Here is a book-and-record from the days when Pac-Man was EVERYWHERE. The Saturday morning cartoon opened up merchandising possibilities that the game alone really didn't allow for, in that it gave him an identity, a family, and a (somewhat ill-defined*) world to have adventures in, and this book follows that pretty well.
This read-along is unique for a couple of reasons. First, it was available separately as a standalone with no record from Golden books. I own a copy, but was unable to put my hands on it for this post. It is basically identical, but does have an alternate title page (as was necessary). Here it is (above) courtesy an Ebay auction.
Secondly, there are a few interactive mazes built into the story. At first I thought this was strange, until I realized Pac-Man had quite an association with mazes (and then I felt dumb). The record accommodates for this with some cool synthy techno-type music, giving the reader time to solve the maze. (My copy has been completed in crayon. I started to remove this, but when I got to the above page, where the kid sent Pac-Man right into the lion's mouth, it was just too funny.)
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| Kids! All your favorites are on KID STUFF! Such as "Nancy" and.......the Space Shuttle Columbia. Also, "Marmaduke." No kid ever liked Marmaduke. |
Included in the download is the audio, with the book scans in a separate ZIP. The reason for this is, some folks use Comic Book Reader to advance the storybook while they listen (this works great and is a free program by the way). If you prefer to do that, right-click on the book's ZIP file and rename it, changing "RAR" to "CBR," which will then allow it to magically work inside the software! Enjoy!
*OPTIONAL PAC-RANT SECTION:
So, in the Ruby-Spears cartoon, Pac-Man lives in Pac-Land, and everything from garden animals to household tools is named so that "PAC" goes in front of it. "Look out, it's a Pac-Snake!" Pac-Man appears to be a simple citizen, but everything is named after him. What's so special about him? Is he the deity of this world? Do the ghosts chomp the other, random citizens all day (I can't remember)? It seems like they would be low-hanging fruit, and ghost monsters HATE FRUIT. Also, in this book we learn that Baby Pac-Man is a boy. I always wondered about this. He was obviously voiced by a woman, which supplemented my confusion about him as a child. In the book he is referred to as "Baby Pac-Man," although if I remember right, in the cartoon he was usually called "Pac Baby." I suppose if he were a girl, he would be "Baby Ms. Pac-Man"....I guess? Also, Pac-Land is full of annoying mazes. They can't even get to the supermarket without having to enter the Maze of Despair or something. Can't they just go around? Or over? It would seem like the general populace would vote to bulldoze all of the mazes, as they just bog down their daily lives, as well as get them chomped all the time (which, by the way, you simply recover from in the cartoon, so...big deal, anyway).
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