The thought behind this blog came to me recently after seeing three celebrity Ms. Pac-Man references during the month of March. The first came via si.com in a photo gallery of Michael Jordan during his North Carolina days. Seeing this for the first time, I thought about how MJ might be able to school me at basketball (and baseball and golf), but wondered whether I could school him at Ms. Pac-Man.
The second occurrence happened via Cool Aggregator in a post about Michael Jackson's auction catalog. Later this month, Julien's Auctions will be auctioning off a bunch of crap, to put it quite frankly, owned by the king of pop. Page 19 of Catalog 4 features a 1982 Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga cocktail table with an estimated purchase price range of $2,000-$3,000. This, too, got me wondering what the other MJ's Ms. Pac-Man high score is. Based upon the amount of arcade games being auctioned, Jackson is a very adept player or just likes buying lots and lots of crap.
The third occurrence, the one that solidified my quest to track down these and other celebrities' Ms. Pac-Man high scores, came in the March 21 issue of Newsweek in a short interview with Bo Jackson, titled "Bo Jackson the Banker." The interviewer asks Bo if he ever played Tecmo Bowl (stating his character was "unstoppable'), to which Bo responds, "When I want to play a videogame, I just go to my basement and plug in Ms. Pacman. (sic) I guess I'm a product of the '80s."
It is my goal to track down these celebrities (most likely via their agents/spokespeople) to inquire about their high scores in Ms. Pac-Man. An exact score is not required, but certainly welcomed. Hey, if I hear back from any of these people, I'll be more than happy with a balllpark figure.
I hope to keep a running list of celebrity high scores and to indicate whether any celebrities continue to play Ms. Pac-Man and if they beat their high score, to report it here. Quite a tall order, but not an unattainable one. Certainly there are so called "geek celebrities" such as Kevin Smith and Seth Rogan who are Ms. Pac-Man fans, and many more surprise Ms. Pac-Man fans, such as the three aforementioned celebrities who inspired this blog.
Being such a hefty task, I ask anyone interested in this endeavor to join me in my quest. So if you are interested, contact me at info (at) candyormedicine (dot) com. More to come.
