Pac-Man

For other meanings, see Pac-Man (disambiguation).

Pac-Man (or Puck-Man) is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution by Midway and was first released in 1980. Immensely popular from its first release through today, Pac-Man is universally considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. This non-violent game appealed to both boys and girls.

Until Pac-Man was released in the arcades, arcade video games in North America were primarily "space shooters", or video games where people controlled spaceships in space that had to shoot something (asteroids, aliens, etc). Since then, video arcade games have widely diversified (and even became educational in some cases), and as such, Pac-Man is credited with being a landmark in arcade gaming.

Contents

History

The Japanese sales flyer from 1980.

The game was developed primarily by Namco employee Toru Iwatani. After receiving inspiration from a pizza with one slice missing , game designer Iwatani spent approximately seventeen months on a game that revolved around eating. Iwatani's efforts to appeal to a wider audience — beyond the typical demographics of young boys and teenagers — would eventually lead him to adding in elements of a maze. The result was a game he entitled PUCK MAN, derived from the onomatopoeic Japanese phrase pakupaku, meaning he eats. When first launched in Japan in 1980 by Namco, the game received a lukewarm response, as Space Invaders and other games of similar ilk were far more popular at the time.

However, that same year, the game was picked up for manufacture in the U.S. by Bally division Midway, under the altered title Pac-Man because PUCK MAN was similar in spelling and pronunciation to a common expletive. American audiences welcomed a breakaway from conventions set by Space Invaders, which resulted in unprecedented popularity and revenue that rivaled its successful predecessor (even Iwatani was impressed with U.S. sales). The game soon became a worldwide phenomenon within the video game industry, resulting in numerous sequels and merchandising tie-ins. Its style of gameplay became widely imitated by games created by competitors, but none could equal the original in profit or popularity.

When Midway released Pac-Man in the United States, the company also redesigned the cabinet's artwork, as the Namco-style artwork was more costly to mass produce, as well as being considered too stylish for the American market. PUCK MAN was painted overall white featuring multicolored artwork on both sides with cheerful Puck-Man characters in different poses while Pac-Man was painted yellow, with very simple and easy-to-stencil artwork on both sides and front.

The first known "perfect Pac-Man game", in which the player must complete all of the 255 levels, a maximum point score without ever being caught, was verified by the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard on July 3, 1999. Billy Mitchell, of Hollywood, FL, achieved the feat in six hours. To attain the maximum possible score of 3,333,360 points, it was necessary for Mitchell to eat every fruit, every energizer, every blue ghost and every dot for 255 boards.

Marketers from the video game manufacturers were taken completely by surprise by the phenomenal success of Pac-Man in 1980. Interviews with programmers who worked in the industry during the initial golden age of video games revealed that marketing executives completely overlooked the game (and likewise dismissed the classic Defender as "too complex"), while they looked to a racing car game called Rally-X as the game to outdo that year. The appeal of Pac-Man caught on immediately with the gaming public and the game's popularity outpaced anything seen in the industry before; it even surpassed Space Invaders as the most popular and most influential game of the 1980s. The game was so popular that it was one of the most widely bootlegged games in the early 80s; these versions often had significant differences in how the monsters ran their patterns.

The unique and original game design inspired game manufacturers to look into game designs that differed from endless "alien invader battle" games. Pac-Man introduced an element of humor into video games that designers sought to imitate, as it appealed to a wider demographic than the teenage boys who flocked to the action-oriented games. Many popular video games of the 1980s, including Q*Bert, Donkey Kong, and Frogger partially owe their existence to the success of Pac-Man.

The Killer List of Videogames lists Pac-Man as the #1 video game of all time on its "Top 100 Video games" list. Pac-Man, and other video games of the same general type, are often cited as an identifying cultural experience of Generation X, particularly its older members, sometimes called Baby Busters.

Name

The original title was pronounced pakku-man (IPA: pækuːmæn (?)) and was inspired by the Japanese onomatopeic phrase paku-paku taberu.

The name change from PUCK MAN to Pac-Man was due to concerns that American vandals would change the P into an F.[link] Although many people think this concern depended only on the language, English game titles — and such phrases as “HIGH SCORE” and “GAME OVER” — were generally understood in Japan. Says Chris Kohler in his book , “Don’t believe for a second that Japanese teenagers didn’t realize what they could change Puck-Man into; it’s just that they wouldn’t ever do it.”

Both PUCK MAN and Pac-Man machines can be found throughout Europe.

