I saw Pac-Man at the game store last week. Not knowing whether I had either Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man, I bought it. As it turned out, I already had Pac-Man. So now I have two. (Pac-Men?) Both are the Namco version, not the Tengen one (although I do have a Tengen version as well.) If I ever get around to it and if anyone wants my extra, I want to eventually sell it. So the Pac-Man cartridge had been sitting in the kitchen counter for a few days. I thought "I'd better hook up the NES and play the thing."

Yep, it works all right. Well, it would work if I had a decent controller. I tried two dogbone controllers I had, but both had a problem going up and down for no good reason except to annoy me. And because of this, I can't play Pac-Man very long before the controller craps out and I die by running into a ghost. If I had a decent controller, I bet I could make it to the second intermission.

One thing I did notice though, and when I point it out to you, you probably won't hear Pac-Man the same again, is that when Pac-Man is eating a line of dots, it sounds like he's saying "Picture, picture, picture..." Well, anyway, this now makes me want to work on my NES game about Stupidman. I think I left off after Act III and need to begin work on Act IV. I need to design a layout of the supermarket. Stupidman is there to buy some soap to kill Mr. Germ with. And I need to compose some new music as well. I'll do that tomorrow. I'm still angry at my controller for hating me in Pac-Man.

I like my top-loading NES, it's the best NES-related purchase I ever made. I just wish the Game Genie would work with it. Second best-purchase: my NES Everdrive.