

The Perfect Pac-Man (2006) - JacobAldridge
http://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/622-the-perfect-man

======
coffeevradar
He comes off as so full of himself when he claims that the original
programmers didn't know about the different ghosts' "personalities"
(algorithms).

He's referring to this:
[http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html...](http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html#Chapter_4)

And there's just no way that the game's creators didn't know how they
programmed the behavior of the ghosts. More likely they were humoring him and
he took it as him "knowing more about the game than its creators" or whatever
the quote was.

Plus, I would never claim to be able to execute a perfect score (or even a
very impressive one) but I can definitely put Pac-man into a blind spot. His
claim that "you couldn't do it even if I told you how" comes off as pretty
egotistical.

~~~
mistermann
You have to watch King of Kong documentary:
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/)

Here's a youtube clip of Billy:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIBrcU768Cg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIBrcU768Cg)

He is like a real life WWF wrestling character. You can't help love/hate him,
he's just too over the top, and it's impossible to tell if he's partially
taking the piss.

------
ridruejo
If you are into this, you will love King of Kong (he is featured as part of
the documentary)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/)

~~~
kqr2
There's some controversy that the documentary overplays the drama and casts
Billy Mitchell as a villain:

[http://www.mtv.com/news/1560691/ex-donkey-kong-champ-
finally...](http://www.mtv.com/news/1560691/ex-donkey-kong-champ-finally-
speaks-after-getting-bruised-by-new-doc/)

~~~
mistermann
That was probably Billy's idea.

------
raldi
I don't get this article's math re: Billy's age.

It says he's 40, so he was born in 1975.

Then it says he was the inaugural recordholder for several Guinness video game
categories in 1985 -- i.e., when he was 10 years old.

Then it says he started playing video games at age 16.

~~~
CmdrKrool
Although it says "July 1, 2015" there's also a small "ISSUE 53, SPRING 2006"
above the article title.

It was nagging at me too, I just knew I'd read this before sometime in the
past.

~~~
raldi
Mods, please add "[2006]" to the title.

------
bbx
On a related note, I highly recommend the Pac-Man Dossier, which explains the
game's mechanics:
[http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html](http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html)

~~~
undershirt
interactive version:
[http://pacman.shaunew.com/play/index.htm#learn](http://pacman.shaunew.com/play/index.htm#learn)

------
teh_klev
There's been a few interesting articles posted on HN about Pacman's internals
and gameplay:

[http://www.donhodges.com/how_high_can_you_get2.htm](http://www.donhodges.com/how_high_can_you_get2.htm)

[http://gameinternals.com/post/2072558330/understanding-
pac-m...](http://gameinternals.com/post/2072558330/understanding-pac-man-
ghost-behavior)

[http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html...](http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html#Chapter_5)

You can find the relevant HN discussion by searching HN algolia:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=pacman&sort=byPopularity&prefi...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=pacman&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

