As Google often likes to do, today they've placed the focus on an important anniversary, The 30th Anniversary of PAC-MAN. Naturally, Pac-Man is one of a handful of pop culture icons that encapsulates what many people think of when they think of the word "videogames". Heck, even when people are shown playing videogames in commercials, you'll STILL hear 30 year old Pac-Man sound effects coming from their modern day handheld or console! As you no doubt know, I wrote a colorful book called Vintage Games with Matt Barton not too long ago, and sure enough, Chapter 13, entitled "Pac-Man (1980): Japanese Gumption, American Consumption" features the pie guy himself and the games that incredible title influenced. So, be sure to re-read the chapter in your copy of the book as we celebrate this important videogame milestone - Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time (2009), by Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton, through Focal Press.

NOTE: In case you haven't noticed, you can go to Google's Home Page and try their first ever interactive doodle. Yep, you can play a nifty variation of Pac-Man right in your browser (just "Insert Coin" once for one player, or twice for a two player game with Ms. Pac-Man). Nice job, Google!

Hello, everyone. I'm debuting a new regular video series entitled, "Armchair Arcade TV". The first one, with the surprising name of "Episode 1" is on little known Centuri arcade game, Route 16 (Route-16), from 1981, with feature coverage of its first home translation for the Emerson Arcadia-2001 and its family of systems. Other games and systems are also featured. This is my first time on Adobe Premiere and on a new computer system, so the usual issues cropped up in the creation of this, but naturally these will improve in all ways over time, including the host segments. In the mean-time, enjoy the first episode. The full transcript follows the video.

Since I had to pull my Fairchild console out anyway to capture some additional footage for the documentary, I thought I would take a moment to do something I've been meaning to do for some time. This is just a direct capture of the 2009 homebrew Pac-Man cartridge by Tim Ruan and Fredric Blaholtz for the Fairchild Video Entertainment System (VES), which was the first ever programmable cartridge-based console, released all the way back in 1976. This was recorded off of my Fairchild Channel F System II, a later revision of the console that redirected the previously internal sound out to the TV to better match the feature set of later competing systems like the Atari 2600 VCS. Naturally, this game is an amazing achievement for a Fairchild system that has a library of fairly simple and blocky games. The occasional graphical glitchiness in various parts seems to be related to my system and/or my capture device, not necessarily the game itself.

More quick iPhone photos of new collection additions, this time the amazing new homebrew cartridge for the Fairchild Video Entertainment System (VES)/Channel F, Pac-Man, with an impressive flip-top cartridge shell design, and the Skunk Board (Skunkboard) for the Atari Jaguar, which is a USB-based Jaguar development board containing flash memory as well as the ability to upload to Jaguar RAM. At some point the full color box and manual for the Pac-Man cartridge will also arrive and I'll do a full video review of that and the Pac-Man Collection for the ColecoVision, each of which is stunning in their own right and would have set the world on fire if they were released when these systems were still new.

My wife, Christina, was nice enough to pick me up the new Pac-Man arcade machine Christmas tree ornament from a local Hallmark store ("as a surprise" as she likes to point out). You can see the details of it here, but it's presently only available in-store. Below I have some casual photos and a short, unedited video of the ornament in action (actually, I ended up taking it again since the digital camera was in time lapse mode for some reason), of course as my daughters are attacking it. It lights up and plays the Pac-Man theme and a short gameplay sound effects sample when you press either the Player 1 or Player 2 buttons.

Pac-ManPac-Man fever! That's what I have now that I've started work on the Pac-Man chapter in the book I'm currently writing with Bill Loguidice, the acclaimed collector and game historian. :) As usual, I started off by reading the wikipedia entry on the game, which this time was actually extremely detailed and helpful. One interesting thing about the wikipedia article is that it claims that the game designer, Toru Iwatani, was not inspired by a pizza as the old story goes. The article cites a book called Programmers at Work: Interviews, which I unfortunately do not own. If anyone does have this book or has thoughts on this matter, please let me know!

kong invadersYours too, I'm sure. Here's the link. It may take awhile, and I should probably waterproof the place first, but of course it would be worth it. This certainly would entertain the spiders. Hopefully even keep them occupied, so they no longer visit us on the first floor.

As I write this I realize I am posting this 4th generation. But I'm guessing there's plenty of people who still haven't seen it. And I'm pretty sure my three friends who actually read my blog haven't seen it.

Zaxxon (1982, Sega, Arcade Version)The ninth edition of the ColecoNation Web magazine has just been released.

The newest issue of ColecoNation is hot off the press.
You can check out issue #9 now at www.ColecoNation.com

Inside this month's issue you'll find:
+ Interview with Paul Jaquays (worked in Game Design at Coleco from 1980 to 1985)
+ Review of Deflektor Kollection
+ Pac-Man Collection article by Eduardo Mello
+ Reviews of Midwest Gaming Classic, Zaxxon, and Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of
Videogames
+ The latest ColecoVision news

Check it out at www.ColecoNation.com
+ Nathan