Pac-Man Fever: Difference between revisions

Also see [[Arcade Sounds]], [[Beeping Computers]], [[Fictional Video Game]], [[Video Arcade]], [[Public Medium Ignorance]], [[Two Decades Behind]], and [[Hollywood Game Design]]. Compare [[Stock Footage]]. If pushed far enough, can lead to [[Schizo Tech]]. Not to be confused with the [[Game Cube]] game of the same name.

== Advertising ==

* A print commercial for ''[[Crash Bandicoot|Crash: Mind Over Mutant]]'' shows two kids playing the game with a [[Nintendo Gamecube]] controller. Note that when Radical Entertainment took over the ''Crash'' franchise (''Mind over Mutant'' being their second game), the GameCube was long dead. And the Wii version of said game does not support GameCube controls.

* Parodied in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZYQiXKvZDg this] commercial for [[Sci Fi Channel]], wherein [[Tomb Raider|Lara Croft]] plays a version of ''[[Pong]]'' with stock sound effects from the [[Atari 2600]]'s version of ''[[Donkey Kong (Video Game)|Donkey Kong]]''--whilst on a [[Play Station]].

* Gamer Grub is a semi-example. It doesn't depict games themselves in unrealistic ways, but it does bring up the strange idea that games aren't compatible with most snacks. Granted, the package can be tipped so the food can be eaten without being handled, but that hardly narrows the field.

* The above is nothing compared to [http://www.gillette.com/en/us/products/razors/fusion-gamer.aspx this]. No, Gillette's website was not hacked.

* ''[[Ouran High School Host Club (Manga)|Ouran High School Host Club]]''. In a flashback, the twins Hikaru and Kaoru are playing (well, ''one'' of them is playing) a game on what is clearly a [[Game Boy Advance]]--but when we see the screen, the graphics are comically low-rez, looking more like an LCD Game & Watch (Maybe they were playing ''Game & Watch Gallery 4'').

** Averted in a later flashback, where they've upgraded to a DS.

* [[Durarara (Light Novel)|Durarara]] decided to go for broke on this one, with Celty and Shinra seen in a later episode playing what appears, from Shinra's comments, to be a Mario Fighting Game, with requisite atari noise, with playstation controllers. [[Bonus Points]], because the Game case is a PSX-style CD Jewel case, but the system clearly loads ''carts''. (They don't appear to be playing it on any sort of TV either, but that's okay because Celty doesn't have a head)

* Played with in ''[[Shuffle (Visual Novel)|Shuffle]]'': Two characters can be seen playing a video game on a TV with bleeps and bloops. Cut to another angle, and it turns out they're playing [[Pong]].

* Wonderfully averted in ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Film)|Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'', which is expected since the film contains many [[Video Game Tropes]]. In an early scene, one of the characters can be seen playing a [[Nintendo DS]], with music from the [[Game Boy Advance]] version of ''[[The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'' faintly audible. ''A Link to the Past'' DID have a GBA port (it was originally on the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]]) and the trivia track confirms that the actor was actually really playing the game during that scene, as opposed to just pretending to play it. Later on, we see a [[Fictional Video Game]] titled ''Ninja Ninja Revolution'', which actually looks like a believeable arcade game, and is played in a fairly realistic way.

* ''[[Shorts]]'' features a particularly bad example of this. Various characters in the film are often shown playing ''[[Spore (Video Game)|Spore]]''. Normally this wouldn't be all that bad, but said characters are shown playing it multiplayer (''Spore'' is a single player game), on a [[PS 3]] (''Spore'' is PC exclusive), and while randomly mashing buttons all while showing the Creature Creator on screen. To top it all off, nothing was even happening on the screen while said button mashing was happening (the creature clearly in its idle animation), and several bleeps reminiscent of some kind of weapons fire are heard.

* ''[[Rumble in The Bronx]]'' and ''[[Airheads]]'' featured cartridgeless Sega [[Game Gear]] consoles. ''Rumble in the Bronx'' was particularly amusing, as the wheel-chair bound kid exclaims while playing the cartridge -and ''battery''-less [[Game Gear]]: "Thank you for the game, uncle Jackie!"

* As does ''[[Surf Ninjas]]'', though there it was a bit of a plot point.

* In the B-movie ''[[Stay Alive (Film)|Stay Alive]]'' there was a part where they referenced ''[[Silent Hill 4 (Video Game)|Silent Hill 4]]''. One character is describing how to beat it as killing the girl in level 4... What?

