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Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution by Midway Games in 1979. Immensely popular from its first release through today, Pac-Man is universally considered one of the classics of the medium and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Screenshot of Pac-Man This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ...
A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video or computer games. ...
Namco is a company based in Japan, best known for developing video games. ...
Video game publishers are companies that publish video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer. ...
Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) is a video game publisher known for such game series as Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, and Spy Hunter. ...
A game designer is a person who designs games. ...
Toru Iwatani Toru Iwatani (born January 25, 1955) was a video game designer in the 1980s, and created one of the most popular arcade games of all time, Pac-Man. ...
1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...
This is listing of computer and video game genres with a brief description and examples from each genre. ...
This is listing of computer and video game genres with a brief description and examples from each genre. ...
This arcade cabinet, containing Centipede, is an upright. ...
An arcade system board is a standardized printed circuit board or group of printed circuit boards that are used as the basis for multiple arcade games with very similar hardware requirements. ...
The central processing unit (CPU) is the part of a computer that interprets and carries out the instructions contained in the software. ...
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Zilog from 1976 onwards. ...
Nineteen inch (48 cm) CRT computer monitor A computer display, monitor or screen is a computer peripheral device capable of showing still or moving images generated by a computer and processed by a graphics card. ...
Suppose the smiley face in the top left corner is an RGB bitmap image. ...
Joystick elements: 1. ...
In computing, a port (derived from seaport) is usually an interface through which data are sent and received. ...
Arcade can mean several things: Arcade (architecture) - A passage or walkway, often including retailers. ...
Atari 2600 (four-switch version). ...
Atari 5200 System The Atari 5200 was a video game console introduced in 1982 by Atari. ...
The Commodore 64 (C64, CBM 64) was a popular home computer of the 1980s. ...
The Intellivision is a video game console released by Mattel in 1980; development of the console began in 1978 (less than a year after the introduction of its main competitor, the legendary Atari 2600 aka the Atari VCS). ...
The Sega Game Gear was Segas first portable gaming system. ...
In Space Invaders, the player controls the firing and horizontal position of the green cannon at the bottom, fending off constant attack by echelons of eponymous enemies. ...
The Killer List of Videogames (or simply KLOV) is a web site devoted to cataloging arcade games past and present. ...
Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ...
Namco is a company based in Japan, best known for developing video games. ...
Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) is a video game publisher known for such game series as Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, and Spy Hunter. ...
1979 is a common year starting on Monday. ...
// Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...
Popular culture, or pop culture, is the vernacular (peoples) culture that prevails in a modern society. ...
The game was a stark contrast from many arcade games produced in its day, abandoning "shoot-em-up action" in favor of a unique, humorous, largely non-violent format that appealed to girls as well as boys — a contributing factor to its eventual critical and commercial success.
Creation and public response
The game was developed primarily by Namco employee Toru Iwatani. After receiving inspiration from a pizza pie with one slice missing [1], game designer Iwatani spent approximately one year and five months on a game that revolved around eating. Iwatani's efforts to appeal to a wider audience — beyond the typical demographics of young boys and teenagers — would eventually lead him to adding in elements of a maze. The result was a game he entitled Puck-Man, derived from the onomatopoeic Japanese phrase pakupaku, meaning to flap one's mouth open and closed. When first launched in Japan on October 10, 1979 by Namco, the game received a lukewarm response, as Space Invaders and other games of similar ilk were far more popular at the time. Toru Iwatani Toru Iwatani (born January 25, 1955) was a video game designer in the 1980s, and created one of the most popular arcade games of all time, Pac-Man. ...
A supreme pizza such as this one includes many different toppings, such as pepperoni (one of the most popular toppings on American pizzas), green peppers, olives, and mushrooms. ...
A separate article is about the punk band called The Adolescents. ...
A small maze. ...
The sound of hitting a ball can be described as Whack. In rhetoric, linguistics and poetry, onomatopoeia is a figure of speech that employs a word, or occasionally, a grouping of words, that imitates, echoes, or suggests the object it is describing, such as bang, click, fizz, hush or buzz...
The Japanese language is a spoken and written language used mainly in Japan. ...
October 10 is the 283rd day of the year (284th in Leap years). ...
Space Invaders was an arcade video game designed and programmed by Tomohiro Nishikado and originally manufactured by Taito; it was licensed for production in the U.S. by the Midway Manufacturing division of Bally. ...
However, in 1980, the game was picked up for manufacture in the U.S. by Bally division Midway Manufacturing, under the altered title Pac-Man. American audiences welcomed a breakaway from conventions set by Space Invaders, which resulted in unprecedented popularity and revenue that rivaled its successful predecessor. The game soon became a worldwide phenomenon within the video game industry, resulting in numerous sequels and merchandising tie-ins. Its style of gameplay became widely imitated by games created by competitors, but none could equal the original in profit or popularity. 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about: United States Wikinews has news related to this article: United States United States government Official website of the United States government - Gateway to governmental sites White House - Official site of the US President Senate. ...
