![]() ![]() However strange the disparate elements might have seemed, they worked. Iwatani brought the ghosts over from a previous game concept, Cutie-Q. The design team also decided to add color and brightness to pull in younger potential players, too. That company’s lead designer on the project, Toru Iwatani, thought that by de-emphasizing the shooting that was common in other games, they might attract a broader female audience. ( withGod / Shutterstock)ĭeveloped by Namco, Puck Man (as it was called in Japan) was created out of a desire to generate a hit with wider demographic appeal. New games included Missile Command, Berzerk, Centipede, Wizard of Wor, Phoenix, Star Castle, and one of the most popular video games ever created, Pac-Man. A major surge in available titles took place in 1980, as mall space and other retail locations were converted into arcades. Atari also debuted Asteroids in 1979 not only would it be one of the first games that allowed “Hi Score” players to enter their initials, it would go on to be Atari’s most successful coin-op game of all time. Midway also brought over a game from Taito’s competitor, Namco, called Galaxian its gameplay was similar to Space Invaders, but with more movement from the attackers. The game was a big hit in Japan, and was licensed to Midway in the States in 1979 thousands of cabinets were sold, and the U.S. While programming the game, he realized that the animation moved faster when there were fewer objects on screen, so he incorporated that feature into the gameplay itself, making the “ticking clock” of the advancing aliens one of the game’s defining features. Tomohiro Nishikado developed the game for Japan’s Taito Corporation using a combination of hardware that he assembled and the latest microprocessors from America. But the real boom began with the arrival of Space Invaders in 1978. One early success was Pong, which was released in a cabinet in 1972 and in a home version in 1975. Video games, and indeed, home video games, had already been making inroads into American culture for some time. Return with us now to the thrilling days of Pac-Man Fever! And The Beatles of this particular invasion were a round yellow ball with an insatiable appetite for dots and his four implacable ghost antagonists. Video game characters broke out into toys, animation, and even hit songs. The reign of the video game had begun, and it was a legitimate pop culture phenomenon. But nothing that had ever come before would equal the arcade boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the height of the video game's popularity, songwriters Buckner & Garcia released the song Pac-Man Fever in 1982.From the penny arcades of the very early 1900s to the nickelodeons on up through the pinball boom of the 1950s, Americans have loved their coin-operated amusements. It's 3,333,360, according to the official Pac-Man website.Ħ. Since its launch, the game has been played an estimated 10 billion times.ĥ. According to Guinness World Records, more than 293,000 Pac-Man machines were built and installed worldwide between 19. It's the most successful coin-operated arcade machine ever. release to prevent vandals from changing the "P" to an "F" to spell - well, you know.Ĥ. Japanese versions of the game carried this earlier name, but as Iwatani points out to Wired, it was changed to Pac-Man for its U.S. And I realized that if women and couples were going to come to game centers, they had to be cheerful places."ģ. ![]() When women would go out, they'd go out in a group of friends or with a boyfriend as a couple. "It was for men, it wasn't fashionable at all. "It seemed very dark," Iwatani said of arcades at the time in a 2010 interview with Wired on the game's 30th anniversary. To stand out, Iwatani says he created Pac-Man to appeal to more women. Right before Pac-Man's arrival, aliens were the stars of video game with classics including Space Invaders. Pac-Man was created to attract female players. "That's how Pac-Man's iconic shape was created," he tells the magazine.Ģ. In a recent interview with Time Magazine, Iwatani recalls taking a slice of pizza and noticing how the remaining pie looked like a character. But one you may not know about is it gave creator Toru Iwatani the idea of how he wanted the star of his game to look. So, pizza is awesome for various reasons. In honor of Pac-Man's birthday, here are six facts about the video game icon:ġ. Although Pac-Man wasn't the first video game created, the character is certainly responsible for the medium's growing popularity during its run in arcades in the '80s. On May 22, 1980, a video game icon made his debut in Japanese arcades.įriday marks the 35th anniversary of the arrival of Pac-Man, arguably the most recognizable character and franchise the video game industry boasts. ![]()
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