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Perfect score in Pac-Man
Christopher Sypal writes "It seems that nobody has ever been able to get a perfect score in Pac-Man (or at least with solid proof) until now.
" Ya know I don't know if this is a hoax or not, but I don't
care. Its just to strange.
Back in those days, a game was designed and implemented by a single wizardly programmer. The code of the game was less than 64K bytes - mind you, that's a LOT of game logic on an 8-bit processor if you know how to write tight code.
Because it was designed and implemented by a single person, the arcade game of that era was very tight, very cohesive. Every feature, every pixel, every movement, was there because a programmer - THE programmer behind the game - thought of it. In some sense you were exploring the soul of the programmer when you played the game.
Today's games are far too complex for a single person to create. So you license a 3D engine here, grab some AI routines from a previous project and tweak them til they work, license some animation from XYZcorp, get some music company to write tunes, etc. Games designed by committee are just not the same; a game today doesn't represent the overarching vision of a single artist.
"Mitchell purposefully arrived on July 1st -- Canada's Day -- and won the title in time for the Fourth of July. He even wore a red, white and blue, Star-Star Spangled Banner tie to emphasize the patriotic sentiments behind his efforts."
I'm working on finishing up a web (pseudo-)programming project this evening to meet a deadline, getting all stressed out knowing I'm not going to make it, and when I read that, I just laughed my ass off!
Right on, fellow American! Do us Proud!
*cackle*
It's been a while since I've played PacMan, i don't think this is possible.
After you pass 250 levels, an overflow existed, which would make the game essentially unplayable. A screenshot of what happens at this point is here.
Assuming at best 20,000 points per level, 5,000,000 is about the peak. However, if I remember right, the score would overflow at 2 million.
In any case, some of us bored people in school played long enough to crash the game at level 250 years ago, and it's nothing new.
If anyone really wants, i could try to ask around at work about what score the overflow happened.
Kevin Day
Game Programmer
Midway Games
(no, I had nothing to do with PacMan.. before my time)
Max score per board in Pac-Man is something like 20,000 points. (That's eating each ghost 4 times on each power pill and chomping 1 5000-point bonus fruit.) 12,000/board is a little more realistic for an awesome player. But anyway... it's an awesome achievement, kind of like eating 28 hot dogs in 30 seconds.
Give a monkey a brain and he'll swear he's the center of the universe.
Maybe it's because I'm an adult now, but I've always felt the classic video games were superior to today's games. So many of the modern games seem to rely on graphics and sound, with little else to enjoy.
I consider Gauntlet to be the all time arcade game myself... nothing I've seen since, compares.
Castle Wolfenstein and Castle Wolfenstein II rocked. Nothing like playing it for the first time, and suddenly you see Hitler. It scared the shit out of me.
The Apple II rocked for games. Anyone remember Hard Hat Mack? I still think Wizardry I is the all time great RPG game.
Maybe Linux will bring a renaissance to classic games. With it's growing popularity, and minimalist feel, we could see a resurgence. Maybe a Wizardry type game...
Anyone remember a text-based adventure game (a la Zork), where you played a detective and had to find a killer. There was a butler named Fong, and it took place in a mansion... I never solved it, but I'd kill to know who the killer was. Me and my best friend spent like an entire summer playing that game, never being able to win it.
Anyone have the source for Lemonade Stand around somewhere?
gutterface