[Originally posted to rec.games.video.classic. "Thrift" is slang for a thrift store--a store usually run by a charity that sells used items donated to them.]
I hate one of my local thrifts. They have insane prices, but I have to keep going back because they tend to get in more of what I'm looking for. (Unfortunately, it's so dry here that even they don't get in much in the way of video games.) Here's an exchange I had with the cashier today:
I put on the counter a C-64 magazine and paperback. The price sign by the register says $0.25 & $0.50 for paperbacks, but nothing about magazines.
"$1.25."
"A dollar? For a magazine?!?" I ask. I had been expecting 15 to 25 cents.
"For a computer magazine," she says as if this makes perfect sense.
"But it's over ten years old!" (It was from 1986.)
"It's an antique then, isn't it?" she says incredulously.
"Then you can keep it," I say in a bit of a huff.
"Be happy to," she responds icily. I paid my quarter for the book and left.
The cashiers at this store get to set the prices. Nothing is marked, although there is aforementioned sign giving prices of the more common items. They apparently have some unwritten code for pricing some items. (Like all video game cartridges, from 2600 to Genesis, are $3.) This is the same lady that priced an in-the-box pong-style system at $10 for me last week. I passed on that, too, and it was still there today.
Maybe I'm showing up on different days, but it seems to me they get a cashier who works for a few weeks and then disappears. (And for some reason they're all older women.) This lady has been there before. At least the previous cashier was pleasant, even if she was equally insane on pricing. The store is run by a local rescue mission, and I'm sure they'd make more money if they sold some of their items for less.
ObCVG: Picked up a NES Game Genie for $0.50 at a yard sale this weekend. Haven't tested it yet.
["ObCVG" stands for "obligatory classic video games" content. The newsgroup was supposed to be for discussing classic video games, which was not the main topic of my post. So I added a teeny bit about them to make it on topic.
I was much later told at another thrift store that some other thrifts in town priced items based on how the purchaser was dressed. I typically did my shopping on my lunch hour, so this is probably what bit me because I was wearing "business casual" dress--essentially slacks and a collared shirt. Fancy clothes for someone buying stuff at a thrift store. — 5 June 2009]
20 September 1999
18 September 1999
Catching Up With Buckner and Garcia (originally for Classic Gamer Magazine)
[Classic Gamer Magazine introduction. This article originally appeared in CGM #2 (winter 1999–2000). This is the article as I submitted it and may not exactly match what was published.]
"I've
got a pocket full of quarters and I'm headed to the arcade."
Do
those words sound familiar? If you're a child of the '80s, they
should. They're the opening of Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia's hit
song, "Pac-Man
Fever," from the album of the same name. The "Pac-Man
Fever" single
went platinum (about 1,700,000 copies sold), while the album went
gold (roughly 900,000 sold). Both were released in early 1982 and
quickly rose up the charts. The single peaked at #9 on the Billboard
chart and #3 on the Record World chart. Not bad for two radio jingle
writers in Atlanta who wrote the song in about an hour.
Now,
17 years later, Buckner and Garcia have re-recorded and re-released
the album on compact disc. Shortly after the re-release, Classic
Gamer Magazine got Buckner and Garcia to take a little time for an
exclusive e-mail interview.
The CD
Classic
Gamer Magazine: Let's
start with the most obvious question: Why re-release Pac-Man
Fever on CD 17 years after the original album's release?
Buckner
& Garcia: The
demand and desire we have been receiving showed us a lot of people
wanted a CD version.
CGM:
This
project seemed to be on-again/off-again for over a year. What finally
prompted you to actually do it?
B&G:
It
took awhile to get all our ducks in a row to make the release
possible.
CGM:
Did
you have to renegotiate certain rights with the arcade manufacturers of
each game?
B&G:
We
still have and maintain all the rights we had on the 1982 release.
CGM:
What
was involved in re-recording the songs? Did you still have your lyric
and music sheets from when you originally recorded the album?
B&G:
The
original lyric sheets and music were gone, so we went on memory and
the lyrics [Lee Seitz] had printed on [his] website.
