Ms. Pac-Man Trivia

A Ms. Pac-Man machine has a storyline based around it in the Friends episode The One Where Joey Dates Rachel. The plotline revolves around Chandler entering rude words onto the game's high-score screen and then attempting to beat his scores (thus removing them) before Ross's seven year old son arrives. In reality, Ms. Pac-Man doesn't have a high-score screen, displaying only the single best score, and the game doesn't allow players to enter their initials.
In one series of strips in Bill Amend's popular newspaper comic strip FoxTrot, Jason Fox, who is in fifth grade and still detests girls, has a nightmare in which he is romanced by Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft. In one of these strips, Lara keeps trying to persuade Jason to play her game, and Jason declares that he'll never play a video game starring a girl. At this point, Lara says, "Permit me to reintroduce you to someone," and Ms. Pac-Man appears: "Hi, Jason. Remember me?"
A Ms. Pac-Man unit appears in the 1983 movie "WarGames", in the 1983 movie "Joysticks", in the 1984 movie "Tightrope" (the cabinet appears in the background of the bar scene), in the 1990 movie "The Grifters", in the 1999 movie "Man On The Moon" and in the 2002 movie "Van Wilder".
A Ms. Pac-man machine is seen in Scrubs in the episode My Own Private Practice Guy. Todd comments "Oh Ms. Pac-man I would sex that bow right off your head. Eat those dots you naughty, naughty girl."
The Ms. Pac-Man world record of 933,580 points was achieved by Abdner Ashman, of Queens, NY, on Thursday, April 6, 2006 at the Apollo Amusements showroom in Pompano Beach, FL, as verified by official referees from the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, who were present to witness the accomplishment.
Some versions of the game had an "expert" level, where if you hold the joystick up while pressing the start button, the whole game speed doubled (including music and sound effects). Others have Ms. Pac-Man going twice her speed while the rest of the game went normal speed. The latter allowed for people to obtain much higher scores.
Many people have mistakenly called the game Mrs. Pac Man, which can upset many a video game purist.
In the 1980's cartoon version of Pac-Man, she was named Pepper (while the male Pac-Man was often called Packie) because she was never given a name.
In 1982, R. Cade and the Video Victims recorded a song titled "Ms. Pac-Man", using sound effects from the game, and released it on the album "Victim of the Video", a lesser-known video game song album.
While not inspired by the game, the song Game Over by rapper Lil Flip samples heavily from it.
In the movie Are We There Yet?, Lindsay tells Nick that Kevin had a bad dream playing Ms. Pac-Man at the mall but refers to her as Lady Pac-Man.
There is an obscure glitch in the original arcade game. If the player inserts a coin at the title screen, before Blinky appears, and begins, the walls of the first maze will be blue instead of pink.
At least one version of the game (found in a diner near the Kansas-Nebraska border) has the monsters turn into blue mice when Ms. Pac-Man eats the energizers.

Activision History

Prior to the formation of Activision, software for video game consoles was published exclusively by the makers of the systems for which the games were designed. For example, Atari was the only publisher of games for the Atari 2600. This was particularly galling to the developers of the games, as they received no financial rewards for games that did well, and didn't even receive credit in the manuals. After watching a number of games turn into multi-million-dollar best sellers, a number of programmers decided they had had enough and left. Activision became the first third-party game publisher for game consoles.[1]

The company was founded by former music industry executive Jim Levy and former Atari programmers David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead. Atari's company policy at the time was not to credit game creators for their individual contributions; Levy took the approach of crediting and promoting game creators along with the games themselves. This was an important draw that helped the newly formed company attract experienced talent. Crane, Kaplan, Levy, Miller, and Whitehead received the Game Developers Choice "First Penguin" award in 2003 in recognition of this step.

The departure of the four programmers, whose titles made up more than half of Atari's cartridge sales at the time, caused legal action between the two companies which was not ultimately settled until 1982. As the market for game consoles started to decline, Activision branched out, producing game titles for home computers as well, and acquiring smaller publishers.

In 1982, Activision released Pitfall!, which is considered by many to be the first platform game as well as the best selling title on the 2600. Although the team's technical prowess had already been proven, it was Pitfall! that turned them into a huge success. This not only resulted in a legion of clones, including stand-up arcade games, but can be said to have launched the entire platform genre which became a major part of video games through the 1980s.

In 1985, Activision merged with struggling text adventure pioneer Infocom. Jim Levy was a big fan of Infocom's titles and wanted Infocom to remain solvent. However, about six months after the "InfoWedding", Bruce Davis took over as CEO of Activision. Davis was against the merger from the start and was heavy-handed in management of them. He also forced marketing changes on Infocom which caused sales of their games to plummet. Eventually, in 1989, after several years of losses, Activision closed down the Infocom studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts extending to only 11 of the 26 employees an offer to relocate to Activision's headquarters in Silicon Valley; five did.

In 1988 Activision started to get involved in other types of software besides video games, such as business applications. As a result, Activision changed its corporate name to Mediagenic in order to have a name that would globally represent all its fields of activities.(Mediagenic is often mistaken to be a company that purchased Activision but in reality it was only Activision with a different name). Despite this change, Mediagenic continued to largely use the Activision brand on its video games of the various platforms it was publishing for, notably the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Master System, the Atari 7800, Commodore 64 and Amiga. The decision of the company to get involved in various fields at the expense of video gaming proved to be a move so bad that in 1992 Mediagenic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The new Activision
The failure of Mediagenic resulted in a reorganization and merger with The Disc Company with Mediagenic again being the acquirer. After emerging from bankruptcy, Mediagenic officially changed its entity name back to Activision in the state of Delaware on December 1992. At that point Activision moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Southern California. While emerging from bankruptcy, it continued to develop games for PCs and video game consoles and resumed making strategic acquisitions. Activision chose from then on to only concentrate itself in video gaming and nothing else.

