Google Immortalizes Pac-Man Doodle

On Friday, Google celebrated the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man by including a playable version of the game in the Google doodle. By popular demand Google has decided to make the doodle a permanent resident at www.google.com/pacman, kudos to Google and to NAMCO who apparently helped make the doodle a reality. Now, back to work. No, seriously, stop playing Pac-Man and get back to work! :)

Video game fever

The BBC has an interesting article about researchers in the UK that have developed a video game that sends shocks into volunteers players who are being studied in an attempt to understand how the brain reacts to fear. "The forebrain is active during periods of anxiety, and helps coordinate escape strategies to avoid the threat.. .But when the computer game predator moved nearer, blood flow switched to the midbrain. The midbrain is a primitive area of the brain, and it controls gut-level reflexes such as the decision to fight or flee" said Dr Dean Mobbs of University College London. An MRI machine is used to follow the flow of blood in the brain as it reacts to danger and the prospect of getting shocked! I don't know why but I kept hearing "Pac-Man Fever" in my head while I was reading this article!

Let your vote count!

Cnet's News.com is hosting a friendly competition to see which 80's arcade classic you would choose if you could travel back in time with a pocket full of quarters. As a child of the 80's it was a blast from the past just reading through the list, and I have to say that I didn't personally go with the popular choice. I won't influence your vote by revealing mine, lets just say that I'm not surprised by the voting thus far. I took this vote quite seriously and spent several minutes debating, in my mind, which classic was worthy of my vote and why! With greats like Mario Bros., Space Invaders, Pole Position and Pac-man on the list who can choose? I almost gave Frogger the nod for it's appearance in Seinfeld but figured I spent more quarters on another title and would probably gravitate to it again if given the chance.