I used to play Tetris so much that I could see the pieces when I closed my eyes. If I got bored at movies, I could play it on the ceiling of the theater. That said, I always imagined playing it on the sides of office buildings. Tetris is a game that will realistically always be easier to play virtually. You really would have problems setting up a system where blocks could appear and disappear in real time. Also, there are no real values there. Tetris is ultimately a cold and calculating game of probabilities and speed. We cannot anthropomorphize the blocks easily. They appear, they fall, and they go away. Clean, efficient and totally without feeling. I guess that's why I love it so.

But what about Pac-man? Could your dream of being the yellow mouth come true in real life? And what about the ghosts? Why wasn't their story ever told? Have we idolized Pac-man for too long without asking ourselves "why have these ghosts spent their entire lives trying to catch and kill him?" We do not demonize Hamlet's father for driving his son mad in order to kill his userper, do we? Well, perhaps we do. But we *understand* his motives. Why are pac-man's ghosts evil? Perhaps we should run a mile in their shoes.

Normally, a rant like that wouldn't get you very far. I mean, other than a mental exercise in piss-poor philosophy. But I live in New York City Now. And so, I present to you the official description of "Pac-Manhattan"

Pac-Manhattan is a large-scale urban game that utilizes the New York City grid to recreate the 1980's video game sensation Pac-Man. This analog version of Pac-man is being developed in NYU's Interactive Telecommunications graduate program, in order to explore what happens when games are removed from their "little world" of tabletops, televisions and computers and placed in the larger "real world" of street corners, and cities. A player dressed as Pac-man will run around the Washington square park area of Manhattan while attempting to collect all of the virtual "dots" that run the length of the streets. Four players dressed as the ghosts Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde will attempt to catch Pac-man before all of the dots are collected. Using cell-phone contact, Wi-Fi internet connections, and custom software designed by the Pac-Manhattan team, Pac-man and the ghosts will be tracked from a central location and their progress will be broadcast over the internet for viewers from around the world.

Finally! A video game that gets kids out running! Who would have thought that cardiovascular fitness was a big part of the video game industry. Lame points aside, you can read more about their process and see some videos on their website. NYU loves making news these days. This group was obviously prepared for media exposure. Not only did they register a website, they put together a FAQ!

I liked looking at the images. One of the photos has Pac-Man standing in front of Judson Memorial Church. For those of you in the know, you can also see part of my law school in this picture. I wish I had stumbled across this in real life first, but at least I found out about it before it hit the main stream press. So that's all the info I have at this point. It's all from one website. So if you are from out of town, you might as well go there. Staying here is pointless.

To get to the secondary point of this post, and as you can see from my slightly modified map image, I am very close to the action. If you are my friend, then that means YOU are also very close to the action. They are planning on another performance on Saturday, May 8th. I have an exam that I have to turn in on that day. But I will be there to at least take one picture, I can promise you that. If you want to get involved, I suggest you get on their mailing list very soon. Or at least talk to me. I'm sure I'll have details.

Not that I am going to sign up for their mailing list. I am too cool for something like that. But yeah, I'll see you all on Saturday!