Pac Men:Gaming Stories

In the land where millennia ago our ancestors gave their lives to protect Greece from the onslaught of the Persian Empire, nine men would gather, answering the call for summer vacation. With nine adult men in a rather small summer house, certain co-ordination was required. My task was to bring a laptop, just in case we need one, to watch a movie, play a game, you know, never hurts to have one.

Unfortunately, I was not the only one with the same directions, so we ended up having about six laptops, a playstation one, a LOT of beer and funny enough no board games.

We all got comfy, decided where each of us would sleep, and found plugs for the few laptops we had, so we started drinking, relaxing and discussing the plan for the next few days. We were one man short, off course, considering how Teoh did not reply to anyone as to how he would arrive, so we thought he had other plans.

We were just finalizing our plans when Teoh just called and said he was somewhere in Marathon as he got the public transit to arrive and needed directions to where we were. One major "What?" later, Teoh and food was in the house, and we all were ready for spending our days in peace.

It started as a simple comment. "Oh hey you have Pac Man, i used to be really good at this back in the day" followed by "Well you can complete it if you want, I got a memory card on it", between Basil and Alex aka, our host and Alex.

Then it begun. Alex decided to start Pac Man. At first we ignored it, we had played crash team racing, we had other games, we had like a million laptops

He was right. He was really good at the game. Slowly but steadily, between our nights outside chilling, and the day we went out to swim, he was making good progress, completing each level to 100% with all secrets. Due to fire warnings, and not much to do, we decided to dare Alex to complete the game before we returned from the vacation.

Alex went on a Pac Man rampage as a response. But the more he progressed and the more we drank, the more people shut down their laptops and gathered around to watch Alex dominate Pac Man

With our vacation (and the beer) nearing the end, Alex had become the main event. With people gathering around the living room (with or without laptop) Alex playing Pac Man had become the main event. People were exchanging hi-fives, everyone stopped what they were doing when Alex said dumb things like "Oh I dont think I got this" or "I may not complete the entire game before we leave", only to laugh as he was clearly joking.

Clearly.

Despite the peer pressure Alex had to complete the entirety of the game in 100% with all bonus and secrets in the span of like one day at best, Alex managed to in fact wrap up the game, the night before our final day. Now, my memory is a bit hazy, considering the amount of beer and cider that was consumed during that time,  but the amount of cheering that went on, was akin to when Greece won the euro cup.

Then silence.

Ultimately deciding that everyone moving outside to drink more beer (because we were getting thirsty) and eating anything that smelled like food turned out to have more lure to us than Pac Man for the Playstation, after congratulating Alex and saving his progress, we all eventually went back to doing our thing. And thus, ends the saga of Alex the Pac Man, and his band of Pac Men followers.