Pac-Man, originally calledPuck Man[a] in Japan, is a 1980maze video game developed and published byNamco forarcades. In North America, the game was released byMidway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The player controlsPac-Man, who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoidingfour colored ghosts. Eating large flashing dots called "Power Pellets" causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat the ghosts for bonus points.
Game development began in early 1979, led byToru Iwatani with a nine-man team. Iwatani wanted to create a game that could appeal to women as well as men, because most video games of the time had themes that appealed to traditionally masculine interests, such as war or sports.[5][6] Although the inspiration for the Pac-Man character was the image of a pizza with a slice removed, Iwatani has said he rounded out the Japanese character for mouth,kuchi (Japanese:口). The in-game characters were made to be cute and colorful to appeal to younger players. The original Japanese title ofPuck Man was derived from the Japanese phrasepaku paku taberu, which refers to gobbling something up; the title was changed toPac-Man for the North American release due to fears ofvandals defacing cabinets by converting theP into anF, as infuck.[6]
Pac-Man was a widespread critical and commercial success, leading to several sequels, merchandise, and two television series, as well as a hit single, "Pac-Man Fever", byBuckner & Garcia. The character of Pac-Man has become the official mascot of Namco and laterBandai Namco Entertainment.[7] The game remains one of the highest-grossing and best-selling games, generating more than $14 billion in revenue (as of 2016[update]) and 43 million units in sales combined, and has an enduring commercial and cultural legacy, commonly listed as one of thegreatest video games of all time.
Gameplay
In-game screenshot. The ghosts are chasing Pac-Man. At bottom left is the player's life count, and at bottom right the level icon (in this case a cherry). At top is the player's score.
Pac-Man is anaction[8]maze chase video game; the player controlsthe eponymous character through an enclosed maze. The objective of the game is to eat all of the dots placed in the maze while avoidingfour colored ghosts—Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (cyan), and Clyde (orange)—who pursue Pac-Man. When Pac-Man eats all of the dots, the player advances to the next level. Levels are indicated by fruit icons at the bottom of the screen. In between levels are short cutscenes featuring Pac-Man and Blinky in humorous, comical situations.
If Pac-Man is caught by a ghost, he loses a life; the game ends when all lives are lost. Each of the four ghosts has its own uniqueartificial intelligence (A.I.), or "personality": Blinky gives direct chase to Pac-Man; Pinky and Inky try to position themselves in front of Pac-Man, usually by cornering him; and Clyde switches between chasing and fleeing from Pac-Man depending on his distance from him.[9]
Placed near the four corners of the maze are large flashing "energizers" or "power pellets". When Pac-Man eats one, the ghosts turn blue with a dizzied expression and reverse direction. Pac-Man can eat blue ghosts for bonus points; when a ghost is eaten, its eyes make their way back to the center box in the maze, where the ghost "regenerates" and resumes its normal activity. Eating multiple blue ghosts in succession increases their point value. After a certain amount of time, blue-colored ghosts flash white before turning back into their normal forms. Eating a certain number of dots in a level causes a bonus item—usually a fruit—to appear underneath the center box; the item can be eaten for bonus points. To the sides of the maze are two "warp tunnels", which allow Pac-Man and the ghosts to travel to the opposite side of the screen. Ghosts become slower when entering and exiting these tunnels.
The game increases in difficulty as the player progresses: the ghosts become faster, and the energizers' effect decreases in duration, eventually disappearing entirely. Aninteger overflow causes the 256th level to load improperly, rendering it impossible to complete.[10] This is known as akill screen.
