NG: Do you plan on going after any other games for a world record attempt soon?
BM: Yeah, sometime next year I have this grand scheme in my mind that I haven't shared with anybody, including you. Sometime next year I'm going to do something that will eclipse anything I have ever done. It will be my final feat and I will walk away into the sunset. Somewhere it has to come to an end.
NG: Can you hint towards whether it will be an older game or newer game?
BM: Older games. It will be more than one.
NG: Two at the same time?
[laughter]
BM: It will be something everyone will say, "It can't be done." I'll send out a press release out before I do it. I do that because it puts pressure on me to did it and I perform under pressure.
When I went to do the perfect Pac-Man, it went over the Internet and went into the media. I said what I was going to do and everyone said that it wasn't going to happen. I said that it was going to happen and it will be video history. I said You can bet anything in the world, but don't bet your life. It'll be something like that again only it will be a larger feat. It'll be a final feat.
NG: So all six hours of that game were recorded? Or just the last part?
BM: Oh no, from the beginning it was recorded.
NG: Someone was there switching the tapes?
BM: Yeah, I think it was three tapes. The time in between tapes was the only time [not taped].
NG: How many times did it take?
BM: What happened was I was first there in May, not having played in thirteen years. I almost did it, I got about halfway and then I messed up. I decided in my mind that I would go back July 1st and July 4th. That's Canadian Day and US Independence Day. I wanted to slap the Canadians in the face. I was there the first day, and I had a game going, and an innocent event happened. A little kid hit a plug on a whole row of games. And he knocked it out, and I threw a fit. It was an innocent thing and I kept saying the kid was Canadian. The very next morning I went back and the first quarter I did it.
NG: So it was two quarters?
BM: Yeah, two quarters.
NG: If you were to estimate, how many days, months, or weeks did you practice?
BM: Oh, I would say in the early 80's, about 83 to 86. Every day we woke up, we went to the arcade, played games, ate, went home, went to sleep, went back to the arcade. The only time we didn't do that was because of work, or some other responsibility at home.
NG: So you would spend all day there?
BM: Yeah. It was an obsession to be the best. People say, "Boy, you must have had a lot of fun." Fun had nothing to do with it. It was an obsession to be the best. People that were my friends had the same mentality as me so we got along well.
NG: Do you have your own Pac-Man system at home?
BM: Yeah. I usually don't have it though because I'm always loaning it to somebody. Right now its at a friends house. We have a Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Centipede, Millipede, Berserk, Pole Position, Ms. Pac-Man, Junior Pac-Man.
NG: When you went to Tokyo did you meet any of the Namco people that wrote the game?
BM: Yeah, I met Mr. Nakamoto who is what they call the father of Pac-Man. He's owned Namco since the day it opened and he was gracious enough to fly me out there. I did what everybody asked me if I did. "Did you talk to him? Did you ask him questions about the game?" Every question I ever asked them they said, "We don't know Mr. Mitchell. You know more about Pac-Man than we know." Everything I asked him, no matter what I said, they said "We had no idea anybody could ever do something like this." Every answer was the same. So whatever idea I had and thought they would give some insight, they didn't have any.
NG: Where did the actual perfect game take place?
BM: Oh that was in New Hampshire. That's where each year now they have the game tournament. It has the largest collection of classic games. It's real player-friendly. Whatever you ask them, they do.
NG: Did you only get a perfect game once or did you try to get a better time on it?
BM: Since then, we've been working on better times and better speeds. This grand feat that I've been talking about has something to do with the time.
NG: On Pac-Man?
BM: Yeah. It'll be a time never to be matched. It'll be a speed that no one will attempt to match.
NG: Are you practicing for this feat already?
BM: Yes, I am, and at a lot of different angles.
-- Interview by Mike Schneider and Tariq Bashir