The Record
CGM:
Who
sang what on both the album and CD?
Garcia:
The
vocals are done by me.
CGM:
I
know you were going to do a tour in Europe when the album was
released there? Did it actually happen? Did you do any touring in
North America?
B&G:
There
was never a European tour, but we did a lot of touring for promotion
in the U.S.
CGM:
In an
interview in Video
Games magazine,
you said a man named Edgel Groves had recorded a country and western
version of Pac-Man Fever. Did it ever see commercial release?
B&G:
The
country version of the song was never released.
CGM:
Besides
singing "Puck-Man" instead of "Pac-Man," were
there any other differences in the Japanese version of Pac-Man
Fever ?
B&G:
"Puc-Man"
was the only change in the version for Japan.
CGM:
I've
seen a reference to a German version of Pac-Man
Fever (called
Pac-Man
Feiber )
sung by Gerald Mann. Did you or anyone else do any other versions in
different languages?
Garcia:
I
have not heard about the German or any other different language
versions.
Back to Today
CGM:
So
just what have you been up to since Pac-Man
Fever slid
off the charts?
B&G:
We
still are writing, recording, and producing music and advertising
jingles.
CGM:
What
were your favorite video games in the '80s? Do you still play video
games? (If so, which ones?)
Garcia:
[My]
favorite game was, is, and always will be Pac-Man.
You
can order your own copy of the Pac-Man
Fever CD for $15.99 plus $3.50 shipping and handling at
www.bucknergarcia.com. [OFFER NO LONGER VALID.]
Postscript (June 2013)
As you may have guessed, the title is a bit misleading. This was not an interview with Buckner and Garcia, but just Gary Garcia. How it came about is probably a blog post in itself, but essentially their recording engineer turned to me for some minor help while they were re-recording it because I had one of the few Web pages dedicated to the album at the time. You can find a bit more at my Pac-Man Fever Forever pages.
I was a bit disappointed in the final result of the interview due to Mr. Garcia's curt answers. But in his defense, it was an e-mail interview and I don't know how his typing skills were. Perhaps I should have done it on the phone. Also, I'd hoped to get some answers from Jerry Buckner as well, but he didn't respond.
If you didn't know, I'm a bit of a Pac-Man Fever aficionado, so several of these questions might have been a bit obscure, but after reading the vintage interview in Video Games, they were what I was wondering about. I suspect the county version of "Pac-Man Fever" is what the duo later released as "Pac-Man Fever Unplugged." I've forgotten whether that was released before or after I asked the question about it.
14 August 1999
CVG 101: Classic Video Games in a Nutshell (originally for Classic Gamer Magazine)
[Classic Gamer Magazine introduction. This article was originally published in CGM volume 1, #1 (fall 1999). This is the article as I submitted it and may not exactly match what was published.]
Welcome
to the first CVG 101 column. My name is Lee K. Seitz, and I’ve been
actively collecting classic video games since the late 1980s. The
purpose of this column is to help educate newcomers to the hobby of
collecting classic video games. Each issue I’ll pick a different
topic to explain. I hope you find these columns both educational and
entertaining. For this, my first column, I’m simply going to try to
define many terms often used within the hobby while giving a brief
history of home video games.
If you’re on the Internet, there’s a Usenet newsgroup where collectors discuss classic video games. Its name is rec.games.video.classic, or r.g.v.c for short. If you’re not familiar with newsgroups, I’m afraid it’s too big a topic to go into detail about here. Try a site like DejaNews (www.dejanews.com) or RemarQ (www.remarq.com). You’ll see many of the terms I discuss here come up in the discussions in r.g.v.c.
First, let’s cover the home video game systems of the classic age (roughly 1972-1984). You are probably familiar with the some of the major systems of the time, particularly Atari’s. The Atari 2600 was first released as the Atari Video Computer System (VCS). When Atari released it’s second programmable system, the Atari 5200 Super System, they went back and changed the VCS to the 2600. Atari later released the Atari 7800 Pro System, which could play both games designed for it and 2600 games.
