Saturday, January 22, 2011

Stuff I Love - PAC-MAN


I was around when the arcade boom hit in the beginning of the 1980's. Kids flocked to them to play Donkey Kong, Centipede, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Frogger, Q-Bert. And of course the granddaddy of them all was Pac-Man. I fell in love with it even though I kind of sucked at the game. I fell in love with video games in general but always had an affinity for Pac-Man. I think because it was one of the first video games I ever played. Plus I played it when it was the hottest thing out there so you felt like you were part of pop culture. Which to a very young boy was exciting.


My mom and sister were into figure skating which meant I was dragged along to the ice skating rink sometimes at the brink of dawn for my sister to practice. What was once an arduous chore became the one thing I looked forward to because the rink built a small arcade and filled it with video games. Now the problem wasn't trying to get me to go to the rink. The problem became getting me to leave. I was such a Pac-Man geek I even had some merchandise including a Pac-Man stuffed animal, Pac-Man t-shirt, Pac-Man bed sheets (yes, I slept with Pac-Man), and eventually the little portable Pac-Mac which at the time was awesome because the body was shaped like an arcade game.


Obviously things from our childhood take on special meaning for us. For me Pac-Man will always hold a special place in my heart. I still love to play it to this day. I even have it on my iPhone. And yes, I still suck at it. But the memories it brings back is what is valuable to me. For that I will always be a Pac-Maniac.


Back when I used to watch the channel G4 (and in my opinion when it was good) I loved a show called Icons. They did one on Pac-Man and here it is in three parts. Enjoy!






And of course the infamous Buckner and Garcia song Pac-Man Fever.



This I just thought was really cute.


2 comments:

SgtPeppers said...

Pac-Man is also one of my favorite games ever to. I still play it from time to time. Although, I was never a big enough fan to have bedsheets and stuff animals.

Lauren said...

We should try to plan an afternoon for you to come out here one day :) It'd be fun to hang out at Nickel City with you! (This arcade I basically live at lol) They have pacman and a lot of other older games and newer ones, too! They also have a Star Wars game that I am COMPLETELY terrible at!