Monday, October 12, 2009

Tabletop Ms. Pac Man


Since I'm usually looking to burn time when my daughter is at her two-hour gymnastics practice, my son and I stopped by the original Burger King in Mattoon after some grocery shopping.

It's a an old fashioned burger joint, with customers getting numbers and numbers being called for burgers, shakes, and fries. It's a Steak-n-Shake type of establishment but family owned.

With dated decor and booths--I'm guessing early 80s--I discovered something I haven't seen in years: a tabletop Ms. Pac Man. It was not as pretty and fresh as the combo Ms. Pac Man/Galaga tabletop shown above, however.

It was vintage; the screen noted 1981. It had also see its fair share of use for the past 28 years.

I remember being told that video game enthusiasts enjoyed Ms. Pac Man more than Pac Man. I never understood the reasoning why. Anyone know? Is it because of the cute pink bow?

2 comments:

travolta said...

You knew I was going to respond to this, right?

My understanding is that Ms. Pacman is considered more of a challenge because the ghost's AI was more adaptive and did a better job of going after the player. In the original Pacman the ghosts went in more of a set pattern that could be exploited easier.

Also, the layout of the maze is more of a challenge in Ms. Pacman because each board has a section where you can get trapped by just 2 ghosts.

Quintilian B. Nasty said...

I knew there was a reason, but I didn't know what it was exactly. Thanks for the info.