Although the Atari 2600 was the reigning champion of the classics, it was not the first console. That was the Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972. It was a very simple system that played mainly pong-type games. It came with overlays to tape to the TV screen and numerous cards and game boards to help enhance it. Next came Atari’s Pong for homes, based on their Pong coin-op (coin-operated) game. It’s success spawned numerous imitators, notably Magnavox’s Odyssey series and Coleco’s Telstar series.
The first programmable console was the Fairchild Channel F, but the 2600 was released shortly thereafter, quickly taking the lead. Again, Atari’s success created competitors. Magnavox’s first truly programmable system, the Odyssey 2, was notable for its full keyboard. Toy company Mattel created the Intellivision, which upped the ante on graphics. Meanwhile Milton Bradley bought out GCE (General Consumer Electronics) and released their Vectrex. The Vectrex is unique in that it is the only home game system to use vector graphics. Vector graphics are those found in arcade games like Asteroids and Tempest, where everything is drawn with straight lines.
Finally, the technology ante was upped again, this time by Coleco with their Colecovision. And then came the Crash.... The Crash was a period in 1983-84 in which the video game market took a nose-dive. This was caused by several factors, including a glut of sub-par games and the falling cost of home computers. Many video game companies went out of business during this time. Most collectors consider this the end of the classic era. It took a company new to the American home video game market to turn things around when they released the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985.
As you can see, there are many "classic" systems out there. You might wonder where you can find them and their cartridges (carts, for short). There are several places. If you have a lot of time, but little money, search thrift stores (such as Value Village or those run by the Salvation Army or Goodwill), flea markets, and yard sales. Some collectors visit thrift stores so often that they’ve coined a word for the act of visiting several thrift stores around town: thrifting.
If, on the other hand, you have plenty of money, but not much time, you might try a classic video game dealer. Yes, there really are people who have made a business out of selling old video games. There are no national chains that do so, which makes finding them hard. On the bright side, most do their business via mail order throughout the country. Check out some of the ads in this issue. [Cav, do any dealers have ads going into the first issue? If not I’ll need to rewrite this part.] Another option is Internet auction sites such as eBay (www.ebay.com) or Amazon (www.amazon.com).
Notice I made the distinction of time vs. money. That’s because some items are rarer than others. For example, you’ll have no problems finding an Atari 2600 and a dozen games, while finding a Vectrex with any games can be quite a feat. Some enterprising collectors have created rarity lists of the games for various systems. The first to do so was Craig Pell, also known as VGR. (Only he knows what that stands for.) He created a 2600/7800 rarity list. While it is still around and often referred to, it has not been updated in some time so portions of it are outdated. Many lists use the same rarity ratings VGR created: C = common, U = uncommon, R = rare, ER = extremely rare, and UR = unbelievably rare. There is also an unofficial rating of OC (obnoxiously common) that people use in conversation to refer to Atari 2600 Combat and such.
A great way to get rarity lists for most classic systems is to buy the Digital Press Classic Videogame Collector’s Guide, more commonly known as the Digital Press Guide or DPG. Digital Press (www.digitpress.com) is a fanzine dedicated to all home video game systems, old and new, with more emphasis on old. It rates games and hardware on a rarity scale of 1 (common) to 10 (practically unique). It covers most of the systems mentioned above from the Channel F to the NES. To get a copy send $20 (for U.S. and Canada; $30 elsewhere) to Joe Santulli at Digital Press, 44 Hunter Place, Pompton Lakes, NJ 07442. [Prices and address for historical reasons only. Do NOT send money to this address.]
