1982 Ms. Pac-Man Collection
GUEST: We were at a video game convention in 2012, and we were listening to a panel conversation, and one of the people there was Steve Golson, who was one of the developers of the game that would become Ms. Pac-Man. He seemed like an affable guy, and we thought, "Let's go see if we can talk to him." And we had had a Pac-Man wedding cake at our wedding, and we went up to him... (chuckles) ...and said, "Hey, we love this game. Can we show you a picture of our wedding cake?"
APPRAISER: (laughs)
GUEST: And he said, "Yes," and he loved the picture so much, he asked me to email it to him so he could show the other people who worked on the game with him. After that email, he reached back out and said, "Hey, can I have your address?" And then, a couple weeks later, these items showed up in the mail.
APPRAISER: What’s the content of the letter?
GUEST: It’s kind of describing when we met him...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST:…and that he enjoyed seeing the photo of our wedding cake, and then, talks about these items that he's included. They're little windup Pac-Man toys. In the letter, he describes that he bought them and then gave them to other people who worked on the game.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And then he also mentions that the display came from his personal collection, which I thought was a really lovely detail for him to include. And then he signed it for us.
APPRAISER: Did you play Pac-Man growing up?
GUEST: Oh, definitely. Yeah. I had parents who definitely taught me all the tricks of...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: …of Ms. Pac-Man, in particular.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: Many a quarter...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST:…spent at the arcade.
APPRAISER: The original Pac-Man was released in Japan in May of 1980 and came to the United States in October of 1980. And it was the biggest phenomenon in the United States for arcade machines. But in 1980, '81, it started to get a little tired, and they were looking for new ways to refresh the cabinets. And there were a bunch of companies making conversion kits, where you could go to your arcade cabinet and replace the glass, replace the stickers, replace the, the memory board, and have a whole new game. And Ms. Pac-Man was released in 1982, and it reinvigorated the whole Pac-Man craze all over again. But it wasn't originally Ms. Pac-Man. Do you know what it was called?
GUEST: It was called Crazy Otto.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And that was the conversion kit that Steve Golson at General Computer helped come up with.
APPRAISER: It wasn't released on just the arcade cabinets and cocktail cabinets. It was also released on home computers, um, like the Commodore 64, and the home video game systems, like the Atari 2600. And what you have here is a couple of little windup Ms. Pac-Man. But then you have this advertising display. This standup is originally for the Atari 2600 VCS, video computer system, and it's from about 1982. You'd punch it out, you'd set it up on the top of a shelf, and it had a little clockwork mechanism in the back powered by a battery. And Ms. Pac-Man would just swing a little bit.
GUEST: Oh!
APPRAISER: This thing is untouched. Little bit of damage, but it's never been punched out. It's never been set up. And in the advertising world, an untouched, unused sign is, like, the pinnacle.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: This is probably one of the best examples I've seen.
GUEST: Oh, my gosh. (laughs)
APPRAISER: A great letter. It doesn't have a lot of value on its own, but it really ties all the pieces together. We estimate at auction, for all these pieces, we'd say around $800 to $1,200.
GUEST: Wonderful!
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: That’s so great to know.
APPRAISER: Uh-huh.
GUEST: Thank you.
APPRAISER: Most of the value's in this.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: It’s these little guys that are 40 to 50 bucks each.
GUEST: Right, totally.
APPRAISER: It’s a heck of a wedding gift.
GUEST: Yep, not bad. (laughs) Even if it was a few years late, I'll take it.
APPRAISER: Mm. (both chuckle)
$800 - $1,200 Auction
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