The Pac-Man lie that cheated on Ronald Reagan

Video games have big secrets which sometimes are not revealed until years later or even, although knowing that a mystery is hidden in the point “x”, we cannot reveal it because the access does not has not yet been found. In these mysteries we told you in due time what happened with an Easter egg from Futurama That so far, no player succeeded in solving.

But there are also curiosities that have little to do with development, but with lies that manage to reach the top. While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen politicians linked to a video game, even to the point of serve as inspiration for the creation of a characterHave you ever seen a politician get involved in a video game lie? This affair is the one that unites Pac-Man with President Ronald Reagan.

Although many tried to break the world record, this score could never be achieved

A high score that was never really achieved

No one can deny the great phenomenon that is Pac-Man. The legendary game that was not only a hit in arcade machines, but also managed to go around the world until today it remains one of the best known. Therefore, it is not surprising that there are people who are looking to achieve the highest score with the intention of setting a new record, having a maximum of 3,333,360 points. But it is precisely this higher score that takes us back in time to when Reagan was still in office.

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In 1982, 8-year-old Jeffrey R. Yee of San Francisco claimed he had set the world record for best score with 6.131.940 points. A high figure which has traveled the world for the great feat and which even led Reagan himself to send him a letter of congratulations that the young player did not hesitate to hang in his room.

But the reality is that, as we indicated a little above, this score could never really be obtained since, due to a byte overflow error present at the end of the game, exactly in the code screen representation when level 256 is reached, no more score is accessible. Instead, it gives way to a “split screen” effect that makes the game impossible to win.

It drew all kinds of backlash, including some claiming the boy needed to get that score while others just say it was a joke that ended with a letter from the president. This is undoubtedly one of those anecdotes which, unfortunately, could not be discovered until years later.