Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani shows off early game sketches

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I have to apologize for not getting to this earlier – I had see the link a day or two ago but I forgot to mention it. But better late than never. Toru Iwatani, the now retired creator of Pac-Man, was in the Netherlands recently where he received a certificate from the Guiness Book of World Records on Pac-Man obtaining the highest number of installed arcade machines worldwide. Seems like it’s a bit late to be handing out a reward for that but I guess that also can be filed under the better late than never category as well. While there Mr. Iwatani shared some of his original Pac-Man sketches with the Dutch gaming media. It takes you back to the days when one guy could come up with a legendary game all by himself using nothing but a pencil and a few pieces of graph paper.

[Via GameSetWatch and Control Online]

The wayback machine videos for today are…

It’s Sunday so in lieu of news, we have videos to point out. I’m not sure why it seems like we’re getting a lot of videos of arcades from the early 80’s showing up all of the sudden but I welcome it as it offers a deeper glimpse into that great Golden Age of games. Today we have a few videos from youtube user Atarigames1. He has a lot of old footage that he has begun to upload, including this look at an arcade in Mt. View California and some kids hanging out around some machines at a 7-11 in 1981. I remember when all 7-11’s in my area had at least two games, then one day they dumped them in favor of ATM machines.The third video shows the assembly line for San Fransico Rush.

Missing in Action: On the defense (tower defense and otherwise)

It has been a while since I last wrote a “Missing In Action” article, where I cover a style of game that at one point in history was popular or common to find in arcades, covering the history of said titles. If you haven’t read those here are the links: Space Combat games, Puzzle Games, Scrolling Fighters, Tanks, Planes, Mechs and more,and Adventure/RPG games.

Lately as I have been watching what people play on the computer network at my arcade, I have noticed a trend in people playing a genre of games known as Tower Defense. It’s interesting to see how these kinds of games have been increasing in popularity recently, not just with browser games (where I see most of these titles being played) but also in standard releases with games like Final Fantasy: Crystal Defenders, Plants Vs. Zombies,  or the South Park tower defense game which won an award at the SpikeTV VGAs. I have read that this idea as a genre has been inspired by a particular game mode in Warcraft 3, where hordes of enemies follow along a certain path and the player has to strategically place defense towers that will blast the hordes away as they follow a path to a particular objective. It’s a relatively simple idea, especially when it comes to RTS games and it’s one that has some roots in a few arcade titles (believe it or not).

It is true that in the arcade world we haven’t seen many games which follow a formula exactly like the one used in many TD titles I have seen (only Rampart would fit that bill and it would honestly be the first real tower defense game, prior to Warcraft 3) but there have been a number of popular coin-op titles which deal with defense concepts that could be seen as important influences in the popular tower defense genre today. I personally feel that tower defense games could be adapted into coin-op arcade gaming, given the right idea and I will get into that, after we take a look at some of the history behind the genre we are looking at, which you can jump into at the link below.

The SuperAuction that came and went in Brockton, MA

If you’re an arcade collector then one of things you always keep an eye out for are arcade auctions. They always can be a good place to find some cool games. If you live in or near Brockton, MA then you had a chance this weekend to attend a pretty big auction where the arcade inventory was valued at at least a million dollars. The inventory comes from Good Time, who is needing to close their doors after IKEA wanted in and they couldn’t get the financing to get into a $25 million complex. I hate it when things like this happen – I’m going to have to move my own arcade very soon because they are rushing to make way for a sidewalk so people can enter the mall without having to make the long trip of 100 feet to get to the other nearby entrance.

Anyways, the Good Time auction on Nov. 8th attracted between 300 to 400 people who could enjoy the games on free play prior to them going to the auction block. They had a large collection of “classic arcade games, go karts and skee-ball” but there were no pictures in the report of the auction or information on how much many of the games went for, except that I found out that a Pac-Man cocktail cabinet went for $1000.

[Via Enterprise News] [Discuss on the Forum]