Professional Gamers on MTV

[Frostillicus]

OK I don't usually watch MTV, but last night I was flipping and heard the death music from Pac Man so I tuned in.  

Anyone else see this? Might have been rerun I don't know - it was 'Real Life - Stories of Professional Gamers'. Followed events in the life of Golden tee tournament players and a UT champion(with a $10,000 top prize!) among others.  

BUT at the end they interviewed the world champion of PacMan(Mr. perfect game) and he said he is working on something now that will 'shock the gaming world to it's core'.  They showed him playing centipede but no hint of what the new record/trick/whatever may be that he's working on. Anyone know/heard semi-credible rumors?  
 

[Rasher2k]

Can't say I saw it. I read that when you 'finish' PacMan (level 256) the game crashes, giving you a split screen lockup - the end. Can't say I've done this myself...  

You've probably seen this, but anyway:
http://www.mameworld.net/pacman/

And another tidbit:

In July of 1999, Florida resident and die-hard Pac-Man fan Billy Mitchell achieved the first perfect score in Pac-Man (3,333,360) after playing for six hours straight. He beat all 256 screens eating every dot, fruit, and ghost (all four ghosts were eaten with each power pellet) - using only one Pac-Man!

[CitznFish]

I watched it..flipped through and heard Pacman as well.  That  Golden tee champ was a joke...couldn't win anything..maybe the cameras made him nervous...who knows.  it was an interesting show but I don't want to be lumped in with ANY of the people they showed.

[Generic Eric]

And another tidbit:

In July of 1999, Florida resident and die-hard Pac-Man fan Billy Mitchell achieved the first perfect score in Pac-Man (3,333,360) after playing for six hours straight. He beat all 256 screens eating every dot, fruit, and ghost (all four ghosts were eaten with each power pellet) - using only one Pac-Man!

I think they had Billy Mitchell on the show right?  Wasn't he supposed to astound the world with some other thing?  We went to lunch so I didn't see the rest.  Did anyone acutally sit through the whole thing?

[MilitiaMan]

Did anyone actually sit through the whole thing?

Yes, I did -- UNFORTUNATELY. That's one hour of my life that I'll NEVER be able to get back.  

Here's a quick run-down on the 4 segments of the show:

The Order of Light

A group of about 10 or 15 eighteen to thirty year-olds live together in a ratty apartment in Memphis, TN and basically play X-Box and PS-2 24 hours a day. They have computers and televisions hooked up in EVERY room of the house, including the kitchen. They exist on Coca Cola and whatever extra food they can bring home from their fast food restaurant jobs. And it is a virtual certainty that none of these boys will ever see a suntan OR a girlfriend.

Golden Tee Champ

A thirty-something guy wants to be a professional golfer, but likely never will because he spends all of his time swilling beer and smoking cigarettes at different bars around Memphis while "practicing" Golden Tee. Now that I think about it, I think that is how John Daly got his start, so maybe this guy still has a chance. The show made a big deal about how great this guy was at playing GT, but every match they televised during the show, he lost! And of course, cursed alot, drank alot, and smoked alot.

Unreal Tournament Guy

This kid apparently is the "best gamer in the world". He goes all over the country to different "Cyber-Athlete" Tournaments and the geeks that worship him actually let this guy stay at their crappy little apartments while he "practices" for these big tournaments. This dude actually appears to be some kind of semi-celebrity among the gaming community and I will give him his due --- at least he wins the tournaments he participates in. He was not nearly as pathetic as the little "grommets" that practically beg him to come over to their houses and play games while they watch over his shoulder.

Pac-Man Dude

Basically, this guy is the whole reason why I tuned in to the show ... and I was pretty disappointed. Living in the past is cool for all of us "MAME-Types" --- I understand that, I really do --- but this guy is taking it to extremes with his "quasi-members only" jacket and his 70's style feathered mullet haircut. Once the Pac-Man king of the world, he now spends his free time pimping his own fiery brand of Chicken Wing Sauce. There was a simply hilarious clip of him sneaking into a grocery store aisle and pushing all of his competitor's chicken wing sauce to the back of the shelf while conveniently arranging his own delectable sauce across the front of the shelf. I found myself wondering how many hours of his week were spent on activities such as this.

Anyway, he left us with this -- "I am going to do something soon that is going to shock the video game world. I am training for it now."

Then we see him wheeling a fairly beat-up classic cab into his home -- I think it was a centipede -- and of course the show ends with him firing away at spiders and such on the newly installed Centipede.

  The best part of this show is that I made my wife sit through it so that she now realizes that there are alot of people out there that are more obsessed with video games than I am. The next time she asks me how I can possibly play Donkey Kong for 2 straight hours, I will simply remind her of the "Order of Light".

-MM

[Brax]

This is what makes me think the world just needs a good nuclear bomb dropped on it to sort all this crap out.

