Comments on: The Origins of Your Favorite Video Game Friends

By: Cassie

Cassie — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:31:00 +0000

@ bas: Super Mario World, Donkey Kong, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (all for Super Nintendo) are the only three I’ve ever been able to beat.

I still consider that an accomplishment. :)

By: M

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:40:57 +0000

I’ve seen in numerous reputable places that it was actually Monkey Kong, mistranslated. Snopes may disagree, but they may also be greatly outnumbered (and out-logic-ed… why would you name an animal after a different animal, just to say it’s stubborn? For that matter, does he even act particularly stubborn in the game? Not really, not more than any other opponent).

By: greenstrawberries

greenstrawberries — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:17:00 +0000

Man, I start to forget how far we’ve come in technology, and then I look at the graphic of Mario above… Wow. I never got to have a Nintendo growing up (my dad flat out refused), so I’d just go over to my cousin’s house and watch him play. (he was 2 years older and a boy, so I never got to play, but I thought I was cool just by sitting in the same room- so it was a win-win.) I was afraid of the last level of Mario Bros. Really, really afraid. I would have nightmares. (I was about 7 yrs old at the time)Something about the music and the lava freaked me out.

By: Kenji Hinds

Kenji Hinds — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:20:09 +0000

I already know this stuff, but why didn’t you focus on other characters, like Samus Aran, Link, Solid Snake, and Kirby?

By: Deuce

Deuce — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:18:28 +0000

“I guess it is time for me to give up on Pac-Man. I have the high score at the laundry mat, but it is far from a perfect game.”

Don’t worry about it. Nobody who’s gotten a perfect score has done it by winging it. It’s a matter of memorizing exactly what to do in each level (and then performing it correctly).

In other words, skill is important, but not as much as an OCD-ish personality.

By: David Preiser

David Preiser — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:00:32 +0000

Rogue Brewery in Oregon has its own patented yeast they call “PacMan”.

By: mom

mom — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:16:18 +0000

Among other unheeded warnings I gave you,including “Playing video games was going to rot your brain”, apparently didn’t. Bravo kid. Great article.
Call you mom some time.

p.s. Remind me to renew your subscription to Mental Floss

By: sarakenobi

sarakenobi — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:04:35 +0000

OMFG ELON
lol. I just had to get a little excited because I run into Elon students all the time :)

By: Jonny

Jonny — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:20:56 +0000

“Puckman” which was just a wee bit too close to a certain English swear word for the developers’ liking
—————
It was bang on the money when kids took black markers to the ‘P’
which is why it was changed

By: saurabh

saurabh — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:36:44 +0000

A small, nerdy clarification on the subject of the Sonic Hedgehog protein – hedgehog proteins are a class of developmental protein that are actual quite crucial in laying out the basic pattern of mammalian physiology during early development (that is, sonic hedgehog tells early cells which ones are going to be the progenitors of brain & nerve, which ones are going to become limb, etc.). So, not only did Sonic get a protein named after him, he got one of the most important proteins out there.