The Bally name has been associated with several companies. ...
Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) is a video game publisher known for such game series as Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, and Spy Hunter. ...
The computer and video game industry is the economic sector involved with the development, marketing and sale of video and computer games. ...
The name change from Puck-Man to Pac-Man was said to be partially motivated out of a desire to avoid the obvious vandalism that Americans could inflict upon game cabinets by scratching out part of the first letter to change it to an "F". However, because this is not an issue in many non-English speaking countries, both Puck-Man and Pac-Man machines can be found throughout Europe. Fuck is among the strongest, most controversial expletives in the modern English language and probably the most well-known vulgarism in the world. ...
English may refer to: The nation of England. ...
A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ...
Gameplay Pac-Man is a maze game. The player maneuvers Pac-Man, a yellow circle with a mouth, to navigate a maze while eating pills and prizes. A level, or board, is finished when all pills are eaten. Four monsters also wander the maze in an attempt to catch Pac-Man. Each level begins with three monsters in their "monster pen" and one monster above it, and Pac-Man near the bottom of the maze. The monsters are released from the pen periodically as Pac-Man eats dots. A small maze. ...
In computer and video games, a level (sometimes called a stage, course, map or landscape) is a separate area in a games virtual world, in modern games typically representing a specific location such as a building or a city. ...
Four special pills near the corners of the maze, known as "energizers" or "power pills," provide Pac-Man with the temporary ability to eat the monsters. The monsters turn a deep blue and reverse direction immediately when Pac-Man eats an energizer, and they move more slowly while they are vulnerable. The monsters are worth 200, 400, 800, and 1600 points, in sequence (the values starting over again at 200 each time another Power Pill is eaten), so it is advantageous to the player to try to eat all four monsters each time. If a monster is eaten, his eyes return to the monster pen where he will be restored to normal. The monsters flash white shortly before they revert to being dangerous. The amount of time the monsters remain vulnerable after a Power Pill is eaten varies from one board to the next, but the time period generally becomes shorter as the game progresses, and after many boards have been completed the monsters will actually not turn blue at all when the energizers are eaten (but they will still reverse direction).
Pills are worth ten points each (there are 240 of them on each board), and Power Pills are worth fifty points each. Additionally, points can be earned by having Pac-Man eat a bonus prize (generically referred to as a "fruit," even though a few are not actually fruit) that appears twice during each board just below the monster pen. The symbols change with each successive one or two boards, and their point value steadily increases:
- Cherries, 100 points
- Strawberry, 300 points
- Orange, 500 points
- Apple, 700 points
- Grapes, 1000 points
- Flagship from Galaxian, 2000 points
- Bell, 3000 points
- Key, 5000 points
Pac-Man is awarded a bonus life at 10,000 points (the default setting; DIP switches inside the machine can change the required points to 15,000 or 20,000 or disable the bonus life altogether). Galaxian is an arcade game by Namco released in 1979. ...
A DIP switch is an electric switch that is packaged in a standard Dual-Inline Package or DIP. Because of the DIP form factor, arrays of multiple switches can easily be incorporated into the same package. ...
Monsters While the monsters are bound by the same limitations of the maze, some key differences exist between Pac-Man's and the monsters' movement. For example, Pac-Man turns corners faster than his adversaries; he can also pass through the "tunnel" on either side of the maze unhindered, as opposed to the monsters, who suffer a severe drop in speed.
The monsters have names and nicknames. This list reflects the game's English language version: A nickname is a short, clever, cute, derogatory, or otherwise substitute name for a person or things real name (for example, Nick is short for Nicholas). ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
- Blinky ("Shadow") is the red monster. He tends to pursue Pac-Man closely. When a certain number of dots are eaten on the board (depending on the level), Blinky will receive a considerable boost in speed. Pac-Man fans refer to this change as "Cruise Elroy," though the origin of this term is unknown.
- Pinky ("Speedy") is the pink monster. Pinky usually joins Blinky in close pursuit of Pac-Man, but sometimes lags behind. While Blinky usually turns clockwise around corners, Pinky usually turns counterclockwise, effectively trapping the player on two sides. Despite his name, Pinky is meant to be a male character.
- Inky ("Bashful") is the light blue monster. His behaviour is erratic; sometimes he actively chases Pac-Man, while other times he will go out of his way to avoid a confrontation, or will even turn and run from Pac-Man.
- Clyde ("Pokey"), the orange monster, does not actively chase after Pac-Man, preferring to wander on his own path. However, this makes him more difficult for the player to track, putting the player in danger of accidentally running into him. Furthermore, when Pac-Man eats a power pill and tries to eat all four monsters for maximum points, Clyde is sometimes hard to reach before the pill wears off.
