You can find a Pac-man arcade machine for sale in various formats and for many types of consoles. But, nothing compares to the original version, especially when played in a game arcade. Pac-man ensured hours and hours of entertainment for most 80's kids so if you were a fan then, here are 11 Pac-man facts you need to know.
- The designer of Pac-man, Toru Iwatani, wasn't a game designer or programmer. After he joined Namco to manufacture pinball machines, he started making arcade games.
- The Japanese word paku-paku means chewing or eating which is where the name Pac-man derived from.
- It took 18 months to create Pac-man and most of that time was spent making ghosts move separately.
- At the same time Pac-man was developed, Namco also developed a game called Rally-X and thought it would be more popular, but they were completely wrong.
- Before the release of Pac-man, the most popular arcade games included shooting aliens. Iwatani wanted to attract more female gamers which is evident with the sequel Ms Pac-man.
- Popeye's spinach inspired the power-ups in Pac-man while Q-Taro and Casper inspired the ghosts.
- Every ghost has a different way of chasing Pac-man. Blinky (red) follows him wherever he goes, Pinky (pink) and Inky (blue) attempts to get ahead of Pac-man by a number of pixels and Clyde (orange) move randomly.
- One of the first ever viral videos on YouTube was Pac-man related. It was of a man dressed up as Pac-man and his friends, dressed as ghosts and chasing him. Uploaded nearly 10 years ago, it has 66 million views to date.
- Pac-man was one of the first games with breaks - coffee breaks as Iwatani calls them. These intermissions are the cutscenes between levels.
- When Pac-man turned 30 in 2010, Google released a browser version for fans to play. And they did. Nearly 500 million hours were spent playing and businesses lost millions due to the loss of productivity.
Why not relive your fondest childhood memories by purchasing your very own Pac-man arcade machine? Home of Arcadia offers affordable arcade game machines with thousands of classic games. For more information get in touch with the team today.