Food and videogames 3 or Pac Man

Pacman, the 1980´s popular videogame translated to spanish as "comecocos" is one of the most iconic characters in popular game culture.

A very little known fact related to this character is that his origin, is deeply related to food. As his creator stated in an interview, the character´s shape was inspired by a pizza missing a slice that he found at home once he arrived late to eat.



The game, was originally named in Japan "Puck Man". This is because the sound that pacman makes when he eats is "pacu pacu". Once the game was imported to The United states, the character had to change its name to "Pac man" because people used to scracth the P in the arcade machine so the name ended up being "Fuck Man" instead of "Puck Man". And this is hoy he got its american name.

Food and videogames 2 or The cake is a Lie

 

If you are into videogames, you will more than probably have played Portal. The 2004 popular videogame by Valve. In this game, you are a test subject that has to follow GlaDOS instructions in order to complete a serie of puzzles in the Aperture Science laboratories by using the double portal Gun. The sarcastic robotic voice, encourages you to complete all the puzzles by promising you a delicious cake once you finish all of them.

As the game progresses, you can see messages of the previous test subjects writen in the walls telling you not tu trust this voice, such as this:

The funny thing is that after the games release, “the cake is a lie” was widely popular between Portal players, but soon it spread to forums and blogs where the phrase began to take on a new meaning outside of the context of the game. People were using the phrase, “The cake is a lie”, on forums as an idiom meaning, “You are chasing after an empty, unattainable goal.” This mean that an idiom related to food was created from a videogame.

You can learn more about portal in the following video:

Food and videogames or Virtual Micology 101

whether you like videogames or not, It cannot be denied that videogames are as well part of our culture.  Any blog relating culture, language and food cannot simply skip the relationship between videogames and food.

Probably the most iconic symbol of food in videogames would be the mushrooms in the videogame “Super Mario”. In case you have never played any Mario game, here is a brief guide about some of the most important mushrooms and their impact into the gameplay.

1-Up Mushrooms are green Mushrooms that give whoever eats one an Extra Life, and are usually the rarest to be found.  They are usually found in hidden blocks or in risky places for the player. They always grant the player a positive effect when acquired.

A Super Mushroom is a red Mushroom that serves a particular function depending on the game in which it is found. Its first and most common effect is causing Mario or Luigi to double in size and strength, allowing them to smash through bricks and take an extra hit from enemies.  An opposite can be considered as the  Poison Mushroom, a Mushroom that hurts the player.

The Mega Mushroom is a rare variety of mushroom found in the Mushroom kingdomWhen eaten, they grow their consumer to a massive size, allowing them to walk over and destroy everything in their path, including the biggest and meanest enemies. It has  bulbous, orange and red-spotted caps.

The Mini Mushroom is a variety of Mushrooms found in the Mushroom Kingdom. Whoever uses it will shrink greatly in size and will be capable of sneaking into smaller areas. The Mini Mushroom's appearance varies from game to game, but they all have the same effect.

So far with this course on virtual Micology. Please bear it in mind next time you pay a visit to the Mushromm Kingdom.