Which video game character is more iconic - Mario, Sonic or Pacman?

[SingSing]

Hey, what about the arcade game that started all games ?

This is the one turns [s:c5953fa486]pinball arcade[/s:c5953fa486] into video arcade !

[thecoalman]

Hey, what about the arcade game that started all games ?

Depends on your definition, wikipedia cites this as first commercially available video game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Space 1500 units were sold.

I'm having trouble finding a timeline for the games like Space Invaders, asteroids etc.

[Baldrick]

Boulder Dash. .

[Ai Haibara]

I was playing Pacman before Mario was even around.
Pacman had his own cartoon series.

So did Mario, too, of course (a few starting with The Super Mario Brothers Super Show). Did the Pac-Man cartoon series ever come out on DVD? I'd probably want to get that... plus, it'd be nice if they released all the other video-game-based cartoons that were primarily on CBS way back when. Some were on ABC, like Dragon's Lair (and yes, Pac-Man, of course), and I can't remember where Pole Position ran.

Though I do remember the Donkey Kong cereal as well. Can't remember if it had marshmellows, though. :P And I was one of the people in line for the 2600 version of Pac-Man, and did wonder at the screen. (Vitamins? Come on.) The 5200 version was better. (So was the 2600 version of Ms. Pac-Man, IIRC.)

Great. Now I feel old, again.

[FulciLives]

YouTube.com saves the day ...

1.) Atari 2600 PAC-MAN TV ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XndbMhPohO4&feature=related
This is a fun old TV commercial ... dig it!

2.) Atari 2600 PAC-MAN (How To Beat Home Video Games 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zwIoJuUsvM&feature=related
Clip from some video about how to beat home video games.

3.) Atari 5200 PAC-MAN (How To Beat Home Video Games 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWRs6X3y310&feature=related
This looks more like the arcade version.

3.) BUCKNER & GARCIA - Pac-Man Fever - 1981
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIhrrk-dmQE&feature=related
The classic song. I had the full LP which included songs about other video games such as Donkey Kong and Frogger etc.

4.) Opening to the PAC-MAN cartoon as seen on Saturday mornings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3n22GQMgcU

Gotta love YouTube.com

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[edDV]

Great Research:
I'm sitting about a mile from the site of Cyan Engineering (Stella), the origin of the Atari 2600 (no not in Silicon Valley).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600

[thecoalman]

2.) Atari 2600 PAC-MAN (How To Beat Home Video Games 1)

Some of those games I could play for hours, used to have to turn it off. Pac-Man and Space Invaders were two like that.

[TheFamilyMan]

Hmm....iconic?

As in most like an icon? Pacman obviously (my vote as well since I'm pushing 50)

As in an Icon (with a capital I) that is universally accepted as such for arcade-style video games? Mario, by a long shot (at least in this day and age).

As for all the quarters I squandered in the '70s and '80s: lots of pinall and mostly Tempest. I never got into pacman or donkey kong.

[TooLFooL]

Pac-Man is one of the greatest video games of all time, but Mario is by far the biggest video game icon ever. Regardless, the poll results are amazingly close!

[Alan69]

It entirely depends on what you consider the 'audience'..

Among more current video game people etc etc, it would probably be Mario.


But as a world wide icon? I'd bet on Pac-Man. There'd be older people and all ages in more rural areas or 3rd world countries etc who wouldn't stand a chance of knowing who Mario was, but who would recognize Pac-Man off hand..

[Ai Haibara]

Besides, as far as I've seen, Namco is still using Pac-Man as a mascot, and brings out another Pac-Man-related game every now and then. (Not all of them great, of course.)

[Dv8ted2]

<goes into old man mode>

Goddamn kids got it easy now, back in those days if you wanted to steal games we didn't have the internet, you actually had to make a hard copy, get up and walk the disk to your friends house, usually through 4 feet of snow.

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Uphill?

Both ways

My vote was for Pacman. I wasted many hours playing that game.

[yoda313]

Pac-Man is one of the greatest video games of all time, but Mario is by far the biggest video game icon ever. Regardless, the poll results are amazingly close!

Yes I agree.

I'm glad somebody else mentioned the Super Mario cartoons! I have the two volumes for the Super Mario show and the Super Mario 3 cartoons

[Midzuki]

For the uninformed:

Animation

* Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, an animated comedy TV series originally aired in September 1993 in the United States; also abbreviated as AoStH.
* Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series), a different, darker and more serious animated TV series in the United States that also began in September 1993 to December 1994, usually called SatAM for its Saturday morning timeslot on the ABC network.
* Sonic Underground, an animated TV series that aired in the United States from 1998–1999, featuring Sonic and his two siblings.
* Sonic X (2003-2006), an anime TV series in which Sonic and his friends are transported to Earth.
* Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (1999), an anime movie featuring Sonic in a battle with his rival Metal Sonic; originally released as two OVAs in Japan (1996).

Comic books

* Sonic the Comic, a comic book series published in the United Kingdom by Fleetway.
* Sonic the Hedgehog (comic), a comic book series published by Archie Comics and based on the games and the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon.
* Sonic the Hedgehog (comic character), the specific variation of the Sonic character in the above comic.
* Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic the Comic), the variation of the Sonic character in the Sonic the Comic series.
* Sonic X, a comic book set in the same universe as the above anime.
* Sonic the Hedgehog (Manga), a series published in Japan featuring Sonic as the alter ego of an ordinary hedgehog named Nicky Parlouzer.

{source: Wikipedia }

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[Video Head]

After "Space Invaders" I think PacMan was the next killer app, setting the path for future games. If you showed a picture of PacMan to people on the street most would know what/who it was. Mario might not be as recognizable to the general pop. Some might confuse him with their plumber

Ms. PacMan was the better game and Donkey Kong cost me more quarters than that damned ape deserved...