Pac-Man
Pac-Man is a classic arcade video game that originated as a Japanese creation known as Puck-Man, developed by Toru Iwatani for Namco in 1979. Upon its release in the U.S. in 1980, it quickly gained popularity for its unique gameplay that emphasized nonviolent action, humor, and the charm of its main character—a bright yellow circle with an insatiable appetite for dots. Players navigate a maze, consuming dots while avoiding colorful ghosts named Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde. With the ability to consume power pills for temporary ghost-eating power, players advance through increasingly challenging levels. Pac-Man's innovative approach helped to broaden the appeal of arcade games, making it popular among diverse audiences, including women. The game sold over 350,000 arcade units and inspired a wealth of merchandise, sequels, and adaptations, including the successful Ms. Pac-Man. Its cultural impact extended beyond gaming, influencing music and television, and establishing the importance of recognizable franchise characters in the video game industry. Pac-Man remains a significant figure in gaming history, symbolizing a shift towards more inclusive and less violent entertainment.
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Pac-Man
Identification Video game and character
Date Released as an arcade game in the United States in 1980
Initially a coin-operated video arcade game, Pac-Man broke the usually violent mold of arcade games, appealing to dedicated and casual gamers alike. The game grew into a licensing franchise, as other games, merchandise, and even a television cartoon series featuring its title character appeared during the early 1980’s.
Pac-Man was a U.S. variation on a Japanese video game called Puck-Man. It became a classic by stressing nonviolent action, humor, and the “personality” of its main character, a bright yellow, dot-gobbling circle. After it was released in the United States in 1980, Pac-Man quickly became extremely popular. In a triumph of merchandising, the property expanded to include dozens of licensed spin-off, non-video games. The original Puck-Man was developed by Toru Iwatani for the Japanese firm Namco and released in Japan in 1979. The game was then licensed and distributed in the United States by Bally’s Midway division.
In the game, Pac-Man had an insatiable hunger for dots and a fear of ghosts, the onscreen enemies Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde. Players controlled Pac-Man, navigating a maze while munching dots and avoiding ghosts. Pac-Man could also swallow power pills—which would temporarily enable him to eat the ghosts—and fruits, which were worth bonus points. When all the dots and power pills were consumed, the player would progress to the next, more difficult, level. At the time Pac-Man was introduced, most other arcade games involved either killing enemies or destroying objects with weapons—usually in outer space. Pac-Man was largely nonviolent. Even when the title character ate a ghost, the ghost was not destroyed. Instead, its impervious eyes would float back home, where it would then regrow its body. By inventing a new model for video games, Pac-Man was able to appeal to both women and men, growing the arcade-game market.
Pac-Man sold more than 350,000 arcade units in the 1980’s, dethroning leading games of the era, such as Space Invaders and Asteroids. It was able to endure through an industry slump in the middle of the decade. As the best-known arcade game, Pac-Man was ported to many other video-game platforms, including home game consoles, handheld games, and personal computers. Pac-Man also spawned sequels, such as Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man Plus, and Baby Pac-Man. While most were not successful, Ms. Pac-Man achieved a level of success and cultural recognition worthy of the original.
In addition to board, card, and video games, licensed Pac-Man products included toys, clothes, chalkboards, pillows, erasers, bubble pipes, costumes, shower curtains, pens, jewelry, lunchboxes, bumper stickers, and books. The game also inspired a 1982 hit single (Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia’s “Pac-Man Fever”) and a Hanna-Barbera cartoon show, starring Marty Ingels as Pac-Man, which ran on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) from 1982 to 1984. A motion picture was planned but never filmed.
Impact
Selling hundreds of thousands of units, Pac-Man injected humor and minimized the violence common to many video games of the 1980’s. The popularity of the Pac-Man character also proved decisive to the history of video games. In later years, companies would discover that iconic franchise characters—such as Pac-Man, Mario, or Sonic the Hedgehog—were essential, not only for merchandising but also to drive sales of new games and new consoles.
Bibliography
DeMaria, Rusel, and Wilson, Johnny L. High Score! The Illustrated History of Electronic Games. San Francisco: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, 2003.
Johnson, Rick. “What’s Round and Yellow and Laughs All the Way to the Bank?” VIDIOT (February/March, 1983).
Kohler, Chris. Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life. Indianapolis: BradyGames/Penguin Group, 2004.