Gameplay

Pac-Man is a maze game. The player maneuvers Pac-Man, a yellow circle with a mouth, to navigate a maze while eating small dots and other item prizes. A level, or board, is finished when all the "dots" are eaten. Four ghosts (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) also wander the maze in an attempt to catch Pac-Man. Each level begins with three ghosts in their "ghost pen" and one above it, and Pac-Man near the bottom of the maze. The ghosts are released from the pen one by one at the start of each level.

There are four power-up items near the corners of the maze, known as "energizers" or "power pellets" which provide Pac-Man with the temporary ability to eat the ghosts. The ghosts turn a deep blue and reverse direction immediately when Pac-Man eats an energizer, and they move more slowly while they are vulnerable. The ghosts are worth 200, 400, 800, and 1600 points, in sequence. The values reset back to 200 each time another Power Pellet is eaten, so it is advantageous for the player to eat all four ghosts per pellet. If a ghost is eaten, his eyes return to the "ghost pen" where they will be restored to normal. The ghosts flash white five times before they revert to being dangerous. The amount of time the ghosts remain vulnerable after a Power Pellet is eaten varies from one board to the next, but the time period generally becomes shorter as the game progresses, and after many boards have been completed the ghosts will actually not turn blue at all when the energizers are eaten (but they will still reverse direction).

Regular "dots" are worth ten points each (there are 240 of them on each board), and Power Pellets (known as "power food" in Japan) are worth fifty points each. Additionally, points can be earned by having Pac-Man eat a bonus prize (generically referred to as a "fruit," even though a few are not actually fruit) that appears twice during each board just below the monster pen. The symbols change with each successive one or two boards, and their point value steadily increases:

Cherries, 100 points
Strawberry, 300 points
Orange, 500 points
Apple, 700 points
Indistinct green fruit(supposedly a bunch of grapes), 1000 points
Flagship from Galaxian, 2000 points
Bell, 3000 points
Key, 5000 points

A myth arose that far into the game, an extremely rare item would appear, either a screwdriver or a bar of gold, with these items giving 50,000 and 100,000 points respectively. In reality, there are no such items.

Pac-Man is awarded a bonus life at 10,000 points (the default setting; DIP switches inside the machine can change the required points to 15,000 or 20,000 or disable the bonus life altogether).

Ghosts

The various Pac-Man ghosts with their "character" and nicknames.

Initially, Pac-Man’s enemies were referred to as "monsters", but soon became known as "ghosts." (see Ghosts vs. monsters.)

Names

The ghosts are introduced during attract mode by the following names and nicknames:

Colour of ghost Original Puckman American Pac-Man
Name Translation Nickname Translation Alternate
name Alternate
nickname Name Nickname
Red Oikake chaser Akabei red guy Urchin Macky Shadow Blinky
Pink Machibuse ambusher Pinky — Romp Micky Speedy Pinky
Cyan Kimagure fickle Aosuke blue guy Stylist Mucky Bashful Inky
Orange Otoboke stupid Guzuta slow guy Crybaby Mocky Pokey Clyde

Colour of ghost	Original Puckman	American Pac-Man
Name	Translation	Nickname	Translation	Alternate name	Alternate nickname	Name	Nickname
Red	Oikake	chaser	Akabei	red guy	Urchin	Macky	Shadow	Blinky
Pink	Machibuse	ambusher	Pinky	—	Romp	Micky	Speedy	Pinky
Cyan	Kimagure	fickle	Aosuke	blue guy	Stylist	Mucky	Bashful	Inky
Orange	Otoboke	stupid	Guzuta	slow guy	Crybaby	Mocky	Pokey	Clyde

Alternate names were selected by a switch on the cabinet.

Speed

While the ghosts are bound by the same limitations of the maze as Pac-Man himself, they differ in speed in several ways:

They turn corners more slowly than Pac-Man.
They slow down while walking through the "tunnels" on the sides of the maze, whereas Pac-Man walks through them unhindered.
Blinky increases greatly in speed once a certain number of dots are eaten. The higher the level, the sooner this happens. The accelerated Blinky is unofficially referred to as Cruise Elroy, which may be a reference to Elroy Jetson. (Apart from Cruise Elroy, the ghost speeds are equal and constant.)

Behaviour

The movements of the ghosts are strictly deterministic—there is no random or even pseudo-randomness in the algorithms choosing their paths. Experienced players have exploited this flaw by devising precise sequences of movements for each level in order to play indefinitely (termed "patterns"). A later revision of the programming altered the behavior, but it still wasn't random, and new patterns were devised for it.