Development
After acquiring the struggling Japanese division ofAtari in 1974, video game developerNamco began producing its own video games in-house, as opposed to licensing them from other developers and distributing them in Japan.[11][12] Company presidentMasaya Nakamura created a small video game development group within the company and ordered them to study severalNEC-produced microcomputers to potentially create games with.[13][14] One of the first people assigned to this division was a 24-year-old employee namedToru Iwatani.[15] He created Namco's first video gameGee Bee in 1978, which while unsuccessful helped the company gain a stronger foothold in the quickly growing video game industry.[16][17] He assisted in the production of two sequels,Bomb Bee andCutie Q, both released in 1979.[18][19]
The Japanese video game industry had surged in popularity with games such asSpace Invaders andBreakout, which led to the market being flooded with similar titles from other manufacturers in an attempt to cash in on the success.[20][21] Iwatani felt that arcade games only appealed to men for their crude graphics and violence,[20] and that arcades in general were seen as seedy environments.[22] For his next project, Iwatani chose to create a non-violent, cheerful video game that appealed mostly to women,[23] as he believed that attracting women and couples into arcades would potentially make them appear to be much more family-friendly in tone.[20] Iwatani began thinking of things that women liked to do in their time; he decided to center his game around eating, basing this on women liking to eat desserts and other sweets.[24] His game was initially calledPakkuman, based on the Japanese onomatopoeia term "paku paku taberu",[25] referencing the mouth movement of opening and closing in succession.[23]
The game that later becamePac-Man began development in early 1979 and took a year and five months to complete, the longest for a video game up to that point.[26] Iwatani enlisted the help of nine other Namco employees to assist in production, including composer Toshio Kai, programmer Shigeo Funaki, and hardware engineer Shigeichi Ishimura.[27] Care was taken to make the game appeal to a "non-violent" audience, particularly women, with its usage of simple gameplay and cute, attractive character designs.[26][22] When the game was being developed, Namco was underway with designingGalaxian, which used a then-revolutionary RGB color display, allowing sprites to use several colors at once instead of using colored strips of cellophane that was commonplace at the time;[26] this technological accomplishment allowed Iwatani to greatly enhance his game with bright pastel colors, which he felt would help attract players.[26] The idea for energizers was a concept Iwatani borrowed fromPopeye the Sailor, a cartoon character that temporarily acquires superhuman strength after eating a can of spinach;[24] it is believed that Iwatani was partly inspired by a Japanese children's story about a creature that protected children from monsters by devouring them.[26] Frank Fogleman, the co-founder ofGremlin Industries, believes that the maze-chase gameplay ofPac-Man was inspired bySega'sHead On (1979), a similar arcade game that was popular in Japan.[28]
Iwatani has often claimed that the character of Pac-Man was designed after the shape of a pizza with a missing slice while he was at lunch; in a 1986 interview he said that this was only half-true,[15] and that the Pac-Man character was also based on him rounding out and simplifying the Japanese character "kuchi" (口), meaning "mouth".[29][15] The four ghosts were made to be cute, colorful and appealing, using bright, pastel colors and expressive blue eyes.[26] Iwatani had used this idea before inCutie Q, which features similar ghost-like characters, and decided to incorporate it intoPac-Man.[20] He was inspired by the television seriesCasper the Friendly Ghost and the mangaObake no Q-Taro.[24] Ghosts were chosen as the game's main antagonists because they were used as villainous characters in animation.[24] The idea for the fruit bonuses was based on graphics displayed on slot machines, which often use symbols such as cherries and bells.[30]Originally, Namco president Masaya Nakamura had requested that all of the ghosts be red and thus indistinguishable from one another.[31] Iwatani believed that the ghosts should be different colors, and he received unanimous support from his colleagues for this idea.[31] The ghosts were programmed to have their own distinct personalities, so as to keep the game from becoming too boring or impossibly difficult to play.[26][32] Each ghost's name gives a hint to its strategy for tracking down Pac-Man: Shadow ("Blinky") always chases Pac-Man, Speedy ("Pinky") tries to get ahead of him, Bashful ("Inky") uses a more complicated strategy to zero in on him, and Pokey ("Clyde") alternates between chasing him and running away.[26] (The ghosts' Japanese names are おいかけ,chase; まちぶせ,ambush; きまぐれ,fickle; and おとぼけ,playing dumb, respectively.) To break up the tension of constantly being pursued, humorous intermissions between Pac-Man and Blinky were added.[21] The sound effects were among the last things added to the game,[26] created by Toshio Kai.[22] In a design session, Iwatani noisily ate fruit and made gurgling noises to describe to Kai how he wanted the eating effect to sound.[22] Upon completion, the game was titledPuck Man, based on the working title.[23]
