Austin Recreation
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By Tim Schmelter
Austin360
No. 9: Pac Man
(Namco, Arcade, 1980)
The Game: Not that this one needs an introduction. You are the titular yellow circle with a voracious appetite for dots, racing around a maze avoiding the ghosts who are your enemies.
 Mmm, dotty. |
What Was So Great About It: To be perfectly honest, I didn't really like Pac Man that much. Frankly, the controls always felt a bit laggy to me, as if you had to tell your guy to turn a little bit before you actually reached the intersection. That, coupled with the repetitive gameplay and the ever-escalating difficulty, meant that I didn't spend as much time with this game as I did with others.
But there's no denying the impact it had on my life. In the end, I preferred the game starring Pac Man's better half, but I spent plenty of time and money driving Old Yeller. And like no other game before it, Pac Man made it socially acceptable to do that.
Impact On The Rest Of Humanity: Pac Man may not have been the end-all be-all of gaming for me, but there were plenty of others who were happy to take up my slack, loaded down with rolls of quarters that should have been spent on lunch or laundry or phone calls to loved ones. The game spawned a revolution in video games and was instrumental in turning the arcade into a fixture of the 1980s pre-teen social scene.
Not that the game's appeal was limited to pre-teen gamers. The simple, nonviolent gameplay, colorful and iconic characters and music hooked folks from all ages and both genders. For crying out loud, it had its own novelty song, "Pac Man Fever"! And that song got actual airplay on actual radio stations! And that song was released on an album with other video-game-themed novelty songs! For a eighth-grade nerd-in-training, nothing could be greater. It inspired me and countless other misfits to fly our geek flags proud and high.
And for that, Mr. Pac, I salute you.
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