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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!"

20 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 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!
    3. 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.
  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. 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.

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  7. 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.

  8. 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.
  9. 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)
  10. 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.

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

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/pacdasher

  12. 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.
  13. 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.

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

    I thought it was for the number of pills munched.

  15. 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.