Get me my cane...

[Drtooth]

I rarely found any Pac-Man games outside of the standard Pac and Mrs Pac. I only heard or read about those. Though I think I saw Pac Jr somewhere I never went back to wherever it was. Pac-Man Plus... or is it Super-Pac really intrigues me. The giant Pac-Man that can munch through everything? Weird.

But I saw that Pac-Man cartoon a couple times. I guess it suffered from the fact they couldn't really reference the fact it was a video game or something.... they didn't overturn that ruling in kid's TV yet. You know, the one where any cartoon based on a toy or game line was considered a commercial unless you bury the references hard enough. I really didn't dig it, except for the character of Super Pac, played by Lorenzo Music.

I did like the Donkey Kong cartoon (or what I've so far seen of it)... except for Pauline's character. Seems like she was just there. I did like Mario, though I'm surprised that Peter Cullen used such a young sounding voice for him.

 

[Yorick]

Drtooth mentioned emulators - I am very glad they are around, (and ROMs) so I can play games I would've missed out on - but there's still something about playing Atari with the original controllers on the home television in full screen It's been a long time for me, but one day I'd like to again. (And yes, the DK cartoon is pretty cool! Peter Cullen does a voice kind of like when he later played Eddie on Filmation's Ghostbusters.

 

[Drtooth]

Actually... wanna know the REAL reason why the Atari Pac-Man was terrible? Atari rushed it out for the holidays, effectively selling the imperfected prototype in stores. Just found that out.

But I didn't really like the Pac-Man cartoon all that much. not the worst video game cartoon there is. Mortal Kombat the animated series was... you don't take a 13+ video game (the next one was 17+) and make a kiddy cartoon out of it. Followed by Double Dragon (why do they turn into Power Rangers? Someone tell me that) and the horrible Q* Bert cartoon which takes place in the 1950's for some reason.

As for the best? No contest! Earthworm Jim. Heck, I forget I'm watching a video game cartoon half the time.

 

[Yorick]

Yorick, no one told me about Lord Vader...so when he uttered that famous line, I looked at my brother and mother and went, "NO WAY!" We actually went to see it again a few weeks later, and then in the summer of 1981 when it was re-released, back before home video. I long for the days of spoiler free movie going, it was a simpler time.

Excellent! Thanks for that!

If I had an Atari to play at home I would still play the thing. The first one I had I had for 20 years when it finally decided to give up on me. I went to turn it on onde day and it didn't turn on. Well it did for like an half hour then POP that was it and I never got another one. That was a pretty good life for a computer game considering I played it for hours on end and had over 50 games for it.
I had a TI Computer as well for about 20 years as old it was I loved playing with it I could do a lot for a simple machine that had no internet access except for some dino modem that you placed your phone receiver on, but the service for that thing was long gone. Every now and again I would try not no server could be found. lol Not surprised.
Not even going to get into DOS. lol

Quite neat to hear about your computer and it's modem!
And I agree - Atari rocks!

I remember when I first saw Pac Man as a kid, it was at a drugstore. At first I thought it was the safest game where you could eat all the dots and monsters you want and not worry about getting killed. But then I learned that the monsters can only be eaten when they're a nervous blue and that they're dangerous when they're their regular colors.
Pretty soon, Pac Man started appearing everywhere. In arcade games and restaurants and 7-Elevens. And then games like Ms. Pac Man, Baby Pac Man, Super Pac Man, Jr. Pac Man, Pac Man Plus, Pac Land, PacMania, and many more Pac Man spinoffs started to appear and they were all great.

2. I remember seeing the Pac Man video game for the first time and trying to figure out how to play it. Am I this ghost? Am I that ghost? I finally caught on, and it is still one of my favorites to this day. Frankly, I think I'd prefer playing that one than most of the modern video games. Call me "old school," I guess. Pac Man is actually one of the first of the great standalone video games that made "Chuck E. Cheese" and other places fun hangouts. I found myself playing "Google Pac Man" a few times in the past few days. Kind of tricky to have to use those arrow keys, though. Where's that joystick?

Cool stories! And I agree!
I've played arcade versions of Super Pac Man, PacLand and Baby Pac Man (half video game, half pinball machine!)

As for the PacMan cartoon, it's like the 80's version of the Adam West Batman show - it has a similar appeal, I mean. It's just great silly fun! Lots of adventure and laughs. I love it. I also like the Q*bert cartoon. I am just so glad these shows are on youtube (some at least) I recall learning about them and thinking I'd never see them.

And the song Pac Man Fever. I'd love to hear all the songs on the LP Buckner and Garcia released - the only one I know besides Pac Man Fever is Do The Donkey Kong.

 

[muppet baby]

I cannot believe that "The Empire Strikes Back" and Pac Man are 30 years old this weekend. I still remember when they first came out. I saw "Empire" on opening night at the drive-in on a double bill with "Meatballs". My first encounter with Pac Man was at the Wareham House of Pizza when I was 7 years old. Now that I think of it, the drive-in I went to was also in Wareham...for a town I never lived in, a lot of cool things happened for me there. Just makes me feel really old to think that 30 years has passed since then.