** The reference was a mix up in the ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series and an attempt at being clever and accurate that failed. What's described in the movie is the (accurate) trick method of defeating the final boss from the ''first'' game in the series instantly. As mentioned, however, they specifically were talking about ''[[Silent Hill 4 (Video Game)|Silent Hill 4]]'', which still makes this an example of this trope.

** It could be ''[[Doom (Video Game)|Doom]] 3''. Just saying.

** And the son uses his computer for porn far more than games. He could've just said the first thing that came to his mind as an excuse.

{{quote| '''Beau Bridges''': I don't believe this. I got the scroll weapon, & I almost beat Mecha Turtle at the end of Level 3!<br />

'''Christian Slater''': That's funny, because it looks like you're on Level 1 & sucking hard to me. }}

** The sequel has a scene panning over a retirement home rec room, and shows how old the games are by having a shot of two seniors playing [[Pong]]...with Xbox controllers

== Live-Action TV ==

** ''SVU'', again, featured an episode centered around a fairly typical hack-and-slash dungeon crawler... and then subverted this trope like mad. The characters refer to the game having "levels", but use it to refer to levels of the game and the game hero's character level interchangeably, which does actually make way more sense than you'd expect. The sound effects correspond to the gameplay being shown -- clashing swords, monster noises, and a triumphant horn chorus straight from ''[[Ever Quest (Video Game)|Ever Quest]]'' for leveling up -- and it's Captain Cragen, the eldest cast member, who discovers a talent for the game and actually manages to beat it, and then uses their shared love of the game to talk to the main suspect, a kid who's obsessed with the game and has a bit of trouble telling fantasy from reality. Oh, and in one final subversion, {{spoiler|the kid ''didn't do it''. He was roleplaying the hero and tried to ''save'' the girl.}}

* ''[[Married With Children]]'' has one episode with a nerd playing an original [[Game Boy]], mashing the buttons while arcade noises sound. When the Game Boy is broken, he pulls a second one out of his pants, immediately playing it with the same sound effects.

** The sound effects are right for ''Donkey Kong'', and Spike's comments make sense in the contexts of the sound effects.

** Later in that same season, [[Physical God|Illyria]] and [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Drogan]] are shown playing the same system while the rest of the heroes are away, and making bemused remarks to one another about the gameplay that clearly suggest they're playing a ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' game. What sounds do we hear coming from the unseen television screen? Pac-Man beeps and whistles.

* In one episode of ''[[ER (TV)|ER]]'', Dr. Kovac buys a brand new console. This is not only treated as a ridiculous and silly indulgence for a grown man and [[New Media Are Evil|a sign of his deteriorating moral character]], but features him mashing buttons to the same stock bloop-bloop arcade sounds.

* The Australian soap opera ''[[Neighbours]]'' became infamous among schoolkids of the 90s for frequently showing one of the children playing a Nintendo [[Game Boy]] ''with no cartridge installed''. This wasn't possible until Nintendo introduced the [[Game Boy Advance]] in 2001, which could load a game into RAM from another GBA or a GameCube.

* A truly atrocious example appeared in an episode of ''[[CSI: Miami]]'', where a group of killers was linked to a ''[[Grand Theft Auto (Video Game)|GTA]]''-esque game. Apart from the usual errors regarding "points" and "levels", the detectives determine that the killers are basing their actions on the game's plot. They ask the (fortunately local) game developer for details of the plot. Said developer refuses to tell them the game's plot, citing it as a "trade secret", and states that they will have to play the game to learn the plot, which they do. Apparently, no-one involved with the show has ever so much as walked into a video game store, with prominent shelves of strategy guides proclaiming "all secrets revealed!" Or heard of GameFAQs.

** If that wasn't enough, at the beginning of the episode {{spoiler|a group of kids rob a bank with uzis, and one of them was shot by Delko after he tried to rape a woman for "extra points". It was later revealed they specifically picked a bank with a cop present (again, for extra points), the PR guy (yes, there was only one) encouraged them (and provided the uzis) to do it for advertising purposes, one of the suspects was found to have "gamed himself to death", and the token [[Gamer Chick|Girl Gamer]] apparently did it to get in with the highly elitist gamers.}}

** Somewhat averted in another ''[[CSI (TV)|CSI]]'' episode, one of the cases revolved around the death of an MMO player. The game shown, terminology, rankings and even a game-related TV show that sponsored a competition were a fairly realistic representation for what they showed. The only problem? Someone forgot to let them know that there's a difference between a multiplayer, team-based shooter and an MMO.

