Perfect Pac Man - Play Margate

[cmonkey]

Someone who's good at writing should really update the "World record and perfect play" section of the Pac-Man wikipedia entry to reflect this truly incredible achievement by Jon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man

 

[rcantor77]

Someone who's good at writing should really update the
"World record and perfect play" section of the Pac-Man wikipedia entry
to reflect this truly incredible achievement by Jon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man

I think the perfect person has already put himself forward for this...

Here's how Wikipedia describes a perfect game of Pac-Man:

A perfect Pac-Man game occurs when the player achieves the maximum possible score on the first 255 levels (by eating every possible dot, power pellet, fruit, and enemy) without losing a single life, and using all extra lives to score as many points as possible on Level 256. The first person to achieve this score was Billy Mitchell of Hollywood, Florida, who performed the feat in about six hours. Since then, six other players have attained the maximum score in increasingly faster times.

From my perspective, there's three stages to achieving a perfect game:

The first 21 boards, where you eat dots and powerpills, and the ghosts turn blue and you can eat them, along with all the other dots and fruit. These screens vary in speed, and also vary in terms of how long the ghosts turn blue. In some instances you have one second to eat all four ghosts.

What follows from screen 22, are 234 boards of the same thing. This is known as "crossing the desert". The powerpills don't work and the ghosts cannot be eaten. You have to get a pattern in your head, learn it, and execute it 234 times over and over and over. No mistakes, no room for error. You are the loneliest gamer in the world at this point no one can help you, you are fighting your own mind - if it wonders, you're in trouble.

And then of course, finally, the infamous "split screen" at screen 256. (Bear in mind that in order to get a perfect score, you have to arrive at this point on your first man. Every dot, every powerpill, every ghost, every fruit. Without losing a life). The game literally "crashes" due to eight-bit coding and an expectation from Iwatani-san that no one would ever get there anyway. In short, the garbage displayed on the screen means that there aren't enough dots to eat for the game to register that the level is complete. There are dots there, but some are hidden in the mess on the right hand side. You eat what you can, then kill off Pacman, and do it again with your remaining lives.

So, do those three things, and six hours or so later, you get your perfect score of 3,333,360.

An achievement in itself...

But what many people don't appreciate, is that whilst anyone can get a perfect game of Pacman - all the patterns are out there on YouTube if you can be bothered to learn them - not everyone can actually play the game to the point where you can manipulate the ghosts at will and put them where you need them to be in order to max out the game.

What makes Jon's achievement so extraordinary, is the way he's done it. He's never used a pattern up to the 21st board and plays them all totally "freehand". Very few players can do this, and without question, no one has ever got a perfect game without using patterns during those first boards.

Six people have achieved the perfect score on Pacman to date. But most of them have learned patterns from other players to be one of the half dozen people in that elite club. But ask any other "perfect" player to cope with the game when their patterns break down, and the vast majority can't. They've literally read a book, learned how to do it, and executed it. Of course, if those patterns break down, the game will typically end, because players don't know how to recover when their game goes outside of the parameters of what they've learned. Jon mastered the game the old school way. He knows what to do because he's always played the game on the fly, and has got into the underbelly and soul of the game.

There's also something called "rack advance" in the game. This is where you can open up the machine (or do it in MAME), press a dipswitch and cycle through the screens, so that you can start on any of the 256 levels you want. Of course, if you have this sort of access to a machine, this means that you can advance the game to the split screen at level 256 where the game ends, and start there to practise that screen without having to plough through 255 levels to get to that point some six hours later. Jon has never used Rack Advance, he wanted to work it all out by playing, and dying, and playing and dying.

Add to that his admirable decision to only do a perfect game in a live environment. He's always been insistent that if the score wasn't achieved "live" in front of witnesses, then it wouldn't count for much, because back in '83, that's how it was done. The pressure of a live environment added to the difficulty of getting a score.

I dread to thing of how many hours I've watched Jon playing Pacman at live events both here in the UK and America. I've witnessed some heartbreaking moments with him (even just the day before he achieved his score, he got to 2.2 million and his pattern broke down crossing the desert). It's hard to know what to say when someone doesn't achieve something they've worked so hard to get. Thankfully I don't have to struggle to console him ever again about Pacman! More than any other gamer he's paid his dues and deserves a huge amount of credit. Not to mention the money he's raised for charity along the way.

It's really easy to underestimate what Jon has achieved here - his is a massive, massive achievement, really off the scale. I can't see anyone else ever getting a perfect game of Pacman in the way he went after his goal.

Jon Stoodley joined an elite club last night on 22nd August 2015, and he did it in style.

Congratulations mate. You f**king did it.

If you want to drop some coins into the charity page Jon set up for his attempts this weekend, you can do so here: http://www.justgiving.com/Jon-Stoodley/

Very, very well put Tony... its good for people to know exactly what Jon as achieved.

