Trigger Happy
signs about signs. The blob itself is an agreed symbol for “power-up” according to Pac-Man’s game design, but the power-up itself has no independent existence. Funnily enough, this is one context in which a phrase from postmodern theory is particularly appropriate: a power-up is a “floating signifier.” The power-up’s meaning consists entirely in a change of the potential relations between the rest of the signs in the game over a predefined period of time.
This sounds forbiddingly abstract, but it is a very familiar paradigm in film, especially in science fiction cinema. For example, during the finale of the film Aliens, Ripley gets into a mechanical exoskeleton in the ship’s loading bay in order to fight the beast more effectively. She has acquired a power-up. Now the relations of force between the heroine and her foe are redefined. But the difference is that in Pac-Man, the power-up is not an external tool or weapon but merely an idea, a temporary enhancement of the character’s own essence.
A power-up can also be a simple gift of more time: an extra life. Now, Pac-Man gives you an extra life if you reach a score of 10,000. So at certain times, anything edible on the screen could become a powerup if it pushed your score over the magical figure.
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