PAC-MAN (Namco – Arcade)
In this game, you control an odd, yellow insect who flies backward (with his
wings to the front), or perhaps a strangely rounded pair of hedge-clippers. Notice
that in the session shown here, he’s being steered away from the undersized
squid with whom he shares the maze. Avoiding them is an excellent strategy, and
it should be applied as often as possible. If your character collides with any
of the squid, who are apparently very hot to the touch (in spite of the blue, watery
environment), he melts. He’s then replaced with an identical character, and you
have one less turn in the game. Normally, you begin with only three of these;
however, you can change the machine’s dip-switch settings to give yourself more
turns. This is another highly recommended line of attack. I had to stumble upon
it while using an emulating program called MAME; for some reason, the
tip was never mentioned in the magazines or strategy guides that were released during
the game’s early years of popularity. (I can assure you that you won’t see such
half-researched writing here.)
Curiously, the squid all turn blue, lose their ocular functions, and duly appear
rather distraught whenever your character devours one of the flashing circles
in the corners of the maze. The reason for this has never been discovered, to
my knowledge; and if any of the game’s designers know, they sure aren’t giving
it away. (I’ve tried to contact them, but I’ve repeatedly met only with
Japanese cursing.) In any case, it’s still important to stay away from
the squid. Plowing right into one while he’s looking so upset can’t possibly be
advantageous. In fact, you might even lose two turns, rather than just the one.
A blue squid is not in a sociable mood. After all, they’re not all suddenly
avoiding you for nothing.
As you can see here, an actual food item occasionally appears just below the
cave of the squid. Perhaps it’s mischievously dropped by the enigmatic,
never-seen “Pac-Man” entity after whom the game is titled. This food must
obviously be left alone, as your character clearly likes only items with
rudimentary shapes, such as the dots and circles. See how he closes himself to
the world when he winds up anywhere near real food. All the best players know
the real secret to video games, which I’ll repeat here: Avoid ending your
current turn. While watching anyone play any game, it occurs to me that
very few people seem to have discovered this tactic.
There are two graphical glitches in the game: wide gaps in the walls to the
extreme left and right. One can only marvel at the fact that the designers
didn’t take time to correct these bugs in revised versions, especially given
the game’s immense popularity upon its release in 1968. What’s even worse is
that far from being eradicated in the sequel, Ms. Pac-Man, these
mistakes were more numerous! (And don’t get me started on the incomplete surfaces
in Donkey Kong.) Anyway, as the missing wall-graphics were obviously not
intentional, you should stay away from them. It’s pointless to risk a complete
malfunction of the program. I once witnessed a player accidentally moving his
insect/clippers through one of these breaches, and his character skipped to a
distant part of the maze! Precarious glitches indeed.
Keeping all of the above tips in mind, the absolutely worst thing you can do is
to consume all of the dots and circles in the maze. They’ll be replaced, and
you’ll have to start all over!
Completed 4/1/09
©2009 Chris Federico