There are a few notable quirks in the behavior of the ghosts:

If the player survives long enough in a level without being caught by a ghost, the ghosts will all suddenly reverse directions and each will head for a different corner. This term is called "Scatter Mode", and it will continue to happen as long as the player stays alive without having finished the level, cycling between converging on the player, and de-converging into their respective corners (Blinky: upper right, Pinky: upper left, Inky: lower right, Clyde: lower left). If this process goes on long enough, and the player has still not completed the level, then the ghosts will constantly attack and never go back into Scatter Mode.
The ghosts will never go upwards into either of the two passages immediately above their monster pen (unless they are in their blue vulnerable state). Players being closely pursued can lose their pursuers by leading them to the top of the monster pen then going upwards into either of the two passages; the ghosts will not follow.
Pac-Man may go upwards into (and stop in) the corner immediately to the right and above his starting location facing upwards. When the ghosts are not closely pursuing him, they will never find him, and instead will roam aimlessly around the board until Pac-Man leaves that spot. This trick is used by marathon Pac-Man players to allow themselves an occasional bathroom break.
There is a software coding bug that allows Pac-Man to sometimes pass through a ghost unharmed. Though this rarely occurs, several patterns have been developed which consistently pass through a ghost or ghosts. Most expert players have their favorite "pass through" pattern.

Personalities, relationships and back-story

Another series of inconsistencies in the history of the game is the different personalities and roles of the ghost-monsters. In the original game, and most others afterward, the order of the listed villains in the intro screen shows Blinky as the leader. In the actual gameplay, he is the one who pursues you the most aggressively, especially in the state of Cruise Elroy. He is often followed by Pinky. Then Inky often cuts Pac-Man's escape route off, as was stated. Clyde always seems to be wandering off and doesn't get in the way as much. This pattern was followed consistently, until the cartoon, in which the personalities were changed, with Clyde as the boss, Inky as the dumb one, Sue (a purple ghost who originally appeared as Clyde's orange replacement in Ms. Pac-Man, she later appeared in Pac-Land and Pac-Mania) as also bossy and Blinky as very timid. (Only Pinky’s personality matched 'his' character as a tough bully.)

The games released after the TV series continued the original roles, until Pac-Land, which was based squarely on the cartoon. While the four male ghosts basically do not differ from each other in their moves (they mostly bob up and down in their vehicles), the eyes now reflected the cartoon, with Clyde as the angry-looking leader, Blinky as timid looking and Inky as stupid-looking, with crossed eyes. Sue was also particularly aggressive, lurking behind you if you moved too slowly through the game. These were the basic drawings of the ghosts used on most merchandise and newer game artwork to the present.

Pac-Mania changed things again. The facial expressions were not used in the game or cabinet artwork, with the exception of Sue's angry eyes in the game,and Blinky's angry "boss" eyes are shown when he is eaten and in the intermissions. The screen displaying the list of high-scores, however, shows the cartoon ghosts chasing Pac-Man, with Blinky having the angry "boss" eyes, while Inky still having the goofy crossed eyes. On the other hand, the screen-side art somewhat followed the cartoon, listing "Clyde" as "The Boss. He’s super fast when mad." (Which would presumably refer to the "Cruise Elroy" associated with the true boss, Blinky.) Blinky is listed as "The slow, absent minded one." However, on the actual gameplay, players see pretty much the same pattern from the original game, with Blinky coming fast, Pinky being tough, Inky moderately tough, and Clyde hardly bothering the player at all. The difference is Sue, who is once again very aggressive (and now often gives you more trouble than Blinky), along with the game's new ghosts, Funky (known as "Common" in Japan) and Spunky (known as "Grey Common").

In Pac-Man Arrangement, the personality-swap introduced by the cartoon completely affected the personalities in the game. The different-colored ghosts still act the normal way, but now, on the introductory screen where the ghosts are listed, players see that Blinky and Clyde have swapped sheets! (Clyde is now wearing red, and Blinky is the orange one at the bottom).

Intermissions

During the opening boards of the game, the linearity of the game's progression is interrupted by "intermissions" — humorous animated scenes featuring Pac-Man and the monsters. There are three different intermissions:

Blinky chases Pac-Man off the screen. Blinky reappears as a vulnerable blue monster coming the opposite direction, being chased by a giant Pac-Man. This intermission plays after Board 2.
Blinky chases Pac-Man across the screen, but his pelt gets caught on a tack in the floor, and part of it is ripped off revealing his 'skin'. This intermission plays after Board 5.
Blinky, with the corner of his pelt sewn back on, chases Pac-Man across the screen. Blinky reappears coming back the opposite direction, naked, dragging his pelt behind him. This intermission plays after Boards 9, 13 and 17.

