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Vacuuming made fun when Pac-Man meets Roomba

by Andrew Yoon { Nov 11th 2009 at 4:30AM }

Who knew the robotic vacuum Roomba could do so much? In addition to automatically cleaning floors and killing kittens, the Roomba vacuum can also be used to play an elaborate version of Pac-Man. Developed by Jack Elston, Cory Dixon and Maciej Stachura, Roomba Pac-Man is meant to demonstrate the team's "Unmanned Aerial System software suite." It also effectively demonstrates that the three might have just a little too much free time on their hands.

This is definitely an ingenious take on the classic arcade game. How often can you play a game that makes your room cleaner? Until Activision releases Broom Hero, the answer is "not very."

[Via Engadget]

Continued →

New Pac-Man world champion crowned by Twin Galaxies

by Griffin McElroy { Sep 11th 2009 at 11:00PM }

Here's a fun fact: World records for Pac-Man runs aren't calculated by score -- the highest possible score you can earn on the game before encountering the kill screen has been reached a number of times before. Instead, the record is calculated based on how quickly one can achieve a perfect score -- a record that was recently smashed by David Race, who reached the kill screen with the max score in 3 hours, 41 minutes and 22 seconds.

Race's time beat previous record holder Chris Ayra by 42 seconds -- who, in turn, had previously beaten King of Kong's bearded antagonist, Billy Mitchell's fastest time. We smell the makings of a sequel for the aforementioned, critically acclaimed 2007 documentary. The Mack of Pac, perhaps?

[Via Kotaku]

Namco Bandai's new iTunes sounds will eat up your money

by JC Fletcher { Sep 3rd 2009 at 12:00AM }

Do you like the sound of Pac-Man eating a ghost? Do you like it enough to pay a dollar for it? Namco Bandai announced a new iTunes music label called Namco Sounds, which will add remastered game soundtracks on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month.

The inaugural offerings include a Soul Calibur sampler, called SoulCalibur Suite: The Resonance of Souls and Swords, and sound effect collections from Pac-Man and Xevious. A $3 charge for each "album" isn't terrible -- it's equal to the cost of buying each of the Calibur tracks individually, and it's a fairly small price to pay for the full set of in-game sounds for the other games.

Due to the nature of iTunes, however, individual tracks from the sound collections are spectacular ripoffs. Each sound effect, purchased separately, is 99 cents. We don't need "Special Flag: Get" or the incredibly irritating Xevious theme that badly. Do we?

Pac-Man Championship Edition following the dots to iPhone

by JC Fletcher { Aug 6th 2009 at 10:58AM }

Should Pac-Man Remix fail to provide enough remixed Pac-Man for you and your iPhone, Namco Bandai is preparing another version. We think you'll be delighted to hear about this new Pac-Man even if you just bought Pac-Man Remix: Namco Bandai is working on an iPhone version of Pac-Man Championship Edition, the excellent Xbox Live Arcade Pac-Man game created by Toru Iwatani himself. If you were about to buy Remix, then ... don't.

According to The Feed, the iPhone version of the modernized maze game will be out later this year. We aren't thrilled with the idea of playing the high-speed Championship Edition with fake buttons or tilt controls, but we're excited enough about the game to give it a try. At least it makes more sense than Tekken.

Pac-Man: Remix coming to iPhone soon

by Jem Alexander { Jul 22nd 2009 at 6:00AM }

Namco has announced that a new version of Pac-Man, titled Pac-Man: Remix, will be coming to iPhone. Due to Apple's silly non-disclosure policies, the fact that we know the game is coming means that it's coming soon. Basically, it's Pac-Man, but this time there's a little more to it (though, little you haven't seen before). The eponymous yellow sphere can jump over ghosts and walls and there will be boss battles and power-ups, too.

Pac-Man: Remix will set you back $5.99 which, if you ask us, is a little steep for another Pac-Man title. There are plenty other, cheaper, iPhone games to spend that money on. Still, we thought you'd want to know that it's coming, just in case there are any die hard Pac-Man fans in the Joystiq audience.

Namco Museum Essentials coming to PlayStation Home in July

by Andrew Yoon { Jun 17th 2009 at 6:05PM }

Japan's Namco Museum Essentials is crossing the pond to America's PlayStation Network this July. The downloadable app will serve as a hub for various Namco arcade games, such as Pac-man, Galaga, Dig Dug, Dragon Spirit, Xevious, and a new 1080p "re-envisioned" Xevious: Resurrection. In addition to the standard gamut of features (trophies, leaderboards), players will be able to unlock PlayStation Home rewards to proudly display in their virtual apartments.

