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Image: Jay London

2013 is officially underway—we have our first hack!

On Thursday, Jan. 10, Pac-Man appeared on the Great Dome, battling it out with one his four archrivals, Blinky.

Slice is unsure of the hack's clandestine meaning, but perhaps the Pac-Man-versus-Blinky battle is intended to be a metaphor for the upcoming semester. Pac-Man represents the unquenchable search for knowledge, while Blinky represents the unforeseen distractions that may occur.

Or…it's just a gamer's ode to the greatest arcade game of all time. We do have some additional (far-fetched) theories, including:

Image: Jay London
  • A nod to a 2010 Examiner story, “MIT Hack becomes Ms. Pac,” which traces the origins of the Ms. Pac-Man arcade game to Kevin Curran '81 and Douglas Macrae '81.
  • A statement on violence in videos games, a three-decade debate that is chronicled in a 2011 MIT Technology Review article, “The Dubious Perils of Pac-Man.”
  • A reminder to check out the Media Lab's scratch.mit.edu, which includes a few amateur Pac-Man recreations and games that feature space attacks and break-dancing.
  • Viral marketing for Pac-Man: The Adventure Begins, the new Pac-Man cartoon set to be debut in 2013.
Tell us your opinion. Does this Pac-hack have a secret meaning? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook.

For more hacks, check out the MIT Hacks Gallery and this blog's archive of hack-related posts.

Update: The folks at UniversalHub grabbed a predawn photo, which incorporates scaffolding lighting as Pac-pellets.

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Comments

Bruce Mendelsohn

Fri, 01/11/2013 1:19pm

This, friends, is the real purpose of IAP: When MIT puts on its "liberal arts college" mask. Or, as one mathematically inclined student in the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program put it: This hack + the flu epidemic = Pac Man Fever.

Skup Złomu Luboń

Thu, 03/28/2013 7:55am

Fortunately this kind of hacking is not very harmful... Nice MIT Hacks Gallery, thanks for sharing!

Beth

Thu, 02/28/2013 2:09am

When viewed at night, there was a trail of lights going down the scaffolding that looked like power pellets for PacMan to eat.

Ronnie Walker

Sat, 01/12/2013 1:09am

I agree with you on this Bruce:

This, friends, is the real purpose of IAP: When MIT puts on its “liberal arts college” mask. Or, as one mathematically inclined student in the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program put it: This hack + the flu epidemic = Pac Man Fever.

Rrobyf

Sun, 02/10/2013 3:05am

WOW, hacking pacman games. good work sir, i like it

Martin Maltz

Thu, 01/24/2013 9:56pm

How long has that scafolding been there? Back in my day (the 60s) it was a lot harder to get to the top of the dome.

supriono

Sun, 01/20/2013 4:26pm

i don't like hacking...

Dar Forsythe

Tue, 01/15/2013 5:03pm

Love the article. Who knows, maybe there is a deep subliminal message, will need to research further.

D.

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Mon, 01/14/2013 7:02pm

video games and hacking is fun. by the way nice article.

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Sun, 01/13/2013 12:06pm

Video games rules.. Thank for this article

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Sat, 01/12/2013 4:06am

hacking is like a fun game guys. anonymous realy sometimes inspire us.

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