Release
Location testing forPuck Man began on May 22, 1980, in Shibuya, Tokyo. Non-gamers responded well to it, finding it easy to learn, while arcade regulars were not impressed.[24] A private showing for the game was done in June, followed by a nationwide release in July.[12] Eyeing the game's success in Japan, Namco initialized plans to bring the game to the international market, particularly the United States.[26] Before showing the game to distributors, Namco America made a number of changes, such as altering the names of the ghosts.[26] Another was the game's title, as executives at Namco were worried that vandals would change the "P" inPuck Man to an "F".[12][33] Masaya Nakamura chose to rename it toPac-Man, as he felt it was closer to the game's original Japanese title ofPakkuman.[12] In Europe, the game was released under both titles.[34] AfterPuck Man was ruled out but beforePac-Man was decided upon, early American promotional material used the nameSnapper.[35]
When Namco presentedPac-Man andRally-X to potential distributors at the 1980 AMOA tradeshow in November,[36] executives believed thatRally-X would be the best-selling game of that year.[12][37] According toPlay Meter magazine, bothPac-Man andRally-X received mild attention at the show. Namco had initially approachedAtari to distributePac-Man, but Atari refused the offer.[38]Midway Manufacturing subsequently agreed to distribute bothPac-Man andRally-X in North America, announcing their acquisition of the manufacturing rights on November 22[39] and releasing them in December.[40]
Ports
Pac-Man was ported to several home video game systems and personal computers; the most infamous of these is the 1982Atari 2600 conversion, designed byTod Frye and published byAtari, Inc.[41] This version of the game was widely criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of the arcade version and for its peculiar design choices, most notably the flickering effect of the ghosts.[42][43][44] However, it was a commercial success, selling over seven million copies. Atari released versions for theIntellivision,VIC-20,Commodore 64,Apple II,IBM PC compatibles,TI-99/4A,ZX Spectrum, and theAtari 8-bit computers. A port for theAtari 5200 was released in 1983, a version that is considered as a significant improvement over the Atari 2600 version.[45]
Namco released a version for theNintendo Famicom in 1984 as one of the console's first third-party titles,[46] as well as a port for theMSX computer.[47] The Famicom version was later released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System byTengen, a subsidiary ofAtari Games. Tengen produced an unlicensed version of the game in a black cartridge shell, released during a time when Tengen and Nintendo were in disagreements over the latter's stance on quality control for its consoles; this version was re-released by Namco as an official title in 1993, featuring a new cartridge label and box. The Famicom version was released for theFamicom Disk System in 1990 as a budget title for the Disk Writer kiosks in retail stores.[46] The same year, Namco released a port ofPac-Man for theGame Boy, which allowed for two-player co-operative play via theGame Link Cable peripheral. A version for theGame Gear was released a year later, which likewise enabled support for multiplayer. In celebration of the game's 20th anniversary in 1999, Namco re-released the Game Boy version for theGame Boy Color, bundled withPac-Attack and titledPac-Man: Special Color Edition.[48] The same year, Namco andSNK co-published a port for theNeo Geo Pocket Color, which came with a circular "Cross Ring" that attached to the d-pad to restrict it to four-directional movement.[49]
In 2001, Namco released a port ofPac-Man for various Japanesemobile phones, being one of the company's first mobile game releases.[50] The Famicom version of the game was re-released for theGame Boy Advance in 2004 as part of theFamicom Mini series, released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Famicom; this version was released in North America and Europe under theClassic NES Series label.[51]Namco Networks releasedPac-Man forBREW mobile devices in 2005.[52] The arcade original was released for theXbox Live Arcade service in 2006, featuring achievements and online leaderboards. In 2009 a version foriOS devices was published; this release was rebranded asPac-Man + Tournaments in 2013, featuring new mazes and leaderboards. The NES version was released for theWii Virtual Console in 2007. ARoku version was released in 2011,[53] alongside a port of the Game Boy release for the3DS Virtual Console.Pac-Man was one of four titles released under theArcade Game Series brand, which was published for theXbox One,PlayStation 4 andPC in 2016.[54] In 2021, according toNintendo Direct, it was announced thatHamster Corporation would releasePac-Man, along withXevious, for theNintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as part of itsArcade Archives series, marking the first two Namco games to be included as part of the series.
