Earlier today Google used the Pac-Man logo on their search engine to celebrate the 30th birthday of what was one of the very first games for the home, and this got me feeling really nostalgic about a past era.
I got my first taste of what gaming technology was all about when I was asked to launch a game called Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man for a Melbourne based Company called Futuretronics more than 20 odd years ago. The game ran on an Atrari gaming console which in those days looked pretty cool.
At the time, I had just set up a brand new public relation Company in Melbourne and my only exposure to technology has been via Data General and computers like the MV 8000 and Eclipse range that was used to power BHP’s entire computer operations. Storage was big platters that only held megabytes as opposed to terabytes.
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Ms Pac-Man was a cool simple game that originally appeared in coin slot gaming machines that one played on flat screens similar to what Microsoft and HP are now trying to introduce into retail stores.
My job was to get publicity for Pacman which was set to be sold via Myers, Grace Bro and David Jones. PC and gaming stores did not exist, nor did Harvey Norman or JB Hi Fi.
Today, Google is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man’s launch in Japan with a version that lets you steer your pizza-shaped protagonist* around a maze that spells out Google’s name – at least for as long as you can evade the ghosts Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde.
When I launched Ms Pac-Man publications like the Melbourne Age or the Sydney Morning Herald had never run stories on gaming. But because Myer and David Jones were big advertisers we got editorial exposure.
Even the TV stations Nine, Seven & Ten ran a story for the simple reason that gaming was new and it looked exciting. As for the ABC this was far too commercial.
Invented by Toru Iwatani Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man are now free “casual” games; they were state-of-the-art in the early 1980s. For gaming arcade owners they delivered kids in droves along with thousands of $0.20 cent coins.
The games also appeared on home computers, after originally coming out via a cartridge which one slotted into an Atari 800.
The cost at the time was $39.
The introduction of Ms Pac-Man suddenly saw women take up gaming and within weeks of being launched gaming on a console was suddenly hot in Australia.
Myer wanted more so did David Jones and it was not long before Futuretronics launched a new range of action games from a Company called Activision.
Competition came from a young Jodie Rich of One Tel fame. At the time he was running a Company called Imagineering.
