In this age of video games, game characters like Mario and Sonic are taken for granted. But before Pac-Man, what did we have? The Invaders from Taito's Space Invaders remain endearing to this day. One of these cute Invader sprites is the mascot for Taito Game Station arcades here in Japan. But in that game, your play as a defense base. It's just a gun. Before Pac-Man came along, in video games you just controlled something like a space ship, a tank, or a car. But in Pac-Man, the characters are cute, colorful, and instantly recognizeable. Toru Iwatani, the game's creator, wanted to make the characters attractive to both men and women. And the neon aesthetic remains striking to this day, with bright blue walls against a black screen. It's just so cool-looking.
Back in the glorious arcade days of the late '70s and '80s, arcade games needed to have a unique concept. In the '70s, Taito's Space Invaders gave birth to the shmup genre, and Sea Wolf was a sort of submarine simulator, to an extent. Atari's Red Baron is the earliest flight shooter I can think of, which preceeded the likes of Sega's Afterburner. For many games though, abstract concepts helped games stand out from each other. Think of Burger Time, Tapper, Donkey Kong, Pengo, Kangaroo, and the original Mario Bros. These are all character-based action games that came after Pac-Man. Just think of the game's premise. You're trapped in corridors, being chased by ghosts, and you must survive. Your only chance is to run, but if you can momentarily defeat the ghosts, they only respawn and come back. It sounds like the premise of a survival horror game, if you think about it. But the ghosts are just so darn cute. Plus there are cherries, strawberries, oranges, apples, bananas...
Pac-Man has stayed dear to my heart ever since then. I don't know how many Pac-Man T-shirts I have, but I have several Pac-Man lamps, a blanket, a stuffed doll, an area rug, handkerchiefs, a keyring, a winter cap, a keychain, a pillow, and even boxer shorts. I'm often posting about Pac-Man stuff I've bought on my blog. The '80s started out with a bang, really. It was the year of The Empire Strikes Back and Pac-Man. It was a great year marking the beginning of a great decade. (OK, yes, technically 1980 is the final year of the '70s, but most people don't think along those lines.)
So I'd heard of a Pac-Man event marking the 45th anniversary celebration going on in Tokyo. A couple of 5th grade girls asked me if I'd seen coverage of the event on the morning news show. Normally we have that show on TV in the morning, but that morning we had to leave early because our daughter Ulan was going on a school trip to Tokyo University that day. So I looked up a Japanese news article on the web and I really made up my mind to go. I discovered a cheaper way to get to Tokyo, via the Shonan-Shinjuku Rapid Service which takes me from Takasaki to Shinjuku in about an hour and a half. Sunday, June 1st was the final day for the event, so I decided to go Saturday, May 31st. The event was a celebration of fashion, art, food, pop-culture, and memorobilia. It was a tribute to '80s culture and I was so impressed to see items I had as a child in the '80s. Here's what I saw.
On the left is the mat in front of the escalator up to the 3rd floor. On the right is the entrance to the event, advertising.
This video cube was completely mesmerizing.
They had this lounge area with Pac-Man beanbag chairs. Crap. Now I wish my beanbag chair was a Pac-Man one.
I don't know what this game was that people were playing, but the clothing for sale looked very nice. However they were totally designer clothes, so they were rather expensive. No thanks.
So here is the cash register counter with three ladies working there. It seemed a bit excessive. Here is where the art gallery begins.
I love the traditional Japanese art style take. Very cool.
The one on the left was my favorite, of the Japanese woman playing the Pac-Man arcade cabinet.
These robots are some sort of pre-existing toy that they dressed up as Inky and Blinky, I guess.
Here's the cafe area, where arcade cabinets were on display.
This must be one of those Arcade 1UP cabs. It was on free play. I played a few games and these little boys were cheering me on. They weren't able to get past the first level themselves. Then I watched them play and they really were sloppy. The rest of these pictures are of the merchandise on display on the black shelves and the antiques memorabilia on display behind the glass on the white shelves.
I had those puffy Pac-Man stickers! Sticker books were quite the rage in the early '80s for kids.
I had this plate, bowl, and cup set!
OK, so going up to the food court area, there was a Mexican food stall called Mexican Grill Avocado that was advertising a Pac-Man "burger" with Spam, salsa, and guacamole.
I had to have one. Normally, the thought of eating Spam grosses me out. But with the Mexican seasoning involved, this was actually pretty good. They didn't put the beans up front, so mine didn't really look like Pac-Man as you can see here. I also ordered a carne asada burrito. Kick ass.
So all this Pac-Man merchandise was in a store downstairs. The two young ladies working there were happy I could speak Japanese and they wanted to talk with me. They loved my backpack covered with buttons and they asked to take a picture of it. They were nice girls. On the left are mini chocolate bars. I bought the one in the middle since it was dark chocolate, but it wasn't any good. And there were no ghost designs engraved in the chocolate; just a boring feather. These choco bars were apparently just pre-existing candy bars that were wrapped in Pac-Man wrappers. For 600 yen each and considering that they didn't taste very good, I'm glad I only bought one.
I've no idea if these music CDs are any good. Tempting, but at the end of this experience all I did was spend money on that Mexican food. Later at Seibu Shinjuku Station, however, I bought the limited edition Pac-Man donuts at Krispy Kreme. I posted pictures of that on my blog here. It was a great day.
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"Pac-Man fever, it's driving me crazy..."
mail: greg -atsign- stevethefish -dot- net