8 ms·

Pac-Man: How We Played the Game

115 points by severine 8y ago

jfoutz 8y ago
Article is about material deformation. It’s charming, and I’d encourage people to read it. Now days the equivalent might be a really shiny controller, or letters worn of of a keyboard.
- got2surf 8y ago
  Even worn paths through the grass at university/corporate campuses can show better ideas for sidewalk layout.
  - nlawalker 8y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path
    - nathancahill 8y ago
      https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath/
  - setr 8y ago
    Illinois institute of technology's main building (mtcc) was designed based on that: they tracked people as they crossed over the large lawn (park?) to get to classses and such, and then built the building so as to preserve those paths
- gerbilly 8y ago
  Or road wear on a guitar: https://www.pinterest.com/sarnoldmusic/anatomy-of-a-road-worn-guitar/ https://www.pinterest.com/sarnoldmusic/anatomy-of-a-road-wor...
jordigh 8y ago
Who else was reminded of that pinball essay in Foucault's Pendulum in Chapter 34 in relation to Lorenza Pellegrini? You don’t play pinball with just your hands, you play it with the groin too. The pinball problem is not to stop the ball before it’s swallowed by the mouth at the bottom, or to kick it back to midfield like a halfback. The problem is to make it stay up where the lighted targets are more numerous and have it bounce from one to another, wandering, confused, delirious, but still a free agent. And you achieve this not by jolting the ball but by transmitting vibrations to the case, the frame, but gently, so the machine won’t catch on and say Tilt. You can only do it with the groin, or with a play of the hips that makes the groin not so much bump, as slither, keeping you on this side of an orgasm. And if the hips move according to nature, it’s the buttocks that supply the forward thrust, but gracefully, so that when the thrust reaches the pelvic area, it is softened, as in homeopathy, where the more you shake a solution and the more the drug dissolves in the water added gradually, until the drug has almost entirely disappeared, the more medically effective and potent it is. Thus from the groin an infinitesimal pulse is transmitted to the case, and the machine obeys, the ball moves against nature, against inertia, against gravity, against the laws of dynamics, and against the cleverness of its constructor, who wanted it disobedient. The ball is intoxicated with vis movendi, remaining in play for memorable and immemorial lengths of time. But a female groin is required, one that interposes no spongy body between the ileum and the machine, and there must be no erectile matter in between, only skin, nerves, padded bone sheathed in a pair of jeans, and a sublimated erotic fury, a sly frigidity, a disinterested adaptability to the partner’s response, a taste for arousing desire without suffering the excess of one’s own: the Amazon must drive the pinball crazy and savor the thought that she will then abandon it. I enjoy me some retro gaming, and I've noticed sometimes I also grip cabinets or controllers in odd ways. I notice it because sometimes my hands are sore. Also, I wonder if I should go re-read that book. I think I have better faded memories of it than my actual enjoyment at the time when I read it. It seemed dense and I don't think I understood much of anything. But everyone remembers this passage I quoted above.
- pcnix 8y ago
  I remember thinking that the book was dense too, and this passage definitely stands out in my memory.
mrob 8y ago
>Original unrestored Pac-Man cabinets almost always show this kind of wear-pattern caused by the thousands, oftentimes millions, of left-hands that once gripped it during gameplay. I don't believe this ever happened. Let's make the conservative assumption that a cabinet was in continuous operation 8 hours a day, and each game lasted 2 minutes. That's only 240 games a day, which means it would take nearly 23 years of such extremely heavy use to reach 2 million games (the lowest number to qualify as millions plural). The Pac-Man craze did not last 23 years, and such heavy use is only plausible at the peak of the craze.
- exodust 8y ago
  It's a trivial point, but you are right that it wouldn't be millions. The cabinet wear was caused by thousands of hands.
keyle 8y ago
> The only reason why people “restore” vintage arcade games is usually to command higher prices on a market that typically sells to novice collectors. The practice has little to do with preservation and much more to do with profiting off the naive. That is so profoundly untrue. You never get back the money you've spent in renovation AND the real purpose is passion, to bring back that sense of NEW to something retro, and having it play like it came out of factory.
- kabes 8y ago
  Exactly. I restore cabinets. From fixing electronics to fully stripping and repainting rusty cabinets. Just finished a sega rally 2. And I'd be happy if I got the price of the parts out of it. Shouldn't even think about getting money for the hours spend.
- praptak 8y ago
  The quote is about "restoring" by putting cheap-looking stickers instead of properly restoring the original paintwork.
wespiser_2018 8y ago
There is a Ms. PacMan game in the gym of our office building I play between sets. You really do need a grip, and at least for my play style, I'm jamming the controller the direction I want to turn while I travel down the wall prior to making the turn. To make a fast, precise turn, you do really need some force, and its fun to think how different a control interface this is from our modern day consoles and PC!
virgakwolfw 8y ago
You know, I’ve spent my life loving Pac-Man in the arcade but merely liking the myriad home versions I’ve purchased over the decades. Thank you so much for finally explaining why.
hcarvalhoalves 8y ago
Props to this Mark Montag guy pulling a powerstance. https://retrobitch.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/pac-man-the-untold-story-of-how-we-really-played-the-game/the_oshkosh_northwestern_sat__jul_18__1981_/ https://retrobitch.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/pac-man-the-unto...
LarryMade2 8y ago
This is a good bit for ergonomics to figure out how to better improve the arcade experience in cabinet design.
jasonm23 8y ago
Feel like I have watched Bandersnatch too much, but reading this made me think about:.... You know what Pac stands for? PAC. Program and Control. He’s Program and Control Man. The whole thing’s a metaphor. All he can do is consume. He’s pursued by demons that are probably just in his own head. And even if he does manage to escape by slipping out one side of the maze, what happens? He comes right back in the other side. People think it’s a happy game. It’s not a happy game. It’s a fucking nightmare world. And the worst thing is? It’s real and we live in it.