In the original Puck-Man, these monsters were named Akabei ("red-guy"), Pinky, Aosuke ("blue-guy"), and Guzuta ("slow-guy"). Puck-Man also had a DIP switch for alternate monster names: Urchin ("Macky"), Romp ("Micky"), Stylist ("Mucky"), and Crybaby ("Mocky"). The monsters are introduced by name during the game's attract mode. Red is a color at the lowest frequencies of light discernible by the human eye. ...
This article is about the color. ...
Clockwise can refer to: Clockwise and counterclockwise Clockwise (movie) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
A clockwise motion is one that proceeds like the clocks hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top. ...
Blue (from Old High German blao shining) is one of the three primary additive colors; blue light has the shortest wavelength (about 470 nm) of the three primary colors. ...
The colour orange occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum at a wavelength of about 620-585 nanometres. ...
A DIP switch is an electric switch that is packaged in a standard Dual-Inline Package or DIP. Because of the DIP form factor, arrays of multiple switches can easily be incorporated into the same package. ...
In video games, attract mode is any display shown when nobody is playing the game. ...
There are a few notable quirks in the behavior of the monsters:
- If the player survives long enough in a level without being caught by a monster, the monsters will all suddenly reverse directions and each will head for a different corner. This will continue to happen occasionally as long as the player stays alive without having finished the level.
- The monsters will never go up into either of the two passages immediately above their monster pen (unless they are in their blue vulnerable state). A player being closely pursued can lose his pursuers by leading them to the top of the monster pen then going up into either of the two passages; the monsters will not follow.
- If Pac-Man goes up into (and stops in) the corner immediately to the right and above his starting location at any time when the monsters are not closely pursuing him, they will never find him, and instead will roam aimlessly around the board until Pac-Man leaves that spot. This trick is used by marathon Pac-Man players to allow themselves an occasional bathroom break.
The movements of the monsters are strictly deterministic—there is no random or even pseudo-randomness in the algorithms choosing their paths. Experienced players have exploited this flaw by devising precise sequences of movements for each level in order to play indefinitely (termed "patterns"). A later revision of the programming altered the behavior, but it still wasn't random, and new patterns were devised for it. Flowcharts are often used to represent algorithms. ...
The monsters are called ghosts in the Atari 2600 version of the game, and ghost-monsters in the television cartoon show (see below). Pac-Man was an animated series which ran on ABC from September 1982 to Decemeber 1983. ...
Game details
 The Japanese sales flyer from 1980. This is a scan of the Japanese sales flyer for the Namco Puck Man arcade game. ...
This is a scan of the Japanese sales flyer for the Namco Puck Man arcade game. ...
Intermissions During the opening boards of the game, the linearity of the game's progression is interrupted by "intermissions"—humorous animated scenes featuring Pac-Man and the monsters. There are three different intermissions: - Blinky chases Pac-Man off the screen. Blinky reappears as a vulnerable blue monster coming the opposite direction, being chased by a giant Pac-Man. This intermission plays after Board 2.
- Blinky chases Pac-Man across the screen, but his pelt gets caught on a tack in the floor, and part of it is ripped off revealing his bare leg. This intermission plays after Board 5.
- Blinky, with the corner of his pelt sewn back on, chases Pac-Man across the screen. Blinky reappears coming back the opposite direction, naked, dragging his pelt behind him. This intermission plays after Boards 9, 13 and 17.
The "Split-Screen Level" The game technically has no end; the player will be given new boards to clear as long as he does not run out of lives. But due to a glitch in the game, the right side of the 256th board is a garbled mess of text and symbols, rendering the level virtually unplayable. This glitch occurs because of the way the level number is stored in hexadecimal within the programming of the machine. "FF" (hexadecimal for 255) is the highest number possible to store using a 1 byte number (each hex character is 4 bits, 8 bits is 1 byte). When the game tries to go to a number higher than FF (the next level, which would be 256, or '100' in hexadecimal), such a thing cannot be done, and the game goes berserk. 256 (two hundred [and] fifty-six, CCLVI) is the natural number following 255 and preceding 257. ...
In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal or simply hex is a numeral system with a radix or base of 16 usually written using the symbols 0–9 and A–F or a–f. ...
Pac-Man enthusiasts refer to this as the "Final Level," the "Split-Screen Level," or simply as the ending of Pac-Man. Although there are claims that someone with enough knowledge of the maze pattern can play through it, it is generally considered unbeatable via legitimate means (see "Historical events" below).
It is only through modern tinkering can the details of the Split-Screen Level be determined. As playable through arcade game emulator MAME, some ROMs of the game are equipped with a "rack test" within the DIP switches, which will automatically clear a level of all pellets as soon as it begins. This method not only makes reaching the long-mythical 256th board infinitely easier (thus making detailed analysis possible), but also demonstrates what happens after the board has been cleared. MAME is a computer software program for personal computers. ...
Rom is also the name of a toy and comic book character Rom (Spaceknight). ...
