The classic and hugely popular video game Pac-Man was released in Japan on May 21, 1980, and in the United States in October of the same year. The yellow cake-shaped Pac-Man character quickly became an icon of the 1980s as he traveled through a maze eating dots and trying to avoid four ghosts chasing him. To this day, Pac-Man remains one of the most popular video games in history, and its innovative design has been the subject of numerous books and academic papers.

The game was developed by Namco in Japan and published in the United States by Midway. By 1981, approximately 250 million Pac-Man games were being played each week in the United States on 100,000 Pac-Man machines. Since then, Pac-Man has been released on almost every video game platform, and on May 21, 2010, a playable version was featured in a Google Doodle to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man’s release bonus deposit harian.

Inventing Pac-Man

According to Japanese game designer Toru Iwatani, Pac-Man was designed as an antidote to the overwhelming number of violence-themed games, such as Asteroids, Space Invaders, Tail Gunner, and Galaxian Bos5000. Pac-Man’s innovative departure from the arcade shooter style would disrupt the world of video games. Instead of a warrior firing

ammunition to fend off attackers, Pac-Man’s figure chews his way to victory. The game contains several references to food; Pac-Man munches pills along the way, eats fruit-shaped bonus items, and cookie-shaped power pellets (originally). Inspiration for the design of the yellow Pac-Man character’s shape was given as being made from slices of pizza and/or a simplified version of the kanji character for “mouth”.

In Japanese, “Pac-Pac” (also pronounced “pakupaku”) is an onomatopoeia that means munching, and the original Japanese name was Pac-Man, which had to be changed for American arcades because it sounded too easily destructible.

Playing Pac-Man

The game begins with the player controlling Pac-Man using the arrow keys or joystick. The objective is to move Pac-Man around a maze-like screen to use up a line of 240 points and avoid or attack one of the four hunting ghosts (sometimes called monsters).

The four ghosts have different colors: Blinky (red), Inky (light blue), Pinky (pink) and Clyde (orange). Each ghost has a different attack strategy. For example, Blinky is sometimes called Shadow because he moves the fastest. As the game progresses, the ghosts leave the “ghost cage” in the middle of the maze and wander the playfield. If Pac-Man collides with a ghost, he loses a life and the game starts over again.

There are four power pellets in the corners of each level, and if Pac-Man can eat one of them, all of the ghosts will turn dark blue and be eaten by Pac-Man. When a spirit is devoured it disappears and its eyes return to its spirit cage where it reforms to fight again. Bonus items in the form of fruit and other objects can be eaten to gain extra points, with different fruits having different values. When Pac-Man loses all of his lives (usually three), the game ends.

Pac-Man Fever

In the early 1980s, Pac-Man’s nonviolent and silly nature made it incredibly popular. In 1982, an estimated 30 million Americans were spending $8 million a week on Pac-Man, playing slots in arcades and bars with private rooms. Its popularity among teenagers made it a threat to their parents. Pac-Man was loud and incredibly popular, and the arcades where its machines were located were noisy and crowded places. Many cities in the United States passed laws to regulate or restrict gaming, similar to the regulation of pinball machines and pool tables, to combat gambling and other “immoral” activities. Des Plaines, Illinois, banned people under the age of 21 from playing video games unless accompanied by a parent. The city of Marshfield, Massachusetts, banned video games entirely.

Other cities have used licensing or zoning to restrict video game playing. Permits to operate arcades may require them to be at least a certain distance from schools and may prohibit the sale of food or alcohol.

Ms. Pac-Man and More

The Pac-Man video game was so popular that within a year, spin-offs were developed, some of which were published without authorization. The most popular of these was Ms. Pac-Man, which first appeared in 1981 as an unofficial version of the game.

Ms. Pac-Man was developed by Midway, the company authorized to sell the original Pac-Man in the United States, and was so popular that Namco eventually made it the official game. Ms. Pac-Man has four different mazes with different scores, whereas Pac-Man only has one maze with a score of 240. The walls, dots, and beads in Ms. Pac-Man’s mazes have different colors. And the orange ghost is named “Sue” instead of “Clyde”.

Other notable spin-offs include Pac-Man Plus, Professor Pac-Man, Junior Pac-Man, Pac-Land, Pac-Man World, and Pac-Pix. By the mid-1990s, Pac-Man was available for home computers, game consoles, and handhelds.

Pop Culture Merchandising

The Pac-Man character is a yellow chewing machine shaped like a hockey puck. Its shape and sound have made it a recognizable symbol to gamers and non-gamers alike, worldwide. The 2008 Davey Brown Celebrity Index found that 94% of American consumers recognize Pac-Man, more than most human celebrities.

There was a time when fans could buy Pac-Man t-shirts, mugs, stickers, board games, stuffed animals, belt buckles, puzzles, playing cards, mechanical toys, wrapping paper, pajamas, lunch boxes, and bumper stickers.

Pac-Man mania led to the creation of a 30-minute Pac-Man cartoon by Hanna-Barbera, which aired from 1982 to 1984. And the 1982 novelty song “Pac-Man Fever” by Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia reached number 9 on the Billboard Top 100 chart.

The Search for a Fast Perfect Game

David Race of Dayton, Ohio, holds the record for the fastest perfect game of Pac-Man. He played on January 4, 2012, scoring 3,333,360 points on 255 levels in 3 hours, 33 minutes, and 1.4 seconds. In 1999, a 33-year-old man named Billy Mitchell was found to have used emulation software instead of arcade machines, and his application was disqualified for violating the rules.