Customer Reviews

Pac-Man Fever (Re-Recorded Versions)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you bought the album when it was originally released and loved it like I did, you will be disappointed in this new version. I loved every inflection, I loved the exact way the instruments were played, and I loved the classic video game sounds. Each song on the album was a masterpiece.

Since Buckner and Garcia couldn't get their hands on the original, it's nice that they tried to recreate it, but it's an offense to the ears for people who loved exactly how the original album sounded. Thank God I still have mine!

Buy this version to support them. You can always use it as a coaster. Maybe they'll make enough money to buy the original from CBS Records so they can put out the CD we've all been waiting for.

I agree that it's disapointing that the original LP hasn't been reissued -- I imagine Buckner and Garcia wish it would be, too. The fact is, though, for some reason Sony/CBS is sitting on it, so this is the best that we can do. Viewed in that light, I don't think this qualifies as a rip-off. The guys have stuck to 80s style arrangements. There is no attempt to "update" the sound. Yes, the vocals are showing some wear, yes there are some variations. But the simple fact is, this thing is still a total gas.

I bought this on cassette from the Columbia Record Club when it was brand new, and I was a teenager. That cassette was later destroyed by my sister, and I've gone for many years hoping it would be released on CD. I'd actually given up when I was chatting with a friend about it and he offhandedly popped over to Amazon and searched for it - and there it was. It'd come up since I'd given up searching. Well, I can tell you I ordered it right quick!

I love this CD. It is completely cheesy, but then, so is most 80s music. I played most of these games, and just hearing the sound FX in the songs brings back so many memories. I've been listening to this CD a lot since it arrived, and I've played it for some of my peers at work. The looks on their faces as they remember "Pac-Man Fever" is fantastic. It is a shared meme of my generation, and just plain fun. If you grew up in the era of Pac-Man, Defender, Centipede, et al, buy this CD.

When I was a kid this was one of favorite albums (with the whole craze of Pac Man and ATARI). So when I saw this CD was finally released on CD I just had to get a copy.
As soon as I hit play on the CD player I could notice right away that something just wasn't right with the first song Pac Man Fever. The CD states that this CD was re-recorded digitally, which is fine, but it has this weird in and out hiss in the high frequencies, like that occur in low bitrate mp3 files.
Another problem I have with this CD is that all of the videogame samples they use in each song is not the exact portions that they used in the 80's release.
I'm not saying that this CD is horrible,but, I really wanted to relive my childhood by hearing these songs the exact way as I remembered them from the 80's.
I guess I'm just a purist.

I recently hit the buckner and garcia website and sampled the CD before I made a purchase. And I have to agree with the other reviewer of this CD, it's a nice gesture by the artists, but it doesn't compare with the original album (and single) from 1982. I STRONGLY suggest writing CBS records to have the original re-released if you love this album. Otherwise try a search on other various artists compilation CDs, the P-M-F single is out on CD, if you look hard enough.

My video game heyday was when Pacman, Defender, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Asteroids Deluxe, Q*bert, Scrambler, Dig-Dug,... well, I could go on,... reigned supreme. However, it was Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia's single of "Pacman Fever," which Columbia Records claimed went platinum, that gave the famed video game a shot in the arm way before its novelty was wearing off and ensured its place in American pop culture.

So Buckner and Garcia's collection of video game tie-in novelty songs, including sound effects from the video games, is a cornucopia of 80's nostalgia. The lyrics for each of the eight songs includes the objective of the game, references to the defenses the player has. And the music style is heavy on 80's style keyboard synths.

With the opening computer jingle that starts Pacman after the player hits 1 or 2 player, and that familiar "wacka-wacka" sound of the yellow fella eating dots, "Pacman Fever" demonstrates why so many people fed so many quarters into Pacman machines. Some Pac-slang: the back or side door is the tunnel on either side of the screen that delays monsters chasing Pacman, and the ninth key is the stage where most patterns don't work. Other sound effects include the loud bleep that sounds when a monster's eaten, and that wilting sound of Pacman dying.

After the musical intro from the Frogger game, "Froggy's Lament" combines C.W. McCall's throaty macho "Convoy"-type voice asking whether the frog has his magic twanger with 80's New Wave. I don't think the frog had one in the video game--but the frog's objective of hopping inbetween traffic, avoiding snakes, and hopping on logs before making it to one of the five home slots is referred to in the lyrics. His neverending goal: keep on hopping till he gets to the top. Comments: "Go, froggy go!" and Ribbit! One of the better songs, with humorous lyrics.

"Faster and faster, row by row." The mid-paced "Ode To A Centipede" has the motif of the player being the hunter and the centipede being the prey, with musical stylings akin to a toned down "Holding Out For A Hero." Features the sound effects of the laser and the centipede being hit and turned into a mushrooms. Pithy but funny line: "Go ahead, run your little legs off. Do you have Nikes for them?"

I never got past level 1 in Donkey Kong, but this song, the anthemic and vivacious "Do The Donkey Kong," takes me to level 4. Special effects: Mario jumping over barrels and with that squeaky clip-clopping noise of his feet.

"Hyperspace" which is the song for Asteroids isn't too impressive due to the subpar sound effects and neither is the "Mousetrap," Exidy's answer to Pacman featuring a mouse that had to eat cheese and turned into a dog when it ate a bone, to eat the cats chasing it. However, "The Defender," based on the game where one had to rescue kidnapped humanoids and prevent them from being turned to mutants by landers, with its furious lightning bolt laserblasts, is a riveting number with great New Wave synths and an anthemic chorus: "I'm the defender/I'm a mutant fender."

"Goin' Berzerk" starts out with some quiet piano and synths before the robots' "intruder alert" is heard followed by blaster fire by the player and the usual upbeat synths. The song ties in the objective of someone shooting down robots and running from room to room in the neverending maze with his feelings for a girl, "going berserk over you." The reference to Evil Otto is the smiley face invincible to blaster fire and when the last robot is killed, comes after the player at a rapid clip.

The success of each song depends in part to catchy lyrics or the the coolness of the video game's sound effects, of which Pacman, Defender, and Berzerk are the best. One suggestion that would've made this more a classic: why not a song on Q*bert? There were lots of cool sound effects in that game, yeah? P.S. there's a bonus flyer of Pacman patterns used. Game over. I mean review over.

I have to agree with the reviewers who called this effort "cheesy," but I still love the whole thing. I wore out the tape as a kid, and have looked for a CD ever since. Pac Man Fever is a good song, but not even close to the best on here. The best songs are "Mousetrap," with great music, "Goin Berzerk," which actually sounds melancholy, and "Centipede," for inspired lyrics. I love most 80's schlock, and this CD is one of the greats.

I love this album because it's fun and not depressing. We need more music to lift the spirit instead of always so angry and sad.

any 30something adult who ever walked into an arcade in his youth(and, who didn't?) instantly feels the nostalgia course their veins when the first "waaka, waaka," comes on from Pac-Man Fever.
the video games that inspired this CD are a by-product of the great '80's, as well as the music. don't go looking for great, strong, story-telling lyrics here, they don't exist.
what you will find is pure '80's sounds.
Frogger is Thriller, complete with a narrative.
Devo inspired instrumentation also echos here. i love this album. not because it's a great piece of musical art, but because it is a great piece of american pop culture. Velveeta Delivered.

I just heard the CD and I'm happy to report it holds up well: the songs are catchy, they're fun and easy to listen to multiple times. Oddly enough, even though they're novelty songs they still sound better than about 80% of the so-called "serious" songs out there today.