You might wonder what kind of items get rated a 10. Well, they’re mostly prototypes. The term prototype is used to refer to pre-production cartridges. These are generally of two types. The first is a cartridge containing an EPROM (erasable, programmable read only memory) chip that the programmer used to test his or her game on an actual console. In general, the programmer would erase and reuse a cartridge many times during the development process, so few of these exist. The more highly regarded ones are those that contain either a game with some differences from the commercially released version or a game that was never released at all. The second type are called "lab loaners." These were pre-production, but usually completed, games sent to magazines and such for review. Because of the lead time in publishing a magazine, game companies had to get the games to the reviewers early in order for the review to be published at the same time the game was released. These prototypes were supposed to be returned to the game company afterwards, but many were not. They generally have an official, yet generic label on them including the address to return them to.
Finally, let me mention holy grails. These are the games or systems that collectors prize most of all. Now not every collector considers the same game(s) to be his "holy grail." One that many collectors want, however, is Chase the Chuckwagon. (In fact, some collectors use the phrase "chasing the chuckwagon" instead of "thrifting.") Chase the Chuckwagon is an Atari 2600 game that was only available by mail order from Purina if you collected enough proofs of purchase from their dog food. Therefore, it’s fairly rare. It’s far from the rarest 2600 game, but it’s taken on a certain mystique among collectors. Good luck finding your own holy grails, whatever they may be.
I touched on many topics here that I wrote about previously for Suite 101. You'll notice this was back when r.g.v.c was still the center of the collecting hobby and before Google bought up DejaNews' Usenet archives.
This is the original article, before Chris "Cav" Cavanaugh did any editing, so I left in the comment addressed to him to give you a behind-the-scenes peek. As it turned out, there were no advertisers for the first issue, so the sentence before the comment was struck and the sentence before the struck one was modified to say, "...via mail order throughout the country and many are based on the World Wide Web." And remember when Amazon tried to go head-to-head with ebay by doing auctions?
Craig "VGR" Pell's list is still around (although even more outdated), as is the Digital Press web site (but not so outdated).
If you’re on the Internet, there’s a Usenet newsgroup where collectors discuss classic video games. Its name is rec.games.video.classic, or r.g.v.c for short. If you’re not familiar with newsgroups, I’m afraid it’s too big a topic to go into detail about here. Try a site like DejaNews (www.dejanews.com) or RemarQ (www.remarq.com). You’ll see many of the terms I discuss here come up in the discussions in r.g.v.c.
First, let’s cover the home video game systems of the classic age (roughly 1972-1984). You are probably familiar with the some of the major systems of the time, particularly Atari’s. The Atari 2600 was first released as the Atari Video Computer System (VCS). When Atari released it’s second programmable system, the Atari 5200 Super System, they went back and changed the VCS to the 2600. Atari later released the Atari 7800 Pro System, which could play both games designed for it and 2600 games.
Although the Atari 2600 was the reigning champion of the classics, it was not the first console. That was the Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972. It was a very simple system that played mainly pong-type games. It came with overlays to tape to the TV screen and numerous cards and game boards to help enhance it. Next came Atari’s Pong for homes, based on their Pong coin-op (coin-operated) game. It’s success spawned numerous imitators, notably Magnavox’s Odyssey series and Coleco’s Telstar series.
The first programmable console was the Fairchild Channel F, but the 2600 was released shortly thereafter, quickly taking the lead. Again, Atari’s success created competitors. Magnavox’s first truly programmable system, the Odyssey 2, was notable for its full keyboard. Toy company Mattel created the Intellivision, which upped the ante on graphics. Meanwhile Milton Bradley bought out GCE (General Consumer Electronics) and released their Vectrex. The Vectrex is unique in that it is the only home game system to use vector graphics. Vector graphics are those found in arcade games like Asteroids and Tempest, where everything is drawn with straight lines.
Finally, the technology ante was upped again, this time by Coleco with their Colecovision. And then came the Crash.... The Crash was a period in 1983-84 in which the video game market took a nose-dive. This was caused by several factors, including a glut of sub-par games and the falling cost of home computers. Many video game companies went out of business during this time. Most collectors consider this the end of the classic era. It took a company new to the American home video game market to turn things around when they released the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985.
