Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Play Pac-Man on Google today

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Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 05-21-2010, 11:50 AM:

Apparently it's the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man. Go to google.com, wait about 20 seconds and play using the arrow keys. It even has the cut scenes as you reach the upper levels.

Very nice! [Smile]

Google

Oh, and click the "Insert Coin" button and someone else can play as Mrs. Pac-Man on the other side of the keyboard.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-21-2010, 12:15 PM:

Thanks a lot....now I won't get any work done today!!

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 05-21-2010, 03:54 PM:

This is great and brings back so many memories. [Big Grin]

Althought I see little use for the Mrs Packman feature. If I had a girfriend (so someone to play along side me) then I probably wouldn't be spending my Friday night playing Packman on google [Wink]

. Anyway...

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 05-22-2010, 08:42 AM:

The character is Ms. Pacman, not Mrs. Pacman. As for your other comment, well...oh nevermind.

--jhawk

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-22-2010, 09:55 AM:

Pac-Man wasn't my favorite classic coin-op game, but I certainly agree with comments from various news sources that Pac-Man was a very important achievement in terms of video game history. It was a pop culture phenomenon that spawned lots of merchandise and even a stupid pop music hit (Pac-Man Fever).

Many of the classic coin-op games had a certain charm to them. The limits of computing power back then forced game developers to make simple yet colorful abstract versions of objects in the game. In some respects that's more interesting visually than an object that's entirely photo-realistic. Pac-Man was pretty big on using graphic symbols, particularly to represent each level. I like the one where the Flagship from Galaxian appears as a bonus in Pac-Man. The Flagship also turned up in Galaga as a high speed Kamikaze ship. I lost at least a few shooters to that damned thing too.

I showed the Pac-Man Google page to one of my coworkers yesterday. He was a little amused by it, but then just started going on about some new western shooter game on the PS3. He just doesn't get it.

Video games today are pretty incredible for their level of technological sophistication. However, so many are just getting to be really damned boring for repackaging the same concept in a different wrapper. How many first person shooter games have been developed over the last decade? The number could literally be in the hundreds or even thousands.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 05-22-2010, 11:16 AM:

So wait - they had Pac-Man Jr. out of wedlock?? Woah the scandal of it all!!

And I agree with you Bobby. Give me Ms. Pac Man any day. I can kill half an hour on one quarter with that thing.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-22-2010, 07:41 PM:

...and they had no anniversary in 2008 for "Space Invaders" ... bummer.

True though, "Ms. Pacman" was well worth the game to waste quarters on - just to get the high score. Namco/Bandai knew how to do vidgames back then.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-23-2010, 09:17 PM:

Ms. PacMan was a genius move -- it catered to females, which most games didn't, but also to all PacMan fans because it took the familiar game and made it more challenging by using the different (progressively harder) mazes.

My favorite game from that era was Defender. I was no star at it, but I was pretty good. I found an online version of it awhile ago which looked perfect, but it was no good because you couldn't thrust, reverse and shoot all at the same time like you can with the real arcade version.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-24-2010, 10:39 AM:

I liked some of the Williams Electronics coin-op games, particularly the ones designed by Eugene Jarvis. He put together Defender and then started his own company called "Vid Kidz" which sold games back to Williams. Stargate and Robotron: 2084 were a couple of those titles. Jarvis also contributed to Narc and Smash TV.

One thing I really liked about Defender was its sound effects. They were more cool than any other video game. Gorf, Centepede and Tempest were also pretty mean sounding. Robotron: 2084 had many of the Defender sound effects and some unique ones of its own. I loved the simple two joystick control layout of Robotron: 2084. It got rid of all the complicated buttons and stuff from Defender and Stargate.

BTW, Defender is also celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 05-26-2010, 03:01 PM:

Not gone; here forever.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-26-2010, 04:37 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
I loved the simple two joystick control layout of Robotron: 2084. It got rid of all the complicated buttons and stuff from Defender and Stargate.

But that's what made those games such a fun challenge to play. You really had to have some hand-eye coordination (on top of being able to keep track of two "screens" at once). I never played Robotron though -- I remember hearing about it but never did see one of the games in person.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-26-2010, 04:56 PM:

My favorites of those days were always Ms Pac-Man, Q-Bert (loved the nonsensical voices in that game, one of which sounded a bit off-color) and Kangaroo. Then stupid Sega comes along and RUINS EVERYTHING with their awesome graphics and fast game play with crap like Space Harrier, Out Run and After Burner, etc. Damn that Sega! We'd still be playing primitive games if it were not for them. Actually, truth be told they ushered in quite the golden era of arcade games. Nobody could compete with Sega in the arcades.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-26-2010, 05:08 PM:

Yeah even in the "primitive" age, there were some pretty good Sega games. I remember "Space Fury" and "Astro Blaster" got a few of my quarters. It always took a year or two for the "hot" new games to get to our corner of the world.

I wish they would have made a Defender 30th Anniversary edition that had the same controls and play, but with enhanced graphics. That would be cool.

Maybe it's just my age bracket but I find the first-person shooting games of today to be kind of boring and not as much fun to watch as a spectator. It was fun to stand behind a Defender or Pac Man "expert" and watch 'em work.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-26-2010, 07:32 PM:

I stuffed a lot of quarters into one Gremlin/Sega coin-op game called Space Firebird (Nintendo actually developed the game). It was kind of a Galaxian rip off, but pretty challenging to play.

quote: Joe Redifer
My favorites of those days were always Ms Pac-Man, Q-Bert (loved the nonsensical voices in that game, one of which sounded a bit off-color) and Kangaroo.

Joe, have you played the PS3 version of Q-Bert? It's a very faithful recreation of the coin-op game and one of the best classic coin-op ports I've seen. The only detail lacking is the loud knock noise you hear in the bottom of the coin-op video game cabinet when Q-Bert falls off the pyramid.

I laughed pretty hard the first couple times I played Q-Bert. Prior to that I never really got into the cute-themed games. I did like the vivid colors of Donkey Kong Junior, but would walk past it to the nearest Robotron machine. I always played the ones where you could shoot at enemies and they were returning fire or dropping bombs.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-26-2010, 07:44 PM:

Yes, I have played PS3 Q*Bert. It is awesome. That loud *knock* notice I think was something physical going on inside the cabinet. I haven't researched it, but I'm betting something did knock inside of there.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-27-2010, 01:04 AM:

Did you guys ever play Qix? That was a game I really found intriguing but could never seem to get any good at it. It was really original, I thought. Tempest was another one I liked, but sucked at.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-27-2010, 11:07 AM:

I played the coin-op game of Qix a few times, but played it a lot more on an Atari 5200 Super System I had back in the late 1980s. I got that game and quite a few others on sale.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-27-2010, 12:15 PM:

Galaga! [thumbsup]

We had a coin-op of that game. Me and my brother ruled at Galaga! [Big Grin]

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-27-2010, 12:34 PM:

A friend of mine in Edmond, OK (Oklahoma City surburb) has a Galaga coin-op game in his garage. It still works. A fellow I know here in Lawton has a large collection of coin operated video games -perhaps one of the largest coin-op game collections in the country. He lost over 100 machines in a building fire last year. Some of the games probably can never be replaced -many of these were original cabinets with original graphics. The guy is moving on from the loss and acquiring more games.