Like many of us, I have supported Jon as much as I could and followed him on Twitch for many a long evening whilst he practiced.

And Jon, as Tony said, I know how determined you were to do this live and I am really so so happy for you that your dream has finally been fulfilled. I really wish I could have been there to watch and support... but I hope there was still plenty of people around during the final moments... that must have been a great time.

So did anyone video the last triumphant moment... hopefully Anthony was there and he could make a nice professional little video of it and the journey.

Congratulations again Jon, look forward to seeing you at the next event and you actually being able to relax and enjoy some games like we did at Revival last year.

Your wife Sally must be really pleased to have you back...

 

[Anthony Graham]

Sadly I couldn't be at Play Margate. So no video from me. I am more gutted I couldn't be there to witness it in person!

Congrats to Jon I know how hard he has worked on this. All the hours playing at all the events and at home. Plus bringing the cab he has used back to the lovely condition it is in.

It has been in Jon all along to do this and he has been so close on so many tries. It is done now and that record will never be taken away.

The questions I have now are.

What game next?

Will Jon be joining Tony at some of the upcoming events and giving a talk on this?

Will Jon have to change his user name and car reg should he move on to say track and field?

Who is more glad about this record being achieved Jon or Tony?

What will happen to the cab now? Will Jon keep it? Sell it? Auction for charity? Will it live in a museum? Jons Mrs burn it (I know she won't...... I think!)?

Anyway Congrats again, It couldn't be more deserved by such a nice and down to earth guy

Anthony

 

[aeroflott]

I played around a bit with the post and put it on a blog page at TG with a few more pictures to bring it to life a bit.

A couple of amends I should point out - both Bill Mitchell and I believe Don Hayes, achieved a perfect game using freehand techniques. However, Jon is still the only one of the six to have never knowingly used "rack advance" to practice. I've amended the piece to reflect this.

http://www.twingalaxies.com/entry.php/200-Pac-Man-Achieving-The-Perfect-Game-Jon-Stoodley

 

[terminator2k2]

wow now that's dedication....congrats on the perfect score the pac man god....I cant even get off the 2nd level lol....

 

[shaunholley]

Very well done Jon. When they kicked me out of Winter Gardens at 6pm you were on about 750K. I would have loved to have watched the last half hour. To play a game without making a single mistake for such a long period of time is a great feat of mental strength, I think.

 

[Russ J]

bloody he'll it's about time Stoodley,you've been dragging the perfect game out for quiet a while know,I were begenning to think that you being a great Pac man player was just an urban myth

...

Nah seriously fella I'm well chuffed for you,it's been a dream of yours to get the perfect game and know you've done it,hats off mate ,hats off

I remember you saying to me a few years back that when you complete your perfect game you 'maybe' donating your cab to Funspot,is this still on the cards mate ?.....also what's your next test ?

 

[lesoleil70]

Great stuff - Glad you did it.

 

[niknak]

Finally, Well done Jon!

 

[frothmeister]

It was only a matter of time, but finally!

Awesome dedication Jon - that must be one huge weight off your shoulders now. Congrats man you must be so chuffed

 

[neo-geo-mvs]

Lots of love on this forum for Jon, well done!

 

[Purity]

Lots of love on this forum for Jon, well done!

Absolutely. Jon doesn't need to worry about any other forums. He can get all the support he deserves here, especially as this was for a good cause

Do you know how much you have raised for charity?

 

[neo-geo-mvs]

Lots of love on this forum for Jon, well done!

Absolutely.  Jon doesn't need to worry about any other forums.   He can get all the support he deserves here, especially as this was for a good cause

Do you know how much you have raised for charity? 

JustGiving Pac-Man

I'll need to donate tomorrow to

neo-geo-mvs2015-08-23 23:02:39

 

[Purity]

Thanks. I have previously looked at the donations page. I was just wondering if there had been other donations at the events etc, so there was a total figure raised

Still £910 is an amazing figure, on its own
Purity2015-08-23 23:05:10

 

[neo-geo-mvs]

Happy days, you can donate by paypal so donation done

 

[Pacman83]

Lots of love on this forum for Jon, well done!

Absolutely.  Jon doesn't need to worry about any other forums.   He can get all the support he deserves here, especially as this was for a good cause

Do you know how much you have raised for charity? 

Cheers. I've raised over £2200 for both the British Heart Foundation and most recently, Bright Red blood cancer research.

 

[Alpha1]

Jon well done dude. A donation from UKVAC is incoming

 

[muddymusic]

Thought it was time you had an appropriate member title Jon

 

[Guests]

Al's thrown some dosh down.

 

[Anunaki]

Very good accomplishment,

respect