Game Center CX Season 1 – Back to Contents
#7
Namco

This episode opens in the Namco company arcade. Arino sits down for a game of Xevious until a man comes up behind him — Masanobu Endo, the creator of Xevious and numerous other Namco classics. The two move to the interview room and begin talking about Xevious. For instance, the name came from Xerox and other X-words. From there they discuss the game’s other nuances, from the secret items to the game’s so-called "goal." Endo even brings out an original Xevious mainboard and shows Arino the technical parts of the game, such as where the pieces of game data were stored.

After that, Arino walks into the Namco "Creative Center" to meet Toru Iwatani, the creator of Pac-Man. As most of us know, the inspiration for Pac-Man came from the concept of eating and the incomplete pizza that created the image of the character. Arino and Iwatani also discuss Pac-Man’s early popularity boom, especially in America. After the talk, the two men engage in a 2-player Pac-Man stage attack. They start out pretty even, but Iwatani manages to get one stage ahead of Arino.

Towards the end of the show, the talk with Endo continues, this time focusing on The Tower of Druaga.

Chousen

In this brief challenge, Arino is tasked with completing the first Challenging Stage in Galaga with a perfect score. He puts in Namco Museum Vol. 1 and begins. Even with the double fighter trick, Arino manages to miss at least one or two enemies on each try. After over 30 attempts, he finally manages to get all 40 enemies in the stage and succeed.