I was 7 yrs old as well and when i saw packman i do not remember weather it was at a arcade somwehre or at a hotel resterant i just know it was one of the two . I can not belive that both empire strikes back is 3o yrs old as well . I just that star wars film film seveal years ago although , i had seen star wars one and 1 when i was a little kid still love it i need to get the entire trilogy on Blu ray i do not have the DVDs though i watch them when ever they are on tv , it is going be great to have them on Blu ray so much better than dvd in picture .

 

[Yorick]

As for the best? No contest! Earthworm Jim. Heck, I forget I'm watching a video game cartoon half the time.

Don't forget Frogger! From the moment you hear the theme song, you know you're in for one of the best shows ever! I may be joking about the cartoon (which doesn't seem like one of the best ever, not from the episode I saw anyway) but I say it with love.

 

[APRena]

I'm terrible at all modern video games (Rock Band, DDR, anything on Wii etc.) but I love Pacman and Space Invaders and Tetris and the like. So what if they're 30 years old? As for Empire I saw it when I was home sick from school when I was pretty young-- Darth Vader scared the bjeezes out of me.

 

[Drtooth]

Don't forget Frogger! From the moment you hear the theme song, you know you're in for one of the best shows ever! I may be joking about the cartoon (which doesn't seem like one of the best ever, not from the episode I saw anyway) but I say it with love.

I feel Earthworm Jim is a special case. Invariably, when you make a video game based cartoon series, you have to alter the characters and stories to fit into a half hour or less recurring TV show. And sometimes a new plot, completely alien to the concept to hide the fact that you're technically watching a commercial. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Earthworm Jim took the spirit of the video game (and if anyone has played them, you know what kind of spirit that is) and made it mesh with an insane cartoon series. Sure, he had the rocket, the gun, and once the manta shield (which was a failure in the show)... but the show took the characters and went crazy with them, and it fit perfectly with the game WITHOUT having to rehash the plot of it.

Pac-Man had some of those references, from what I saw, and Hanna Barbera basically did what it did that made it Hanna Barbera. A wacky episodic cartoon. Dic did 3 things with Super Mario (mentioning it for example)... first, they had that series where Mario and Co were somehow nomadic (a recurring theme in Dic cartoons... Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was the same thing) always running from Koopa in different lands... most of which were SO not in the video game, and Koopa took on parody nom de plumes like Koopzilla and Darth Koopa. And EVERY item turned them into Fire Mario... the second series was closer to the game, and even mentioned and used a lot of items and locations. The third one was basically an introducing technology to a backwards culture as a reflection of how stupid whatever it is is... something done a MILLION times better with the Japanese Kirby series.

But I reiterate... if the game isn't a kid's game, it SHOULDN'T be a kid's cartoon. Also the American Street Fighter series sucked.

 

[dwmckim]

I don't have much specific memories of my first exposure to Empire or Pac-Man. My older brother was a Star Wars lover (which tended to have the effect of making me not so into it - that was the thing back then...anything he would consider cool, i would have to consider uncool!) Of course Frank Oz's involvement as Yoda made me much more interested and aside from Yoda and "I am your father", the rest became quickly forgettable for me at the time.

I don't remember where i first played Pac-Man. Though once i did, i was hooked. For me the classics were Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger and Qbert. I did actually like the cartoon as this was still when Saturday Morning cartoon watching was a ritual but when it was getting harder to find fun ones to watch. If i watched it now, i'd probably find it not that appealing (haven't seen it since it originally aired), but at the time it was required viewing...especially if eating the cereal!

My fave Pac-Man memory though was playing it at a pizza place in my smalltown in a section that had a lot of strip mall type stores where one would go to hang out, look through the latest magazines, etc. The pizza place had everything cool - the PacMan machine, a jukebox with excellent selections, the red/white checkerboard tableclothes that just made everything seem "just as it should be", and the pizza itself was among the best i'd ever tasted. When i think of my hometown i grew up with, that's one of the places i miss the most though i doubt it still exists even if i went back (and even if it did, probably not the same recipe/ownership).

 

[Slackbot]

Wow, this takes me back. I was in high school in the '80s, and I was a Pac-fan. Had the cards and stickers and stuff, drew the characters, even made dolls of the characters. I never could play Pac-Man worth a flip; I kept getting surrounded in the two loop st the bottom of the maze. However, I could (and still can) kick butt in Ms. Pac-Man.

I wish I could have gotten Pac-Man Jr. and Super Pac-Man on any of my home systems. I loved those games. In fact, I even forgave them for that Frankenstein mishmash called "Baby Pac-Man" after playing Pac-Man Jr.

As for the cartoons... well, I watched 'em, what the hey. And I hated Mezmaron. I thought of him as a cross between Darth Vader and a conehead. Blarg. Do the Ghost Monsters really need a boss - a humanoid one at that? Even half asleep I thought that was lame.