
Pac-Man: How We Played the Game - severine
https://retrobitch.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/pac-man-the-untold-story-of-how-we-really-played-the-game/
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keyle
> The only reason why people “restore” vintage arcade games is usually to
> command higher prices on a market that typically sells to novice collectors.
> The practice has little to do with preservation and much more to do with
> profiting off the naive.

That is so profoundly untrue. You never get back the money you've spent in
renovation AND the real purpose is passion, to bring back that sense of NEW to
something retro, and having it play like it came out of factory.

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praptak
The quote is about "restoring" by putting cheap-looking stickers instead of
properly _restoring_ the original paintwork.

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jfoutz
Article is about material deformation. It’s charming, and I’d encourage people
to read it.

Now days the equivalent might be a really shiny controller, or letters worn of
of a keyboard.

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got2surf
Even worn paths through the grass at university/corporate campuses can show
better ideas for sidewalk layout.

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nlawalker
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path)

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nathancahill
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath/)

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wespiser_2018
There is a Ms. PacMan game in the gym of our office building I play between
sets. You really do need a grip, and at least for my play style, I'm jamming
the controller the direction I want to turn while I travel down the wall prior
to making the turn. To make a fast, precise turn, you do really need some
force, and its fun to think how different a control interface this is from our
modern day consoles and PC!

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hcarvalhoalves
Props to this Mark Montag guy pulling a powerstance.

[https://retrobitch.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/pac-man-the-
unto...](https://retrobitch.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/pac-man-the-untold-story-
of-how-we-really-played-the-game/the_oshkosh_northwestern_sat__jul_18__1981_/)

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mrob
>Original unrestored Pac-Man cabinets almost always show this kind of wear-
pattern caused by the thousands, oftentimes millions, of left-hands that once
gripped it during gameplay.

I don't believe this ever happened. Let's make the conservative assumption
that a cabinet was in continuous operation 8 hours a day, and each game lasted
2 minutes. That's only 240 games a day, which means it would take nearly 23
years of such extremely heavy use to reach 2 million games (the lowest number
to qualify as millions plural). The Pac-Man craze did not last 23 years, and
such heavy use is only plausible at the peak of the craze.

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exodust
It's a trivial point, but you are right that it wouldn't be millions. The
cabinet wear was caused by thousands of hands.

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jasonm23
Feel like I have watched Bandersnatch too much, but reading this made me think
about:....

You know what Pac stands for? PAC. Program and Control. He’s Program and
Control Man. The whole thing’s a metaphor. All he can do is consume. He’s
pursued by demons that are probably just in his own head. And even if he does
manage to escape by slipping out one side of the maze, what happens? He comes
right back in the other side. People think it’s a happy game. It’s not a happy
game. It’s a fucking nightmare world. And the worst thing is? It’s real and we
live in it.

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jordigh
Who else was reminded of that pinball essay in Foucault's Pendulum in Chapter
34 in relation to Lorenza Pellegrini?

    
    
       You don’t play pinball with just your hands, you play it with the
       groin too. The pinball problem is not to stop the ball before it’s
       swallowed by the mouth at the bottom, or to kick it back to
       midfield like a halfback. The problem is to make it stay up where
       the lighted targets are more numerous and have it bounce from one
       to another, wandering, confused, delirious, but still a free agent.
       And you achieve this not by jolting the ball but by transmitting
       vibrations to the case, the frame, but gently, so the machine won’t
       catch on and say Tilt. You can only do it with the groin, or with a
       play of the hips that makes the groin not so much bump, as slither,
       keeping you on this side of an orgasm. And if the hips move
       according to nature, it’s the buttocks that supply the forward
       thrust, but gracefully, so that when the thrust reaches the pelvic
       area, it is softened, as in homeopathy, where the more you shake a
       solution and the more the drug dissolves in the water added
       gradually, until the drug has almost entirely disappeared, the more
       medically effective and potent it is. Thus from the groin an
       infinitesimal pulse is transmitted to the case, and the machine
       obeys, the ball moves against nature, against inertia, against
       gravity, against the laws of dynamics, and against the cleverness
       of its constructor, who wanted it disobedient. The ball is
       intoxicated with vis movendi, remaining in play for memorable and
       immemorial lengths of time. But a female groin is required, one
       that interposes no spongy body between the ileum and the machine,
       and there must be no erectile matter in between, only skin, nerves,
       padded bone sheathed in a pair of jeans, and a sublimated erotic
       fury, a sly frigidity, a disinterested adaptability to the
       partner’s response, a taste for arousing desire without suffering
       the excess of one’s own: the Amazon must drive the pinball crazy
       and savor the thought that she will then abandon it.
    

I enjoy me some retro gaming, and I've noticed sometimes I also grip cabinets
or controllers in odd ways. I notice it because sometimes my hands are sore.

Also, I wonder if I should go re-read that book. I think I have better faded
memories of it than my actual enjoyment at the time when I read it. It seemed
dense and I don't think I understood much of anything. But everyone remembers
this passage I quoted above.

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pcnix
I remember thinking that the book was dense too, and this passage definitely
stands out in my memory.

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virgakwolfw
You know, I’ve spent my life loving Pac-Man in the arcade but merely liking
the myriad home versions I’ve purchased over the decades. Thank you so much
for finally explaining why.

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LarryMade2
This is a good bit for ergonomics to figure out how to better improve the
arcade experience in cabinet design.

