Pac-Man (video game)

Pac-Man
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Protagonist(s): Pac-Man Genre(s): Maze Platform(s): Arcade Apple II Atari 2600 Atari 7800 Atari 5200 Atari 8-bit ColecoVision Commodore 64 Commodore VIC-20 IBM PC Intellivision TI-99/4A ZX Spectrum Nintendo Entertainment System Game Boy Game Boy Color Game Boy Advance Sega Master System Game Gear Neo Geo Pocket Color Nintendo 64 PlayStation PlayStation 2 Xbox iOS Android Xbox 360 Wii PlayStation 3 Windows Wii U Playstation 4 Xbox One Nintendo Switch Release Date: JP: May 22, 1980 NA: October 26, 1980 Developer(s): Toru Iwatani Publisher(s): Namco Series: Pac-Man Successor: Ms. Pac-Man (1981)

Pac-Man (パックマン, Pakkuman), originally titled Puck-Man for its initial Japan release, is an arcade maze game developed by Namco (who later merged with Bandai in 2005 to form Bandai-Namco) and first published in Japan on May 22, 1980.

Why It's a Cherry-On-Top

1. Like most classic video arcade games from the 1980s, the levels of this game are endless, with the goal being to consume every pac-dot while avoiding ghosts until you see an unplayable video game glitch known as the kill screen. This also adds more replay value.
2. Colorful 8-bit raster graphics from the third generation era, much like Galaga.
3. The controls are absolutely easy to understand, only consisting of tilting a D-pad that makes Pac-Man turn towards an indicated direction. There is literally no need for a face button, as the only possible control is moving in four different directions.
4. The ghosts are challenging and intimidating enemies with their own unique personalities: Blinky is an aggressive ghost since he chases Pac-Man relentlessly as well as being the fastest ghost once you collected many dots, Pinky is a cunning opponent as she tries to ambush the player, Clyde cowardly stays away from him in order to not get eaten, and Inky, in spite of lacking any personality, is easily the most unpredictable of the group.
5. Pac-Man, the titular game protagonist, appears in more than 30 officially licensed video game spin-offs, including numerous unauthorized clones and bootlegs.
6. It is considered to be one of the longest running video game series ever created from the golden age of video arcade games, being created 40 years ago as of now. Unfortunately, Namco doesn't seem to support their franchise as much as before nowadays, focusing on others and leaving Pac-Man with very few modern entries, which is ironic considering he is Namco's most beloved character.
7. Challenging difficulty that encourages increasing the score quickly by eating the pellets, foods, and even the blue ghosts when the power pellet is eaten.
8. It created a new video game genre.
9. Due to the game's blowing success, it spawned plenty of other versions like Ms. Pac-Man (a variant with more mazes and moving fruits), many other medias like films and some animated series.
10. The NES port has a score overflow at level 836 (level 830 if the fruits were eaten on the first 6 levels), meaning that gameplay could potentially last for 10 hours.
11. After winning each 2 rounds of the game by eating all the pac-dots, you get some funny little cutscenes depicting Blinky failing to catch Pac-Man. In the first cutscene, Blinky chases Pac-Man until the latter suddenly grows, causing Blinky to run away to avoid being eaten by him. In the second, Blinky accidentally steps on a white line that peels off his skin. In the third one, Blinky chases Pac-Man yet again with his skin partially fixed, before suddenly appearing.
12. For the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man in 2010, technology company Google made a brand new variant of the game changing the original maze into a maze that spells out the word "Google", with the screen being flipped horizontally. It is available to play for free, as it was made as an interactive Doodle.
13. As this is a game from a developer that doesn't make consoles, it got ported to possibly the most platforms ever, including computers and even obscure consoles.

"Game Over" Qualities

1. Due to hardware limitations at the time, reaching the 256th level causes an infamous kill screen to be triggered, completely glitching out the right side of the level with random tiles (since this value exceeds the maximum possible unit in an 8-bit integer, 255.) Due to it being iconic, a mobile game, titled Pac-Man 256, featured gameplay consisting of escaping the glitch by moving upwards indefinitely while gathering score and also avoiding more different types of Ghosts. This game was made by Hipster Whale, under Namco's license.
   • However, with ports of Pac-Man being made for lots of modern hardware that are much more powerful, the kill screen can be disabled, fixing the glitchy 256th level and allowing it to be completed to get on the next levels.
2. The Atari 2600 port was an unfinished dumpster that became the forefather of rushing game developments along with E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, also for that same platform. It was infamous for its very ugly graphics, ear-bleeding sounds, terrible level design and most importantly, the flickering ghosts.

Reception

This arcade game title became more popular as the most famous, highest-grossing video games of all time in 1980s, higher than both Space Invaders and Asteroids. It became one of the influential video games like Space Invaders.

Trivia

• The game's old title, Puck Man, got changed into "Pac-Man" for the western releases and later worldwide including Japan. According to Midway, the manufacturer of the game in North America, the point of changing the game's name was so that vandals couldn't turn the letter "P" of Puck Man into an "F", which will result into "F*** Man".
  • The name "Puck Man" came from the titular character's distinct hockey puck-like shape. The new name "Pac-Man" is based on the Japanese onomatopoeia term "paku paku taberu", referencing the mouth movement of opening and closing in succession.
• Atari tried to blame Coleco after they made the infamous Atari 2600 port. This is why the Pac-Man port for the ColecoVision never reached to stores, as people would've mistaken Coleco for making a bad port, causing problems for the company.
• The reasons of why were the ghosts present in the game was because the creators thought about releasing a game far from being a violent game and addressed to couples, girls and young kids too, that's also the reason for their colorful, cartoony and gelatinous designs and googly eyes.

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