How does Pac-Man, the classic video game end up on a website about mazes ? Well Pac-Man takes place in a maze. It is considered one of the first maze chase games - a genre it popularized that quickly expanded to over 100 games.
12 reasons why Pac-Man was iconic:
It created the first recognizable video game character
Before Pac-Man you drove a tank, car, spaceship, plane or paddle. There were not characters that you cared about, only things you used.
It was embraced by female gamers
Before Pac-Man most games were war, strategy, and racing and were mostly played by males. When Pac-Man was introduced 60% of the players were female.
It popularized the chase maze genre of video games
Pac-Man wasn’t the first maze chase game, but it’s popularity made the playing style popular and quickly led to copycat games.
It was an original hunter becomes the hunted game
The tension of being chased by ghosts quickly flips to hunting ghosts when you eat that power pellet. Great gaming.
It crossed over into popular culture and became collectible
With an animated TV Show (IMDB), a hit song, lunchboxes, toys, and cereal to name a few things. In fact there were so many items and it became so popular in pop culture has made Pac-Man products highly collectible:
The ghosts in Pac-Man are the first example of AI in a video game
Each of the four ghosts have different and consistent AI behaviors. Blinky, the red ghost is always chasing you and speeds up once you’ve eaten so many dots in each level. Pinky (pink), tends to move counterclockwise around blocks and looks to ambush you. Inky (blue) moves sporadically. Clyde (orange), rarely approaches you.
Ms Pac-Man was the (almost) original girl power
Ms Pac-Man was the 2nd playable female video game character when she debuted in Feb 1982 (Lady Bug’s debut was Oct 1981). But, she was definitely the most famous.
Ms Pac-Man was one of the first video game sequels
And like The Empire Strikes Back, it was better than the original. It also featured 4 different mazes vs. one for Pac-Man.
It is rooted in simplicity, like many early great games.
Eat all the dots. Avoid the ghosts. With that anyone is up to speed and can quickly play the game.
It created the cut scene/intermission in a game.
As the first game to feature cut scenes, it helped make Pac-Man a relatable character and gave life to him and his family, including Ms Pac-Man.
It was the first game to inspire a guidebook:
Mastering Pac-Man by Ken Uston. Learn the Pac-Man patterns and you can play for a long time !!!!
It helped standardize that each level was more difficult than the last
Fun facts I learned when researching Pac-Man:
Atari manufactured 12 million video game cartridges for the Atari 2600 system despite not having sold that many systems to play them on yet. They eventually sold only 7 of the 12 million cartridges. So 5 million Pac-Man games needed to be destroyed.
Pac-Man was originally called Puck Man in Japan (because he looks like a puck), but when it came to the US they changed the name fearing vandalism to the game. I found the Miss Puckman game below on a trip to The Netherlands !
Miss Puckman Arcade
Pac-Man is considered the highest grossing arcade game in history @ $2.5 Billion dollars in quarters ! Maybe most impressive is $1 billion of that was spent in the first year alone.
The first perfect game was completed in 1999 by Billy MItchell, exposing the screen bug on screen #256 (called the kill screen) and the highest possible score of 3,333,360.
Pac-Man’s design inspiration came from a pizza missing a slice.
Pac-Man’s name was inspired by the Japanese onomatopoeia ( a word that sounds like what it is describing) for “munch” and “chomp”, Paku-Paku
There is a secret hiding spot in the maze where the ghosts cannot find you if they aren’t looking at you. Do you know where it is ?
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