As you can see, there are many "classic" systems out there. You might wonder where you can find them and their cartridges (carts, for short). There are several places. If you have a lot of time, but little money, search thrift stores (such as Value Village or those run by the Salvation Army or Goodwill), flea markets, and yard sales. Some collectors visit thrift stores so often that they’ve coined a word for the act of visiting several thrift stores around town: thrifting.
If, on the other hand, you have plenty of money, but not much time, you might try a classic video game dealer. Yes, there really are people who have made a business out of selling old video games. There are no national chains that do so, which makes finding them hard. On the bright side, most do their business via mail order throughout the country. Check out some of the ads in this issue. [Cav, do any dealers have ads going into the first issue? If not I’ll need to rewrite this part.] Another option is Internet auction sites such as eBay (www.ebay.com) or Amazon (www.amazon.com).
Notice I made the distinction of time vs. money. That’s because some items are rarer than others. For example, you’ll have no problems finding an Atari 2600 and a dozen games, while finding a Vectrex with any games can be quite a feat. Some enterprising collectors have created rarity lists of the games for various systems. The first to do so was Craig Pell, also known as VGR. (Only he knows what that stands for.) He created a 2600/7800 rarity list. While it is still around and often referred to, it has not been updated in some time so portions of it are outdated. Many lists use the same rarity ratings VGR created: C = common, U = uncommon, R = rare, ER = extremely rare, and UR = unbelievably rare. There is also an unofficial rating of OC (obnoxiously common) that people use in conversation to refer to Atari 2600 Combat and such.
A great way to get rarity lists for most classic systems is to buy the Digital Press Classic Videogame Collector’s Guide, more commonly known as the Digital Press Guide or DPG. Digital Press (www.digitpress.com) is a fanzine dedicated to all home video game systems, old and new, with more emphasis on old. It rates games and hardware on a rarity scale of 1 (common) to 10 (practically unique). It covers most of the systems mentioned above from the Channel F to the NES. To get a copy send $20 (for U.S. and Canada; $30 elsewhere) to Joe Santulli at Digital Press, 44 Hunter Place, Pompton Lakes, NJ 07442. [Prices and address for historical reasons only. Do NOT send money to this address.]
You might wonder what kind of items get rated a 10. Well, they’re mostly prototypes. The term prototype is used to refer to pre-production cartridges. These are generally of two types. The first is a cartridge containing an EPROM (erasable, programmable read only memory) chip that the programmer used to test his or her game on an actual console. In general, the programmer would erase and reuse a cartridge many times during the development process, so few of these exist. The more highly regarded ones are those that contain either a game with some differences from the commercially released version or a game that was never released at all. The second type are called "lab loaners." These were pre-production, but usually completed, games sent to magazines and such for review. Because of the lead time in publishing a magazine, game companies had to get the games to the reviewers early in order for the review to be published at the same time the game was released. These prototypes were supposed to be returned to the game company afterwards, but many were not. They generally have an official, yet generic label on them including the address to return them to.
Finally, let me mention holy grails. These are the games or systems that collectors prize most of all. Now not every collector considers the same game(s) to be his "holy grail." One that many collectors want, however, is Chase the Chuckwagon. (In fact, some collectors use the phrase "chasing the chuckwagon" instead of "thrifting.") Chase the Chuckwagon is an Atari 2600 game that was only available by mail order from Purina if you collected enough proofs of purchase from their dog food. Therefore, it’s fairly rare. It’s far from the rarest 2600 game, but it’s taken on a certain mystique among collectors. Good luck finding your own holy grails, whatever they may be.
Postscript (June 2013)
As you can tell, this is my first article for Classic Gamer Magazine. It appeared in CGM #1 (fall 1999). I chose the date August 14th for the first day of Classic Gaming Expo '99, where the magazine debuted.I touched on many topics here that I wrote about previously for Suite 101. You'll notice this was back when r.g.v.c was still the center of the collecting hobby and before Google bought up DejaNews' Usenet archives.
This is the original article, before Chris "Cav" Cavanaugh did any editing, so I left in the comment addressed to him to give you a behind-the-scenes peek. As it turned out, there were no advertisers for the first issue, so the sentence before the comment was struck and the sentence before the struck one was modified to say, "...via mail order throughout the country and many are based on the World Wide Web." And remember when Amazon tried to go head-to-head with ebay by doing auctions?