To wit: because the right side of the map does not exist, Pac-Man and the monsters can move freely throughout the right side of the screen, barring some of the garbled symbols which are fractured pieces of the maze. Other symbols also entail power pills, which must be eaten for the player to continue (unlike the unglitched boards, if Pac-Man loses a life, the pills on the right side of the screen will reset after being eaten). Because the maze fracture blockades are "placed" in many locations, it is difficult—if not impossible—to locate them all.
If the board is cleared, the game restarts from the first board without error, once again repeating through 256. However, while the power-ups and intermissions repeat from the opening of the game, the monsters will retain their speed and invulnerability to power pellets from the later boards.
A disastrous port The first attempt to adapt Pac-Man to the home video game market was a disastrous failure. Atari Inc. bought the home video rights to the game, and it promoted the release of the Atari 2600 version of the game with an enormous marketing campaign. In the eyes of the public, the combination of the world's most popular home video game console with the world's most popular arcade game seemed like a "can't miss" blockbuster. However, the actual Atari 2600 adaptation of the game ended up being panned by critics as stiff and lifeless- somehow managing to remove the colorful, "fun" aspect of Pac-Man from the game. It was one of two major home video game releases (along with the Atari 2600 version of E.T.) that may have triggered the video game crash of 1983. This is a Pac Man cartridge for the Atari 2600 game system. ...
This is a Pac Man cartridge for the Atari 2600 game system. ...
Atari 2600 (four-switch version). ...
In computing, a port (derived from seaport) is usually an interface through which data are sent and received. ...
For the concept Atari (当たり) in the board game of Go, see Atari (go term). ...
Atari 2600 (four-switch version). ...
Screenshot from E.T. was a video game created in 1983 for the Atari 2600 video game system, based on the 1982 movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial; it is widely considered to be the worst game of all time, and is indisputably one of the biggest commercial failures in...
The video game crash of 1983 was the sudden collapse of the video game business and the bankruptcy of a number of companies producing home computers and video game consoles in North America in late 1983 and early 1984. ...
Reports have it that the miserable port of the game to the 2600 was largely due to an overzealous Atari marketing department. As Atari planned for the development of Pac-Man for the 2600, some marketing executives approached one of their principal game programmers, Tod Frye, about doing a version of the game. He said he already had a prototype developed and showed it to them. It lacked polish, but the executives were so eager to start selling the game (due in part to the approaching 1981 Christmas season) that they overlooked its flaws and ordered production of the game based on the unfinished prototype. Atari allegedly paid Frye $1 million for his work. John Carmack is one of the most widely recognized and influential game programmers. ...
Prototypes or prototypical instances combine the most representative attributes of a category. ...
1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Christmas (literally, the Mass of Christ) is a holiday in the Christian calendar, usually observed on December 25, which celebrates the birth of Jesus. ...
Unfortunately, the public did not overlook the game's blemishes, and many consumers instead purchased similar offerings from competing video game publishers. The sales figures would normally have been respectable (70% of Atari's 10 million-strong user base bought the game), except that Atari produced 12 million cartridges, which led to a large loss for the company. Video game publishers are companies that publish video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer. ...
 A screenshot of the Atari 2600 version. Only one ghost is visible in this image because only one is drawn on the screen at a time. The game suffers from poor design choices as well as limitations of the 2600. It technically only draws one enemy on the screen at a time, so that each of the game's four enemies only appears in one of every four frames; due to persistence of vision this presents the illusion of having four enemies on the screen at once, but they flicker badly. For this reason, the game's instruction manual calls the enemies "ghosts" instead of "monsters". The ghosts are very subtly tinted different colors, but this can be very hard to see on most television sets, and otherwise there are no differences between the ghosts. Unlike the arcade game in which the monsters' eyes indicate their direction of movement, the eyes of this version's ghosts spin constantly. The ghosts move according to much simpler patterns which do not appear to depend on the location of Pac-Man. Pac-Man himself looks more like a wrench with an eye, his mouth continues to open and close even when he is not moving, and he moves up and down corridors sideways. The dots are actually dashes, and the sound of eating them is a harsh tone. The maze is nothing like that of the arcade game, and this version has orange walls and a blue background. The escape tunnels are located at the top and bottom of the screen. The "fruit" has become a two-color rectangle which does not change from board to board. screenshot Atari 2600 Pac-Man by me This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ...
screenshot Atari 2600 Pac-Man by me This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ...
In film, video production, animation, and related fields, a frame is one of the many still images which compose the complete moving picture. ...
According to the theory of persistence of vision, the perceptual processes of the brain or the retina of the human eye retains an image for a split second. ...
A wrench or spanner is a tool used to turn bolts, nuts or other hard-to-turn items. ...