* Episode 6 of ''[[Dexter]]'' has his girlfriend's son pick up a PS2 controller and start playing what appears to be ''Doom'' with ''Pac-Man'' sounds over the background music from ''[[Space Invaders]]''.

* A ''[[Step By Step]]'' episode had the family's stereotypically nerdy son becoming a "video game addict," complete with an ending where he goes to a support group and has a psychotic episode in which he angrily screams "I ALWAYS GET THE HIGHEST SCORE!!!" before breaking down and admitting he has a problem. The game which drives his addiction (indeed the only game he seems to have ever played) is a generic looking Galaga doppelganger which was outdated looking even for the show's time.

* There's a video poker machine in multiple episodes of ''[[Sliders]]'' that produces ''[[Pitfall]]'' sound effects.

* In ''[[Glee (TV)|Glee]]'', Finn can tell he's being affected by stress -- he got killed on ''level two!'' Of, er, ''[[Halo]] 3'', apparently. Maybe he was going for a [[No Damage Run]]?

* In an episode of the German crime show ''Polizeiruf 110'', a criminal smuggled pirated copies of a game called ''Killman 4'' into the country. When the police officers get a copy of the game and play it on their PC (playing as in doing nothing and staring at the screen) the sounds heard are an air raid siren, rifle shots and screaming children. Even worse, the cover of the game shows African kid soldiers holding AK 47s.

** There is one episode where Spencer gets addicted to a game called "Pac(k) Rat" which has 8-bit graphics and sounds, but this would be a [[Justified Trope]] -- Spencer specifically said he got this game from the dumpster, it was [[Lampshade Hanging|mentioned several times]] that the game in question was rather old, and it's actually an arcade game.

*** Bonus points as it is a parody of ''Pac-Man''.

* ''[[Narbonic (Webcomic)|Narbonic]]'', oddly, has [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/memberimages/100502.jpg Atari-style joystick] ''[[Quake (Video Game)|Quake]]''.

* Parodied with a recent ''[http://www.digitalunrestcomic.com/index.php?date=2010-01-1 Digital Unrest]'' comic strip.

* Early in the first ''[[Jimmy Timmy Power Hour]]'', Timmy is seen playing a video game called ''[[Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000|The Decimator]]''. It's in [[Art Shift|3D]] (foreshadowing the game's role to the plot, as it comes into [sorry] play in Jimmy's universe) but played on a "Game Buddy" (guess what handheld it is based on) and comes on a CD. Everything else in the screen is animated in standard ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents (Animation)|The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' [[Thick Line Animation]]. And speaking of the game itself, Timmy downloads the game's files into Goddard, turning him into a killer humanoid robot who blows things up to progresses through levels (in both definitions, as he grows in size and consequently, takes on tougher subjects to a point where he indirectly menaces Retroville by targeting a factory).

* ''[[Danny Phantom (Animation)|Danny Phantom]]'' features Danny playing a game called "Doomed", a game that's part ''[[Tron (Film)|Tron]]'' homage, part [[FPS]], and still (just like ''Doom II'') uses the numbered level system. Not to mention the fact that it's a leveled online game ''which apparently gives the winner access to the internet, despite being online in the first place'', making it the equivalent of a needlessly complicated firewall.

** Of course, considering that [[Not Allowed to Grow Up|no-one ever ages in that show anyway]] (made absolutely ridiculous when baby Dil was conceived at the end of one season and born in the feature film released before the next season began -- but the babies are ''not'' one year older when the new season picks up), we might presume that it's ''not'' 2003, but rather 1991, when the show debuted. At best, that's the dawn of the 16-bit era.

*** The second movie retcons that by having the internet so it's 1996 at earliest. It's a bit old school even then considering the 64 bit era was starting but not a stretch.

* One egregious example appeared on an episode of ''[[The Secret Show]]''. Everyone was buzzing about the popular new game system, "The Hand." It was simply a vat of "nano-goo" that users dipped their hands into, causing the goo to harden around their hands and turn them into portable game systems and controllers. Despite the ludicrously advanced technology the system is based on, it makes references to linear levels and only seems to play one built-in game. Single-game consoles weren't even made between the '70s and 2001, when Jakks Pacific introduced Plug and Play TV Games.

