The Pac-Man Problem

    

______________________________________________________

    Courtney Moore leaned against the arcade machine and closed her eyes, soaking in the last day of winter vacation. But she didn’t savor it for very long because she was on a mission. Spotting her prey approaching, Courtney lept into action, grabbing the game card right out of Logan Everett’s hand. 

“Hey!” Logan cried. “Use your own card!” 

Courtney smiled mischievously, ignoring Logan’s protest. “Thanks for letting me use your card! Mine’s all out of credits!” 

Annoyed by the innocent voice that Courtney put on, Logan grabbed for the game card back, but Courtney was faster, pocketing the card before he could get his hands on it. 

“How are you already out of credits?” Logan asked. “We’ve only been here for five minutes!”

“Actually, it’s been seven minutes,” Courtney responded, leaning again on the ancient Pac-Man machine that she often frequented. It was one of the real ones from the 1980’s that the owners of the arcade had fixed up and given one of those new-fangled card readers that all arcades seemed to operate on now, which added an extra coolness to the ambience of the arcade’s already-electric atmosphere. 

Logan shook his head. “Doesn’t matter! I think you broke the world record for fastest time to spend $25 worth of game credits on half-price day at the arcade!” 

“Well, I have to protect my spot as the highest score player on Pac-Man!” 

Courtney turned to go back to the game, but someone else was already there. A girl with long brown hair occupied the joystick, and she was coming in close to Courtney’s high score. Courtney watched impatiently, her impatience turning to horror as the girl reached level 232… the highest level Courtney had ever reached. Surely this girl couldn’t possibly beat my record, Courtney thought. When suddenly, the game screen flashed and Courtney’s heart dropped. Level 233. 

It felt like a year as Courtney stood in shock, before Pinky reached Pac-Man, ending the game. The screen flashed with the display of the highest scores, this new girl’s score replacing Courtney’s previous number one spot. 

“Bro… she just beat your score,” Logan said.

“I can see that!” Courtney said a little too loudly. 

The girl turned around and faced Courtney, looking startled. 

“I don’t understand it!” Courtney announced. “3 years! 3 years I’ve held the highest score in the arcade for Pac-Man, and you come trapezing through, taking my hard-earned record right from my fingertips! The audacity you must have for this kind of embezzlement! Tell me, how? How did you manage to crush my legacy as though you eat Pac-Man high scores for breakfast?” 

The girl gave Courtney a blank stare. “Um… I just wiggled the joystick around and pressed random buttons?” 

“Impossible! You mean to tell me that you crushed 232 levels of the most iconic game of all time by ‘wiggling the joystick around and pressing random buttons?’ You ought to know that Pac-Man has a mere 255 passable levels, and only a lucky 11 people have ever made it to level 256 and received a perfect score of 3,333,360 points. You mean to tell me that you passed all but 23 of the levels by sheer luck? Just who do you think you are?” 

“Um… my name is Carmen?” 

“Carmen? Preposterous.” 

“Uh, Courtney? You know you can just get your high score back later, right?” Logan said, deciding it was time to interrupt the conversation. 

“Oh, I’m sure I can,” Courtney replied. She narrowed her eyes at Carmen. “But for now, we need to settle things.” 

Logan shook his head. “Have fun with that. I’m going to go play space invaders with Molly.” 

And so Logan left, leaving the two Pac-Man archrivals to settle things by themselves. 

“I hope you know this means war,” Courtney said to Carmen.

“I did not sign up for this,” Carmen muttered. 

“Oh, don’t worry. No hard feelings. Not yet, anyway. I have to know if you’re really a worthy opponent, or if you beat my record by sheer beginner’s luck. We settle this over air hockey. Best two out of three wins the title of the true Pac-Man champion. May the best man win.” 

Carmen decided not to point out the fact that air hockey had nothing to do with Pac-Man, therefore in no way an indicator of who the better Pac-Man player was. Instead, she walked over to the air hockey table and armed herself with the air hockey paddle, as Courtney swiped Logan’s stolen card in the machine. The air hockey table roared to life with lights and sounds. 

The first game began, the puck merely more than a blur on the table as it flew from one side to the other, neither girl allowing it to go into her goal. This continued for almost three minutes before Courtney came out with the victory. 

“Haha!” Courtney cried out. She swiped the card again, starting another game. “If I win this next game, I get the title of Pac-Man champion.” 

But another quick game of air hockey revealed that the title was not yet Courtney’s for the taking. And so the two had each won a game, a crowd beginning to gather to watch their tournament. That is, Courtney’s friends decided to see what they were doing. 

Courtney and Carmen began their third and final game, the true indicator of who rightfully deserved to be crowned the real best Pac-Man player, the end-all-be-all. The spectators watched in silence as the two nemeses battled it out. It may as well have been a loser-leave-town match, with the serious awe that hung over the corner of the arcade. 

The game was tied, 6-to-6, leading into overtime. It only took a quick flick of Courtney’s wrist, and before anyone knew what was going on, the scoreboard flashed.

Courtney stepped away from the table, victorious. Everyone around stared in shock at what had just happened. 

“I knew I was the true Pac-Man champion! No one can out-Pac-Man the incredible Courtney Moore!” Courtney announced. Then she turned to Carmen. “You were the best opponent I’ve ever had. I’ll have to watch out for you.” 

Carmen shook her head. “I think I’m retiring from Pac-Man for now. I’m still not sure what air hockey has to do with being the Pac-Man champion, but I’m not sure I want to go through this again.” 

“Oh, Carmen.” Courtney sighed. “You just don’t get it. She who controls the Pac-Man high scores controls the arcade. As the true Pac-Man champion, I must fulfill my duties of making sure the other gamers know their place.” 

“Have fun with that… I think?” Carmen said, albeit still confused about the situation. But around Courtney, does anyone ever know what’s going on? Not usually. 

“Oh I will,” Courtney replied, already disappearing into the jungle of brightly-lit arcade machines, ready to use up the rest of the credits on Logan’s stolen card. 

And so Courtney’s title was safe for another day.

______________________________________________________

    Ahhhh, guyssss! My first photostory of 2024! I actually managed to finish writing it and not hate it. This is the first of what I hope will be a kind of new style of photostory moving on where my dolls are human characters. The arcade is a very important place in the town of Piney Grove, as you can tell, so I'm sure we'll be visiting it again in the future. :) We're going to ignore the fact that the photos were literally garbage because I feel like photography is my thing and I am NOT living up to that right now. 🥲 I don't have a designated area for the arcade, so these were taken in a random horribly-lit corner of my house.

I can't think of anything else important to say. Have a great day and remember to eat your veggies. ;) <3