Legacy Marketers from the video game manufacturers were taken completely by surprise by the phenomenal success of Pac-Man in 1980. Interviews with programmers who worked in the industry during the initial golden age of video games revealed that marketing executives completely overlooked the game (and likewise dismissed the classic Defender as "too complex"), while they looked to a racing car game called Rally-X as the game to beat that year. But the appeal of Pac-Man caught on immediately with the gaming public, and the game's popularity outpaced anything seen in the industry before; it even surpassed Space Invaders as the most popular and most influential game of the 1980s. 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...
In Space Invaders, the player controls the firing and horizontal position of the green cannon at the bottom, fending off constant attack by echelons of eponymous enemies. ...
This page is about the arcade game Defender. ...
Rally-X is an arcade game made by Namco in 1980. ...
Space Invaders was an arcade video game designed and programmed by Tomohiro Nishikado and originally manufactured by Taito; it was licensed for production in the U.S. by the Midway Manufacturing division of Bally. ...
// Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...
The unique and original game design inspired game manufacturers to look into game designs that differed from endless "alien invader battle" games. Pac-Man introduced an element of humor into video games that designers sought to imitate, as it appealed to a wider demographic than the teenage boys who flocked to the action-oriented games. Many popular video games of the 1980s, including Q*Bert, Donkey Kong, and Frogger owe their existence to the success of Pac-Man. This article is about the arcade game, for the DJ, see Q-bert (DJ) Q*bert is a 1982 arcade game from Gottlieb. ...
Notes Introduced the Mario and Donkey Kong characters; #3 most popular game in the KLOV Donkey Kong is an arcade game created by Nintendo, released in 1981. ...
Frogger is a 1981 arcade game produced by Sega, developed by Konami. ...
Pac-Man spawned numerous spin-off and imitative games. Its 'official' arcade lineage includes Ms. Pac Man, Pac-Man Plus, Super Pac-Man, Jr. Pac Man, Pac-Land, Pac-Mania, the Baby Pac-Man video/pinball game, and the Professor Pac-Man quiz game. Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures was later released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega Genesis in 1994. Unauthorized "pirate" versions of the game were also created, most notably Hangly-Man, one variant of which replaced the Pac-Man character with the head of Popeye. In addition, soon after the release of the original Pac-Man, many other maze-themed video games entered the arcade market (Make Trax and Thief being the most prominent) and one such game, K.C. Munchkin, was actually withdrawn after Namco threatened to sue its creator, since its imitation of the Pac-Man characters was so blatant and undisguised. Ms. ...
Pac-Man Plus is a 1982 video arcade game released by Namco, which was the 4th in the Pac-man series of games. ...
Super Pac-Man, released in 1982, is the third in the Pac-Man series of games. ...
Jr. ...
Pac-Land is an entry in the Pac-Man series of arcade video games, released into arcades by Namco, and its American distributor Midway Games, in 1984. ...
Pac-Mania was the last arcade video game in the Pac-Man series, released in 1987 by Namco, while liscensed in the United States and other countries by Atari. ...
Baby Pac-Man is an arcade video pinball game made by Bally Midway around 1983. ...
Pinball is a type of coin-operated arcade game where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass case. ...
Professor Pac-Man is an arcade game produced by Midway in 1983. ...
The North American Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as the Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, and Australia. ...
The European SNES design is identical to the Super Famicom. ...
Sega Genesis 2 The Sega Genesis is a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in North America in 1989. ...
1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...
Hangly-Man Hangly-Man is a hack clone version of the Pac-Man arcade game that appeared sometime in 1981, in the height of the Pac-Man craze. ...
Popeye from an opening still from one of his cartoon shorts, with his characteristic corncob pipe and single good eye. ...
Make Trax is an arcade game introduced by Williams in 1981. ...
Thief is a 1981 arcade video game which is extremely similar to Pac-Man. ...
Cover of manual This is cartridge number 38 in the official Magnavox/Philips line of games for the Philips Videopac. ...
A great deal of Pac-Man merchandise was marketed in the 1980s, from t-shirts to toys to hand-held video game imitations. The game also inspired a 1982 hit single, "Pac-Man Fever." T-Shirt A T-shirt (or tee shirt) is a shirt with short or long sleeves, a round neck, put on over the head, without pockets. ...
Green Razor Scooter This article is about things that people play with. ...
1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Pac-Man Fever is a 1982 album recorded by Buckner and Garcia. ...
A Saturday morning TV cartoon also called Pac-Man (TV series) based on the game was produced by Hanna-Barbera and lasted one year from 1983 to 1984. It was also the basis for a Pac-Man Christmas special titled Christmas Comes to Pac-Land. In the series and the special, Pac-Man's enemies were called "ghost-monsters" and wore "suits" kept stored in a closet. The "nicknames" given in the game—Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde—became their official names. They were led by the evil Mezmaron, who employed them in his plots to raid the Power Pill Forest. Marty Ingels was the voice actor of Pac-Man. A cartoon is any of several forms of art, with varied meanings that evolved from one to another. ...