* ''[[The Venture Brothers (Animation)|The Venture Brothers]]'' season 1, episode 10 "Are You There God? It's Me, Dean" has Pete White playing what can be inferred to be ''[[Grand Theft Auto III (Video Game)|Grand Theft Auto III]]'', due to the graphics on screen, realistic sound effects and Pete making references to doing "a drive-by mission for the Yardies" and being able to see player stats by pressing the Start Button... on what looks like a Nintendo 64 controller.

* In an episode of ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (Animation)|Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', Robotnik is shown fiddling with some machine controls while sounds from the first ''[[Super Mario Bros]]'' are heard. Amusing considering the [[Console Wars]] of that time.

* In the ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'' episode "M.I.A.", Goliath and Griff see a British teenager walking down the street playing a portable game; the sound effects in it come from the NES game ''[[The Adventures of Bayou Billy (Video Game)|The Adventures of Bayou Billy]]''. The trio are occasionally seen playing video games with rather primitive graphics, as well.

* An episode of ''[[King of the Hill (Animation)|King of the Hill]]'' plays with this, when a couple of school teachers make a ''[[Grand Theft Auto (Video Game)|Grand Theft Auto]]''-clone themed around Hank to make fun of him, which also seems to have online functionality. However, both of those could be easily explained as a ''GTA'' [[Game Mod]], but it's doubtful whether the creators were aware of that.

** The two kids in question were explained as to designing and making their own video games, so assumingly they did all this from scratch (in a matter of days), so it's likely the creators were totally clueless. It does reach a humorous pitch when Hank is more upset about inaccuracies in how they portray his own work; such as the grills that make up the scenery having incorrect logos.

* It might be [[Author Appeal]], but in ''[[Regular Show (Animation)|Regular Show]]'', there seems to be a lot of pre-3D games being played. Of course, there's a lot of other 80s stuff, too. Either Mordecai and Rigby are just into that whole retro thing, they actually think it's current, or the show is set in Wyoming, since it's made clear several times that the series takes place in "the present day".

** It's most likely author appeal, since there are quite a few shout-outs to other games, not to mention the fact that the primitive state of the games are lampshaded in one episode.

** The show takes place in an alternate universe, so the 80s style of the games is explained by that. The games themselves generally make sense internally (again, in the universe's logic), with just enough weird stuff to be entertaining, like someone getting 1 more point in a game where every other high score is a multiple of 100.

* ''[[Fanboy and Chum Chum]]'': the only games seen in the show so far were arcade games and a digital pet, even though the characters have mentioned the Internet on at least one occassion.

** May have been intentional, since this would go with the [[Anachronism Stew|anachronistic style]] of the show's take on Gotham City, where it's clearly the present day and modern tech abounds, but people dress like it's 1930 and TV is broadcast in black and white.

* In ''[[Cowboy Bebop (Anime)|Cowboy Bebop]]: [[The Movie]]'' (which takes place in the future), the hacker Lee Sampson seems to spend a lot of time playing updated versions of old 1980s 8-bit games. However, this is explained by Lee, who voices contempt at modern games and idealizes the games from the early days of hacking.

** "[[Narm|Will you... press my... reset button?]]"

* In one of the final chapters of ''[[Mai-HiME (Manga)|Mai-HiME]]'', Nagi is shown playing a DS when the heroes confront him. He's even wearing headphones and using the stylus.

* ''[[Great Teacher Onizuka (Manga)|Great Teacher Onizuka]]'' is frequently seen playing a [[Play Station]] (modern when it was made), and both made reference to ''[[Wild Arms (Video Game)|Wild Arms]]'' and showed footage of ''[[Ape Escape (Video Game)|Ape Escape]]''.

== Films -- Animation ==

* In the 2006 CGI film ''[[Monster House]]'', uber-nerd Skull is a purported master of ''Thou Art Dead'', an arcade game at the pizza joint he works for. He is shown playing it when the main characters go to consult him about the neighborhood's supposedly haunted house. The game shown on the screen is actually the side-scrolling platform game ''Barbarian'' published for home computers back in 1987. While the graphics were indeed advanced and breathtaking by the standards of 1987, modern viewers would find the low-resolution pixelated 2D graphics very dated. (The film's producers obviously took the in-movie name for the game from the iconic game over screen which featured the skeletal [[Big Bad]] of the game leering at the player with the words "THOU ART DEAD" in flaming letters)

** Maybe not that improbable. Spawncamping can lead to rather frequent death, though that would end the match fairly quickly. It all depends on if they were playing 1v1 or online.

