May 22--At his age, Pac-Man probably should be celebrating his birthday at home with Mrs. Pac-Man, a bottle of wine and maybe a Netflix movie before turning in.
Instead, the 35-year-old best known for eluding ghosts and chomping glowing dots will be partying hard in -- where else? -- Schaumburg.
Pac-Man, the iconic 1980s video game, was released in Japan 35 years ago Friday. This occasion is being honored with a two-day bash starting Friday at Level 257, a massive Pac-Man-themed restaurant in Schaumburg. Level 257, whose name is a nod to a level beyond the game's final level, is owned by Namco, the Japanese video game company that created Pac-Man.
In an interview Friday, Billy Mitchell, the first person to ever achieve a perfect Pac-Man score in 1999, waxed nostalgic about what the game meant to the "golden age of arcade video games."
"It wasn't a shoot 'em, kick 'em, beat 'em game. It was a softhearted game," said Mitchell, a 49-year-old restaurateur and hot sauce purveyor from Hollywood, Fla. "That's what drew women to the arcades."
Mitchell will be on hand for Level 257's celebration, which runs through Saturday and includes an '80s-themed party, free bowling and swag, gaming tournaments, expert panels and a Pac-Man cookie-eating contest.
On July 3, 1999, at the Funspot arcade in Weirs Beach, N.H., in front of a crowd, Mitchell completed the first perfect Pac-Man game, surviving all 256 levels, ending with 3,333,360 points, according to both Mitchell's account and Guinness World Records.
To hear Mitchell tell it, he was spurred to accomplish the feat by a rival Canadian, Rick Fothergill. Both Mitchell and Fothergill attempted the perfect game in May of that year but came up short. When he returned to the Funspot in July, Mitchell wore a red, white and blue tie.
"I wore the flag and defended our nation," Mitchell said, without laughing.
It wasn't until the days just before the perfect game that Mitchell figured out how to beat Level 256 with a maneuver so simple, he said, he could teach it to a reporter. The strategy on the final "killer board" was all about "neutralizing or trapping the ghosts," he said.
"I'd like to tell you I'm a genius, but everything in the world is a matter of timing," he said.
In conversation, Mitchell oozes confidence and admits to having an overabundance of it. He acknowledges that he's considered "the bad guy" in some films, such as in the 2007 documentary "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters." (Mitchell is also a master Donkey Kong player.)
But he's also a guy who speaks lovingly, at length, about his wife and three children. He answers questions thoughtfully and with what seems to be a genuine self-awareness that his love of arcade games, like his hairstyle, might strike some as anachronistic.
"Just don't tell anyone I'm courteous," Mitchell said.
He's also courteous.
But for those who prefer Mitchell as the villain, they'll have their opportunity to beat him in a Pac-Man tournament Saturday at Level 257, according to Natalie Couzens, marketing manager for Level 257. Other Pac-Man celebrities slated to attend the celebration include Toru Iwatani, lead creator of Pac-Man, and Jerry Buckner, of the band Buckner Garcia, who had the 1982 hit single, "Pac-Man Fever."
For full details on the events, go to http://www.level257.com.
gtrotter@tribpub.com
