Pac-Man-at-Benaroya-Hall

Last night the 11th Annual PAX Prime wrapped up with an event that may be the geekiest performance Seattle’s Benaroya Hall has ever seen.

The finale of the four-day gaming event is always the final round of the Omegathon, an all-weekend public gaming competition in which 20 randomly-selected pre-registrants compete through six rounds spread across all four days for a chance to win an all-expenses paid trip for two to the Tokyo Game Show. Rounds one through five are always announced ahead of time, but the final round is kept secret until the closing event.

This year, the final round was Pac-Man. No, not 2013’s neon-infused, speed-obsessed, modern remake Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+. An original 1980 Pac-Man upright arcade machine.

But this was no ordinary arcade cabinet. The hackers at Penny Arcade rigged this 34-year-old game with direct video and audio outputs, projecting the action across a dozen screens throughout the stage and filling Benaroya Hall with a symphony of 8-bit arcade sounds. They even put a microphone inside the coin box.

There’s nothing quite like a symphony hall packed to capacity with geeks cheering on two of their own as they compete at a game that’s older than most of them are.

Here’s a video of the final round of the contest (be aware that the video contains some NSFW language):

Edit:
Here’s a list of the games used in the final round of the Omegathon for each of the 11 PAX Primes to date:

  • 2004: Pong (Atari 2600)
  • 2005: Combat (Atari 2600)
  • 2006: Tengen Tetris (NES)
  • 2007: Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
  • 2008: Vs. Excitebike (Famicom Disk System)
  • 2009: Skeeball
  • 2010: Claw Machine
  • 2011: Legend of Zelda (NES)
  • 2012: Trials Evolution (Xbox 360)
  • 2013: Spy Party (PC)
  • 2014: Pac-Man (Arcade)
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