Craig "VGR" Pell's list is still around (although even more outdated), as is the Digital Press web site (but not so outdated).
30 July 1999
Brag: Hardware for $0.10 each (& More finds today)
[Originally posted to rec.games.video.classic.]
Subject: Brag: Hardware for $0.10 each
More classic computer oriented, but anyway. Today I stopped by a thrift I don't have much luck at. It's actually more of a consignment shop, but if people leave their items past a certain amount of time and they don't sell, the shop claims them and sells them itself. What I didn't know is that red tag items (ones the shop has claimed) are 10 cents on Fridays!
I went up to the cash register with a Commodore 128D (just CPU, keyboard, & built-in floppy drive; marked $2.50), TI 99/4A (computer, power supply, switchbox, and Wico joystick adapter; $2.50), and an Atari Video Pinball (w/switchbox & coax adapter, missing side buttons covers; $3.00). Don't ask me to explain why the Video Pinball was marked more than the computers.
The couple in front of me let me put my stuff on the counter, but was still going to go ahead, which was fine with me. The lady saw I had a red tag item and said they were $0.10. I was amazed and said they were all red tag items, so she let me go in front of them after all. It came to $0.32. I had planned on charging my purchase since I had all of $0.35 on me, but I got to pay cash. 8)
The computers will be eBay bound after a while. If I sell them for $1, I'll make almost a 1000% profit. 8) The Video Pinball is an duplicate unit. I figure if the paddle works better than my other, I can transfer the button covers. Just like my other one, I haven't managed to get the battery compartment open to see if there's anything in there or not. Finally, am I correct that the C-128D just needs a normal power cord like a PC? (No fancy power adapter like a C-64.)
[This was the Thrift Shop on Redstone Arsenal. Sadly, I no longer work on the Arsenal and hence don't have access to the store any more. To give locals a feel for how long ago, this was when the shop was still in the complex of out-of-the-way buildings between Ajax and Patriot Roads, just north of Neal Road. (Sorry, I don't remember the building number.) It was while I was working out there (1998–2000) that they moved to their current location in building 3209 on Hercules Road. — 18 June 2010]
[Here's a second post made the same day.]
Subject: More finds today
I forgot to mention another thing in my "10 cents each" brag. At another thrift I picked up a set of twin size Pac-Man sheets for $3. (Just fitted & flat sheets, no pillowcases. 8( ) We don't currently have a twin bed in our house, but our son will be sleeping one in a few years. But do I dare let him actually *use* them?
At the same thrift, I found an NES Roll & Rocker controller for $4. I've heard of it before, but hadn't paid much attention. Can this be used in place of a standard controller or does it only work with certain games? Anyway, it's an addition to my informal "odd NES controllers" collection.
[I did indeed use the Pac-Man sheets on my son's bed when he got older. And eventually they were a preferred alternative to Barney. — 1 July 2010]
Subject: Brag: Hardware for $0.10 each
More classic computer oriented, but anyway. Today I stopped by a thrift I don't have much luck at. It's actually more of a consignment shop, but if people leave their items past a certain amount of time and they don't sell, the shop claims them and sells them itself. What I didn't know is that red tag items (ones the shop has claimed) are 10 cents on Fridays!
I went up to the cash register with a Commodore 128D (just CPU, keyboard, & built-in floppy drive; marked $2.50), TI 99/4A (computer, power supply, switchbox, and Wico joystick adapter; $2.50), and an Atari Video Pinball (w/switchbox & coax adapter, missing side buttons covers; $3.00). Don't ask me to explain why the Video Pinball was marked more than the computers.
