Pac(k) Man

In case you're daft and missed the post's title, today I shall be discussing the endlessly popular and forever misspelled arcade game "PacMan".  Yes, the small yellow pie-chart-shaped man who eats dots and gets chased around by ghosts in a maze.  It's funny how we just sort of accept a bizarre premise like that in a game, since if PacMan were a movie, it would be most likely designated for the bargain bin for having such a ridiculous story.

All of the above considered, I have decided today's post will be a breakdown of what possible plot-related situations may have led to PacMan's bizarre position introduced in the game's start.

First of all, let's take what we know about each element in this story and see if we can interpret what might bring them together.

1.  There is a maze. Mazes are usually found in the fall when cornfields are ripe and farmers are ready to make some extra income by charging people to walk through it. From this we can assume that the characters have somehow ended up in a cornfield maze and are perhaps lost. 

2. The dark colored background also indicates it may be night-time.

3. The "Ghosts" as they are called, all have strangely childish sounding names: "Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde".  Since we've established that PacMan's plot takes place somewhere in the fall, we can speculate that these "ghosts" are merely children running about the corn maze, all fully cloaked in their cheapo ghost costumes in preparation for the Fall holiday, Halloween.

4. The various "dots" that mottle the maze ground, are something to be cleared up, as indicated by the game's rules that PacMan cannot proceed to the next level until he has cleaned all of the dots off the ground.  They probably have little value, otherwise the ghosts would have been picking them up as well.  Since we've established this is a corn maze at night, we can assume the dots are merely insects, littering the crop floor.  This also leads me to my next leap in logic:

5. PacMan is a farmer!  Think about it; the corn-maze is probably closed down due to it being nighttime, and old farmer PacMan is simply out in the maze to clear out all the insects that have gathered during the day.  Too bad old farmer PacMan didn't prepare for lost children, who never found their way out of the maze, and who's parents might file possible wallet-smashing lawsuits against the poor farmer if word were to get out.

6. The "special" dots that cause the ghosts to suddenly become killable. What are these?  Well let's think about it, if Farmer PacMan is trying to avoid a lawsuit from the children's parents, he can't afford to be caught by them, as he would be forced to lead them out of the maze and release them to their worried parents.  What other options are there?  What makes children run in fear more than anything else?   Chainsaws.  Farmer PacMan keeps various powertools located in convenient sheds throughout his corn maze in case he needs to help clear a broken path or amputate a tree's leaning limb, but tonight they would serve a special purpose: To dispose of the troublesome children.

So there you have it!  The seemingly arbitrary setting of PacMan has officially been explained!  In conclusion, PacMan is little more than a desperate, crazed farmer, out on a nightly chainsaw-fueled killing spree!  No wonder it's such a popular game.

               PACMAN:
Hey you punks!  Wocka Wocka Wocka! *Chainsaw Revs*