Upon its North American debut at AMOA 1980, the game initially received a mild response.Play Meter magazine previewed the game and called it "a cute game which appears to grow on players, something which cute games are not prone to do," saying that there's "more to the game than at first appears" but criticized the sound as a drawback, saying it is "good for awhile, then becomes annoying." Upon release, the game exceeded expectations with wide critical and commercial success.[38]
Commercial performance
When it was first released in Japan,Pac-Man was initially only a modest success; Namco's ownGalaxian (1979) had quickly outdone the game in popularity because its predominately male player base was familiar with its shooting gameplay as opposed toPac-Man's cute characters and maze-chase theme.[26]Pac-Man eventually became very successful in Japan,[86] where it went on to be Japan's highest-grossingarcade game of 1980 according to the annualGame Machine [ja] charts,[87] dethroningSpace Invaders (1978) which had topped the annual charts for two years in a row and leading to a shift in the Japanese market away from space shooters towards action games featuring comical characters.[88]Pac-Man was Japan's fourth highest-grossing arcade game of 1981.[89]
In North America, Midway had limited expectations prior to release, initially manufacturing 5,000 units for the US, before it caught on upon release there.[90] Some arcades purchased entire rows ofPac-Man cabinets.[12] It became a nationwide success. Upon release in 1980, it was earning about$8.1 million per week in the United States.[91] Within one year, more than 100,000 arcade units had been sold which grossed more than$1 billion inquarters.[92][93] It overtookAtari'sAsteroids (1979) as the best-selling arcade game in the country,[94] and surpassed the filmStar Wars (1977) with more than$1 billion in revenue.[95][96]Pac-Man was the United States' highest-grossingarcade game of 1981,[97][98] and second highestgame of 1982.[99] By 1982, it was estimated to have had 30 million active players across the United States;[100]Pac-Man was so compelling that a player in San Francisco reportedly shot someone for interrupting him during play.[101] The game's success was partly driven by its popularity among female audiences, becoming "the first commercial videogame to involve large numbers of women as players" according to Midway's Stan Jarocki, withPac-Man being the favorite coin-op game amongfemale gamers through 1982.[102] Among the nine arcade games covered byHow to Win Video Games (1982),Pac-Man was the only one with females accounting for a majority of players.[103]
The number of arcade units sold had tripled to 400,000 by 1982, receiving an estimated total of between seven billion coins[104] and$6 billion.[105][106][107] In a 1983 interview, Nakamura said that though he did expectPac-Man to be successful, "I never thought it would be this big."[11]Pac-Man is the best-selling arcade game of all time, with total estimated earnings ranging from10 billion coins[93][108] and $3.5 billion ($7.7 billion adjusted for inflation)[109] to$6 billion[105][106][107] ($20 billion adjusted for inflation) in arcades.Pac-Man andMs. Pac-Man also topped the USRePlaycocktail arcade cabinet charts for 23 months, fromFebruary 1982[110] through1983[111] up untilFebruary 1984.[112]
The Atari 2600 version of the game sold over8 million copies,[b] making it theconsole's best-selling title.[115] In addition,Coleco's tabletop mini-arcade unit sold over1.5 million units in 1982,[116][117] thePac-ManNelsonic Game Watch sold more than 500,000 units the same year,[118] theFamily Computer (Famicom) version and its 2004Game Boy Advance re-release sold a combined 598,000 copies in Japan,[119][120] theAtari 5200 version sold 35,011 cartridges between 1986 and 1988,[114] theAtari 8-bit computer version sold 42,359 copies in 1986 and 1990,[114] Thunder Mountain's 1986 budget release for home computers received a Diamond certification from theSoftware Publishers Association in 1989 for selling over 500,000 copies,[121] and mobile phone ports have sold over30 million paid downloads as of 2010[update].[122]II Computing also listed theAtarisoft port tenth on the magazine's list of topApple II games as of late 1985, based on sales and market-share data.[123] As of 2016[update], all versions ofPac-Man are estimated to have grossed a total of more than$12 billion in revenue.[124]
Accolades
Pac-Man was awarded "Best Commercial Arcade Game" at the1982 Arcade Awards.[82]Pac-Man also won theVideo Software Dealers Association's VSDA Award for Best Videogame.[83] In 2001,Pac-Man was voted the greatest video game of all time by aDixons poll in the UK.[84] TheKiller List of Videogames listedPac-Man as the most popular game of all time.[85] The list aggregator site Playthatgame currently ranks Pac-Man as the #53rd top game of all-time & game of the year.[125]
