Pacm̬̦̩̹̌͢a̪͓̮̼͍̗͑̿ͫn̛̥͈ͅ

You remember Pac-Man? Yeah, The little yellow ball who has been the main mascot for Namco (now merged with Bandai) for 35 years now. The fella’ always will have a place in my heart since the days I played Pac-Man World 2 on my Gamecube, I didn’t like the new reboot they gave him and all though as they made him an annoying High School Kid trying to hard to be cool. But that isn’t the point, Before I start: It’s obvious I am a Pac-Man fan, I originally played the original arcade game on World 2’s disc “Arcade”   bonus area which allowed you to play all of his classics from the 80’s.

One day I was chatting with my friend on skype, Who allegedly told me that he found a supposed version of Pac-Man: A ROM that was found in the back of an old arcade locked away in a safe and extracted from a damaged PCB board. Honestly I didn’t believe him but he gave me a link that I kept noted for a few days later since I has busy with school at the time.

Eventually when I got home one late Friday I hopped on my computer as I was originally going to play more Splatoon or Super Smash Bros. later, I however was reminded the link he gave me thanks to my trusty notepad I saved to my desktop. I opened the link up and was taken a browser page. The page itself had the story and stated that players who were unable to finish the original arcade game board suffered severe psychological and occasionally physiological trauma, up to and including death of the subject (and that the ROM's effect is significantly reduced).

I put my hand over my face and corpse, Thinking this was all going to be another “Lavender Town Syndrome” hoax. But I digressed and clicked the link leading to where I could play the game on my browser, So I didn’t have to risk downloading it and getting any creepy viruses I guess.

The game loaded and a corrupted ROM startup accompanied by loud static played before displaying the words “Insert Coin”. I noticed it briefly flashed from ‘Coin’ to ‘Soul’ for about a split second now and then. I hit enter and started the game: The familiar maze board that many gamers probably remember displayed along with Pac-Man in the middle where the fruit would usually appear. The little jingle that was stuck in my head as a child played. …But it was REALLY off.

It started out like normal before slowing down, then speeding up and growing loud toward the end. Once the jingle finished I could move Pac-Man, presented by his iconic “Pizza Shape”. One thing I noticed was that I couldn’t see any pellets unless Pac-Man came into view with them in a way, I also occasionally saw a blue ghost roaming the maze. He had a sad face in the style of that of a Jack-o-Lantern, almost reminding me of something out of Ghost n’ Goblins honestly.

Munching Pac-Dots played his usual “Wakka Wakka” sound effect, but it was much deeper than usual. The ghost siren in the background was also slowed down. There were a few Power Pellets as any Pac-Man game would have of course, I ate one and was briefly able to see a full view of the Pac-Dots and the location of the ghosts. This did not allow me to eat them however: As when I touched the ghost I simply died.

Dying resulted in 3 results: The screen would zoom in on where Pac-Man had died and spin around while his death sound would play (but then condort into static), The screen would freeze before restarting or the sprite of the ghost would flash upon the screen along with a loud screech. Needless to say, That pissed me off. I eventually cleared the first board and the next level started. This time there was a red ghost who had a sinister smile, If he saw Pac-Man he would charge down the channel you were on of the maze with an obnoxious buzzing sound.

I also feel like adding that the “Level” counter would occasionally flash to names which I presume were the new ghosts that were added each time. The first level was named “Blindey”, which I can only assume is because he moves around randomly. This time it was “Screamey”, Oh, Indeed. The next level introduced a much more annoying ghost named “Slendy”, as his name implies he acted somewhat like a ‘Slenderman’ in a way, He would teleport around the maze at random and even pop up right in front of your face, All music stopped as well if he was in your view.

The next level introduced “The Old One”, Who happened to be pink. This was probably the worst of all as he would follow Pac-Man and could phase through the walls of the board. The fifth level was when things started getting weirder though, The walls of the maze started disappearing. No, I’m not even kidding: They were vanishing and I could go through the board freely. It became more annoying this way considering I couldn’t stay straight and the Ghosts got an advantage.

After clearing this board I noticed the next level was exactly the same, I can only presume the rest of the game was like this now so I ended my game here. Dying results in a screen asking “Play again?” along with a countdown. Accepting just resets the game while letting the timer run out simply printed out “Game Over” in white text. Eventually I closed the game out and went to bed, Honestly: I never knew a classic could be given a dark twist… At least not like this. I really hope this was not a real game, if it was... I really feel guilty for those who had to play this.

You can find a few versions of this game on the internet if you wish to play it: I'm warning you though: You may not want to.

(Written by Mario123311)