Split-screen level

The game technically has no end; the player will be given new boards to clear as long as Pac-Man does not lose all of his lives. However, due to a glitch in the game the right side of the 256th board is a garbled mess of text and symbols rendering the level unplayable. This occurs because of a bug in the subroutine that draws the fruit at the bottom of the screen that indicate the current level. Normally, at most 7 fruits are displayed, regardless of the current screen, but since the level number is stored in a single byte, level 255 ("FF" in hexadecimal) rolls over to 0 in the subroutine, and 256 fruit are drawn, corrupting the bottom of the screen and the entire right half of the maze. Enthusiasts refer to this as the "Final Level," the "Split-Screen Level," or simply as the ending. Although there are claims that someone with enough knowledge of the maze pattern can play through it, it is generally considered impossible to be cleared via legitimate means.

However, in December 1982, an eight-year-old boy named Jeffrey R. Yee received a letter from U.S. President Ronald Reagan congratulating him on a worldwide record of 6,131,940 points, a score only possible if the player has passed the Split-Screen Level. Whether or not this event happened as described has remained in heated debate amongst video game circles since its supposed occurrence. In September, 1983, Walter Day, Chief Scorekeeper at the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, took the U.S. National Video Game Team on a tour of the East Coast to visit video game players who claimed they could get through the "Split-Screen." No video game player could demonstrate this ability. Later, in 1999, Billy Mitchell offered $100,000 to anyone who could provably pass through the Split-Screen Level before January 1, 2000; there is no evidence that anyone could.

Through tinkering, the details of the Split-Screen Level have been revealed. As playable through arcade game emulator MAME some ROMs of the game are equipped with a "rack test" within the DIP switches which will automatically clear a level of all pellets as soon as it begins. This method not only makes reaching the long-mythical 256th board easier (thus making detailed analysis possible) but also allows a demonstration of what happens after the board has been cleared:

Because the right side of the map does not exist, Pac-Man and the ghosts can move freely throughout the right side of the screen, barring some of the garbled symbols which are fractured pieces of the maze. Other symbols also entail power pills, which must be eaten for the player to continue (unlike the unglitched boards, if Pac-Man loses a life, the pills on the right side of the screen will reset after being eaten). Because the maze fracture blockades are "placed" in many locations, it is difficult — if not impossible — to locate them all.

If the board is cleared, the game restarts from the first board without error, once again repeating through 256. However, while the power-ups and intermissions repeat from the opening of the game, the monsters will retain their speed and invulnerability to power pellets from the later boards.

Related games

Ports

Pac-Man is one of the few games to have been consistently re-released for over two decades. In the 1980s, it was released for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-Bit Computers (400/800/etc.), Intellivision and Commodore 64, and the Nintendo Entertainment System (1987 and 1990). In the handheld world, it was released on the Game Boy (1991), Sega Game Gear (1991), Neo-Geo Pocket Color (1999), for the Game Boy Color (1999), and Pac-Man Collection for the Game Boy Advance (2001). However, it has been most widely distributed in Namco's long-running Namco Museum series, starting on the PlayStation in 1996 and continuing to this day on every major console (as well as the PSP and Game Boy Advance) with the (2005). An Xbox 360 port, to be distributed through the Xbox Live Arcade, was announced in April 2006 and is scheduled for release on August 9th 2006.

Namco has repeatedly rereleased this game in arcades. In 2001, Namco released a 20-Year Reunion game that combined Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga in one cabinet. To play the original Pac-Man on this machine, move the joystick in this order on the "Press Start Button" that appears after you insert your coins: up, up, up, down, down, down, left, right, left, right, left. If done correctly, you should hear a sound, and Ms. Pac-Man will change color. Press the Ms. Pac-Man start button, and you will be able to play Pac-Man. It should be noted that Ms. Pac-Man machines are far easier to locate in today's arcades than a dedicated Pac-Man. In 2005, Namco released a board openly featuring all three of the games on the 20-Year Reunion board in honor of Pac-Man's 25th Anniversary.

Namco's wireless division released a line of PAC-MAN games for the cell phone in 2002, starting with the original arcade version and following up with Pac-Man game extensions like Pac-Man Bowling and Pac-Man Pinball. This division (Namco Networks America Inc.) also launched a networked game, Ms. Pac-Man For Prizes, in 2004. Pac-Man mobile games are available on both BREW and Java platforms across major cellular carriers, as well as on Palm PDAs and Windows PC phones.

Atari 2600

The Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man was panned by critics and lost money for Atari.

