May marked the 45th anniversary of my all-time favorite video game, Pac-Man. On Saturday i took the train to Tokyo to visit the pop-up Pac-Man exhibition in Harajuku. It was a celebration of art, fashion, food, music, and '80s pop culture. I had a great time and made a video of the event.
Stunningly beautiful pages, Greg, thank you so much. Can I link this thread in the single-screen thread, too?
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
Randorama wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 6:38 am
Stunningly beautiful pages, Greg, thank you so much. Can I link this thread in the single-screen thread, too?
Sure, knock yourself out. Gosh, I haven't posted on this forum in such a long time. This time I have something unique to share.
Undamned is the leading English-speaking expert on the consolized UD-CPS2 because he's the one who made it.
Excellent, thanks. The post is here. As I mention in the post - if you feel interested in discussing maze games, we are all ears
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
In one million years people will still play Pac-Man
They will not be eating Pac-Man inspired donuts
I was not busy with work I would right now fire up Pac-Man for ps1 and tate it!
and play with 4 way gated stick I use for Tetris!
I bought one of those Numskull produced "Quarter Scale" Pac-Man cabs back in the day and it's fun to play. It even has that "old-school" trick of hiding in that "well-known" corner on the first maze while the ghosts mindlessly go about their business. The quarter-scale sized 4-way joystick on-board the the cab itself is quite responsive for it's size. The quarter-scale PM cab retains that classic "old-school" Bally-Midway MFG Co. visual aesthetics (of using just three primary colors of red, blue & yellow) when it debuted back in November of 1980 when it was first unveiled & distributed to American arcades.
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The deal with American arcade owners/operators was, they had to buy the full-sized cab of "Rally X and they get a Pac-Man cab free of charge" type of deal -- a "2 for 1" deal to better promote Pac-Man in the arcades stateside (as Bally-Midway wasn't sure how to sell/promote Pac-Man considering that it was a brand new & unproven arcade game title at the time). That shrewd business strategy decision worked quite well for Bally-Midway MFG Co. as they sold Pac-Man in the full-sized upright cab, cocktail-table cab (referred to as SD "sit down" cabs in Japan) & even mini cabaret versions (which looks quite cool in "real life") as well. I've seen & played on the mini cabaret Pac-Man cabs shown at the California Extreme shows.
The awesome Bally-Midway MFG Co. manufactured "Baby Pac-Man" hybrid arcade/pinball combo game is shown annually at the California Extreme shows in fully restored and in 100% working/playable condition -- the bad thing about playing the video game portion of it is, you have to "earn your power pills" (as you don't have any at the start of a gaming session) by playing the lower Electro-Mechanical based mini pinball game if you enter the lower bottom chute once it unlocks. Bally-Midway followed up with it's second & final hybrid arcade/pinball game by the name of "Granny and the Gators."
By 1981, Bally-Midway had unveiled it's newest arcade cab by the name of "Ms. Pac-Man" and the rest is history in the "Golden Age of Arcades" era. Bally-Midway followed up with it's "Super Pac-Man" arcade game release in 1982 and eventually, "Pac-Man Plus" arrived soon afterwards. The "Pac-Man Jr." arcade game (circa 1983) was innovative with it's scrolling maze feature (which meant the higher possibility/chance of getting hit by an approaching ghost in a "blind spot" type of situation).
Bally-Midway even released the uber-rare and very little seen or even seldomly played much "Professor Pac-Man" arcade game back in 1982 but considering it didn't fare too well in the American arcades during it's brief time on the "arcade game room floor and ended up taking valuable real-estate floor, space-wise" -- it was available to play at Disneyland's famous "Starcade" arcade joint located within Tomorrowland back in 1984-1985 as I saw that it was hosted there during that particular point in time.
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