In 1991 Activision packaged 20 of Infocom's past games into a CD-ROM collection called The Lost Treasures of Infocom sans most of the "feelies" Infocom was famous for. The success of this compilation led to the 1992 release of 11 more Infocom titles in The Lost Treasures of Infocom II.

In 2003, Activision, along with several other game software publishers, was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its accounting practices, namely the use of the "return reserve" to allegedly smooth quarterly results.

In 2004, the company marked its 25th anniversary, and stated that it had posted record earnings and the twelfth consecutive year of revenue growth.

In 2006, Activision secured the video game license to make games based on the world of James Bond from MGM Interactive. An exclusive agreement between the two begins in September 2007 with Activision's first game set to be released in May 2008.

Atari 2600 - History (1977-1991)

Considered the granddaddy of video game systems, the Atari 2600 was the first to effectively penetrate the home market. The system got off to a slow start after its 1977 release, but its popularity soared with the release of arcade translations like Space Invaders and Asteroids. By the start of the 80's, the system was a legitimate phenomenon, making Atari one of the most recognized brand names in the world. The 2600 introduced several practical innovations that boosted its popularity, including removable cartridges, detachable controllers, different types of controllers, and the ability to select different game variations from a single cartridge. Although many other technically superior consoles were released during the 80's, the Atari 2600 remained in production in one form or another long after most of its competitors had folded, all the way up until 1991.
Console design: A-. The Atari 2600 was practical in design, with easy-access cartridge slot and a series of silver switches across the front. The system went through several incarnations during its lifetime, but the original version with six switches and distinctive fake wood facade is the most sought-after by collectors. The second version, which is far more common, raised the controller ports on the back (making them easier to reach) and moved the difficulty switches to the back (making them harder to reach). The third iteration replaced the wood front with a solid black strip labeled with a white "Atari 2600" insignia. The final version had a slim, compact design not much larger than a VHS tape. It was produced in modest quantities from the mid-80s until the end of the system's lifetime.
Console durability: B. Built like tanks, the 2600 consoles are highly durable, and it's not hard to find one in good working condition. Compared to newer consoles like the NES, the 2600 has aged extremely well.
Controllers: B. One strength of the 2600 is its ability to support third-party controllers. The standard Atari joystick was cheap and prone to breakage, but several other companies stepped in to produce quality alternatives. One limitation of the Atari 2600 joysticks is their single button configuration, although certain games came up with imaginative ways to overcome this. In addition to joysticks, analog "paddle" controllers were shipped with the early systems, providing unique precision control and also allowing for four-player simultaneous play. The paddles do however have a tendency to get "shaky" over time, but this problem can be remedied with cleaning and oil.
Media: A. Being a pioneer in removable games, Atari designed their cartridges perfectly. Compact, handsome, and nearly indestructible, the games easily stack and have a handy label on the outer edge. Large enough to display artwork, Atari plastered its games with dramatic, artistic mosaics that tended to belie the actual content of the game. Activision took a different approach with its game labels, displaying an actual screen shot of the game. Third party companies experimented with a number of cartridge designs, and you can often identify the manufacturer of most Atari 2600 games by simply looking at the cartridge color and shape.
Packaging: B. Atari 2600 games were sold in cheap but attractive boxes. Most games, especially those from Atari, feature elaborate artwork across the front. The back usually displays a screenshot and a brief description of the game. Most boxes made by Atari and Activision were printed in an array of colors. Although there wasn't any apparent rhyme or reason behind the colors used, the boxes definitely look nice lining a shelf. Atari eventually moved to a "silver with red trim" color scheme to maintain consistency with their 5200 line.
Games: B. The number of high-quality, inexpensive titles in the 2600 library easily compensate for the substantial number of "duds". Atari's initial games (pre-1980) tended to be very rudimentary, but as the newer, arcade-style games demanded richer visuals, the quality of the 2600's graphics increased. In 1980 a group of ex-Atari employees formed Activision, the first third-party software company. Activision carved out a sizeable chunk out of Atari's market by producing some of the best titles for the system, including Pitfall, River Raid, and Kaboom. Inspired by Activision's success, other companies, both established and new, jumped into the fray with their own lines of games. The resulting glut, combined with a general lowering of quality, ultimately led to a dramatic video game "crash" in 1983, of which few video game companies survived.
Graphics: C+. The early Atari 2600 games were primitive and blocky, but the system's flexible architecture gave programmers the freedom to develop techniques to squeeze more and more out of the system. Thanks to Activision and other third-party developers pushing the envelope, Atari 2600 games gradually became more sophisticated, with high-resolution, flicker-free graphics and impressive special effects.
Audio: C+. Like the graphics, developers gradually learned how to harness the system's sound capabilities, eventually producing games with realistic sound effects and even harmonized music.
Collectability: A. Due to its massive popularity and incredibly long lifespan, the Atari 2600 is an ideal system for collectors. Literally hundreds of titles were produced for the system, including a long list of classics like Adventure, Space Invaders, Missile Command, Battlezone, Asteroids, and Frogger. Fortunately, the best titles are very cheap and easy to find, and all instruction manuals are available online (at www.atariage.com). The cartridges work like new after a proper cleaning, although the label quality can vary. Most games are easy to play and provide timeless fun.
Innovations: Removable cartridges, detachable controllers, joystick controllers, paddles controllers, four-player games, game variations, difficulty switches, black and white TV switch.