Iwatani’s general disinterest in gaming and computers would actually serve him well. Pac-Man was designed to appeal to female gamers. Iwatani may not have had the qualifications, but he was clearly quite the artiste. So, the bosses filed this unqualified, directionless kid away in their design department, likely expecting to never hear from him again. Iwatani wanted to get into making pinball machines, but Namco didn’t even make pinball machines. They restrict me, and I’m no different from any artist – I don’t like constraints.” Hardware limitations become my limitations. There’s a limit to what you can do with a computer. A computer is not the only medium that uses images, it just so happens I use the computer. I’m interested in creating images that communicate with people. “I don’t have any particular interest in. Iwatani had no formal training in engineering, programming or graphic design and had no particular interest in video games. Toru Iwatani joined Namco in 1977 at the tender age of 22, with basically zero qualifications. The creator of Pac-Man was in no way qualified to create Pac-Man. The creator of Pac-Man had no formal training, and didn’t even like computers. Here’s a few tasty facts you may not know about the original Pac-Man… Three-and-a-half decades later, the little yellow guy is still going strong. Pac-Man is one of those rare games that simply refuses to age. Pac-Man had characters, carefully designed stages, and - in its own simple way - actually told a story. Pac-Man was the first title to prove video games could be more than simple, reflex-testing digital toys. Pac-Man was the first game to feature power-ups, and its level design and AI was far more advanced than anything else on the market at the time. The name was coined after the role reversal that occurs when Pac-Man eats power cookies.35 years ago today, Pac-Man first waka waka waka-ed its way into Japanese arcades, and it’s nearly impossible to overstate the game’s influence. When a company that is about to be acquired instead takes over the hostile company that was attempting to acquire it, it's called the "Pac-Man" defense. Due to the game's wild success, Pac-Man became an economic term. Their English names are Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde.Ħ. In Japan they started as Fickle, Chaser, Ambusher and Stupid. Each of the four ghosts in the game has both Japanese and English names. The "power cookies" are now the larger pellets he uses to eat the ghosts.ĥ. Pac-Man's favorite snack pellets - the tiny dots he munches as he moves around the video game board - were originally cookies. Eventually, "Pac" was suggested as an alternate name. The original Japanese name was Puckman, which evolved from the Japanese word paku, meaning "chomp." Given the closeness to a certain explicit four-letter English word, a lot of arcade operators at the time were worried that vandals would alter the letter P. First released as "Puck-Man," the name was later changed to Pac-Man. release, Namco/Bandai sold more than 100,000 arcade units and fans spent more than $1 billion in quarters to spark the pop-culture phenomenon.ģ. The planning and designs were done by Toru Iwatani, and there was one additional person who worked on programming development, and one focused on music.Ģ. There were only three core people involved in the development of the original Pac-Man. In honor of the legend, Namco/Bandai has given a list of 10 deep, dark secrets, some of which not even the hardest of die-hard fans may know about the mysterious and reclusive Pac-Man.ġ. With new versions of the game having recently hit video game arcades and home game consoles, and famed movie producer Avi Arad (responsible for such films as "Spider-Man" and "X-Men") working on a 3D animated television show, it would appear that "Pac-Man Fever" remains a worldwide epidemic. Ma— - He's pursued night and day by supernatural forces, fends them off by growing several times his original size and yet despite a jaundiced complexion and an obvious compulsive eating disorder, 30 years later Pac-Man is still one of the most recognizable and ubiquitous video game characters of all time.
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