This year, Caterpillar celebrated its 95th anniversary and Pac-Man turned 40. So, to celebrate the occasions, the two companies thought: mash-up?
To create a life-size game board, Caterpillar removed roughly 6,880 cubic yards of dirt to build a maze with 151 corners and 4-foot-tall walls. The stunt showed off CAT’s high-tech capabilities.
The original Pac-Man game board was loaded into a Cat GRADE with 3D system on a 336 Next Gen excavator.
Cat GRADE with 3D is a factory-integrated grade control system that automates blade movements on the earth movers. According to the company, it takes the human out of 80% of the equation. It also eliminates the need for stakes and grade checkers. Still, the 336 spent about 70 labor hours on the job.
Multiple Cat dozers, wheel loaders, a 323 excavator, trucks and water wagons all helped with the job while running on the same system to make sure they all followed the same plan
To represent Pac-Man, and ghosts Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde, Cat brought in five 236D3 remote controlled skid steer loaders. Avatars were placed atop the loaders to be seen above the maze walls.
Cat then invited five partners and social media influencers to play the game.
Now, I understand that this is all a marketing ploy with each aspect of the game working as a metaphor for Cat products and services, but still, they carved a giant Pac-Man board out of the earth and actually played the game.
Personally, it’s not my favorite. It just doesn’t top the massive Jenga game they built in 2014. While it was only half of the game’s regulation 54 pieces, Cat’s “Stack” version used earth movers to play with 27 blocks that each weighed 600 pounds.
Either way, I hope they repurposed Pac-Man into a banging holiday maze.