The first attempt to adapt Pac-Man to the home video game market was a critical and commercial failure. Atari Inc. bought the home video rights to the game, and it promoted the release of the Atari 2600 version of the game with an enormous marketing campaign. In the eyes of the public, the combination of the world's most popular home video game console with the world's most popular arcade game seemed like a "can't miss" blockbuster. However, the actual Atari 2600 adaptation of the game ended up being panned by critics as stiff and lifeless, somehow managing to remove the colorful, "fun" aspect of Pac-Man from the game. It was one of two major home video game releases (along with the Atari 2600 version of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) that may have triggered the video game crash of 1983.

Palm and Pocket PC devices

Namco Networks also released PAC-MAN for play on Palm PDA and Pocket PC devices.

Gallery

Port screenshots

Atari 2600 (1982)	Atari 5200 (1983)	Commodore 64 (1983)

Intellivision (1983)	SAM Coupé (1991)	NES (1993)

Sequels

Pac-Man spawned numerous sequels, though none of them were as popular as the original.

Arcade

Ms. Pac-Man (1981) - unauthorized title: Originally created by bootleggers and sold to Midway; the rights were later turned over to Namco
Super Pac-Man (1982)
Pac-Man Plus (1982) - unauthorized title created by Bally Midway
Baby Pac-Man (1982) - unauthorized title created by Bally Midway
Jr. Pac-Man (1983) - unauthorized title created by Bally Midway
Professor Pac-Man (1983) - unauthorized title created by Bally Midway
Pac & Pal (1983)
Pac-Land (1984)
Pac-Mania (1987)
Pac-Man VR (1996) created by Virtuality
Pac-Man Arrangement (1996) - released as part of Namco Classics Collection Volume 2

Console

Pac-Attack (based on the engine) (1993)
(1994)
Pac-In-Time (1995)
Pac-Man Ghost Zone (1999)
Pac-Man World (1999)
Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness (2000)
(2000)
Pac-Man World 2 (2002)
Pac-Man Fever (2002)
Pac-Man Vs. (2003)
Pac-Man Pinball Advance (2005)
Pac-Pix (2005)
Pac 'n Roll (2005)
Pac-Man World 3 (2005)
Pac-Man World Rally (2006)

Mobile phone

Ms. Pac-Man for Prizes (2004)
Pac-Man Casino Card Games Pack (2004)
Pac-Man Casino Slots Pack (2004)
Pac-Match! (2004)
Pac-Man Puzzle (2004)
Pac-Man Pinball (2004)
Pac-Man Bowling (2004)
Pac-Man's Arcade Corner (2005)

Clones and bootlegs

A 1992 Pac-Man knockoff, CD-Man.

Unauthorized "pirate" versions of the game were also created, most notably Hangly-Man (a mangling of "Hungry-Man"), one variant of which replaced the Pac-Man character with the head of Popeye. There was another hack of Hangly-Man called Caterpillar Pac-Man made in 1981 by Phi. In this game you play as a caterpillar, and the ghosts are replaced by four spiders.

Another popular clone game was Piranha, which replaced Pac-Man with a munching fish. The maze was replaced with a coral reef, and the monsters are squids. (In an earlier variant, they are little more than ghosts with extended sprites for the tentacles). A brief reference to the game was even included in the Pac-Man TV series, when in an underwater scene, a fish is shown eating a ghost-squid.

In addition, soon after the release of the original Pac-Man, many other maze-themed video games entered the arcade market (Make Trax, Thief, Lady Bug and Mouse Trap being the most prominent). In the home video game market, K.C. Munchkin was actually withdrawn after Atari successfully sued its creator, since its imitation of the Pac-Man characters was so blatant and undisguised.

Several handheld versions were released in 1981, most using VFD technology. The playability of most handheld games of this age was limited by today's standards, since each ghost and Pac-Man position was represented by an immovable fixed-cell character that lit up accordingly. Game titles included:

PacMan by Tomy
PacMan2 by Entex
Pac-Man by Coleco. As the "official" adaptation of the game, Coleco Pac-Man was shaped like a miniature Midway arcade cabinet.
Epoch Man by Epoch – LCD-based, this game can be seen in National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) in Russ's hand.

Texas Instruments released a clone called Munch Man for the TI-99 home computer line in 1982, in which the player lays down a "track" (or "links," in Munch Man parlance), as he progresses through the maze instead of eating pills – a change made by TI to avoid possible lawsuits from Midway.

