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Pac-Man Makes Guinness Book

Posted by Zonk on from the wakka-wakka-woot dept.

phresno writes "As a gaming icon, everybody loves Namco's Pac-Man. The arcade machine sold over 293,000 units in just eight years of its initial release and is fondly remembered even 25 years later. The success of Pac-Man has awarded it not only pop culture status, but a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Long live Pac-Man!"

34 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. fp? by Mikito · · Score: 4, Funny

    I always preferred Ms. PacMan myself. Better graphics and music.

    --
    Anakin Simpson: If you're not with me, then you're my enemy--ooh, donuts!
    1. Re:fp? by Saven+Marek · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Ahhh how I long for the days when games weren't all just a different version of the same first person shooter.

    2. Re:fp? by FidelCatsro · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ms PacMan was a better game , in the same way that Super mario Bros 3 was better than Super Mario brothers.
      The reason the cred goes to PacMan is that without it Ms PacMan would have probably been what PacMan was.
      Definantly though , Ms PacMan was one sequal that really did improve upon the origional , They learnt the leassons from PacMan and build upon its strength to build a far better game . unlike many sequals we see nowadays which add little more than a slick of paint and some mior tweaks and end up forgetting why the game was fun in the first place

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    3. Re:fp? by Mikito · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In my rush to get a topical first post (I think I actually did it), I left out comments which I would have included otherwise.

      Ms. Pac Man, unlike its predecessor, had a series of animated interludes when you completed a number of levels. I think it was complete 4 levels, see a short cartoon, complete another 8 levels, see another cartoon and so on. It's been years since I've played the game.

      Ms. Pac Man also had a variety of mazes, which made the game a little more interesting...it also helped avoid (or delay) the screen burn-in that a lot of arcade games were prone to back then.

      Even so, I salute Pac Man for being included in the Guinness Book of World Records, and for its appetite of my quarters.

      --
      Anakin Simpson: If you're not with me, then you're my enemy--ooh, donuts!
    4. Re:fp? by caryw · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Ms Pacman? classic. anyone remember the funny shaped cartridge it came in for NES?

      Link to java emulator based on MAME with Ms. Pacman
      --
      Fairfax County, VA message board and chat

    5. Re:fp? by h4rm0ny · · Score: 5, Funny

      "People think that video games influence children. Ha! If that were true then my generation would be spending all its time in darkened rooms, swallowing pills and listening to repetitive music!"

      --

      Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
    6. Re:fp? by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 2, Informative

      Which begs the question:

      Actually, it raises the question.

      when is that first-person Pac-Man coming out?

      Here you go.

      --
      If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
  2. Sweet by gordgekko · · Score: 5, Funny

    293 000 units? I think I dumped that many quarters into the game during the early 80s.

    --
    You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
  3. Good for pacman by FidelCatsro · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I loved Pac-man , it was one of the first games i ever played and got hooked on it .
    Everything about it was just brilliant at the time , it was stylisticly wonderfull and pac-man has rightly so earnt its place amongst our cultural iconography.
    Though i wonder why it took the guinness book people so long to recognise Pac-man.
    *hums level up noise*

    --
    The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
  4. Namco at E3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Anyone else catch the Namco Pac-man birthday floor show at E3? Six stripper-esque (esque, since they don't actually strip,) dancers singing "happy birthday to you" to a guy in a pacman suit, as the crowd (somewhat) sings along.

    Surreal didn't even begin to describe...

  5. This isn't a real story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The mods were just looking for a reason to use the Pac-Man icon again.

  6. Pac-Man had level interludes by Riktov · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The original Pac-Man had level interludes too. The first was after the second round, when Pac-man came out from the left chased by a ghost, then came back giant-sized chasing the ghost. Then the next one where the red monster got stuck on a pin an its "hood" got ripped a bit. And so on....

  7. The record by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What's the actual record?

    1. Re:The record by elmarkitse · · Score: 3, Informative

      The article is vauge...it's either the subjective "pac man is recoginzed as the number one arcade game" or the "most units shipped." Here the only relevant part of the article...but again, it doesn't say by what means the award is being given.

