{"id":3474,"date":"2017-05-21T11:17:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-21T15:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/?p=3474"},"modified":"2017-05-31T13:46:19","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T17:46:19","slug":"the-pac-simile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/the-pac-simile\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pac-simile"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yea, I say unto you, I was in the right place at the right time for two major moments in American history. You must believe that what I’m about to tell you is the truth; it will seem like so much legend and myth.<\/p>\n

The first: I was gifted a copy of\u00a0E.T.<\/em> (the game) for the Atari 2600, on Christmas, but that is a tale for another article.<\/p>\n

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I HAD TO PRETEND I ENJOYED THIS.<\/p><\/div>\n

The second, and more significant:\u00a0I talked my father into buying me\u00a0Pac-Man<\/em> for the Atari 2600, one of the most notoriously disappointing games of all time. Second only to\u00a0E.T.,<\/em>of course.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It took some convincing, too; my dad had gotten wind of the bad rumors surrounding the mighty Pac’s arrival on the 2600. As always, I was entranced by the incredible cover art. I was young, dumb, and full of gum. Pac-Man <\/em>was my very favorite arcade game at 9, and the good people at Atari were thoughtful enough to upgrade the “power pellets” to power\u00a0bars. BARS!<\/em><\/p>\n

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They look like strawberry Pop-Tarts!<\/p><\/div>\n

I clearly recall bullshitting a grade school buddy by telling him the 2600 version contained “more dots”. I was consumed by a desire I could not comprehend.\u00a0Basically, I was good at a video game, it was a new phenomenon, and pretty much everybody was playing by ear. Perhaps it really\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>“Pac-Man Fever”.<\/p>\n

The disappointment in this particular cartridge is so strong, the mere sound of its starting up can trigger a rage response in guys like myself. Whenever characters in a sitcom are playing a video game, the audio of the Atari 2600\u00a0Pac-Man<\/em> is dubbed in-\u00a0no matter what the game is meant to be.\u00a0<\/strong>It begins with an atonal four-note\u00a0“doo-dah-<\/em>dah-DEE”<\/em><\/strong>, followed by\u00a0the utterly dreadful\u00a0“benk benk benk”\u00a0<\/strong>of “Pac-Man” eating the “bars”.\u00a0\u00a0Pac-Man’s death is marked by a swirling-upward\u00a0“doo-dah-DEE”.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n