Over the past week, Denton Arcade Game Examiner has shared the backstories on Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and it's lesser known sequels, as well as hacks and clones and merchandise. As this series of Pac-Man 30th Anniversary articles wraps up, we cover the competitive aspect of the mega-classic by chatting with some of the most successful Pac-Man gamers ever, as well as their thoughts on what makes Pac timeless.
"Of all video game world records, surely Pac-Man holds the most prestige," said Steve Sanders, who held the Pac-Man World Record in October 1981 with a score of 2,866,030. "It is the most popular video game of all time, by most measurements. Many, many people have at least heard of Pac-Man, even if they never played. That is far more true for Pac-Man than for any other video game, including even the popular modern games like 'Call of Duty.'"
Another former Pac-champ echoed similar thoughts.
"To me, it was like being the 'heavyweight champion' of the arcades," added Tim Balderramos, a top score holder since the early days. "Pac-Man in its heyday was THE game - THE title to go after. In my favorite '80s hometown hangout (Fun Center U.S.A. in Rapid City, SD) everyone wanted to be on the leaderboard displayed above the change booth. The goal of seeing my name up there under Pac-Man was the constant carrot being dangled in front of me."
Even famed classic gamer Billy Mitchell was drawn to Pac-Man due to it's sheer popularity. Already making an extreme impact in the arcades of the day on hit titles such as Donkey Kong and Centipede, the names of the Pac-Man family kept coming across Mitchell's ear.
"There were people in school playing Pac-Man and talking about how good they were," Mitchell stated in a telephone interview. "Donkey Kong was the first game I worked on but the most popular game was Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. I actually got real good at Ms. Pac-Man first," Mitchell added. "Then it got to a point where I thought 'Gee, I forgot Pac-Man', so I went back to it. The knowledge I'd gained on Ms. Pac-Man answered all my questions about Pac-Man."
Crediting his determination in the 1980s to a friendly rivalry with Chris Ayra, Mitchell's most historic Pac-Man moment didn't come until July 4, 1999, when he set history's first perfect score on the machine by eating every possible item and ghost in the game to a score of 3,333,360 points. Interest in being the first to ever gain such a score had risen after some Canadian rivals arrived on the scene to try and beat Mitchell and Ayra to the punch.
"I wasn't going to let anybody beat me to it," Mitchell said.
Mitchell's lifelong friend Sanders added his thoughts on the Perfect Pac-Man.
"The fact that Billy Mitchell was the first person to record a perfect game on Pac-Man is the single biggest reason that he was named Video Game Player of the Century," Sanders said. "It is the main reason for his popularity. Had Billy only ever played Donkey Kong, there is a good chance that few would know his name today. As it is, and because of Pac-Man, Billy is known even by people who have never gamed. Billy deserves all the credit he gets. He completed mastered Pac-Man and the even hard Ms. Pac-Man for that matter. I'm honored and humbled that I can share even a very-small piece of the Pac-Man world record history with Billy."
As Pac-Man has now celebrated it's 30th birthday, these and many other gamers still compete to match Mitchell's historic score. With that, many of these champs state, proves that Pac-Man is forever timeless.
"It caught the imagination of people right away," stated David Race, one of the small handful of gamers to have matched the legendary perfect score. "It was simple. You didn't need instructions to play it, you could just watch it and understand it right way, like checkers."
Mitchell points out how Pac-Man's release lined up with much of the public's introduction to computers, and credits it with making them comfortable with them.
"Pac-Man didn't offend or threaten anybody," Mitchell added. "It was just fun."
"Pac-Man is timeless because it is so elegant. The game is so "simple" that even a child can play," stated Sanders. "With that said, Pac-Man hides its complexity. The game is easy to learn, but difficult to master. That's what makes it so addicting, and so enduring."
"Pac-Man was arguably the first to offer both simplicity and an air of friendliness in its gameplay. It worked then, and still works today," Balderramos weighed in.
As Pac-Man moves into it's 30s, Namco still offers the original game and it's many sequels on modern gaming platforms and is set to release Pac-Man Battle Royale to arcades and taverns this fall.
"The '80s was the Pac-Man decade. Today, 30 years after Pac-Man was introduced, Namco is still selling Pac-Man games on iPhones and iPads. And the games are outselling many, many other modern video games," Sanders said. "Everyone loves Pac-Man."
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I wish to thank Billy Mitchell, Steve Sanders, Tim Balderramos, and David Race for taking time out of their busy lives for this article. Each of them were gracious and willing to provide enough quotes and stories to write ten more articles.
Be sure to subscribe today and check back on Memorial Day for information about next week's annual tournament at Funspot in New Hampshire, as I travel 1500 miles in an attempt to set some more of my own record scores at the live event.
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