Impact
Pac-Man characters as street decorations inBarcelona, Spain
Pac-Man is considered by many to be one of the most influential video games of all time.[126][127][128] The game established themaze chase game genre,[126] was the first video game to make use ofpower-ups,[129] and the individual ghosts have deterministicartificial intelligence (AI) that reacts to player actions.[130]Pac-Man is considered one of the first video games to have demonstrated the potential ofplayer characters in the medium;[126][131] its title character was the first original gamingmascot, it increased the appeal of video games withfemale audiences, and it was gaming's first broadlicensing success.[126] It is often cited as the first game withcutscenes (in the form of brief comical interludes aboutPac-Man andBlinky chasing each other),[132]: 2 though actuallySpace Invaders Part II employed a similar style of between-level intermissions in 1979.[133]
Pac-Man was a turning point for thearcade video game industry, which had previously been dominated by spaceshoot 'em ups sinceSpace Invaders (1978).Pac-Man popularized a genre of "character-led"action games, leading to a wave of character action games involving player characters in 1981, such asNintendo's prototypicalplatform gameDonkey Kong,Konami'sFrogger andUniversal Entertainment'sLady Bug.[134]Pac-Man was one of the first popular non-shooting action games, defining key elements of the genre such as "parallel visual processing" which requires simultaneously keeping track of multiple entities, including the player's location, the enemies, and the energizers.[8]
Maze games became popular on home computers after the release ofPac-Man. Some of them appeared before official ports and garnered more attention from consumers, and sometimes lawyers, as a result. These includeTaxman (1981) andSnack Attack (1982) for the Apple II,Jawbreaker (1981) for the Atari 8-bit computers,Scarfman (1981) for the TRS-80, andK.C. Munchkin! (1981) for the Odyssey². Namco produced several other maze games, includingRally-X (1980),Dig Dug (1982),Exvania (1992), andTinkle Pit (1994).[citation needed] Atari suedPhilips for creatingK.C. Munchkin in the caseAtari, Inc. v. North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp., leading toMunchkin being pulled from store shelves under court order.[135] No major competitors emerged to challengePac-Man in the maze subgenre.[136]
Pac-Man inspired 3D variants of the concept, such asMonster Maze (1982),[137]Spectre (1982), and earlyfirst-person shooters such asMIDI Maze (1987; which had similar character designs).[132]: 5 [138]John Romero creditedPac-Man as the game that had the biggest influence on his career;[139]Wolfenstein 3D includes aPac-Man level from a first-person perspective.[140][141] Many post-Pac-Man titles include power-ups that briefly turn the tables on the enemy.[clarification needed] The game's artificial intelligence inspired programmers who later worked for companies likeBethesda.[130]
Reviews
Reviewing home console versions in 1982,Games magazine called theAtari 5200 implementation a "splendidly reproduced" version of the arcade game, noting a difference in maze layouts for the television screen. It considered theAtari 2600 version to have "much weaker graphics", but to still be one of the best games for that console. In both cases the reviewer felt that thejoystick controls were harder to use than those of the arcade machine, and that "attempts to make quick turns are often frustrated".[142]
Guinness World Records has awarded thePac-Man series eight records inGuinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008, including "Most Successful Coin-Operated Game". On June 3, 2010, at the NLGD Festival of Games, the game's creator, Toru Iwatani, officially received the certificate from Guinness World Records forPac-Man having had the most "coin-operated arcade machines" installed worldwide: 293,822. The record was set and recognized in 2005 and mentioned in theGuinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008, awarded in 2010.[143] In 2009,Guinness World Records listed Pac-Man as the most recognizable video game character in the United States, recognized by 94% of the population, aboveMario who was recognized by 93% of the population.[144] In 2015,The Strong National Museum of Play inductedPac-Man to itsWorld Video Game Hall of Fame.[145] The Pac-Man character and game series became an icon ofvideo game culture during the 1980s.
