Hard as it is for me to believe, I suppose there are probably some of you that aren't aware that Pac-Man's 25th anniversary was just last week. That's right; the big yellow guy/thing has been devouring pellets, ghosts, fruit and pretzels for twenty-five years. And unlike a startling percentage of North Americans, he doesn't seem to have packed on much weight during all that time. Though in some interpretations, he does seem to have evolved into a new version that includes arms and legs. I'm sure it's just a passing fad. Anyway, Pac-man probably gets plenty of exercise running away from those pesky ghosts. I'm pretty sure that's a good way to fight obesity. We just need to lock people into mazes filled with incompetent ghosts.
That's what the game's all about, by the way. Running from ghosts through repetitive mazes while eating things. It might not sound like much fun, but Pac-man seems to enjoy it so much that he got his whole family into it. Players have enjoyed all the various incarnations of Pac-man as well. It was there at the very start of the videogame revolution. It's almost hard to believe that this growing hobby was spearheaded by a family of yellow blobs with big mouths. Not exactly the sorts you'd expect to be revolutionaries. Of course, I have to think that the ghosts also had an impact on the game's popularity. Their names were Inky, Blinky, Pinky and...Clyde. Clyde? I'm not sure what's up with that one, but I almost think it has to have been personal. Clyde's defining charactertistic among his peers is his stupidity (unlike cunning Pinky, who likes to ambush), which suggests to me that Clyde's creation was inspired by one of the Pac-man designer's most bitter enemies. That's quite a burn, when even your ghost sucks.
Videogames have come a long way since the days of Pac-man's inception. Still, his franchise has endured the test of time, with multiple reincarnations and an almost biblical scope. Even today, research continues to be done into the world of Pac-man. Cutting edge research. If you need proof of this, you need only look at this project being undertaken at the University of Singapore. Those people? Are serious about Pac-man. Hey, if I could get course credit for being a guinea pig in a giant re-enactment of Pac-man, I would totally go for it. You know you would too. And the random fruit or pretzels would be just another bonus. Finally, it also helps that the character comes packed with more than his fair share of puns.
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