Pac-Man was an animated series which ran on ABC from September 1982 to Decemeber 1983. ...
Cartoon Network Studios, formerly known as Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ...
1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Christmas (literally, the Mass of Christ) is a holiday in the Christian calendar, usually observed on December 25, which celebrates the birth of Jesus. ...
Marty Ingels was best known as the voice of many cartoon characters with his scratchy, unique voice. ...
A voice actor (or voice artist) is a person who provides voices for animation (including animated feature films, television series, animated shorts), radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides. ...
The Killer List of Videogames lists Pac-Man as the #1 video game of all time on its "The Top 100 Videogames" list. The Killer List of Videogames (or simply KLOV) is a web site devoted to cataloging arcade games past and present. ...
Pac-Man is one of the few games to have been consistently re-released over a span of more than two decades, and continues to do so. Aside from the original ports for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Intellivision and Commodore 64, official ports were also made for the Nintendo Entertainment System (1987 and 1990), Nintendo Game Boy (1991), Sega Game Gear (1991). The game has also been released as part of Pac-Man Special Edition for the Game Boy Color (1999), Namco Museum Vol. 1 for the PlayStation (1996), Pac-Man Collection for the Game Boy Advance (2001) and Namco Museum for the PlayStation 2 (2001). Only one other title has managed this feat—Space Invaders—although aside from a Game Boy conversion in 1990 and a SNES conversion in 1994, the game saw few re-releases between 1982 and the game's 25th Anniversary in 2003. The Nintendo Entertainment System (North America, Europe, and Australia) The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, is an 8-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Europe and Australia. ...
The original Game Boys design set the standard for handheld gaming consoles. ...
The Sega Game Gear was Segas first portable gaming system. ...
The Game Boy Color (also referred to as GBC) was Nintendos successor to the Game Boy. ...
Namco Museum refers to the series of compilations released by Namco for various 32-bit and above consoles, containing releases of their games from the 1980s. ...
The PlayStation (Japanese: プレイステーション) is a video game console of the 32-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the 1990s. ...
The Game Boy line is the best-selling handheld. ...
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) (Japanese: プレイステーション2) is Sonys second video game console, after the PlayStation. ...
Space Invaders was an arcade video game designed and programmed by Tomohiro Nishikado and originally manufactured by Taito; it was licensed for production in the U.S. by the Midway Manufacturing division of Bally. ...
The European SNES design is identical to the Super Famicom. ...
In 2003, a new version called Pac-Man Vs. for the Nintendo GameCube allowed four players to play simultaneously. One player used the Game Boy Advance to view the entire Pac-Man maze and control Pac-Man, while three other players used the TV screen and traditional GameCube controllers to control one monster each. The players that controlled the monsters were only allowed to see the small part of the maze that was around them, limiting the view of the monster players. This showcased Nintendo's connectivity feature between the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance, and was given away free with the Player's Choice rereleased version of Pac-Man World 2 as well as Namco's I-Ninja and R: Racing Revolution games for GameCube. 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Pac-Man Vs. ...
The Nintendo GameCube (Japanese: ゲームã‚ューブ; originally code-named Dolphin during development; abbreviated as GCN) is Nintendos fourth home video game console, belonging to the 128-bit era; the same generation as Segas Dreamcast, Sonys PlayStation 2, and Microsofts Xbox. ...
The Game Boy line is the best-selling handheld. ...
An American family watching television in the 1950s. ...
In 2004, New York University's Interactive Telecommunications graduate program created a "real world" version of the game called "Pac-Manhattan" where one player runs around the streets of New York City dressed as Pac-Man and collects "virtual dots" (there are no physical representations of the dots in the streets, but a map on a central computer knows where Pac-Man has been and, therefore, which streets have been "cleared"). Four other players play the part of the monsters. Pac-Man (or the monsters when Pac-Man has eaten a power pill by touching a streetsign at certain intersections) are killed by tagging (touching with the hands). Each player has a controller counterpart in constant cell phone contact and are monitored from a centralized location using Wi-Fi internet connections, and custom software designed by the Pac-Manhattan team. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
New York University (NYU) is a large research university in New York City. ...
Pac-Manhattan is a real-life version of Pac-Man created in 2004. ...
Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, and is at the center of international finance, politics, communications, music, fashion, and culture. ...
TaG stands for Touch and Go, which is arguably the fastest growing class in karting. ...
Cellular redirects here. ...
Historical events The first known "perfect Pac-Man game", in which the player must complete all of the 255 levels with a maximum point score without ever being caught, was played in 1999 by Billy Mitchell. The maximum score is 3,333,360 points. 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
However, in December 1982, an eight-year-old boy named Jeffrey R. Yee received a letter from U.S. President Ronald Reagan, congratulating him on a worldwide record of 6,131,940 points, a score only possible if the player passed through the Split-Screen Level. Whether or not this event happened as described has remained in heated debate amongst video game circles since its occurrence. Billy Mitchell offered $100,000 to anyone who could provably pass through the Split-Screen Level before January 1, 2000; no one could. 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Seal of the President of the United States The President of the United States is the head of state of the United States. ...
