Posted by Devin de Gruyl on Jun 10th, 2010
Ah, Pac-Man. Where would we be today without him?
You can’t oversell how important Pac-Man was in the history of the video game. Consider the market at the time of its release in 1980: Pong had come and gone. The Space Invaders craze had peaked and was on the decline. Newer games like Asteroids and Missile Command attracted attention, but were for the most part playing to the crowds that had always flocked to video game cabinets — and there were signs this crowd was getting restless. Blasting aliens and participating in somewhat abstract head-to-head matches was all well and good, but there was still something… missing.
With Pac-Man, that missing element was found in spades. Personality. Whether it was the vaguely grinning shape of Pac-Man itself, the individual and unique patterns each of the Ghosts ran, the way the Ghosts turned blue and comically turned into eyes when eaten, or the funny intermission screens, Pac-Man had that proverbial “it” that all good games need to have to be successful.
The result was unlike anything ever witnessed in the industry before, or really since. Almost overnight, it seemed, the nation was caught up in “Pac-Man Fever,” to quote the (in)famous novelty record from 1982. And unlike today’s gaming market, its appeal wasn’t limited to just one specific audience; everyone, no matter what age, gender, color or creed, could play Pac-Man without hesitation or fear of looking silly. It was a simple game, with nonviolent gameplay and a universal theme (everyone’s gotta eat, right?), that was nevertheless almost frighteningly addictive and fun to play.
Small wonder that Pac-Man still has appeal, even thirty years after its creation. Just witness the results when Google, in celebration of Pac-Man’s actual birthday, featured a fully-playable Pac-Logo on their main search page. Companies were complaining about millions of dollars in lost revenue while their cubicle corps gleefully gobbled away at dots and Fruit.
And of course, we all know about Ms. Pac-Man, the sequel that was arguably far more popular and enduring than its progenitor (even today, it’s not at all uncommon to see a beat-up and weather-worn Ms. Pac machine in any arcade of reasonable size) – even if it was just a simple ROM hack authorized by Midway to meet American demand while waiting for Namco to release the real sequel, Super Pac-Man. And then there was Jr. Pac-Man, with its scrolling maze and Energizer-destroying Fruits, that didn’t do so well in arcades but is nevertheless fondly recalled by hardcore gamers from the period of the Great Crash.
The following collection of reviews, therefore, has… absolutely nothing to do with any of those games.
Today on Retro-Active, we take a look back at some of the obscure, if not totally forgotten, moments in Pac-History. These are the games you probably never saw in your local arcade, or have but the faintest recollection of from your youth. They never hit it big, and in some cases that’s probably for the best… but they’re all part of the growth and development of the world’s most famous video game, and thus deserve to be remembered.
Insert coin (or just press Page 2 below) to continue…
Related posts:
- Retro-Active: Do the Donkey Kong
- Retro-Active Special: Rule Britannia! The History of Ultima (Part the Second)
- Retro-Active: Deadly Towers
- Retro-Active: Enjoy Our Shorts
- Retro-Active: Faxanadu
Related posts:
- Retro-Active: Do the Donkey Kong
- Retro-Active Special: Rule Britannia! The History of Ultima (Part the Second)
- Retro-Active: Deadly Towers
- Retro-Active: Enjoy Our Shorts
- Retro-Active: Faxanadu
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