Drunken Recollection… “He Was Orange, I Tell Ya, Orange!”

I haven’t gotten mad – well, pissed, actually – while playing live bar trivia in a long time.  So long, in fact, I can’t even think of the last instance.

This time, the question in question involved these two chaps:

Aaah, the good ol' days of cartoons based on video games...

The inquiry was a two-parter that went like so:

What color was Q*bert?  And what color was Clyde the Ghost in Pac-Man?

I knew it instantly, and handed the answer in first.  I watched each of the above terrible cartoons as a child, and I knew it with every power pellet of my being.

So the results were revealed, and we were the ONLY team out of ten to get it right, and we received the maximum amount of bonus points for doing so.

We were in first place at the half, and about three questions into the second round, the announcer shared this:

It has come to our attention that Clyde was also red, so everyone gets bonus points.

What. The. @!#?@!? (Q*bert shout-out!)

According to the “ever-reliable” Wikipedia:

Enemy Color
Original Pac Man
American Pac-Man
Character (Personality)
Translation
Nickname
Translation
Character (Personality)
Nickname
Red
Oikake (追いかけ)
chaser
Akabei (赤ベイ)
red guy
Shadow
Blinky
Pink
Machibuse (待ち伏せ)
ambusher
Pinky (ピンキー)
pink guy
Speedy
Pinky
Cyan
Kimagure (気まぐれ)
fickle
Aosuke (青助)
blue guy
Bashful
Inky
Orange
Otoboke (お惚け)
stupid
Guzuta (愚図た)
slow guy
Pokey
Clyde

This is Clyde’s Wikia page:

Orange you glad I didn't say red?

But apparently, this excerpt is why the additional points were granted:

After an error in Pac-Man World 2, describing Blinky as orange and Clyde as red, all other World series games place Clyde as the red ghost and elevate him to the rank of leader of the ghost gang.

—-This is nothing more than an error that was forced into being reused.—-

Namco aside from the World series and Arrangement has always called Clyde the orange ghost.

So it was a wording issue.  If the announcer had added “in the original arcade game,” we would have been set.

We still wouldn’t have won the entire trivia game, but we would have been the only ones right.

(SIDENOTE: The team that fought for this said our team sucked once they too were awarded bonus points.  Well, they can go @!#?@!? themselves because they didn’t win either.  Nyah.)

In My Brain While Sleeping… Baby Pac-Man All Grown Up!

Remember this iconic offspring? 

baby_pac_man

Born in 1982, Baby Pac-Man was the third game in a series that didn’t have much life left in it.  Not because of the slow advancements in processing technology or because the games themselves were repetitive (well maybe that’s exactly why video games died back in the day), but just as quickly as arcades burst on the scene, the movement was deemed a fad in 1983 and they went away.  (There were other reasons, too.  Check ’em out here.)

SIDENOTE: That’s why Nintendo dubbed their new console an Entertainment System in 1985.  “Video games” left a sour taste in many people’s mouths.

But that’s neither here nor there.  This is about a dream I had, and it’s about as odd as they get.  According to the Wikipedia entry, Baby Pac-Man was a he.  And he was born to Pac-Man and Mrs. Pac-Man.  But there is no Mrs. Pac-Man, only a Ms.  So for all intents and purposes (or is it intensive purposes?), in my subconscious state, the baby’s a she.  Pink bonnet anyone?

Well, basically, the dream happened to become the foundation for a feminist diatribe.  Baby Pac-Man had grown into a lovely Pac-Woman, but she could not get any respect in the workplace.  People kept calling her Ms. and Miss and that didn’t bother her as much as the fact they wouldn’t call her Pac-Woman rather than Pac-Man.  People also thought she got the job because of who her father was and not on her own merits.  Also, people kept offering her fruits and pretzels.

I don’t remember much else, but I’m sure it all ended swell.  But I do wish there was something about mazes or ghosts, though… 

"Why do I keep getting spam for power pellets?"

"Why do I keep getting spam for power pellets?"

 INGREDIENTS: Two different kinds of Powerade, a late night viewing of Saturday Night Live, and Little Debbie chocolate chip muffins.

Worth 1002 Words… Pac-Man’s Origin Story

Makes sense.

Makes sense.

 (via Topless Robot on Twitter)