In 1981, Leisure and Allied released Ghostmuncher/Galaxian. This game was a dual bootleg of Pac-Man and Galaxian. You can change the game with the Dip Switch. In this bootleg, the colors, sounds and names of the ghosts have been changed. The "Galaxian" bootleg is also sped up significantly.[link]

In the 1990's, Microhard/Magic Games released Funny Strip. This is a maze game & a rip-off of Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man featuring nudity whenever "STRIP TEASE" is spelled out. The letters that spell this appear after certain ghosts turn into them after a pill is eaten. [link]

In 1992, Creative Dimensions released a Pac-Man clone called CD-Man. CD-Man ate dots and ran from enemies such as spiders and sharks. [link]

In 1994, Virtuality released Hyper Pac-Man[link], which mixed Bomberman with Pac-man. This was followed up by a sequel called Twinkle[link] in this version they colored Pac-Man orange and gave him sunglasses.

In 1999, ESD released Multi Champ Deluxe. Multi Champ Deluxe is a adult orientated multi game system, where the player chooses a girl and then 1 of 6 games, win the game to save the girl. Games include clones of Pac-man, tetris and columns styled games, as well as pang, Mahjong, and a solitaire card game.[link] [link]

In 2000, Genie released Puckman Pockimon[link] which teamed up Pac-man and Pokémon. Player 1 controls Puckman and Player 2 controls Pikachu's head.

Grandpa Pac-Man was an unofficial sequel created by Lafe Travis Games for the PC and is available as freeware. Grandpa Pac-Man has 13 mazes to master, 12 intermissions, and 30 different prizes to gobble up. [link]

Nomenclature conflicts

There have been various debates over the naming of some elements of the game.

Ghosts vs. monsters

The longest-running of these debates are of the villains. The four villains of the game have been called both "monsters" and "ghosts." Among the general population, "ghosts" seems to have become more popular. On the original gameplay instructions located next to the screen, however, the successive "200, 400, 800, 1600" scoring is referred to as "Monster point value." In Pac-Mania, the artwork next to the screen also calls them "monsters," and "The Sand Box" level introduction screen warns, "Beware of bouncing monsters." On the cabinet artwork for the earlier American games, the villains were also drawn as furry monsters.

The term "ghosts" originates from the failed Atari 2600 port. Technical limitations caused the villains to flicker, and the game's manual dubbed them "ghosts" so as to cover up the flaw. Although the game was ultimately unsuccessful due to these flaws, the term stuck, and soon spread to all of the bubble gum cards, stickers, and other merchandise released afterwards.

On the Japanese cabinet art and flyers, the villains appeared somewhat like sheeted ghosts. These became the basis for most drawings on the various merchandise. Consequently, cabinet artwork for later arcade games depicted the villains as more ghost-like.

The TV cartoon version compromised between the two conflicting names by calling them "ghost-monsters." Despite the name, however, the villains' characteristics were more ghost-like than monster-like. Their outfits, for instance, were now linen "ghost suits" kept stored in a closet. The villains also appeared to be spirits with eyes under the suits. However, the game intermissions show that they have fleshy bodies.

One theoretical way to explain the differences could be in the change that occurs in the monsters when the player eats a "power pellet" (aka "energizer," "energy dot," or "power pill", or in Japan, "Power Ide"). The "energized" monsters change in appearance to a blue shade with yellow eyes and mouths. During this phase the monsters become like ghosts, which are soft enough for Pac-Man to consume without danger.

Power pellets

On the instruction cards, the power items were called "energizers", but on the Atari 2600 port they were called "power pills", and on the cartoon they were called "power pellets" ("pellet" is considered more appropriate, since "pill" might suggest a drug reference). The 240 basic ten-point items on the game are simply called "dots" on the card. Again, the Atari 2600 version changed the dots to "video wafers" (because of their rectangular shape, no doubt). "Pac away" was used as the verb for the act of "eating" them. But there were no such pellets in the cartoon, but rather all were power pellets. (The act of one character eating another was called "chomping" in the cartoon).

Bonus items

The fruits were not officially classified in the original instruction cards and were not represented in the cartoon. Players have generally adopted the name of "fruits" to the bonus items that appear in the middle of the board. Pac-Mania officially calls them fruits; when a fruit appears, a notification says, "Fruit target." Jr. Pac-Man calls them "bonus symbols," but that game had toys instead of fruits. The static square-within-a-square prize in the center of the Atari 2600 board is called a Vitamin by the game's instruction manual. Strategy guides published in the 1980's (mostly about the arcade versions) commonly referred to the fruits as simply "prizes" to accommodate the objects which were not actually fruit (such as the bells, keys, galaxian ships, etc).

Pac-Man in popular culture

Official artwork of Pac-Man in his most current form to date from the Pac-Man World Series.

The comedian Marcus Brigstocke, referring to controversies over the influence of video games on children, famously stated that "If Pacman had affected us as kids we'd be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music", an allusion to rave culture.

Namco often puts the characters of Pac-man into their other games, as actual opponents or subtle references. Some of the most prominent uses include the Ridge Racer series of games and Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune.