      Namco's popular "Pac Man" has been recognized as the world's No. 1 arcade game, paving the way for it to be included in the Guinness Book of Records, it has been learned.

      A total of 293,000 Pac Man arcade machines were sold across the world in the eight years after the game was released in 1980.

      Whats missing from this article is the part that actually says which of the many interesting facts the article brings up (perhaps pac man is in the record books because it was the first arcade character inspired by a fast food item) so we're left to guess.

      A quick google news search for Guinness and pacman come up with nothing, either.

      --
      Mozy, free online backup service
      --
  8. Guinness Book of Records sold out long ago by bazmail · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I stopped buying that book ever since i saw highly dubious catagories creeping in like "The shortest instruction manual for a computer" which was "awarded" to the iMac a few years ago.
    An obvious advertisemsent.

  9. Been playing for nearly 25 years! by Riktov · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I probably played Pac-Man before anyone else on Slashdot. It was September or October 1980, and I was a high school student living in Japan. My friends and I would go to a video arcade (or "game center" as they were called) in Jiyugaoka after school, and one day we came across this strange game with a cute yellow guy going around munching dots in a maze, completely unlike the Galaxian and other space-themed games we had been playing until then.

    It really was revolutionary, and we were all instantly hooked. I can still play the pattern that my friend taught me then.

    The video arcade where I first played Pac-Man 25 years ago is still there, incidentally.

    1. Re: Been playing for nearly 25 years! by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 5, Interesting
      It really was revolutionary, and we were all instantly hooked.

      Came across some webpages recently on Pac-Man history. Apparantly it was inspired by a left-over pizza (with a slice cut out), and after introduction so popular in Japan, that there was a shortage in particular coins, because so many were thrown in the Pac-Man arcade machines(!!).

      Personally, I think Pac-Man is so wonderful because it combines a deceivingly simple concept with addictive gameplay. Think about programming YAPMC (Yet Another Pac-Man Clone): at first sight, you think: simple. But you have to deal with timing, player controls, graphics/sprites etc., sounds, the game 'map' (pills, walls, powerups etc.), and even 'Artificial Intelligence' (ghost movement, yeah I know they're really dumb, but still). All the basic ingredients of modern games, except 3D or networked multiplayer. And that in a really small package, where any kid can grasp the object of the game in under 5 seconds.
    2. Re:Been playing for nearly 25 years! by Orangedog_on_crack · · Score: 2, Funny

      There is a reason why these old games still have such a loyal following. With all of the bells and whistles the new games have, the gagillion polygon z-axis texture mapping ju-ju, they lack something that the old games had in spades....a soul. Sure, the new games are pretty. So was my ex-wife at one time. Both are severely lacking in the soul department.

  10. Worst Port by Adrilla · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did they also award the Atari 2600 version as "Worst arcade to home console conversion ever!"?

    --

    "Plans are for fools! Oglethorpe, the plutonian (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
  11. A Paradigm by thomble · · Score: 3, Funny
    Pac-Man almost laid the foundations for the video games we now know and love.

    If only Ms. Pac-Man hadn't seduced him, domesticated him, and consequently told him to empty the trash, run to the supermarket to pick up cherries, strawberries and peaches, and gotten hooked on Power Pills, perhaps the kids these days wouldn't be so cluelessly hooked on Halo.

  12. Play a Java version of the classic by oranda · · Score: 5, Informative
    Play a Java version of the classic:

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/pacdasher

  13. The shortest instruction manual for a computer by TapeCutter · · Score: 5, Funny

    I agree, everyone knows that the shortest instruction manual is "Don't panic."

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  14. Alternative history. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obvious but manditory (and not entirely safe for work) link to the VG Cats History Of Pac-Man...

    Well, I giggled.

  15. Pac-Man, Pac-Man everywhere by Mikito · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wasn't Baby Pac-Man a strange hybrid where the bottom part of the game was a conventional pinball machine, but if you got the ball into a certain spot, you could play a video game which was at the top (headboard?) next to the score counter?

    I think that if you got caught in the video part, the ball would be ejected back into the pinball portion of the game.

    I haven't thought about that game for years.

    I also remember a more 3-D version of Pac-Man, which might have been the Super Pac-Man that you mention.