[Frostillicus]

This is what makes me think the world just needs a good nuclear bomb dropped on it to sort all this crap out.

Even if you're joking, that's a little extreme in light of current world events.  But I don't think the show was that bad(considering it's MTV), and I feel better there are more video-game obsessive people out there than just me

[mkdevo]

Did anyone actually sit through the whole thing?

There was a simply hilarious clip of him sneaking into a grocery store aisle and pushing all of his competitor's chicken wing sauce to the back of the shelf while conveniently arranging his own delectable sauce across the front of the shelf.

WTF???  

[Magnet_Eye]

I was thinking since he was filling this room with old skool games, that perhaps he wants to do some new record? Perhaps play each game consecutively beating the hi scores for each game? Like on 10 games or some crap like that...

who knows  

[AceTKK]

FYI you can now download the episode if you want to:

http://planetquake3.net/download.php?op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=1528

-Ace-

[delta88]

dunno if anyone noticed but he was moving in a missile command.. and he had a centipede and a millitpede and a poleposition.. all games that use optical controls? maybe a beat every atari game with a trackball.. he had a crystal castles also..  hmmmmmmmmm

my thought

[Stein]

didn't see the show, but I'm downloading it now... I did see the previews for the show though, it looked interesting anyhow, if nothing else but to show me that the one hour I spend per day on gaming activities is nothing to be ashamed of  these guys, whoooo just looking at the previews I could tell these guys were out there...

I have a couple friends, if there was a show for Everquest junkies they would be the poster children...  gaming adiction is a sad thing to see first hand  especially when it's EQ, gahhh!!!! what a waste. my apologies to any EQ fans

[Frostillicus]

Actually I was tempted once to buy this documentary: Avatars Offline it looked interesting and is about Everquest addiction.  I don't get into MMORPGs BTW.

[Stein]

well, I may be alone but I found the show interesting, entertaining even.

The Circle of light guys -  well they all work at Fed-Ex, I'd have to say that's a step up from flippin burgers just a bunch of kids doing what we all like to do, play games, but they all live together, to people who don't game I'm sure they look like nerds and geeks, to me they are just having fun.  Do they need to get out more?  YES!!!!

The Golden Tee champ -  I love Golden Tee Golf, and I love real golf, been in a tournament or two myself and can feel for this guy, he has won more $$$ at GT than anyone else around, and he has a beautiful real golf swing. I was sorry to see him perform so badly on TV, but that's what they call pressure he'll have to learn to deal with that if he gets his wish and is accepted on the PGA tour. Hell... I wish him all the luck in the world.

Fatality - wolrds best at unreal tournament. Got to watch him win $10k on TV playing a friggin video game... thought that was cool even though I HATE 3d fps games. Worlds best gamer? no, but way too good at UT. Another kid in dire need of a life but hey, who am I to say anything, he's cleaning up and making money.

Mr. Pac-Man... god awful annoying person... I would have dropped this segment or maybe shared it with other people who are into the "perfect game".  His big secret that will "shock the world"? He has a girlfriend? that would shock me more than him playing perfect games on all his machines

thanks Ace for posting that link.
Stein

[ashardin]

I grew up with Golden Tee guy's (Graig, yes, that's spelled correctly) girlfriend Courtney.

Met him, he's a tool.  

[SirPoonga]

Fatality - wolrds best at unreal tournament. Got to watch him win $10k on TV playing a friggin video game... thought that was cool even though I HATE 3d fps games. Worlds best gamer? no, but way too good at UT. Another kid in dire need of a life but hey, who am I to say anything, he's cleaning up and making money.

Or for some people it comes naturally.  I don't like tooting my own horn but I ain't too bad either.  When you think about it, it's just a point and click game
If you have UT we do sometimes get a BYOAC game going.  Goto to chatroom some night.

BTW, since I mentioned the chatroom, YES it is USED!.  But if you log into the room during the daytime do you really expect it to be busy?  IRC chat is very much frowned upon in most work places.  I like looking at my log files seeing these people log in, say "hello", no one responds, then they say "why does this channel exist if no one responds".

[Nailz]

Yikes, I just watched this thing.... and what a bunch of tools!  The only one I kind of understand is the UT kid, he is still young enough to get a damn life, but the rest of them?  Very, very, sad.............

Don't get me wrong, I love to game as well, between my Mame cab, my PC, and my step-sons Xbox, I have my share of geekdom, but some of those guys were outrageous, express the Order or Dor... I mean Light.  WOW!!!!!

[Dartful Dodger]

If you have UT we do sometimes get a BYOAC game going.  Goto to chatroom some night.

What server do you go to?
What type of game?
What maps?
and what nights?

[SirPoonga]

If you have UT we do sometimes get a BYOAC game going.  Goto to chatroom some night.

What server do you go to?
What type of game?
What maps?
and what nights?

Whoever feels like servering
DM and CTF
Just form the bonus packs
Whenever we get together