30 years and still chomping: The history of Pac-Man

Last weekend one of the most famous video game icons of all time turned 30. Namco’s Pac-Man is unquestionably the first true mascot of the medium, and even today remains widely recognised by people who have never played a video game in their lives.

It’s little wonder, then, that Google took the bold step of honouring the pill-muncher’s big day by making its home page an interactive facsimile of the original 1980 arcade game.

The brainchild of designer Tōru Iwatani, Pac-Man’s unique moniker was inspired by the Japanese term 'paku-paku', which is supposed to sound like the noise of a someone rapidly chomping.

The original name was actually Puck-Man, although unsurprisingly western publisher Midway decided to change this to Pac-Man to avoid potentially embarrassing defacement of cabinets.

Interestingly, Pac-Man failed to capture the imagination of Japanese arcade-goers when it was first launched in 1980. It wasn’t until the game was picked up for distribution in the US shortly afterwards that it truly transformed into a global phenomenon.

It’s worth noting that at the time most coin-ops were either shooters or simplistic sports titles. Pac-Man was a true paradigm-shift, offering a game where the sole objective wasn’t to destroy your enemies but to eat as many pills as possible whilst avoiding the ghosts and navigating the complex maze levels.

It was also unique in that the cute main character appealed to both sexes, something which hadn’t previously been attempted in the industry.

Pac-Man is one of the few franchises from the so-called golden era of video gaming that's still in active service today. The yellow fellow has inspired countless video game sequels, an animated TV show, board game, hit single and even some highly embarrassing clothing and underwear.

In 2004 it was reported that a live-action film was in development, although thankfully little has been heard of this rather questionable project since then.

In the past three decades Pac-Man has appeared on pretty much every major video gaming system, including the NES, Mega Drive, SNES, Game Boy, Atari 2600, GameCube, PlayStation and Game Boy Advance – not to mention numerous other formats.

The simplistic visuals have also ensured that the game has been extensively ported to mobile phones, with Java, Android and iPhone variants in existence.

When you consider that Pac-Man created a new genre, it’s unsurprising that a whole army of me-too maze-game clones have appeared since it made its debut at the dawn of the eighties.

Although many of these copies were badly-hacked efforts – such as the risible Hangly-Man – many eminently respectable firms attempted to cash-in on the craze.

For example, Data East pushed out Lock ‘n’ Chase in 1981. Although the pills were turned to coins and the ghosts to police officers, the gameplay remained shamefully derivative.

Other titles were less obvious: Crush Roller (known in the west as Make Trax) tasked the player with painting a maze whilst avoiding enemies. It was a neat deviation from the blueprint laid down in Namco’s title, but it remains a Pac-Man lookalike nonetheless.

Pac-Man has enjoyed a particularly profitable career on handheld formats. Few true-blooded retro gaming fans will forget the LCD game by Tomy, which saw release under a variety of names, including Puck-Man and Munch-Man.

A relic from the days before the Game Boy, this gaily-coloured lump of plastic was the closest many got to playing Namco’s legendary title outside of the local arcade.

The fortunes of the various conversions for mobile formats during the ‘90s were mixed: the Game Boy edition was neat enough but lacked colour, and the Game Gear port suffered from the console’s blurry display.

It wasn’t until the launch of the Neo Geo Pocket Color version that portable players had a truly arcade-perfect representation of Pac-Man. Not only did this edition boast accurate visuals and sound, but it even came with a special adapter for the console’s micro-switched joystick, which locked in movement to either a horizontal or vertical plane.

Since then we’ve witnessed a flurry of excellent ports, including the brilliant Pac-Man Collection on the Game Boy Advance. The aforementioned iPhone and Android editions of the game are also worthy of praise.

Despite its simplistic gameplay and crude visuals Pac-Man remains as popular today as he ever was. While attempts to expand his appeal beyond the trademark maze game – including efforts such as Pac-Land, Pac-Man World and Pac-Attack – haven’t always hit the mark, the timeless gameplay of Tōru Iwatani’s original vision lives on.

The fact that Google’s aforementioned home page makeover caused global productivity to plummet last week is irrefutable proof of that fact. Happy birthday, Pac-Man.