115 points by severine 8y ago

Article is about material deformation. It’s charming, and I’d encourage people to read it. Now days the equivalent might be a really shiny controller, or letters worn of of a keyboard.

got2surf 8y ago
Even worn paths through the grass at university/corporate campuses can show better ideas for sidewalk layout.
- nlawalker 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path
  - nathancahill 8y ago
    https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath/
- setr 8y ago
  Illinois institute of technology's main building (mtcc) was designed based on that: they tracked people as they crossed over the large lawn (park?) to get to classses and such, and then built the building so as to preserve those paths
gerbilly 8y ago
Or road wear on a guitar: https://www.pinterest.com/sarnoldmusic/anatomy-of-a-road-worn-guitar/ https://www.pinterest.com/sarnoldmusic/anatomy-of-a-road-wor...

jordigh 8y ago

Who else was reminded of that pinball essay in Foucault's Pendulum in Chapter 34 in relation to Lorenza Pellegrini? You don’t play pinball with just your hands, you play it with the groin too. The pinball problem is not to stop the ball before it’s swallowed by the mouth at the bottom, or to kick it back to midfield like a halfback. The problem is to make it stay up where the lighted targets are more numerous and have it bounce from one to another, wandering, confused, delirious, but still a free agent. And you achieve this not by jolting the ball but by transmitting vibrations to the case, the frame, but gently, so the machine won’t catch on and say Tilt. You can only do it with the groin, or with a play of the hips that makes the groin not so much bump, as slither, keeping you on this side of an orgasm. And if the hips move according to nature, it’s the buttocks that supply the forward thrust, but gracefully, so that when the thrust reaches the pelvic area, it is softened, as in homeopathy, where the more you shake a solution and the more the drug dissolves in the water added gradually, until the drug has almost entirely disappeared, the more medically effective and potent it is. Thus from the groin an infinitesimal pulse is transmitted to the case, and the machine obeys, the ball moves against nature, against inertia, against gravity, against the laws of dynamics, and against the cleverness of its constructor, who wanted it disobedient. The ball is intoxicated with vis movendi, remaining in play for memorable and immemorial lengths of time. But a female groin is required, one that interposes no spongy body between the ileum and the machine, and there must be no erectile matter in between, only skin, nerves, padded bone sheathed in a pair of jeans, and a sublimated erotic fury, a sly frigidity, a disinterested adaptability to the partner’s response, a taste for arousing desire without suffering the excess of one’s own: the Amazon must drive the pinball crazy and savor the thought that she will then abandon it. I enjoy me some retro gaming, and I've noticed sometimes I also grip cabinets or controllers in odd ways. I notice it because sometimes my hands are sore. Also, I wonder if I should go re-read that book. I think I have better faded memories of it than my actual enjoyment at the time when I read it. It seemed dense and I don't think I understood much of anything. But everyone remembers this passage I quoted above.