The game has inspired various real-life recreations, involving real people or robots. One event calledPac-Manhattan set a Guinness World Record for "LargestPac-Man Game" in 2004.[146][147][148]
In 2012, the Pac-Man was inducted into the permanent collection of theMuseum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. This addition was part of an initial selection (Wave 1) offourteen video games.[153]
A wide variety ofPac-Man merchandise have been marketed with the character's image. By 1982, Midway had about 95-105 licensees sellingPac-Man merchandise, including major companies, such asAT&T selling aPac-Man telephone. There were more than 500Pac-Man related products.[90]
7-Eleven soldPac-Man themed merchandise at its stores since the game's initial popularity in the 1980s. This has included collectibleSlurpee andBig Gulp cups. In 2023, 7-Eleven includedPac-Man in its Spring 2023 marketing material including atSpeedway andStripes banner locations, and sold more merchandise around the game as well as rebranding some of its products after the ghosts. This included its house blend coffee (Clyde's Coffee Blend), two Slurpee flavors (Blinky's Cherry & Inky's Blueberry Raz), and a special limited time only cappuccino flavor (Pinky's Strawberry White Chocolate Cappuccino), the latter of which came out pink to match the ghost.[155]
Lego released an exclusive set of a PAC-MAN arcade machine for theirLego Icons line. ALego version of PAC-MAN, Clyde, and Blinky are featured on the top of the machine, with a minifigure playing a miniature version of the machine.[157]
The character appears in the music video forBloodhound Gang's "Mope", released in 2000. Here, the character is portrayed as acocaine addict.
On July 20, 2020,Gorillaz andSchoolboy Q, released a track entitled "Pac-Man" as a part of Gorillaz'Song Machine series to commemorate the game's40th anniversary, with the music video depicting the band's frontman,2-D, playing a Gorillaz-themed Pac-Man arcade game.[168]
In the 2010 filmScott Pilgrim vs. the World, the titular character makes reference to the original Japanese name.
The 2018 filmRelaxer usesPac-Man as a strong plot element in the story of a 1999 couch-bound man who attempts to beat the game (and encounters the famous Level 256 glitch) before theyear 2000 problem occurs.[176]
Various attempts for a feature film based on Pac-Man have been planned since the peak of the original game's popularity. Following the release ofMs. Pac-Man, a feature film was being developed, but never reached an agreement.[177] In 2008, a live-action film based on the series was in development atCrystal Sky.[178][179] In 2022, plans for a live-actionPac-Man film were revived at Wayfarer Studios, based on an idea by Chuck Williams.[180][181][182]
Other gaming media
In 1982,Milton Bradley Company released a board game based onPac-Man.[183] Players move up to four Pac-Man characters (traditional yellow plus red, green, and blue) plus two ghosts as per the throws of a pair of dice. The two ghost pieces were randomly packed with one of four colors.[184]
Sticker manufacturerFleer includedrub-off game cards with itsPac-Man stickers. The card packages contain aPac-Man style maze with all points along the path hidden with opaque coverings. From the starting position, the player moves around the maze while scratching off the coverings to score points.[185]
Perfect scores and other records
A perfect score on the originalPac-Man arcade game is 3,333,360 points, achieved when the player obtains the maximum score on the first 255 levels by eating every dot, energizer, fruit and blue ghost without losing a life, then uses all six lives to obtain the maximum possible number of points on level 256.[186][187]
The first person to achieve a publicly witnessed and verified perfect score without manipulating the game's hardware to freeze play wasBilly Mitchell, who performed the feat on July 3, 1999.[187][188] Some record keeping organizations removed Mitchell's score after a 2018 investigation byTwin Galaxies concluded that two unrelatedDonkey Kong score performances submitted by Mitchell had not used an unmodified original circuit board.[189] As of July 2020, seven other gamers had achieved perfectPac-Man scores on original arcade hardware.[190] The world record for the fastest completion of a perfect score, according to Twin Galaxies, is held by David Race with a time of 3 hours, 28 minutes, 49 seconds.[191][192]
