Hand-cranked mechanical Pac-Man gobbles up our heart

by Griffin McElroy on Feb 10th 2011 3:20PM

Here's a thing we didn't know we wanted until the internet showed it to us: a hand-cranked, clockwork Pac-Man sculpture. Its creator, Jonathan Guberman, hopes to create a fully playable mechanical Pac-Man machine called "Pac Machina" -- but this proof of concept is cool enough for the time being.

Via: BoingBoing
Source: Jonathan Guberman

Tags: art, clockwork, jonathan-guberman, namco, pac-machina, Pac-Man

Reader Comments (13)

YES.

You know what would really drop the bomb? If he had a revolving "conveyor belt" style background that would make Pac Man look like he was chomping pellets and the occasional ghost.

@Dizazter

I was actually expecting just that.

Tomy actually made a playable Pac-Man game that works entirely without electronics. It works with magnets... you set your little Pac-Man figure on a magnetically charged plate with plastic maze partitions on the top, and move him with a joystick that tilts the entire playfield. The object is to eat all the fruits (suspended over the playfield with metal croquet gates) and return to home base before you're caught by the monsters. Luckily, the monsters barely move if you're careful how you tilt the playfield. Also, the game works on the honor system, so even if the monsters do catch you, stopping is purely optional. :)

Even Pac-Man has gone steampunk?

Now, hide the gears in the back, add an optional battery pack to drive a quiet motor, and you have a house decoration that runs itself.

(Yes, I get the hand-cranked part if neat, but I do think he should have had the crank in the back.)

Steam Punk Pac-Man? I'll take 12.

Did you know that the original name for Pac-Man was Puck-Man? You'd think it was because he looks like a hockey puck but it actually comes from the Japanese phrase 'Paku-Paku,' which means to flap one's mouth open and closed. They changed it because they thought Puck-Man would be too easy to vandalize, you know, like people could just scratch off the P and turn it into an F or whatever.