The Minotaur Is Janitor

January 17, 2010 3:16 PM

This year, ubiquitous yellow binge-eating sphere Pac-Man turns 30. At last, his traumatic origin story can be told: The Three Stigmata Of Pac-Man.

Previously on Metafilter: [1] [2] [3]
By the same author: [1] [2]

posted by RokkitNite (14 comments total)

Pacman is a prime example of why it's ridiculous that videogames have any influence on kids. I mean, with as popular as it was, you'd think the kids that grew up playing it would have spent the 90s in dark corridors, eating pills and listening to electronic noises.
posted by empath at 4:13 PM on January 17, 2010 [7 favorites]

My mother-in-law was pregnant with my wife when Pac Man came out, so any time she heard the dot chomping noises, or even saw pie-shaped carpet patterns, she would feel sick to her stomach. That is about how I felt after playing the 2600 version.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:45 PM on January 17, 2010

That video was completely excellent. I'm so glad I luckly watched it, because I hate PacMan-related stuff.
posted by facetious at 5:18 PM on January 17, 2010

Pacman is a prime example of why it's ridiculous that videogames have any influence on kids. I mean, with as popular as it was, you'd think the kids that grew up playing it would have spent the 90s in dark corridors, eating pills and listening to electronic noises.

And all of the irredeemable jaywalkers obviously played Frogger.
posted by XMLicious at 5:18 PM on January 17, 2010

I mean, with as popular as it was, you'd think the kids that grew up playing it would have spent the 90s in dark corridors, eating pills and listening to electronic noises.

But... didn't they?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:50 PM on January 17, 2010

And AAARGH! Using the horrid Atari home system board instead of the classic arcade layout for the overlay on the city? And the ghosts running ON the walls instead of between them?

It was so they could fit the maze to the video's proportions. I was rather pleased that they got the overall layout correct, just distorted.

Pacman is a prime example of why it's ridiculous that videogames have any influence on kids. I mean, with as popular as it was, you'd think the kids that grew up playing it would have spent the 90s in dark corridors, eating pills and listening to electronic noises.

I am also suspicious of claims that video games influence children, which is really just an excuse used by some to censor things they don't approve of, but it is being disingenuous to say that Pac-Man, an abstract maze game, would have the same behavior-influencing power as Grand Theft Auto.
posted by JHarris at 7:06 PM on January 17, 2010

Nikuman. Pac-Man
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:10 PM on January 17, 2010

That night, the future called out to him in dreams.
It looked exactly the same —
only, slightly faster.


This is a very good Gibson-channelling. Scary good.
posted by sixswitch at 8:10 PM on January 17, 2010

The Madness of Mission 6 is my favorite "Pac-Man origin story".
posted by aeschenkarnos at 2:08 AM on January 18, 2010

Great stuff. The more abstract the video game, the better the resultant fanfiction.
posted by him at 2:42 AM on January 18, 2010

/facepalm @ flapjax at midnite

regarding thread, wonderful wonderful video. thank you submitter.
posted by dearsina at 2:51 AM on January 18, 2010

I had forgotten that Pacman cartoon existed. I loved that show! Granted, I was about 5 at the time.
posted by Kris10_b at 3:41 AM on January 18, 2010

naughty empath

also: something about americans and irony
posted by criticalbill at 5:10 AM on January 18, 2010

“ If Pac-Man had affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive electronic music. „

This joke is frequently quoted on the internet and often attributed to famous figures in electronics (such as an apocryphal CEO of Nintendo, "Kristian Wilson," although Hiroshi Yamauchi held that position from 1949 to 2002), but Brigstocke vehemently claims authorship of the joke:

“Ah! Bloody Pacman....It is my joke. I wrote it, then I took the rest of the day off as I was so chuffed with it. I am gutted that it has been claimed and passed around by so many people. Intellectual property law will not save me, the false claims will continue until I am man enough to give it all up. All I can say is -- it seems that it is very unlikely that it was written by a Nintendo employee in 1989, being as Pac Man was still around and not much of a childhood memory, there were very few claims that gaming influenced children's behaviour, and that the wording of it is identical to how it has been delivered in my stand up routine for 6 years! For those that are interested it has also been attributed to Bill Gates, but then so has Windows! Bitter? Well perhaps just a little. It was sent to me by someone at Channel 4 a few years back after I did it on Channel 4 in a late night stand up show! Hope that clears everything up. ”

— Marcus Brigstocke
posted by MuffinMan at 5:19 AM on January 18, 2010