Phantom of the Arcade

Through some underhanded supernatural interference, our protagonist finds themself diverted from the Hallowe'en party they'd planned to attend and trapped in a long-closed Game Haven arcade. The ghost of the arcade's manager manifests and challenges the player to beat his high score on Pac-Man, a seemingly impossible feat, or risk being trapped in this vault of arcade memories forever!

There are other ghosts in the arcade, however, each associated with one particular defunct machine in the dusty halls, and if the player can help them emerge from the spiritual rut they've been worn into, they may reward the player in kind with a chapter from a battered and torn-apart old copy of a How To Win At Videogames strategy manual -- which, if fully reassembled, just might help our hapless protagonist to grok the deeper truths behind Pac-Man and win their freedom!

In addition to the dot-gobbler and some games of skill (including a mechanical crane game offering the distinctly dubious prize of an E.T. 2600 cartridge) the arcade is populated by such classic machines as Mortal Kombat, Donkey Kong, Street Fighter 2, House of the Dead, and Revolution X.

The game has 95 points to be won by the player over the course of overcoming the phantom's challenge, but upon game completion players are also given the option to input their username on the parent site The Escapist, which will output a checksummed code rendering winners eligible for a badge to be displayed next to their on-site profile information.