Week 7: 8-Track

 The third and final format the album was originally released on was 8-track. For reasons I've yet to discover, the font used for the title was different than that on LP or cassette, although the photo of game play was the same. (Photos courtesy Tim Peters.)

Week 6: Cassette

Naturally, the Pac-Man Fever album wasn't only released on vinyl. This week we look at the cassette version. There's two variations: one with songs on the J-card and one without. Neither seems rarer than the other. (Scans courtesy discogs.com.)

This, however, is a rarity. An unopened PMF cassette in a spaghetti box. I've only ever seen one come up on eBay in the past 25ish years and that was earlier this year.

Week 5: Publicity Photo

Week 5: Publicity photo

If you've got a hot song on the air, your band needs a publicity photo, right? Well, this is what Buckner & Garcia wound up with. Jerry Buckner (center) is still known to sometimes sell autographed copies of it to this day.

Here's an autographed photo I bought last year. Mr. Buckner was kind enough to personalize it.

(I'm only a "long time friend" in the sense that he knows about my PMF website and answers my e-mails, which I try to keep infrequent.)

Week 4: Album sleeve

Something unique to the Pac-Man Fever album are the Pac-Man patterns on both sides of the album sleeves. They even advertised them with a sticker on the shrink wrap! 

Photo courtesy Discogs.com

Here are the patterns in 4K-ish glory (courtesy Rodney Siddall). 

In case you're... younger than me, the ghost monsters in the Pac-Man arcade game reacted in predictable manners to Pac-Man's movements. Therefore, there was practically an industry devoted to publishing patterns players could memorize to excel at the game. The patterns here are credited to Edgel and Chuck Groves. We'll be seeing Edgel Groves' name again a little later.

Week 3: The Album

As part of the record deal with Columbia, Buckner & Garcia had to provide an entire album quickly. They wanted to do a normal album, but Columbia insisted it all be more video game songs. Thus we got this pop culture masterpiece in January 1982.

Pac-Man Fever album sleeve

Week 2: Columbia 45

After great success in the Atlanta market, Columbia/CBS Records signed a deal with Buckner & Garcia for the "Pac-Man Fever" song. They released it nationwide on 45 in December 1981 using the same tracks as the BGO 45.

Pac-Man Fever Columbia 45, side 1

Pac-Man Fever Columbia 45, side 2

Week 1: BGO Single (Where it began!)

In October 1981, after Buie/Geller failed to get a major record label interested in Buckner & Garcia's new song about the video game craze, they published it on their own label. BG-1001 was "Pac-Man Fever" with the instrumental version on the B side. The 45 was only released in the Atlanta area. Despite this, copies are not overly hard to find today thanks to sites like eBay and Discogs.

"Pac-Man Fever" BGO single, side A

"Pac-Man Fever (Inst.)" BGO single, Side B