The couple in front of me let me put my stuff on the counter, but was still going to go ahead, which was fine with me. The lady saw I had a red tag item and said they were $0.10. I was amazed and said they were all red tag items, so she let me go in front of them after all. It came to $0.32. I had planned on charging my purchase since I had all of $0.35 on me, but I got to pay cash. 8)
The computers will be eBay bound after a while. If I sell them for $1, I'll make almost a 1000% profit. 8) The Video Pinball is an duplicate unit. I figure if the paddle works better than my other, I can transfer the button covers. Just like my other one, I haven't managed to get the battery compartment open to see if there's anything in there or not. Finally, am I correct that the C-128D just needs a normal power cord like a PC? (No fancy power adapter like a C-64.)
[This was the Thrift Shop on Redstone Arsenal. Sadly, I no longer work on the Arsenal and hence don't have access to the store any more. To give locals a feel for how long ago, this was when the shop was still in the complex of out-of-the-way buildings between Ajax and Patriot Roads, just north of Neal Road. (Sorry, I don't remember the building number.) It was while I was working out there (1998–2000) that they moved to their current location in building 3209 on Hercules Road. — 18 June 2010]
[Here's a second post made the same day.]
Subject: More finds today
I forgot to mention another thing in my "10 cents each" brag. At another thrift I picked up a set of twin size Pac-Man sheets for $3. (Just fitted & flat sheets, no pillowcases. 8( ) We don't currently have a twin bed in our house, but our son will be sleeping one in a few years. But do I dare let him actually *use* them?
At the same thrift, I found an NES Roll & Rocker controller for $4. I've heard of it before, but hadn't paid much attention. Can this be used in place of a standard controller or does it only work with certain games? Anyway, it's an addition to my informal "odd NES controllers" collection.
[I did indeed use the Pac-Man sheets on my son's bed when he got older. And eventually they were a preferred alternative to Barney. — 1 July 2010]
14 July 1999
Re: Someone got Perfect Pacman Score????
[Originally posted to rec.games.video.classic as part of a lengthy thread about the original announcement of Billy Mitchell's perfect Pac-Man game.]
In article <r#1XL5Vz#GA.68@pet.hiwaay.net>, Lee Seitz wrote:
Well, Walter Day called me and conferenced in Billy Mitchell earlier this evening. (Surprised the heck out of me! He sent a brief e-mail earlier, but I was in a hurry and only half read it.) I'm not at liberty to reveal everything we discussed, but here's what I can tell you.
First, after the call, it occurred to me I could use MAME's cheat function to go straight to the split screen. (Why didn't we think of this before???) I think I miscounted the dots on the good half. There seem to be 112. Anyway, the key is that there are also dots on the bad half. (They're hard to see on the photo I referenced earlier because it's so small.) And they reset each time you die! So a perfect score includes eating these dots and dying, then repeat.
A perfect game also sets the number of lives to maximum. Since the game has a finite end, it was agreed among the top players that this should be done to allow the absolute maximum score to be achieved.
At this point I'm sick of trying to do the math, so I'm simply going to take Walter & Billy at their word that 3,333,360 is the max. possible score. I have no reason not to believe them.
Some other threads referenced classic magazines that gave higher scores and ways to get past the split screen. Quite simply, Walter didn't believe back then that people would lie about a video game score. In his defense, most players had signed documents from their local arcade saying they achieved the score they submitted. Apparently the arcade's simply went along with the lying claimants, either knowingly or unknowingly. After relating all this, Walter said, "I hope I'm not wrong now, but I was definitely wrong then." He seems to have enough different people who should know all telling him the same thing to be right this time. Thanks to him and Billy for taking the time to talk to me.
[The opening equation is: 255 boards of dots + split screen dots + 255 boards of energizers + split screen energizers + 17 boards of monsters (4 per energizer) + 255 boards of fruit. My total is off because there are 112 dots on the left side of the split screen, not 104. Note that the image above is much clearer than the one I mentioned on VGR's web site — which, as far as I know was the only one available at the time — so it was more difficult to count the dots.
Also, as I figured out, I forgot to include one key on the split screen for 5,000 points. So the total should be 3,332,820. That leaves 540 points to be picked up by eating the nine dots hidden on the right six times (five starting lives plus a bonus life).
