Video Games, Movies, Comics, & Pop Culture

Just after my 33rd birthday, I found myself on a business trip to the Ft. Lauderdale area of Florida.  Over seven days, I worked 96 hours, which didn’t leave much time to do anything outside of work and pass out.  However, after a bit of research one night, the next day, I went to a Consignment Resale shop, Owl’s Treasures, Inc. after seeing some games that interested me on their website.  When I went in, they had all the games I was interested in and then some.

First up, they had Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 complete in the box for $8.  The box isn’t in the best condition, but I was really excited to find the game complete.  On top of the box, game, and manual, it still had the Activision Video Game Cartridge Limited One Year Warranty card (I think it’s probably a bit too late to make use of that!) and a few bonuses.  Instruction manuals for River Raid, Donkey Kong, Bowling, and Warlords were in the Pac Man box!

So, do you know the game’s story? There’s more detail in the manual than you’d guess.  The goal of the game is to keep Pac-Man happy and healthy in his home of Mazeland.  The little dots that Pac-Man eats? Those are video wafers, and of course everyone knows the power pills, but there are also vitamins that appear briefly for 100 points if you manage to snag them.  Video wafers are apparently what Pac-Man eats for nutrition.

Pac-Man was already a hit in the arcade before it came to the “privacy of your own home” which, according to the instructions, would let you practice so you could show off next time you were at the arcade.  The instructions detail the basic notion of the power pills and being able to eat the ghosts, but the manual never mentions the ghosts by name.  So while the arcade identified Chaser, Ambusher, Fickle, and Stupid, or Shadow, Speedy, Bashful, and Pokey in the US still BETTER known as Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde, the Atari manual gave no names whatsoever. They were simply ghosts.

The Atari cartridge did have a number of options. You could play game A or B based on the switch setting on your console and there were eight additional differences available that altered the speed at which Pac-Man and/or the ghosts moved, making the difficulty easier or harder depending on the settings.

The box isn’t in the greatest condition and if I come across one in better condition, I’ll probably jump on it and sell this one, but having all the documentation in the box for the first video game I remember playing on a console, and one of the most influential games in history, was awesome for me.

That isn’t a light reflected on the table…it’s a power pill.

Pac-Man, or Puckman, was lukewarm in Japan, but was the most popular game upon release in the US and exploded into the most popular thing in the video game industry to that point.  Arcade cabinets of Pac-Man sold at retail for $2400 and can now be a bit harder to find with the collapse of the video game industry in the early 80s leading to a lot of arcade cabinets being thrown out, but the ones that were on eBay at the time of this writing was under $1,000 (Ms. Pac-Man is much easier to find, though).  Someday I will own a Pac-Man arcade cabinet in my home.

Twin Galaxies has estimated the game is the highest grossing game of all time, it’s been voted and is considered one of the greatest video games of all time, and is one of the most influential games of all time as well.  It was one of the first games to open up to draw in the female demographic, has influenced other games by being the first with power ups and is credited as being the first foundations of the stealth game, and even inspired notable game designers later.  Google even redesigned their page to honor Pac-Man for the 30th anniversary, which you can still play.

I’m looking forward to the year 2030, when Pac-Man will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

I found other games in Florida at Owl’s Consignment and Resale Shop.  Chopper Command, Pigs in Space, Riddle of the Sphinx, and Yars’ Command for the 2600, all in the box with manuals as well as Super Pitfall and Star Tropics complete for NES.  I also got Yo Noid! for NES loose, Xenogears (though the manual is missing) for Playstation, and Dark Cloud 2 for Playstation 2 as well!  All in all, I spent about $150 on what came out to around $200 worth of games.  The family that runs Owl’s Consignment Shop are really nice and price fairly, using Pricecharting as their guideline for games, but they have plenty of things for the non-gamer as well.  If you’re in the Ft. Lauderdale area, I certainly recommend stopping by or just check the website. They do ship, and they might have something you’re looking for!