In December 1982, eight-year-old boy Jeffrey R. Yee received a letter from United States presidentRonald Reagan congratulating him on a world record score of 6,131,940 points, possible only if he had passed level 256.[187] In September 1983,Walter Day, chief scorekeeper at Twin Galaxies at the time, took theU.S. National Video Game Team on a tour of the East Coast to visit gamers who claimed the ability to pass that level. None demonstrated such an ability. In 1999, Billy Mitchell offered $100,000 to anyone who could pass level 256 before January 1, 2000. The offer expired with the prize unclaimed.[187]
After announcing in 2018 that it would no longer recognize the first perfect score onPac-Man, Guinness World Records reversed that decision and reinstated Billy Mitchell's 1999 performance on June 18, 2020.[193]
Pac-Man was followed by a series of sequels, remakes, and re-imaginings, and is one of the longest-running video game franchises in history. The first of these wasMs. Pac-Man, developed by the American-basedGeneral Computer Corporation and published by Midway in 1982. The character's gender was changed to female in response toPac-Man's popularity with women, with new mazes, moving bonus items, and faster gameplay being implemented to increase its appeal.Ms. Pac-Man is one of the best-selling arcade games in North America, wherePac-Man andMs. Pac-Man had become the most successful machines in the history of theamusement arcade industry.[194] Legal concerns raised over who owned the game causedMs. Pac-Man to become owned by Namco, who assisted in production of the game.Ms. Pac-Man inspired its own line of remakes, includingMs. Pac-Man Maze Madness (2000), andMs. Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Maze, and is included in many Namco andPac-Man collections for consoles.
Namco Networks sold a downloadable Windows PC version ofPac-Man in 2009 which also includes an enhanced mode which replaces all of the original sprites with the sprites fromPac-Man Championship Edition. Namco Networks made a downloadable bundle which includes its PC version ofPac-Man and its port ofDig Dug calledNamco All-Stars: Pac-Man and Dig Dug. In 2010,Namco Bandai announced the release of the game onWindows Phone 7 as an Xbox Live game.[202]
For the weekend of May 21–23, 2010,Google changed the logo on its homepage to aplayable version of the game[203] in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the game's release. TheGoogle Doodle version ofPac-Man was estimated to have been played by more than 1 billion people worldwide in 2010,[204] so Google later gave the game its own page.[205]
In April 2011, Soap Creative publishedWorld's Biggest Pac-Man, working together withMicrosoft and Namco-Bandai to celebratePac-Man's 30th anniversary. It is a multiplayer browser-based game with user-created, interlocking mazes.[206]
ForApril Fools' Day in 2017, Google created a playable of the game onGoogle Maps where users were able to play the game using the map onscreen.[207]
The original arcade system board had oneZ80A processor, running at 3.072 MHz, 16 kbyte of ROM and 3 kbyte of static RAM. Of those 1 kbyte each was for video RAM, color RAM and generic program RAM. There were two custom chips on the board: the 285 sync bus controller and the 284 video RAM addresser, but daughterboards made only from standard parts were also widely used instead. Video output was (analog) component video with composite sync. A further 8 kbyte of character ROM was used for characters, background tiles and sprites and an additional 1 kbit of static RAM was used to hold 4bpp sprite data for one scanline and was written to during the horizontal blanking period preceding each line. Sprite size was always 16x16 pixels, one of the four colors per pixel was for transparency (of the background).
