rather ramous night up in Edinburgh, so he was ambushed in the bar of the venue, along with John Maloney, to replace them.)
Re:Obligatory Pac Man quote (Score:2)
I just submitted it to snopes.com [snopes.com] maybe somebody there can find the origin.
I got Slashdot Fever! (Score:3, Funny)
I don't have a lot of karma but I'm burnin' everything tonight,
I got a callus on my finger and my shoulder's hurtin' too,
Gonna hit the F5 'cuz my balls have done turned blue,
CHORUS:
I got Slashdot fever (Slashdot fever!)
It's drivin' my crazy (drivin' me crazy!)
Slashdot fever (Slashdot fever!)
Goin' outa my mind! (goin' outa my mind...)
I've got all the servers down, plus Roblimo's priv-key,
I don't R the F'in A; it's dupe that links to Roland P.
I got Goatse in my back door and through the other side,
'Cuz FreeBSD is dead, and Stephen King just died!
(Chorus)
I'm gonna post to the left and troll to the right,
Say the Dems are too slow, and the 'pubs are outa sight,
(Guitar solo)
Now I got 'em on the run and I'm lookin' for the high score,
Wish the "Funny" counted lots, as I'm just another karma whore,
I'm really cookin' now, moddin' everything in sight,
All my points are gone, I'll metamod tomorrow night,
I got Slashdot fever (Slashdot fever!)
It's drivin' my crazy (drivin' me crazy!)
Slashdot fever (Slashdot fever!)
Goin' outa my mind! (goin' outa my mind...)
Re:I got Slashdot Fever! (Score:2)
Highest score on Pac Man ever (Score:2, Informative)
UGeek [geek.com]
Pac Cel! (Score:5, Interesting)
Imagine being able to run one 25-year-old program entirely within another 20+-year-old program. That's computing with power.
Four Ways in Which My Life Is Just Like Pac-Mans (Score:5, Funny)
by John Crownover
1. Ever-present wail of sirens
2. Relentlessly pursued by ghosts
3. Four special pills daily keep ghosts at bay
4. Occasionally eat some fruit
(from www.mcsweeneys.net)
One of my first memories (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:One of my first memories (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:One of my first memories (Score:3, Interesting)
my brother and I immediately fell on our knees. We knew our dad was good, but that good? Then my dad said toru said he doesn't really play the games all that much
Hard games... (Score:2)
Yup. I hang out on the Gamecube boards on IGN a lot, and they LOVE Ikaruga. It's a REALLY hard space-shooter type game. Also Viewtiful Joe (can be very difficult on adult setting). And the XBox people seem to love the murderous Ninja Gaiden.
Pac-Fox vs. Micro-Ghost (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Pac-Fox vs. Micro-Ghost (Score:2)
The memories (Score:4, Funny)
Billy Mitchell Would be proud (Score:5, Interesting)
To clarify (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Billy Mitchell Would be proud (Score:3, Interesting)
Can't find one offhand, but here it is on a T-shirt [errorwear.com].
I Wonder About the Classics (Score:5, Insightful)
People wax on poetically about all the classic video games (Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Defender, Space Invaders, etc), but I suspect their popularity was due to their novelty rather than their appeal.
They were fun, colorful, but there's too much meaning being attached to them. It appealed to the future-nerds (myself included).
If you had the option of being trapped on a deserted island for a year with one video game (and the hardware and electricity to play it), would it be Pac Man (all safe and colorful), or Empire Earth II in all it's glory and challenge?
Best $15.00 (US) spent in a while (Score:2)
We Salute You (Score:3, Funny)
Real Video Game Heros!
Today we salute you, Mr. Moving Half-Eaten Pie. For 25 years you have been trapped in a box, forced to eat pellets all day and run from ghosts. But when you get a hold of one of those Power Pellets, you let those ghosts know who's boss
SUPERNATURAL MUNCHER~
So today, we raise an ice cold Bud to you, oh champion of the arcade, for you are, the baddest moving cheese wheel ever.
Flash version of Pac Man (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pacman.html [ebaumsworld.com]
Old video games rule. (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, "Gauntlet" was the best way to eat through quarters - until you realize that the levels start to repeat themselves.
How many Pac-Man levels were there, anyway?
Oblig quote (Score:2)
- unknown (mainly because I CBA looking for it...)
poor guy (Score:3, Funny)
But he still lost his hair a long time ago.
Re:next? (Score:3, Informative)
Good news for you: actually, there is Pac-Man for PS2 called "Pac-Man Fever" [gamespy.com] - and Ms Pac-Man is one of the key characters in the, ummm, storyline (if you could say so in Pac-Man). You can even run the game in "classic" mode, where it is just the old-school Pac-Man the way you remembered it.
Re:next? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:When's the movie coming out (Score:2)
Apparently he ate the film by accident.
"I swear!!! There were millions of dots in it!!! I SWEAR!!!"
Re:When's the movie coming out (Score:5, Funny)
And the answer is, if there really is a God, never.
Re:When's the movie coming out (Score:2)
NEVER!
*BLAM!*
Shut..
*BLAM!*
The...
*BLAM!*
Fuck...
*BLAM!*
Up!!!
*BLAM!*
</PennyArcade>
pacman cartoon series (Score:2)
Re:When's the movie coming out (Score:3, Funny)
It's too late. Marlon Brando is dead.
Re:The death of gameplay (Score:3, Informative)
Um... That would be a "Breakout" clone, just as Arkanoid itself was.
Kids! Just don't know how it was in the old days...
Re:The death of gameplay (Score:2)
Re:The death of gameplay (Score:2)
Example, I own Doom3, played it once, yet I downloaded loderunner for my phone, and played it nearly continuously.
Do kids who never played the old games growing up feel the same?
Re:The death of gameplay (Score:5, Insightful)
What? what are you talking about? PacMan was a HUGE technological marvel back in its day! The sprites were alot more defined than any other game, it had a "neon" light effect in the maps, the sound consisted in something more than "beeps" and it was the first game with actual AI and a real map! (which changed each level) even today amateur coders have a bad time trying to pull pacman clones that actually feel and look authentic. (just look at the terrible Atari 2600 port for further reference) this was "doom 3 meets hl2" 25 years ago!
Sorry but the "gameplay versus nice graphics/features" is pointless. sure nice graphics and features dont make a game, but they do provide an excellent background for good gameplay, otherwise is like michellangelo painting with 2 crayons, or amadeus using one of those tiny electronic pianos, even if they create a masterpiece is not as good as it could be if they used the correct tools. Period.
Re:If Pacman had affected us as kids... (Score:2)
Re:Long Live K.C. Munchkin! (Score:4, Funny)
I had an Odyssey 2 and it was something of a coup that KC Munchkin was so much better looking than Pac Man on the Atari 2600. It was one of the few times I was glad my parents didn't buy me the 2600 instead.
Now that I'm an adult (well, legally...) I can see how owning that console was the beginning of a long pattern of owning technically superior products that nevertheless lost in the market to lesser technology. Now, after having been the proud owner of a Betamax, a Mac, a Newton, an Amiga, LaserDisk, NetWare, propane-powered pickup, and a bunch of other gadgets, I have such low self-esteem and aversion to getting screwed by technology that I buy everything at Best Buy because those guys know what's really good.
Oh, and happy birthday, Pac Man. Hope you and the Ms. are doing well. I miss you.