Namco Bandai will also be launching a new destination within PlayStation Home simultaneously with the release of Museum Essentials. It will serve as the hub for all of Namco Bandai's upcoming downloadable games and will include a virtual arcade featuring a trial version of Museum Essentials. In addition to the free demo, PlayStation Home items can be unlocked for those who visit the space. All in all, it looks as though Home fans (casual and hardcore) will have a lot to look forward to.

Gallery: Namco Museum Essentials

Ms. Pac-Man shoes, Space Invaders soap, not news

by Richard Mitchell { May 23rd 2009 at 12:15AM }

When video games collide with do-it-yourself know-how and just a little bit of magic, wonderful things happen. Case in point, just look at those Ms. Pac-Man shoes and Space Invaders soaps (which we have arranged in a single image for dramatic effect). With shoes like that, just walking becomes a game -- which it normally isn't, despite what Nintendo tells you -- as Pinky and Ms. Pac-Man engage in a cat-and-mouse chase all day long.

And then, when the long day is done and it's time to get clean, you'll have to defend yourself from a squadron of soapy space invaders. What better way to stave off the glycerine-infused hordes than to slowly melt them away until you have to snuff them out in the shower drain? Such is the fate of all soaps, but especially invading soaps from space.

Incidentally, if you want a pair of Ms. Pac-Man shoes of your own, the creators, Em & Sprout, have a few left in stock. There are a handful of Space Invaders soaps left too -- from the same company that brought us these -- so get a move on if you want some. Otherwise you'll have to hope they get restocked, or we suppose you could live without them.

[Via Wonderland]

Source: Em & Sprout - Ms Pac-Man Mary Janes
Source: Digital Soaps - Space Invaders soap set

'Pac-Man' enzyme may eat away at Alzheimer's

by Andrew Yoon { Apr 27th 2009 at 6:15PM }

Video games may hold the cure to the memory-plaguing Alzheimer's disease. It won't be Brain Age to the rescue, though. Classic 80s arcade icon Pac-Man holds a key in defeating the untreatable disease.

Researchers from Florida's Mayo Clinic have figured out a way to break down amyloid proteins associated with Alzheimer's. An insulin-degrading enzyme nicknamed "Pac-Man" works very much like the classic video game character by opening and closing, "gobbling up" amyloid proteins. Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, called this new finding "fascinating," but noted that "the work is at very early stages in the laboratory."

We're all for naming potentially life-saving treatments after video game characters. Imagine the Katamari cure for cancer, or the Yoshi cure for the common cold. We're pretty sure even anti-game lobbyists would have to approve of our hobby then, right?

[Thanks, Andrew! (No, I'm not thanking myself.)]

[Image Source]

Jenny McCarthy has been gaming longer than you

by Ben Gilbert { Apr 14th 2009 at 10:50PM }

When she's not busy appearing in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 or starring in commercials for amazing PS1 games, Jenny McCarthy is a gaming mom. Speaking to WhatTheyPlay this week, McCarthy says she started playing Pac-Man at the age of eight. "I even made my own Atari glove because I had blisters all over my hand from playing Pac-Man," she notes, saying her own mom bought her the game with an Atari 2600 as a reward for getting a vaccination shot.

While she claims she fell out of gaming because of "cheerleading and boys," gaming also apparently helped to keep her marriage to Double Dragon film ~~star~~ [actor] John Asher alive. "That's all we basically did; we just played video games. That saved our marriage -- playing video games." Her current significant other, Jim Carrey, reportedly has a Wii, though McCarthy says she's doing less gaming and more writing these days (having penned "six books in four years"). "I can't compete with these kids now. They've grown up with this kind of technology ... I'm like the brains behind the guy who's using the controller."

Discounted Doom, Pac-Man CE top Amazon XBLA Store

by James Ransom-Wiley { Apr 14th 2009 at 11:29AM }

The benefits of Amazon.com's new Xbox Live Arcade Store continue to reveal themselves, as the two bestselling titles are Doom ($2.97) and Pac-Man C.E. ($4.97), both currently featured with discounted prices -- and both no-brainers for anyone who has previously passed on these two gems. Clearly, the Amazon option provides the possibility of more of these sweet discounts, in addition to perks like offering exact purchasing of games (instead of buying Microsoft Points in bulk), bonus money through participating credit cards, and potential sales tax dodging. But, a word to the wise: Check Amazon's prices against those listed on Xbox.com (80 Points = $1.00) before you buy, because some stated "discounts" are simply misleading.

