A heavenly day to celebrate at the Xbox Live Arcade today.

This is fast becoming a gaming week with Shadowrun on Vista on Sunday, access to the closed beta of Sword of the New World (MMORPG) on Monday. Last night picked up Halo 2 for Windows Vista (41 achievements available) and this morning Pac-Man Championship (12 achievements available). I can hardly wait for PS3 Thursday tomorrow.

Ever wish you could chomp more than 4 ghosts at a time? With Pac-Man Championship be prepared to chomp away. Also has mazes that warp and expand when Pac-Man chomps bonus fruit and other items (yes, even a binocular?!). Of the many titles in the Pac-Man franchise over the years, this is one of the more solid, genuinely fun releases. Well worth the 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

Championship was created with the help of one of the original Pac-Man coin-op designers Toru Iwatani. Pac-Man remains the bestselling coin-op in arcade history with over 100,000 sold the first year according to Pac-Facts. Also listed in the Pac-Facts I didn’t realize that the Buckner & Garcia song Pac-Man Fever was intended to be a spoof on Ted Nugent’s Cat Scratch Fever (really?). Pac-Man has been mentioned in 20 posts at Hmm with a few of them linked below and the rest available via search. It is also this author’s favorite classic arcade game.

Robotron is another personal favorite. I wasn’t much of a Pong or Space Invader guy, but enjoyed Asteroids and later Asteroids Deluxe. I also enjoyed Scramble and the lesser known, but played a ton of Star Castle at the local roller skating rink. Kids don’t go roller or ice skating in these parts much any more. Now the wheels of choice are skateboards, I guess.

How would you design an arcade in 2007?
It’s kind of sad that arcades aren’t what they used to be. A couple arcades have tried to start up locally for the kids, but with the arcade of the world — Xbox Live — I can see why they’ve failed. If one was going to open an arcade, I think it would be wiser to focus on organizing First Person Shooter (FPS) and other group game oriented tournaments surrounding the console games and perhaps offer a nice pinball machine selection and a few classic arcade boxes for Mom and Dad while they watch. To round out the arcade of today mix in an ice cream (Cold Stone Creamery, anyone?) and/or candy shop. Too hard to make it work buying or leasing expensive quarter-munching games.

The last arcade I was at had some games costing $1.00 to play. I understand why the proprietors want to charge that much, but you’ve got kids thinking hey, for 40 or 50 plays and we can own an Xbox game and play an unlimited amount of times with friends without ever leaving the couch. Tough competition.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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