Next weekend, I will attempt to do what has only been done by a handful of people. I will attempt to play a perfect game of Pac-Man.
To date, this has only been accomplished by seven people. Depending on your criteria, though, that number can be further reduced. If you are tracking original factory speed Pac-Man – which I think is boring – there are seven individuals who have played a perfect game, starting with Billy Mitchell in 1999. If you are tracking Pac-Man Turbo, though, that number gets reduced to two people (Donald Hayes and David Race, who both have also accomplished the feat on factory speed). Since The 1up only has Pac-Man Turbo, that is the variation I play. As such, if I get a perfect game I will be the third person to ever do it on that particular variation.
Further, six of those seven perfect players did it in the privacy of their own home and sent the unedited videotape in for certification. The only Pac-Man player to ever get a perfect game in a live, true arcade environment was Billy Mitchell. If everything goes well next weekend, I will be the second ever live perfect game.
Third ever turbo perfect game and second ever live perfect game, second only to the great Billy Mitchell, at that. No matter how you look at it, those are impressive feats. It’s kind of a big deal.
Even though I will be surrounded by a community of competitive arcade gamers as I go for the perfect game, I won’t be the main attraction. That’s because I chose the Kong Off 3 as my venue, which means the focus will be on the world championships of Donkey Kong. As such, my perfect game attempt has been relegated to the lower portion of the fight card, as it were. From the Kong Off press release:
“The highlight of the Kong Off 3 is the Donkey Kong world championship but it’s not the only happening. The largest number of arcade game world record attempts, a 24-hour marathon game of Tron by a single player as well as multiple attempts at completing perfect games on Pac-Man will take place during the three-day event.”
(At least I made the press release. Take that, guy going for the Burgertime record!)
I chose the Kong Off because it was a chance to get Twin Galaxies verified without going through the hassle of videotaping the entire ordeal and the innards of the machine immediately thereafter. Those hoops are quite difficult to jump through when you don’t have an arcade cabinet of your own and are at the whim of your local arcade owner. Luckily, my local arcade is in downtown Denver and happens to be the Kong Off venue for the second year in a row, meaning Twin Galaxies referees will be on site to verify scores. Convenient! And maybe not being the focus will be a blessing, as all eyes will most definitely not be on me.
Through a variety of fortunate events and coincidences (timing, location, Aspergers-focus), I will be able to attempt a world record in my own backyard, at a bar I visit every Friday, and not even be pressured about the hoopla surrounding my attempt. In a word: Perfect.
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