I was utterly flabbergasted when Walter Day called me on the phone at home. And I don't think I gave him my phone number, either. Apparently he knew enough about my Classic Video Games Nexus site to think I had some standing in the classic video game community to deserve such treatment, and I certainly wasn't going to dissuade him. I later saw Mitchell play Ms. Pac-Man at Classic Gaming Expo 2K. His skill is awe-inspiring. — 18 June 2010]
[Here's the breakdown:
I actually created this spreadsheet a long time ago, but it only occurred to me today, as I happened upon some detailed information on the split screen, to post it here. — 9 Jan 2013]
In article <r#1XL5Vz#GA.68@pet.hiwaay.net>, Lee Seitz wrote:
(Cross-posted to r.g.v.a.c because of similar threads there.)Okay, let's try this again. Looking at the split screen photo at VGR's web site (http://www.clark.net/pub/vgr/pics/pac-man.gif), and comparing to a normal board, it looks like there's 104 dots and two engergizers. So... [snip] 612,000 + 1040 + 51,000 + 100 + 204,000 + 2,459,600 = 3,327,740 Hmmm, now I'm 5,620 under. Assuming it appears okay and is edible, I believe 102 dots will only yield one key (5000 pts.), which still leaves me 620 points off. Heck, I think I'll just ask Mr. Day. I'll let y'all know what he says.
Well, Walter Day called me and conferenced in Billy Mitchell earlier this evening. (Surprised the heck out of me! He sent a brief e-mail earlier, but I was in a hurry and only half read it.) I'm not at liberty to reveal everything we discussed, but here's what I can tell you.
First, after the call, it occurred to me I could use MAME's cheat function to go straight to the split screen. (Why didn't we think of this before???) I think I miscounted the dots on the good half. There seem to be 112. Anyway, the key is that there are also dots on the bad half. (They're hard to see on the photo I referenced earlier because it's so small.) And they reset each time you die! So a perfect score includes eating these dots and dying, then repeat.
A perfect game also sets the number of lives to maximum. Since the game has a finite end, it was agreed among the top players that this should be done to allow the absolute maximum score to be achieved.
At this point I'm sick of trying to do the math, so I'm simply going to take Walter & Billy at their word that 3,333,360 is the max. possible score. I have no reason not to believe them.
Some other threads referenced classic magazines that gave higher scores and ways to get past the split screen. Quite simply, Walter didn't believe back then that people would lie about a video game score. In his defense, most players had signed documents from their local arcade saying they achieved the score they submitted. Apparently the arcade's simply went along with the lying claimants, either knowingly or unknowingly. After relating all this, Walter said, "I hope I'm not wrong now, but I was definitely wrong then." He seems to have enough different people who should know all telling him the same thing to be right this time. Thanks to him and Billy for taking the time to talk to me.
[The opening equation is: 255 boards of dots + split screen dots + 255 boards of energizers + split screen energizers + 17 boards of monsters (4 per energizer) + 255 boards of fruit. My total is off because there are 112 dots on the left side of the split screen, not 104. Note that the image above is much clearer than the one I mentioned on VGR's web site — which, as far as I know was the only one available at the time — so it was more difficult to count the dots.
Also, as I figured out, I forgot to include one key on the split screen for 5,000 points. So the total should be 3,332,820. That leaves 540 points to be picked up by eating the nine dots hidden on the right six times (five starting lives plus a bonus life).
I was utterly flabbergasted when Walter Day called me on the phone at home. And I don't think I gave him my phone number, either. Apparently he knew enough about my Classic Video Games Nexus site to think I had some standing in the classic video game community to deserve such treatment, and I certainly wasn't going to dissuade him. I later saw Mitchell play Ms. Pac-Man at Classic Gaming Expo 2K. His skill is awe-inspiring. — 18 June 2010]
[Here's the breakdown:
I actually created this spreadsheet a long time ago, but it only occurred to me today, as I happened upon some detailed information on the split screen, to post it here. — 9 Jan 2013]
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