Order: 40th President Vice President: George H.W. Bush Term of office: 21 January 1981 – 20 January 1989 Preceded by: Jimmy Carter Succeeded by: George H.W. Bush Date of birth: 6 February 1911 Place of birth: Tampico, Illinois Date of death: 5 June 2004 Place of death: Bel-Air...
January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ...
2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Trivia - In Brazil, the game was unofficially named by the children as Come-Come (lit. he eats-he eats, in Portuguese). Also an onomatopoeic, from the sound the character does when walking/eating. In Italy, the same sound is referred as a meaningless Gabo Gabo.
- Pac-Man, and other video games of the same general type, are often cited as an identifying cultural experience of Generation X, particularly its older members, sometimes called Baby Busters.
- The secret level of the third episode of Wolfenstein 3D is fashioned after one of the original Pac-Man levels.
- It was rumored that Toru Iwatani had quit Namco because he only received a small amount of money after creating the game. In reality, he was promoted and as of 2004 is still a Namco employee.
- The Ms. Pac-Man cartridge for the Atari 2600 was vastly superior to the original Pac-Man. Over the years, Atari hobbyists have reverse-engineered the Ms. Pac-Man cartridge's graphics and colors to make the game resemble the original Pac-Man more closely. While this is technically a copyright violation (see MAME), the altered ROM has been a popular item among collectors of original 2600 games.
- In the popular video game oriented web cartoon Penny Arcade, Gabe is almost always seen wearing a yellow shirt with a black outline of Pac-Man. Other strips reveal that his room is decorated with Pac-Man sheets and matching curtains, and his car's liscense plate reads "PCMNFN" (Pac-Man Fan). Mike Krahulik, the Penny Arcade artist who uses Gabe as an alter-ego actually has a tattoo of Pac-Man eating pellets around his arm.
- Also, the Namco character Klonoa always wears a blue cap with a little Pac-Man on it. Curiously, this mark was erased in Namco x Capcom, in which Pac-Man's only appearance is as a statue in a single stage (Some fans might use Pac-Man's playable appearance in MarioKart Arcade GP as an explanation for his total absence in Namco x Capcom, seeing as he crossed over with Mario instead.).
- A Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man can still be found in many arcades as of 2004, especially Namco owned arcades.
- When asked about wearing a Pac-Man T-shirt throughout a Slayer-tour, bassist/singer Tom Araya was quoted saying that he wore the shirt because he considers Pac-Man the most violent game ever, since there's no other game where you have to eat your enemies.
- For many years, Pac-Man has served as the video game mascot for Namco.
- Pac-Man was one of the most widely bootlegged games in the early 80's; these bootlegged versions often had significant differences in how the monsters ran their patterns.
- A plugin kit called Super ABC became available in the 1990s which added several new games to the Pac-Man system, including different versions of the original Pac-Man.
- In Wangan Mignight Maximum Tune, the Pac Man and the three ghost (inky, Plinky and ?) are the actual fastest enemy encountered.
- The PBS children's show Square One often features a segment called Math Man, a videogame based loosely on Pac-Man. There is only one monster on the Math Man board, a tornado-like creature named "Mr. Glitch." A correct answer was accompanied by a fanfare similar to that played on many home computers.
This image is a book cover. ...
This image is a book cover. ...
MAD is an American humor magazine founded by publisher William Gaines and editor Harvey Kurtzman in 1952. ...
1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The sound of hitting a ball can be described as Whack. In rhetoric, linguistics and poetry, onomatopoeia is a figure of speech that employs a word, or occasionally, a grouping of words, that imitates, echoes, or suggests the object it is describing, such as bang, click, fizz, hush or buzz...
Computer and video games A screenshot of Tetris for the Nintendo Game Boy A console game (better known as a video game) is a form of interactive multimedia used for entertainment, which consists of a moveable image displayed on a screen that is usually controlled and manipulated using a handheld...
Generation X is a term used in demographics, the social sciences, and more broadly in popular culture. ...
Baby Busters is a name for a demographic group born in the United States, and sometimes Canada, from 1958 through 1968. ...
Wolfenstein 3D (commonly abbreviated to Wolf 3D) is the computer game that started the first person shooter genre on the PC. It was created by id Software and published by Apogee Software on May 5, 1992. ...
2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc. ...
MAME is a computer software program for personal computers. ...
A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ...
A cartoon is any of several forms of art, with varied meanings that evolved from one to another. ...
The Penny Arcade Crew Penny Arcade is a web comic written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. ...
Mike Krahulik is the artist from the popular web comic Penny Arcade. ...
