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Ms. Pac-Man Tournament After Action Results Report!
The second annual Ms. Pac-Man Tournament went off without a hitch. We moved things to Dark Void Zero developer Other Ocean as that’s where my Ms. Pac-Man machine is currently living, since Old Lady Hollyhock noticed — and more importantly, removed — the extension cord we had strung up from the I.S.G. clubhouse near 98th and 580. We got about 10x the turn-out of last year’s tournament at Cafe Diem, so, almost 30 people showed up and played! I was bummed we ran out of Jim Beam, but the “Gentleman Seth” Old Kentucky Sour Mash Bourbon Style Malt Beverage that Mike found was a pretty good substitute. Ditto with the Oly’s and the expensive beer in the game industry’s only in-studio Keg-or-ator.
Rather than do a double-elimination, head-to-head, round-robin tournament as planned, we ended up just doing a high-score competition, mainly because Toby left the bracket template at the clubhouse. Also, the two other machines we were planning to have on-site were delayed by weather. And the planned appearance by Toro Iwantani didn’t materialize, partially because we forgot to invite him. Next year.
Isaac Bender (above), last year’s champ, took an early lead, but the pressure was intense from a variety of players including assembly programming legend Vernon Brooks and Tanio Klyce, engineer and lead guitarist of punk-programming band Thee Developers.
Although we play Fast ROM at I.S.G., my stand up machine is notoriously difficult and stingy with the bananas, versus the “loose” cocktail table at Cafe Diem. Despite several cries of “we may have a kill screen coming up,” no one even came close to Isaac’s top score from last year. Isaac spent much of the night hovering to see if he needed to “next” a game to defend his score (see below)…
Meanwhile, Frank and I were locked in a battle in the uber challenging Low-Score Ms. Pac-Man varient. Here, you divide your score by 2x the maze you were on when you die. You’re going for distance, and eating ghosts or fruits can ruin you. One ill-timed banana ingestion handed Frank the victory, but I got past the first baby (below) with under 35K points, which was a personal accomplishment…
There was a good variety of side-play as well, with Star Wars Arcade, Ice Cold Beer, and several pinball machines in constant use by the crowd. A 2600 with Warlords clone/upgrade Medieval Madness was pretty popular too.
Eventually though, shit got serious. Norm Badillo started to put some big scores on the board. His infamous “ghosts last” strategy might have started getting into Isaac’s head, and Isaac had several throw-away games, while Norm crept steadily past him.
Then Norm’s sister Sharon arrived with Pac-Man cupcakes, 2 kids, and her A Game. Everybody knows Norm is hardcore, but Sharon has serious skills from back in the day, and she distracted everyone with delicious cupcakes while she got several warm-up games in.
Frank, in particular, seemed enthralled by the small cakes, each adorned with a Nilla-Wafer Pac-Man, to the point where he lost the ability to focus on Kaboom! entirely.
Before long Sharon had bypassed Isaac and the tournament devolved into a Badillo vs. Badillo civil war for total Pac Supremacy — and bragging rights at the Christmas table.
Sharon came within 800 points of Norm’s hi-score run (above) before the ill-timed arrival of a leg-grabbing child on Sharon’s last guy sent her straight into Blinky and ended the competition, handing Norm the victory.
Despite some controversy over just who might have sent the leg-grabber in from her Joust game in the back office, Norm took the title, and the limited edition Zelda print grand prize. Frank walked away with a pink Snuggie (literally, about 20 minutes before the end of official time), and I was too busy stuffing cupcakes in my mouth to see how Sharon and Isaac divided the lame prizes.
Overall, awesome turn-out and an awesome time. I have a strong feeling we’ll be seeing some kill screen action next December in Oakland. There’s already clamoring for the tournament to be held at Launder Land on Telegraph in Temescal, home of Oakland’s best Ms. Pac-Man machine (and just down from the Avenue bar), so we’ll have to see…
(note: all the photos were taken, on film, by Jade. I may have taken the Isaac one. Oh, and the one Jade is in.)