The monitor was installed 90 degree rotated clockwise, the first visible scanline started in the top right corner and ends in the bottom right corner. The horizontal blanking period, which starts after the level indicator at the bottom is drawn, had a duration of 96 pixel clock ticks, enough time to fetch 4 bytes of sprite data per 16 clock ticks for 6 sprites. Although attribute memory exists for them, sprites 0 and 7 are unusable: Their pixel fetch timing windows are occupied by the bottom level indicator (which just precedes the hblank) for sprite 0 and two rows of characters at the top of the screen, which just follow the hblank, for sprite 7.[209]
^"Game Board Schematic"(PDF).Midway Pac-Man Parts and Operating Manual. Chicago, Illinois:Midway Games. December 1980.Archived(PDF) from the original on September 23, 2015. RetrievedJuly 20, 2009.
^Lapetino, Tim (2018). "The Story of PAC-MAN on Atari 2600".Retro Gamer Magazine.179:18–23.
^Miller, Zachary (December 2, 2011)."Pac-Man Party 3D Review".Nintendo World Report. Archived fromthe original on February 14, 2019. RetrievedJuly 14, 2019.
^abMark J. P. Wolf (2008).The video game explosion: a history from PONG to PlayStation and beyond.ABC-CLIO. p. 73.ISBN978-0-313-33868-7.Archived from the original on April 18, 2016. RetrievedApril 10, 2011.It would go on to become arguably the most famous video game of all time, with the arcade game alone taking in more than a billion dollars. One study estimated that it had been played more than 10 billion times during the twentieth century.
^Haddon, L. (1988). "Electronic and Computer Games: The History of an Interactive Medium".Screen.29 (2): 52–73 [53].doi:10.1093/screen/29.2.52.ISSN0036-9543.Revenue from the game Pac-Man alone was estimated to exceed that from the cinema box-office success Star Wars.
^Chris Morris (May 10, 2005)."Pac Man turns 25: A pizza dinner yields a cultural phenomenon – and millions of dollars in quarters. He also loved to eat a lot of pellets". CNN.Archived from the original on May 15, 2011. RetrievedApril 23, 2011.In the late 1990s, Twin Galaxies, which tracks video game world record scores, visited used game auctions and counted how many times the average Pac Man machine had been played. Based on those findings and the total number of machines that were manufactured, the organization said it believed the game had been played more than 10 billion times in the 20th century.
^"RePlay: The Players' Choice".RePlay. February–December 1982.
^"RePlay: The Players' Choice".RePlay. January–December 1983.
^"RePlay: The Players' Choice".RePlay. January–February 1984.
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^DeMaria, Rusel; Wilson, Johnny L. (2003).High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games (2 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Osborne. p. 62.ISBN0-07-223172-6.
^Game developer. Vol. 2 & 5.Miller Freeman. 1995. p. 62.Archived from the original on November 22, 2016. RetrievedJune 6, 2011.If you made it to the secret Pac-Man level in Castle Wolfenstein, you know what I mean (Pac-Man never would have made it as a three-dimensional game). Though it may be less of a visual feast, two dimensions have a well-established place as an electronic gaming format.
^Selinger, Nikita; Lyubich, Mikhail; Dudko, Dzmitry (March 3, 2017).Pacman renormalization and self-similarity of the Mandelbrot set near Siegel parameters.arXiv:1703.01206.Bibcode:2017arXiv170301206D.
^Lyubich, Mikhail; Dudko, Dzmitry (August 30, 2018).Local connectivity of the Mandelbrot set at some satellite parameters of bounded type.arXiv:1808.10425.Bibcode:2018arXiv180810425D.
^"Pac-Man Fever".Time Magazine. April 5, 1982. Archived fromthe original on January 22, 2011. RetrievedOctober 15, 2009.Columbia Records' Pac-Man Fever ... was No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week.
^"Popular Computing". McGraw-Hill. 1982. Archived fromthe original on January 22, 2011. RetrievedAugust 14, 2010.Pac-Man Fever went gold almost instantly with 1 million records sold.
^"Wreck-It Ralph Trailer #2". Walt Disney Animation Studios via YouTube. September 12, 2012. Archived fromthe original on October 30, 2021. RetrievedSeptember 12, 2012.
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Hirschfeld, Tom.How to Master the Video Games, Bantam Books, 1981.ISBN0-553-20164-6 Strategy guide for a variety of arcade games includingPac-Man. Includes drawings of some of the common patterns.
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