Happy 30th pacman

[mushu mama]

A little heads up for all the gamers on here.... The most recognisable game icon to date has turned 30 today HAPPY BIRTHDAY PACMAN ... and incidentally, is one of my all time favourites, along with Frogger ( who celebrates its 30th next year).

MANY MANY hours were whiled away at that glass topped table in the local cafe all those years ago. Sheep stations were won and lost at those tables.

Google has a mini version of the game on its home page that is actually playable... just double click and you are away. And for those with iPhones, there is a 'lite' version available free from the apps store or for a few bucks they have released the full version for the anniversary.

Lisa.

[KeithS]

Lisa, you are a Goddess for publicly acknowledging this great moment in pop culture! Where were you thirty years ago when we were popping our 20c pieces into those table top machines, sure I would have only been 10, but I'm sure we'd have hit it off Back then, I thought it was only boys hanging out and playing games at the milk bar...

My first encounter with Pacman actually occurred at sea of all places... My parents had taken me on a holiday back to the UK to visit family. We decided we catch a ferry for a day-trip to France and on board the P&O ferry was - you guessed it, the first Pacman machine I'd ever laid eyes on. It was actually called "Ghost Muncher" as I think it was an unlicenced clone, but who cares - I knew it was different from all the Space Invader type games I'd been playing up to that point.

Of course, Frogger did come along shortly after and that became my favourite - I STILL play it today on my PC!

Well done to Google for having that logo-version of Pacman up and running, that is gold!

[calisota]

Is it just me or does the game move a little faster than it used to?

Greg

[mushu mama]

Ok... 30 years ago I was sitting in the dark corner of the local fruit & veg store/fish & chip shop/ drug dealers shop playing Pacman on one of three glass topped tables that played pacman, frogger and spacies, with about 15 of my 'peeps' - at least half of which were girls - I guess we were ahead of our time Endless hours were spent there after school , but I don't remember having to put in too many 20c pieces cos a 20 would last me a long time and then I'd spend the rest on chocolate or chip in for the massive wrapped up pile of fish and chips we all shared. We set all the top scores for the years we ruled that place. It was always great fun.

And I'm sure with the Disney thing and the gaming thing, we'd have gotten along famously -/

My first foray into gaming happened a little before then though - ready for a long story?

When I was about 13 I came third in a Victoria wide cartoon art comp run by the Ballarat based TV station which was judged by the famous 'Weg' political cartoon satirist.( think that was his 'title') I won a $6oo golf club set which I had no interest in ( they weren't expecting a kid to enter let alone win anything) and I sold it to my Auntie for way way less than it was worth and bought an Atari and a gamer was born. I spent endless hours playing Spacies and Asteroids.... I think I still have my Pacman fluffie from way back then in a box somewhere here.


I hope Google have a mini frogger game next year... that'd be a hoot.

Is it just me or does the game move a little faster than it used to?

Greg

yep... either that or these reflexes are not quite the same as the 14 year old... wonder which one it is?

ok... the question we all want the answer to... did you guys have a go at the Goggle verison of pacman and what was your top score?

Lisa.

[KeithS]

I was living at Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains in 1978-1982 - there was a tiny record store (remember those?) that had a cocktail table video game unit. Originally it had moon cresta then upgraded to spacies and then along came pacman about 1981. Next door was a milk bar called the Jelly Bean Inn (I think it might still be there) and they had a few pinball machines and early video games too, but we always preferred the record store for the music. We had a group of about 10 of us (all guys - we were only 10 years old, so no girls were allowed...) that used to hang out at these places. When I moved up to the next town (Blaxland) there was another milk bar on the highway called Bobby's that had about 5 video games/pinball machines - that was 1982 and there was more game variety by then.

After we left Glenbrook and moved to Mt Druitt, I couldn't find a good milk bar that wasn't a hangout for thugs...so Dad got me the Atari as well. Playing Combat, Adventure, Asteroids, Pele's Soccer, Breakout, Space Invaders and Pacman - good times!

I played the Google version, but I don't know what score I got.

You want to know the amazing thing? Della still has her original Atari 2600 - with all the games she bought - and everything (including the console) in their original boxes!!

[churros]

My 17 year old hasn't stopped playing the google version since he found it yesterday. Although he did let his father have a go and I saw the look of reminiscence on his face about Roberto's pizza at Taren Point and many many many hours hunched over a machine. It has since burnt down, someone mustn't have checked the last order of the night.

[mushu mama]

You want to know the amazing thing? Della still has her original Atari 2600 - with all the games she bought - and everything (including the console) in their original boxes!!

Yeah, I had the original in the box still when I gave it to a younger cousin to use till he got sick of it... I never got it back

That'd be a collector piece now though

Funny how everyone I've mentioned this to has had fond memories of those 80's moments filled with pacman/frogger/spacies hours.

My daughter had one turn on the google version... thrashed me even though I warned her not to, and then subsequently got banned from my laptop.

Lisa.

[ajp]

I must be one of the very few people who hated pacman. I do recall the rage of the day when it came out, bu I just couldn't warm to it. I liked everything and had spacies, asteroids, frogger, even the mad bomber on Atari (I was king at mad bomber). But pacman was not my thing, even now, I'll play it once and walk away. Kids downloaded it for iPod touch and I deleted it from mine after a day. At the milk bars, my thing was Galaga and night driving.

[calisota]

I don't think that I owned a game console until I bought a PS3 a couple of years ago and even then it was mostly for wireless streaming and the bluray player.

Greg

[KeithS]

my thing was Galaga

As was mine - how did I not mention this - the great arcade shoot 'em up of all time!

Has anyone here heard of MAME? http://mamedev.org/ It is short for the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. You can download the emulation program and then play the ORIGINAL versions of these games if you can get the ROM software. The emulator is free, but then you need to download the game 'ROMS' which aren't as easy to come by these days. About ten years ago, the ROMs were freely available all over the web as the copyright had lapsed (mainly because many of the game companies had disappeared), but in recent years the ROMs have been harder to come by once companies realised there was a market for these classics. So now they've been re-copyrighted and sell them on the Xbox and Playstation networks.

I haven't used MAME for a while, so I might download the latest version of the application - I've still got a directory on my PC with 'some' lying around

[mushu mama]

I remember Galaga but not night driving ( not that I'd have played that one anyway I imagine )

So do you guys still play consoles or do you prefer the PC games? Currently in our house we have a variety of playstions and a Wii. I don't get the time to play much though. Despite the plethora of games in the cupboard, Guitar Hero is king here in a number of versions ( all of which I suck at ) I have a few games on my iPhone for times I am waiting for appointments or kids, thats the only time I get these days.

Lisa.

[calisota]

Foe those pacman fans: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/09/stop- ... n-pac-man/

Greg

[mushu mama]

thats a new twist