Video Game Art in Museum

The Art of Video Games

Until the end of September, the Smithsonian American Art5 Museum is showcasing "The Art of Video Games." The exhibit examines the progress of video games as a medium over the last 40 years. Video games are examined as an amalgamation of music, storytelling, and animation.

Are video games art? Of course they are! I wonder what Picasso or Michelangelo would have come up with if they had only be able to work in 8-bit technology? Would it have been any less brilliant? Everyone knows that today's video games can render realistic scenes but I don't think it's the realism that makes them art - it's the creative expression that goes into generating the images on the screen. What's interesting is, unlike most art, video game art must have a utilitarian aspect to it as well - it has to be usable.

Want to learn more? You can check it out here or watch the "trailer" below!

Pac-Man MMO Announced

Awesome! It was just announced at the Pac-Man Con that the Pac-Man MMO is set to launch later this month!

Rumor has it that the graphics may have been upgraded to 8 bit! Some fans has been upset at this news, saying that it isn't, "true to the source material," but I don't think they went far enough. Why stop at 8 bit? Why not 16? This is the new millennium, after all.

There are going to be plenty of options in the game. You can play a boy yellow circle, a girl yellow circle (it's said that bow colors are unlockable), or a baby yellow circle. 

As for action, you can eat, eat, eat, and eat some more! Pellets, fruit, power pellets, keys, bells, ghosts, and pretty much anything else. This game is a dream come true for the obese and/or nostalgic. 

I can't wait to plunk down my $39.95 a month for this vintage regenesis! It's a great, big Pac-Man world and I'm ready to eat it all!

World's Biggest Pacman Game

WARNING: DO NOT GO TO THIS SITE UNLESS YOU HAVE, SAY, SIX UNINTERRUPTED HOURS TO SPARE.

World's Biggest Pac-Man is the 8th wonder of the modern world. Imagine, if you would: Classic Pac-Man action with two-dimensional mazes, ghosts, power pellets and, of course, the fruit, fully customizable and laid out in a massive, sprawling, seemingly infinite network of user-created maps. You remember those portals on both sides of the Pac-Man board that you used to be able to travel from one side to the other with? Well now they take you to the next map! Want to go around to the other side of one level? Simply leave and circle around through various maps. Each map stays in exact status the way you left it. So if ghosts were hot on your heels when you left and you reenter through the same portal... it's not good!

One of the best things about this is you can create and post maps in this network! Check out the maps at coordinates #22, 25 and #21, 23 (by the way, you can tell what coordinates you're at by looking at your address bar) to see two maps created for 1LR's parent site, Keystone Gaming Society.

Is this game perfect? No. For one, a pause or "save" button or hotkey would be nice. If one exists, I haven't found it yet. You just play until you die. Secondly, as you may guess, some user generated maps just suck. Large open areas = death to Pac-Man. On some maps it LOOKS like you can fit through but you find out you can't when the ghosts giddily cause you to blink out of existence. Now that's not cool. Some maps have large straightaways with no turnoffs that are akin to a dark alley for Pac-Man -- the ghosts simply box you in and mug you.  What's nice is if you don't like a board most of the time you can simply exit out the other side quite easily.

So check out http://worldsbiggestpacman.com/ if you've got the time. LOTS of time. Because I guarantee you you'll be enthralled into a velvet cocoon of 80's sentimentality that will make you wonder why you ever thought Halo was great.

KGS Maps:

http://worldsbiggestpacman.com/play/#21,23
http://worldsbiggestpacman.com/play/#22,25