From THe Forum 179: Share your Pac-Man anecdotes with us

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

Tell us your favourite Pac-Man stories. They can concern conversions of the original game, or anything else you fancy.

[NorthWay]

I am a hobby programmer and a wannabe games programmer/designer. Been so for >30 years - as it typically is. Pac-Man lost my interest as a game early on, but the "how is that ghost logic" really never left my mind.

So let me tell you a misconception I had about the movement rules: Sometime in my university years I picked up somewhere (probably on NetNews) that the game maze is what is known in CS as a graph, and that the ghosts were really using something similar to a "traveling salesman" algorithm (yes, this is very technical and all, but you asked - and I still find it interesting) where the individual ghosts when coming to a junction would pick the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th shortest path to the last junction the player passed.
This I believed for many years because to me it sounded like a very beautiful solution to a practical problem using the kind of pure CS techniques you are taught that are 50-60 years old (math people feel free to jump in here and tell me how old it really is) and still relevant today. If it would actually work I don't know, but that is left as an exercise to the reader (hah!).

Having read the explanation of how it actually works was a bit of a disappointment (enough so that I can't really remember it in much detail).

[mr jenzie]

absolutely loved this little fella, played it constantly for nigh on two years until battery replacement failed to make it work, then i butchered it by taking it apart to see how it all worked!

it's in gaming heaven now

OR IS IT


by the way i do NOT do this to any other handhelds i had nor do i condone any such action

[kiwimike]

I must admit was never a huge fan of pac man or those maze games all that much personally...I preferred a fire button with games.

But totally respected the design genius of the game, and first real breakthrough game character/star and ongoing merchandising!

I did enjoy Pac Land a lot more myself, incorporating a different style of gameplay. That said, I still take the Pac games out for the occasional whirl, and enjoy them in short bursts. Never felt the desire to sit down and learn/memorise the patterns.

[ncf1]

I remember first playing the Pacman arcade game and being blown away; it was so *different* to the other arcade games, it felt revolutionary and I desperately wanted to get - and didn't - one of the handhelds that I saw other kids playing. When I found out that my next door neighbour John had Super Taxman on his Apple II, I almost had a stroke from excitement and needless to stay camped out there day and night and ate him out of house and home. Then I realised I could have just copied it and used it on my own Apple II. But when I asked, he refused me a copy, and we still aren't talking to this day.

[fredghostmaster]

I remember going to a holiday camp in 1981, looking forward to playing old favourites Space Invaders & Asteroids. When I got there, I found Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Phoenix & Crazy Climber, all new games to me. I didn't know what to play first, gaming heaven!

[mrmessy]

Pac Man stickers and cards from the early 80s! (Some of the cards were scratch-card mazes). I used to have the Pac and ghost stickers stuck on my clipboard which I used on school trips. Nice! I also still have a copy of the Pac Man board game in my garage. End of anecdote.

[Timothy Redux]

I really didn't get Pac Man a little kid. The object of it seemed odd. I just liked shooting aliens too much.

[Arnie]

I've never played the original arcade version but use to play numerous clones on computers. I have got Pac Mania on the Amiga, a great version of the game with super fast smooth full screen scrolling.

Oh I also have a Pac Man stapler.

[Gibberish Driftwood]

Someone should make a reverse Pacman game where you play as one of the ghosts.
The aim of the game would be to catch Pacman Before he eats all the dots.

[Antiriad2097]

Pac Man Vs? Ok, one player is still Pac, but the others are ghosts.

[Gibberish Driftwood]

Cool, I did not know that such a game already existed.
Gotta get my hands on it.

[smccd]

I was impressed by the richness of the design contrasted with how approachable the game was.

It felt somewhat like you were playing a cartoon.

[merman]

(Psst, this is for issue 179..)

[lavalyte]

Pac-man fever put me in hospital for 3 weeks. I almost died.