When you think of Pac-Man, does the sound of “waka-waka” immediately echo in your brain? If you’re a fan of this influential video game, Tidbits thinks you’ll enjoy a look back at its history.
• Toru Iwatani was a 24-year-old video game designer when he went to work for Namco, an abbreviation for Nakamura Manufacturing Company, founded in Tokyo in 1955 by Masaya Nakamura. In the 1960s Namco was already producing electro-mechanical arcade games. Iwatani began designing what would become known as Pac-Man in early 1979, after eating pizza and envisioning the pie with a sliced removed. He was also inspired by the American television series “Casper the Friendly Ghost.” It took a year and five months for Iwatani and his team to complete. Namco released Pac-Man in 1980.
• Iwatani proposed the name “Puck Man,” but it was vetoed when it was felt that vandals could change the “P” to an “F” on game consoles. The option of “Snapper” was considered, but was also abandoned.
- The objective of Pac-Man is to eat all the “dots” and avoid the ghosts while navigating through an enclosed maze. As Pac-Man makes his way through the maze, he must avoid four ghosts of various colors. Blinky, the red ghost, chases Pac-Man, while the pink ghost Pinky and the blue ghost Inky position themselves in front of or cornering Pac-Man.
- If Pac-Man is caught by a ghost, he loses a life. But if he can “eat” one of the four blue “power pellets” placed in the maze’s corners, the ghosts all turn a bright blue, and Pac-Man can eat them for bonus points during their “blue” time, before they turn white, then back to their normal colors. A player can also gain bonus points by eating the various fruits that pop up in the maze.
- Each side of the maze contains a “warp tunnel,” which allows Pac-Man and the ghosts to go to the opposite side of the screen.
• The highest possible score in the game is 3,333,360 points, which requires eating every dot, fruit, energizer, and ghost without losing a single life. It was achieved for the first time in 1999 in New Hampshire by 33-year-old Massachusetts native Billy Mitchell, who spent nearly six hours on a single quarter for his monumental achievement. Following the game’s completion, Mitchell announced his permanent retirement from Pac-Man, saying, “I never have to play that darn game again. There’s nothing more I can accomplish.”
- As with many other popular toys and games, Pac-Man’s popularity prompted a large assortment of merchandise, which included toys, clothing, and a breakfast cereal. Introduced in 1983, the cereal was orb-shaped sweetened corn puffs mixed with mini-marshmallows in Pac-Man and ghost shapes. The cereal was on grocer’s shelves for five years.
- ABC aired a Pac-Man animated TV series for two seasons, beginning in 1982. The musical duo Buckner & Garcia released a hit single, “Pac-Man Fever,” in 1982, which reached No. 9 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
- Due to a programming glitch, it’s impossible to play Pac-Man past Level 256. At that point, the game breaks down and half the screen becomes distorted with random symbols. This “kill screen” is usually considered the end of the game
- Pac-Man is the world’s most-recognized video game, with a recognition rate of 94%.