Currently, at #6 on Amazon's XBLA bestseller list is the original Geometry Wars, which claims to be priced at a 50 percent discount -- wrong! Five dollars is the actual price of the game on Xbox Marketplace, and the presumed "broader" demographic now shopping for XBLA games on Amazon should be careful, as one would be better served to double down and purchase the superior sequel (#16 on the list) for ten. Alas, we're preaching to the choir here -- you, dear reader, already know this. (Whaddya gonna do, ya know?) Just take note of the real discounts, as they're good ones, and forget about those "others" being misled by the fake ones.

[Thanks, Chad]

iPhone apps stats revealed, games dominate list

by Ben Gilbert { Apr 7th 2009 at 2:30PM }

With game applications taking up nearly half the list (12 of 25), the rankings for iPhone apps released this week by internet information company comScore may be aimed at advertisers, but tells us a ton about the newest gaming platform. For instance, of the 15 million iPhone users in the US, 32 percent (nearly one in every three) have installed Tap Tap Revenge, making it the most popular application by an ice cold five percent.

Furthermore, of the 12 game applications listed, 75 percent of them were developed by small startup companies or, in one case, a single individual. Actually, aside from Pac-Man, Hangman, Sudoku, and a version of Solitaire, all the games are original IP, with number one title Tap Tap Revenge serving as the prime example. We're starting to understand why the iPhone dominated the IGF this year and will likely continue to do so for years to come.

Namco releases downloadable arcade titles on Facebook

by Griffin McElroy { Mar 18th 2009 at 10:40AM }

Do you ever find yourself with too much free time whilst trolling around on Facebook? Between writing ominous truths in our acquaintances' honesty boxes, and attempting to form La Résistance against the new new Facebook, our time is admittedly limited -- though we might try to pencil in a brief session with Namco's recently launched, Facebookified versions of Pac-Man and Dig Dug.

The two games have some neat additional functionality, such as the ability to track stats and achievements on your Facebook profile. Sadly, the games can't be played in-browser -- it requires a small download to play. Even sadder: It's not free. Bumping the game up from a trial version to full version costs $9.99. We'll stick to our honesty box assaults -- anonymously hurting people's feelings is free, and far more satisfying.

New Pac-Man game on the way to celebrate 30th Pac-Manniversary

by JC Fletcher { Mar 6th 2009 at 9:33AM }

Hirokazu Yasuhara, who designed much of the original Sonic the Hedgehog at Sega and worked on Jak games and Uncharted for Naughty Dog, is now at Namco Bandai, and working on a new Pac-Man game, to celebrate the beloved circle's 30th anniversary in 2010.

Namco Bandai America's Makoto Iwai told Gamasutra, "As a group, we feel like we should do something to make him come back. So, there's one project that we started working on, and [Yasuhara is] part of it." Iwai said that the new game design was "sort of meeting his wish 100 percent, in a sense," referring to an earlier statement by Yasuhara that he wanted to make a new character action game.

Does Pac-Man's original maze-style gameplay count as "character action," or do we have a new Pac-Land sort of affair to look forward to? After the last Pac-Man game, we will eagerly devour whatever delicious fruit (by which we mean games) Namco Bandai sends out into the maze (by which we mean, um, the retail or downloadable market).

You've got to see Pac-Man: The (other) Movie

by Justin McElroy { Aug 11th 2008 at 10:30PM }

As Hollywood continues to deny us the Vin Diesel-starring Pac-Man feature film we all know is coming, amateurs have filled in the gap with their own takes on how gaming's pizza-shaped patriarch could make the leap to the big screen.

We've already seen Pac-Man the action hero, now Tyler Russel and Stanley Wong bring us a much more honest, unflinching vision: Pac-Man unstoppable force of saffron terror. Watch what happens when four innocent ghosts are terrorized by the insatiable yellow menace, but be warned: It isn't pretty.

Today in Joystiq: August 5, 2008

by Ross Miller { Aug 5th 2008 at 11:59PM }

Sure, they think they'll get her, but truth is, she's got a power pellet hidden under that coat. (Via WebUrbanist; thanks, Sam) Check out the highlights for today: