WhereCampPDX Gaming #1: Pac-ManHattan October 19, 2008

This first of the WhereCampPDX Location-Based games brings the ancient art of Pac-Man to the Portland city streets near you! On Sunday morning we will play Pac-Manhattan in the North Park Blocks. This is a chase game that is played by teams of runners and operators. The runners take on the roles of the five characters from the Pac-Man arcade game. The operators receive location data from the runners and coordinate the ghosts as they attempt to corner the pac-man.

We need a runner (or three, so they can trade off) to play the part of PAC-MAN and four-to-eight other players who want to walk-and-run around the Pearl District (in the rain) to play the parts of INKY, PINKY, BLINKY, and CLYDE. We’ll need five operators to communicate with the runners (using their own cellphones).
Register here and let us know if you want to play!

Pac-Manhattan was developed by students in N.Y.U.’s Interactive Telecommunications Program in 2003-2004. It combines two venerable gaming traditions: Hares and Hounds, and NAMCO’s Pac-Man.

Hares and Hounds (or Paper Chase) was a Victorian-era children’s chase game. One or two runners of a group are designated the “hare”. The hare is given a headstart to run, but must mark their trail with scraps of paper. The rest of the runners, the “hounds”, follow. It is expected that winds might blow the paper trail around and thereby make the chase more difficult (and interesting). Over the course of the 20th Century, the game of Hares and Hounds found a dedicated playerbase in the running clubs known as Hash House Harriers.

Official Website: http://www.wherecamppdx.org