Trigger Happy
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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.
