Puck-Man

I think this is about the time when Cool Japan started putting out crazy mascots to the joy of the world everywhere. Still a joy to play after 35 years.

1981 was when I first saw Puck-Man. Yes that's right - for the first few months everyone in my neighbourhood knew the game as Puck-Man, for that is what was emblazoned on the cabinet. We even corrected other people who dumbly referred to the game as "Pac-Man" - stupid know-nothings. The machine was located at the milk bar across the road from my school, and I would count down the minutes and seconds in order to burst through those school gates like an Olympic sprinter in order to be the first one on the machine. There was always another person there before me.

It was only later that I realised that the machine I was playing was most likely using an illegal rip of the game, probably Ghost Munchers. For a start the maze was red, not blue. And the ghosts had different names. But at the time we had no idea until another (and legitimate) machine arrived at the local laundromat. It was called Pac-Man, had a better maze, and was just all around a more satisfying experience what with the cut scenes and all.

Pac-Man was an absolute phenomenon. Bigger, really, than Space Invaders. No game these days even comes close to the fully blown obsession that infected the world and drove people of all ages to feed endless amounts of money into Mr Pac's greedy coin slots. Any self respecting arcade would have a bare minimum of five or six Pac-Man machines. And the obsession took a long time to wear off. I can remember receiving a birthday card in 1984 from my girlfriend that had Pac-Man on the front.

The secret of the game's success? Simple yet utterly irresistible game play. Not so hard as to deter first timers, but enough of a challenge to keep old hands interested. Unless, of course, you used "the pattern", then the game was a piece of piss. I never bothered to learn it - I mean what would be the point if it was no longer a challenge? These days Pac-Man would likely be released as a phone app due to its simplicity, but it would still be a storming success.