pcnix 8y ago
I remember thinking that the book was dense too, and this passage definitely stands out in my memory.

mrob 8y ago

>Original unrestored Pac-Man cabinets almost always show this kind of wear-pattern caused by the thousands, oftentimes millions, of left-hands that once gripped it during gameplay. I don't believe this ever happened. Let's make the conservative assumption that a cabinet was in continuous operation 8 hours a day, and each game lasted 2 minutes. That's only 240 games a day, which means it would take nearly 23 years of such extremely heavy use to reach 2 million games (the lowest number to qualify as millions plural). The Pac-Man craze did not last 23 years, and such heavy use is only plausible at the peak of the craze.

exodust 8y ago
It's a trivial point, but you are right that it wouldn't be millions. The cabinet wear was caused by thousands of hands.

keyle 8y ago

> The only reason why people “restore” vintage arcade games is usually to command higher prices on a market that typically sells to novice collectors. The practice has little to do with preservation and much more to do with profiting off the naive. That is so profoundly untrue. You never get back the money you've spent in renovation AND the real purpose is passion, to bring back that sense of NEW to something retro, and having it play like it came out of factory.

kabes 8y ago
Exactly. I restore cabinets. From fixing electronics to fully stripping and repainting rusty cabinets. Just finished a sega rally 2. And I'd be happy if I got the price of the parts out of it. Shouldn't even think about getting money for the hours spend.
praptak 8y ago
The quote is about "restoring" by putting cheap-looking stickers instead of properly restoring the original paintwork.

wespiser_2018 8y ago

There is a Ms. PacMan game in the gym of our office building I play between sets. You really do need a grip, and at least for my play style, I'm jamming the controller the direction I want to turn while I travel down the wall prior to making the turn. To make a fast, precise turn, you do really need some force, and its fun to think how different a control interface this is from our modern day consoles and PC!

virgakwolfw 8y ago

You know, I’ve spent my life loving Pac-Man in the arcade but merely liking the myriad home versions I’ve purchased over the decades. Thank you so much for finally explaining why.

hcarvalhoalves 8y ago

Props to this Mark Montag guy pulling a powerstance. https://retrobitch.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/pac-man-the-untold-story-of-how-we-really-played-the-game/the_oshkosh_northwestern_sat__jul_18__1981_/ https://retrobitch.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/pac-man-the-unto...

LarryMade2 8y ago

This is a good bit for ergonomics to figure out how to better improve the arcade experience in cabinet design.

jasonm23 8y ago

Feel like I have watched Bandersnatch too much, but reading this made me think about:.... You know what Pac stands for? PAC. Program and Control. He’s Program and Control Man. The whole thing’s a metaphor. All he can do is consume. He’s pursued by demons that are probably just in his own head. And even if he does manage to escape by slipping out one side of the maze, what happens? He comes right back in the other side. People think it’s a happy game. It’s not a happy game. It’s a fucking nightmare world. And the worst thing is? It’s real and we live in it.