The PBS children's show Square One often featured a segment called Mathman, a videogame based loosely on Pac-Man. There is only one monster on the Mathman board, a tornado-like creature named "Mr. Glitch", who ordinarily left Mathman alone. Each board had a certain mathematical theme (numbers that are multiples of 4, reduceable fractions, etc.). In order to progress, Mathman would simply move next to one of the problems presented on the board and determine its answer by a count of three. A correct answer/consumption was accompanied by a fanfare similar to that played on many home computers. However, eating an equation which didn't match the theme (a common occurrence used to end the segment) caused Mr. Glitch to endlessly chase Mathman and eventually eat him.

In the popular video game-oriented webcomic Penny Arcade, Gabe is almost always seen wearing a yellow shirt with a black outline of Pac-Man. Other strips reveal that his room is decorated with Pac-Man sheets and matching curtains, and his car's license plate reads "PCMNFN" (Pac-Man Fan). Mike Krahulik, the Penny Arcade artist who uses Gabe as an alter-ego actually has a tattoo of Pac-Man eating pellets around his arm.

VG Cats, another popular video game webcomic, also uses Pac-Man in one of its logos or graphical representations of the comic. The logo is identical to Pac-Man, however it is colored blue instead of yellow, and has a cat-like tail added to it, along with tiny cat-like ears atop it.

In 2004, New York University's Interactive Telecommunications graduate program created a "real-world" version of the game called "Pac-Manhattan" where one player runs around the streets of New York City dressed as Pac-Man and collects "virtual dots" (there are no physical representations of the dots in the streets, but a map on a central computer knows where Pac-Man has been and, therefore, which streets have been "cleared"). Four other players play the part of the monsters. Pac-Man (or the monsters when Pac-Man has eaten a power pill by touching a streetsign at certain intersections) are killed by tagging (touching with the hands). Each player has a controller counterpart in constant cell phone contact and are monitored from a centralized location using Wi-Fi Internet connections, and custom software designed by the Pac-Manhattan team.

The 2004 movie "Club Dread" features a live version of Pac-Man played on "Coconut Pete's" tropical island, in which four bikini clad girls would chase one man through a hedge maze; drinking from a cup of alcohol was the equivalent of a Power Pellet. The full rules of the game were unknown, as it was called off for murder, particularly those dressed in costumes resembling the various fruit pieces of the game.

A great deal of Pac-Man merchandise was marketed in the 1980s, from t-shirts to toys to hand-held video game imitations to even a pasta. Then, there was the aforementioned Saturday morning TV cartoon also called Pac-Man based on the game was produced by Hanna-Barbera and lasted two years from 1982 to 1984. It was also the basis for a Pac-Man Christmas special titled Christmas Comes to Pac-Land. In the series and the special, the "nicknames" given Pac-Man's enemies in the game—Blinky, Pinky, Inky, Clyde; became their official names, and Sue was a new ghost, colored purple. They were led by the evil Mezmaron, who employed them in his plots to raid the Power Pellet Forest (as called by Mezmaron in the show's opening; it is known as simply the "Power Forest" in the actual episodes). Even though Mezmaron was a new character and not from the game, as the leader of the ghosts, he can be seen as representing the game's "Artificial Intelligence". It certainly did "mezmerize" many kids, which is perhaps what led to the name. Marty Ingels was the voice actor of Pac-Man. Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures released for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, was heavily influenced by the cartoon version.

Similar to Namco x Capcom, Pac-Man appears as a statue in Tales of Symphonia, another one of Namco's games. In another Tales game, Tales of the Abyss, playable character Jade Curtiss's main outfit has a belt with a buckle shaped like Pac-Man. Because of this, the Pac-Man appears to be eating the belt holes, much like an in-game Pac-Man eating dots.

In the film National Lampoon's Vacation, "Rusty Griswold" (Anthony Michael Hall) asks his cousin if he has Pac-Man, among other video games popular during the time of the movie's 1983 release (including Space Invaders and Asteroids).

In the film Man on the Moon, Andy Kaufman (portrayed by Jim Carrey) is seen playing a Ms. Pac-Man machine when George Shapiro (portrayed by Danny DeVito) informs him that he was selected to appear on Taxi. The scene is actually an anachronism, for the machine model being played by Kaufman was not released until the 1980s.

One of the segments of the Futurama episode "Anthology of Interest II" is a parody of various classic video games. Video game aliens attack New New York, and Philip J. Fry works alongside general Colin Pac-Man (a reference to Colin Powell) to defeat them. One scene features the characters running through a Pac-Man maze, complete with roaming ghosts and yelling "Waka-waka-waka...!" (in immitation of the Pac-Man "eating" noise). Ms. Pac-Man also appears in this episode after Pac-Man gets shot by the Invaders (he even dies as he does in the games; by opening all the way up and popping out of existence.)