The Penny Arcade Crew Penny Arcade is a web comic written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. ...
Klonoa Klonoa is an anthropomorphic video game character, created by the Japanese game company Namco (of Pac-Man fame), who first appeared in the 1998 Sony PlayStation game Klonoa: The Door to Phantomile. ...
Namco x Capcom is turn-based RPG featuring characters from the video game companies Namco and Capcom. ...
MarioKart Arcade GP is an arcade-only sequel to Nintendos Mario Kart series. ...
For over 20 years, Mario has been the official video game mascot for Nintendo. ...
2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Namco is a company based in Japan, best known for developing video games. ...
Slayer circa 2004. ...
Tom Araya Tom Araya (born as Tomás Araya June 6, 1961 in Valparaiso, Chile) is best known as the vocalist and bassist of the thrash metal band Slayer. ...
Mascots at the Mascot Olympics in Orlando, FL. A mascot is something, typically an animal or human character used to represent a group with a common identity, such as a school, professional sports team, or corporation. ...
Namco is a company based in Japan, best known for developing video games. ...
Wangan Midnight is a 80s manga that depict highway race. ...
PBS re-directs here; for alternate uses see PBS (disambiguation) PBS logo The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a non-profit public broadcasting television service with 349 member TV stations in the United States. ...
Square One, also known as Square One Television, was a television show produced by the Childrens Television Workshop to teach mathematics and abstract mathematical concepts to young viewers. ...
A tornado over land. ...
Songs inspired by Pac-Man Buckner & Garcia are the duo of Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia. ...
1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Pac-Man Fever is a 1982 album recorded by Buckner and Garcia. ...
Lil Flip Lil Flip (born Wesley Weston, Jr. ...
The Bloodhound Gang are an American post-grunge rock-and-roll band, originally from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. ...
Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin Aphex Twin (born Richard David James, August 18, 1971, Ireland) is a UK-based electronic music artist, credited with pushing forward the genres of techno, ambient, IDM, acid, drum and bass (specifically drill n bass). ...
Alfred Matthew Weird Al Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is a Grammy award winning American musician, satirist, parodist, accordionist, and television producer. ...
The word taxman is used to personify tax collection agencies such as the Inland Revenue in the United Kingdom. ...
The Beatles (L-R, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon), in 1964, performing on The Ed Sullivan Show during their first United States tour, promoting their first U.S. hit song, I Want To Hold Your Hand. ...
Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, a rock quintet from Argentina whose run in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s drew a cult-like following that mirrored The Grateful Dead frenzy in the States. ...
Difference in artwork design When Midway released Pac-Man in the United States, the company also redesigned the artwork, as the Namco-style artwork was more costly to reproduce in large numbers, as well as being considered too stylish for the American market. Puck-Man was painted overall white featuring multicoloured artwork on both sides with cheerful Puck-Man characters in different poses while Pac-Man was painted yellow, with very simple and easy-to-stencil artwork on both sides and front. A photo montage of a Midway Pacman and Namco Puckman clearly showing the big difference in artwork design. ...
A photo montage of a Midway Pacman and Namco Puckman clearly showing the big difference in artwork design. ...
This arcade cabinet, containing Centipede, is an upright. ...
Ports Because of its success, Pac-Man has been ported to most video game consoles of its time. Just like the Atari 2600 port, they were done by Atari. Here are screenshots of some of these ports: The Nintendo GameCube is an example of a video game console. ...
screenshot Atari 2600 Pac-Man by me This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ...
Screenshot of Pac_Man (Atari 5200), made by User:Tyan23. ...
screenshot C64 Pac-Man, software by Atarisoft 1983, screenshot made myself. ...
screenshot Intellivision Pac-Man, made myself. ...
Atari 2600 (four-switch version). ...
1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Atari 5200 System The Atari 5200 was a video game console introduced in 1982 by Atari. ...
1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Commodore 64 (C64, CBM 64) was a popular home computer of the 1980s. ...
1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Intellivision is a video game console released by Mattel in 1980; development of the console began in 1978 (less than a year after the introduction of its main competitor, the legendary Atari 2600 aka the Atari VCS). ...
1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
See also This is a list of arcade games organized alphabetically by name. ...
Here is a list of clones of the video game Pac-Man by Namco KC Munchkin Magnavox/Phillips (1983) Hangly Man unknown (1981) 3D Maze Man eGames (2000) Chompa unknown (2002) Neave Pac-Man neave. ...
Poly Play was the only arcade machine developed in the German Democratic Republic in 1985, thus making it the only arcade console to originate in the Eastern Bloc. ...
Cranwells horned frog (Ceratophrys cranwelli) is an example of a Pacman frog. ...
External link - [2] Pac Man entry on the Killer List of Videogames
- [3] Washington Post article on Pac-man's 25th birthday (22 Jun 2005)
- World's only dedicated Puckman site, the original Japanese title which is still in use
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