Canadian Gamer Spotlight – MrBigWig

Held early June in New York City, Grand Prairie, Alberta’s Dwayne Richard did Canada proud at the Pac-Man World Championships, taking the third-place spot against a formidable lineup of competitors.  I sat down with Dwayne a.k.a. MrBigWig to find out more about this Arcade Classics junkie and why he feels reborn on Xbox Live Arcade.

Jade: Tell us a bit about yourself and how you found Pac-Man on Xbox Live Arcade.

Dwayne Richard: Well I am 38, and I actually don’t play games very much these days. I don't have that much time between work, reading, research and playing soccer.  But when there is a tournament or contest, that’s when I really make the time to play.  So I got a used Xbox 360 from a friend that owns Toyz Game Emporium, here in Grand Prairie just for the Pac-Man contest.

Jade: Wow, natural talent with the classics…I am envious!  Tell us about the first time you got your hands on Pac-Man?

Dwayne: I first played the game when I was just 11.  This was the first game I ever learned how to master.  I read books with patterns for Pac-Man, and put these to memory.

Jade: How did you first become interested in video games?

Dwayne:  I had actually never been to an arcade before trying Pac-Man, but all of a sudden, they just started popping up everywhere in my home town.  We used to go to the pool hall at lunch time, and a friend of mine at the time, Basil Mah used to treat me to games.

Jade: And what keeps you coming back to the Classic Arcade style of games?

Dwayne: The challenge of the game play and that the problems you have to solve to get a high score or higher score of world class ranking on many of the classic titles can take a lifetime.  I keep working at it.

Jade: I hear you know Billy Mitchell, 1999 Video Game Player of the Century and the first person to score a perfect Pac-Man game – ever beat him personally at Pac-Man?

Dwayne: Billy and I have been friends since back in the 80's, but we never really played Pac-Man against each other.  There were a couple guys, Chris Ayra included, who had the skillz to get a perfect game along with Bill back in the 80's. They just never did it. Now there are five that have done this after Bill.  I will be joining that list of gamers some day. It is on my list of things to do. 

Billy is definitely more famous then me for this achievement, but if you asked all the gamers who play in this genre, they would say I am the best, so that is quite an achievement.  Even Billy has told me in conversations that, "He doesn't know anyone who understands more about classic game playing and the technical side of this stuff than me."

Jade: What are you favourite arcade games on Xbox Live?

Dwayne: I have three favourites on my machine -  Pac-Man, Robotron and UNO. I haven't downloaded the Pac-Man World Championship edition yet.  But when I do, it will be the new Pac-Man I play.

Jade: Tell us about the Pac-Man World Championships in NYC?  Who was your biggest competition?

Dwayne: I had an awesome time at the event.  I ended up losing to Robert from Austria and Carlos from Mexico but that was simply because of the new game.  I figured out the new game but hurt my finger in the process on the controls.  I was bleeding during the fourth round when I lost - it hurt real bad to put any pressure at all on it.  Robert was surprised to have beaten me by 6000 points which really is not that much.  Carlos had the second highest score in one game during the tournament play.  I had one higher, but it was in head-to-head.  Carlos was definitely a consistent player. 

If we played on the original Pac-Man game, I was expecting serious competition from the American players and the guy from Japan.  If think the qualifying scores were way down for the guys who actually won but did well playing the new game on short notice.  I finished third in qualifying and third at the tournament, so at least I was consistent overall.

Jade: Did you get to meet the Pac-Man creator?

Dwayne: Iwatani-san was great to meet. I got some autographs!

Jade: After being one of the first to play, what are your thoughts on the new Pac-Man game?Does it compare to the original?

Dwayne: The new Pac-Man is a great game.  It is totally post-modern in its construct. Fast and timed games, many different ways to play and totally new mazes.  They were talking about how the Pac-Man family of games were never made to be played for long periods of time, and that is why they put the time limits on the games in the new Pac-Man. 

On a higher level, when the new game gets real fast and the fruit is worth more points, most will be able to get there. I would have liked to have been able to go farther to see what came next in the game. The timing is really the only major difference between the old and new.  It is Pac-Man for the next generation and awesome fun to play, just like the first Pac-Man was back in the day.

Nice work Dwayne, thanks for stepping up for Canada at the Pac-Man World Championships. Nice way to celebrate Canada Day!  If you know a gamer you want to nominate for the Gamerspotlight, send me an email to jade@microsoft.com.