A known distribution of Linux, known as "Arch", uses a package management system known as pacman.

The makers of the 1982 Disney feature-film Tron snuck a tiny Pac-Man into one quick shot when Sark is ordering the tanks to be sent out [link], giving the character a movie cameo appearance in effect.

In the Family Guy direct-to-video film , Brian and Stewie are in the Drunken Clam playing Pac-Man. Brian tells Stewie to get the fruit, and Stewie says he can't get it because there's a ghost right there. Additionally, there is a reference in a different episode about a depressed Pac-Man, in which the ghosts arrive at his house to cheer him up, even resorting to blinking in the hope to raise his spirits. Nonetheless, Pac-Man stays depressed. The ghosts leave, mentioning they will seek out Q*Bert.

Slayer's bassist/singer Tom Araya has worn a Pac-Man T-shirt while on tour. When asked about it, he was said that he wore the shirt because he considers Pac-Man the most violent game ever, since there's no other game where you have to eat your enemies #redirect , although on other games the player eats enemies.

In the TV comedy series Scrubs an upright Pac-Man arcade machine can be seen in the doctors' mess room.

Songs

There have been a number of songs inspired by the game:

Buckner and Garcia recorded a 1982 song titled Pac-Man Fever. This song used some sounds from the game.
I-Mockery wrote and performed an over-the-top song titled "[I Will Beat Pac-Man]" and created an animated video for it.
Lil' Flip recorded a song called Game Over which incorporated some sounds from the game.
The Bloodhound Gang used Pac Man sound effects and dialog with Pac-Man in the song "Mope." Pac-Man also appeared in the music video.
Aphex Twin, in the guise of Power Pill, recorded Pac-Man which incorporated many sounds from the game along with most of its soundtrack.
"Weird Al" Yankovic has an unreleased song entitled "Pacman", paroding the song "Taxman" by The Beatles.
There is a song misattributed to "Weird Al" Yankovic called "I'm a Wigga" that features some Pac-Man sound effects in certain parts of the song.
Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota has a song called Un Pacman en el Savoy (a Pacman in the Savoy).
Rapper Beanie Sigel has a song called "Mac Man", which uses sounds from the game as part of the instrumental beat, and is full of videogame-inspired lyrics.
The UK group Kaiser Chiefs make a reference to Pac Man in the song "Oh my God" with the lyrics "Knock me down I'll get right back up again, I'll come back stronger than a powered up Pac-Man"

MAD Magazine named Pac-Man "Man of the Year" in September 1982. This cover spoofs Time Magazine's annual "Man of the Year" issues. So great was Pac-Man's appeal in 1982 that it is one of very few MAD covers that does not feature their mascot, Alfred E. Neuman.

Board games

In 1982, Milton Bradley released a board game based on Pac-Man[link] and another based on Ms. Pac-Man [link].

Movie

A Pac-Man movie has been announced by Crystal Sky. The movie is early in development and "will have a great broad appeal for all audiences".[link]

References

Hirschfeld, Tom How to Master the Video Games, Bantam Books, 1981. ISBN 0553201646 Arcade strategy guide to several games including incarnations of Pac-Man. Includes hand drawings of some of the common patterns for use in the arcade Pac-Man.
Hirschfeld, Tom How to Master Home Video Games, Bantam Books, 1982. ISBN 0553201956 Follow-up guide covering home versions among others.

External links

[Pac Man entry] on the Killer List of Videogames
[MobyGames' entry for Pac-Man]
[AtariAge entry for 2600 Pac-man]
[Strategy wiki-guide for Pac-Man at strategywiki.net]
[Washington Post article] on Pac-Man's 25th birthday (22 Jun 2005)
[Pac-Man on Classicgaming]
[Arcade History entry]
[A collection of over 150 pacman online-games]
[Pac-Man history] at The Dot Eaters
[Twin Galaxies Scoreboard for Pac-Man Champions]
[Namco Games] official page for the mobile phone port
[3D Pacman] 3D Pacman Version

Pac-Man Series

Arcade titles	Pac-Man – Ms. Pac-Man>Ms. – Plus – Super – Baby – Pac & Pal – Jr. – Professor – Pac-Land – Pac-Mania
Console & Handheld titles	Pac-Attack – – World – Maze Madness – Collection – World 2 – Fever – Vs. – Pac-Pix – Pac 'n Roll – World 3 - World Rally

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