Friends, with Pac-Man turning 40 years old last week I suppose now is a good time to enjoy this PM Magazine report on the World’s largest tournament for that iconic video game. As I understand it the syndicated television series would share big stories from across the country to be included in the local airings of the show – sandwiched in between segments produced by local talent. In this case it is Jim Micah (sp?) who follows Craig Schanning, the youngest contestant in the competition, featuring reenactments of how he obtained a shot at the tournament at the local video game store. Now as explained in the news piece itself – which originally aired on October 1st of ’82 – the reason that it was being called the World’s largest Pac-Man tournament is that Craig and the other contestants ended up playing the game on the Milwaukee County Stadium electronic scoreboard. I should also add that this snapshot from 1982 allows us to scope out and enjoy a pretty awesome selection of home video games – keep your eyes peeled on the store shelves as well as the collection of Craig’s Atari games!
By the way it appears that Craig’s older brother is responsible for uploading this magnificent gem. And while it is unfortunate that the younger Schanning didn’t take 1st place in the World’s largest Pac-Man tournament, at the very least he did make it to the semi-finals. I can truthfully say that when I was 12, there is no possible way I could have stood up the pressure of the tournament, much less even placed in the finals. And as was revealed at the end of the segment, Craig was able to score that awesome Pac-Man phone along with a digital watch and certificate for that local video game store.
I wonder what Atari title that Craig Schanning ended up using his certificate on?
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