    There was also a short-lived cartoon version of Pac-Man, but I don't remember much about it.

    --
    Anakin Simpson: If you're not with me, then you're my enemy--ooh, donuts!
  16. Here Comes Pac-Man by Yorrike · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Aw shit, here comes Pac-Man.
    Hey Pac-Man, what's up?
    Me you bitches! I'm high on crack! Wanna freebase?
    No Pac-Man drugs are bad!
    Nope can't help you man.
    Pussies! Whoa! Holy shit!

    --

    Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?

    1. Re:Here Comes Pac-Man by danbond_98 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Whoever modded this troll, it's the lyrics from a song by The Bloodhound Gang, not just the useless trash it might at first appear to be.

  17. He got in the Guiness BOR? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I thought it was for the number of pills munched.

  18. CDs of video game sounds/music? by dpbsmith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does anyone know of CD or recording that collects all the most familiar music and sounds of the greatest video games? It would seem as if it's about time to do this, since a lot of the old consoles are still functioning in collections, so it's probably POSSIBLE to get a recording of a functioning Pac-Man or Space Invaders game even today...

    (Come to think of it, I'd gladly buy a recording of the sounds made by an IBM 407 accounting machine...)

    --

    "How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!

    1. Re:CDs of video game sounds/music? by Zanthrox · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not exactly what you're looking for, but you might check out the minibosses. (http://minibosses.com/) They're a band that plays old video game soundtracks..quite amusing, actually.

  19. What sort of news site is that? by MentalMooMan · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm slightly concerned about the person who sent in this article. Look at the sort of news site they visit. Just look at the other news on there!
    'Pimp of elementary schoolgirls arrested',
    'Teacher sacked for molesting schoolgirl', and
    'Teachers targeted in Shizuoka sex harassment scam'.
    Seems a little dodgey to me...

    --
    43rd Law of Computing:
    Anything that can go wr
    fortune: Segmentation violation -- Core Dumped
  20. Yep :) by BitterAndDrunk · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The interludes happened when the board layout changed, every 4 levels.

    First was Pac Man and Ms Pac Man meeting (they run across different parts of the screen chased by ghosts, then coming from opposite sides of the screen, they dodge the ghosts by moving up. Ghosts bump into each other, a little heart appears) I forget what the act was titled.

    The second was titled "The Chase" and it was right after the pretzel level IIRC.

    The third act (which was hard as hell to get to at my young age) was Junior - where the stork drops off a baby pac man. These levels were hard as hell, mostly because the exits to get to the other side of the map were death traps. (they were long corridors that were dangerous as heck, even with the ghosts being afraid of the dark)

    --
    You better watch out, there may be dogs about . . .
  21. other history notes...you mean Puck Man? by PeterCook · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Originally called Puck Man in Japan and then changed for fear that young video game players in the US would alter the P into a F - look it up in Wikipedia. Also let us not forget the promotional song from Buckner and Garcia - "Pac Man Fever" that hit the airwaves briefly. You can still find that song and the other B&G video games tunes if you google them.

  22. Namco still sells new Pac-Man cabinets by Beebos · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, almost. Actually its a Ms. Pac-Man and Galga combo cabinet. BUT, you can play Pac-Man after pressing start by moving the joystick up,up, up, down, down, down, left, right, left, right. left

  23. Guinness has become sad indeed by base_chakra · · Score: 2

    I stopped buying that book ever since i saw highly dubious catagories creeping in like "The shortest instruction manual for a computer" which was "awarded" to the iMac a few years ago.

    I couldn't agree more. What's worse, such fluff seems to have displaced some legitimate entries. I recently browsed through the 2005 edition, and was dismayed to find the paltry two-page Games section filled with such inspirational entries as "Best-selling Playstation2 game"; meanwhile, high scores for classic coin-ops were (as far as I could tell) nowhere to be found.

    The new Guinness Book is rife with questionable entries, but to me the most disturbing is "Most Accurate Bomb". I recognize the targeting mechanism as an engineering feat, but is such a weapon really something we want to laud as a human triumph? (And what are we really celebrating here: a reduction in collateral damage, or our enhanced ability to kill and intimidate effectively?)