* The 2010 movie ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians (Literature)|Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief]]'' has one of the good characters {{spoiler|(who turns out to be the bad guy after all)}} playing ''[[Modern Warfare (Video Game)|Modern Warfare]]'' ''2'', on an Xbox 360, ''playing online with other players'', which is surprising, seeing that he lives in a forest full of mythical Greek god-children.

*** That last part's actually very accurate for someone who's used to playing single-player constantly, and is now getting into multiplayer for the first time. And no, hearing/reading someone go "WHAT THE HELL I paused it!" ''never'' gets old.

* The 2009 movie ''[[The Hurt Locker]]'' shows Eldridge playing ''[[Gears of War (Video Game)|Gears of War]]'' while he talks to the platoon therapist, complete with the actual game sound effects and video. The only trouble is that while the movie is set in 2004, Gears was released in 2006.

* Nicely averted in an episode of ''[[Psych]]''. In order to get on the good side of another police officer, a detective heads to her house on Thanksgiving with the gift of a [[Nintendo Wii]] that he got as seized property during a recent drug bust. He proceeds to play Boxing in ''[[Wii Sports (Video Game)|Wii Sports]]'' accurately with the woman's young cousins, using the punching motion controls and even getting too into it and having the kids complain about how good he was.

* One episode of ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody|The Suite Life On Deck]]'' features several of the characters getting involved in a social MMORPG, similar to IMVU and the like; when footage of the game is shown, it's done in CGI, but not in a noticeably primitive way, and despite the lack of a HUD it could probably pass for a real game. There's even a [[Shout Out]] to ''[[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]'' at one point.

** The episode "Chuck vs. Tom Sawyer" was a mixed bag. The actual play of ''[[Missile Command]]'' was realistic, but its knowledge of how the game worked was deeply flawed. The "killscreen" referred to by the characters is actually more of a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]. And the programmer and company responsible for the game were portrayed as East Asian, whereas Atari and programmer Dave Theurer were both American.

* In Season 2 Episode 9 of ''[[Knight Rider (TV)|Knight Rider]]'' ("Soul Survivor"), the main character plays the new-at-the-time ''[[Pac-Man (Video Game)|Pac-Man]]''.

* In ''Da [[Kath and Kim]] Code'', a Vatican City version of ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' is shown. It's surprisingly accurate, featuring a similar HUD and box-art, and appropriate sound effects. The graphics are also quite close, while obviously being fairly low-quality compared to the real games, they're nevertheless in the same style and about as good as you'd expect from a 10-second clip specially made for the show.

* Somewhat averted on a [http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-november-2-2004/indecision-2004---behind-the-curtain clip] from ''[[The Daily Show (TV)|The Daily Show]]'' during their coverage of the 2004 Presidential election. While Rob Corddry is ''way'' too enthusiastic about it (and his controller isn't the one controlling the actions onscreen); they do correctly identify the game, ''[[Halo (Video Game)|Halo]]'', though muted, the sound effects are indeed from the game, and they even correctly identify the gun being used.

** He even correctly calls the enemies "Covenant Aliens", which is probably a little confusing to those unfamiliar with ''Halo'', so I'd call this completely averted.

* Mostly averted in ''[[Packed to The Rafters]]''. Ben and [[Token Minority|Carbo]] are often seen playing ''[[Gran Turismo]]'' with each other, their roommate/s and visitors. These scenes are complete with accurate visuals and sound effects. On the other hand, they [[Product Placement|suspiciously seem to play nothing BUT Gran Turismo]]. There's also an astonishing amount of button mashing for a racing game (mostly from other people who play it though).

** One episode featured Odd playing ''Tetris'' on what clearly looked like a Game Boy. It's even mentioned by name! It comes back later in the episode as an actual part of the plot.

* One episode of ''[[The Batman (Animation)|The Batman]]'' showed Robin playing an online game that used the same animation as the show. Granted the game became part of Joker's plot, it also allowed [[Mythology Gag|an appearance of his future persona Nightwing, in his high collar costume]].

* Averted in ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'': the end of one episode had Peter accurately playing ''[[Call of Duty (Video Game)|Call of Duty]]: [[Modern Warfare (Video Game)|Modern Warfare]] 2'' on an Xbox 360. And he has no idea how to play, which is played for hilarity - he gets taken out by a sniper while he is busy mashing the A button and hopping in place, and then he blows up a car, himself, and a few teammates with a grenade while trying to hide behind it.

* An episode of ''[[Sabrina the Animated Series (Animation)|Sabrina the Animated Series]]'' had a game developed for Harvey to test where the graphics were so high-tech all the characters would look like people Harvey knew.