Pac-Man, originally titled in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It was released in Japan on May 22, 1980 and by Midway Manufacturing in North America in August 1980. The player controls Pac-Man, who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating large flashing dots called "Power Pellets" causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue and vulnerable, allowing Pac-Man to eat the ghosts for bonus points.
Pac-Man was designed by Toru Iwatani, who led a nine-man team; the game's development began in early 1979. Iwatani wanted to create a game that could appeal to women as well as men, because most video games of the time had themes that appealed to traditionally masculine interests, such as war or sports. Although the inspiration for the Pac-Man character was the image of a pizza with a slice removed, Iwatani has said he rounded out the Japanese character for mouth, kuchi (). The in-game characters were made to be cute and colorful to appeal to younger players. The original Japanese title of Puck Man was derived from the Japanese phrase paku paku taberu, which refers to gobbling something up; the title was changed to Pac-Man for the North American release due to fears of vandals defacing cabinets by converting the P into an F, as in fuck. The game remains one of the highest-grossing and best-selling video games, generating more than $14 billion in revenue () and 43 million units in combined sales, and retains an enduring commercial and cultural legacy.
Gameplay
<div style="image-rendering: pixelated;">thumb|left|224px|In-game screenshot. The ghosts are chasing Pac-Man. At bottom left is the player's life count, and at bottom right the level icon (in this case a cherry). At top is the player's score.</div>
Pac-Man is an action
Placed near the four corners of the maze are large flashing "energizers" or "power pellets". When Pac-Man eats one, the ghosts turn blue with a dizzied expression and reverse direction. Pac-Man can eat blue ghosts for bonus points; when a ghost is eaten, its eyes make their way back to the center box in the maze, where the ghost "regenerates" and resumes its normal activity. Eating multiple blue ghosts in succession increases their point value. After a certain amount of time, blue-colored ghosts flash white before turning back into their normal forms. Eating a certain number of dots in a level causes a bonus item—usually a fruit—to appear underneath the center box; the item can be eaten for bonus points. To the sides of the maze are two "warp tunnels", which allow Pac-Man and the ghosts to travel to the opposite side of the screen. Ghosts become slower when entering and exiting these tunnels.
The game increases in difficulty as the player progresses: the ghosts become faster, and the energizers' effect decreases in duration, eventually disappearing entirely. An integer overflow causes the 256th level to load improperly, rendering it impossible to complete. This is known as a kill screen.
Development
After acquiring the struggling Japanese division of Atari in 1974, Namco began producing its own video games in-house rather than licensing them from other developers to distribute in Japan. Among the first people assigned to the division was 24-year-old employee Toru Iwatani. He assisted in the production of two sequels, Bomb Bee and Cutie Q, both released in 1979.
thumb|right|Creator of Pac-Man, [[Toru Iwatani, at the 2011 Game Developers Conference]]
The Japanese video-game industry had surged in popularity with games such as Space Invaders and Breakout, and the market became flooded with similar titles. Iwatani felt that the crude graphics and violence of arcade games limited their appeal to men only referencing the mouth movement of opening and closing in succession.
The game that later became Pac-Man began development in early 1979 and took one year and five months to complete, the longest for any video game to that date. Iwatani enlisted the help of nine other Namco employees to assist in production, including composer Toshio Kai, programmer Shigeo Funaki and hardware engineer Shigeichi Ishimura. To appeal to a broad audience including women, Iwatani opted for simple gameplay and cute, attractive character designs.
Iwatani has often claimed that the character of Pac-Man was inspired by the shape of a pizza with a missing slice that he observed at lunch, but in a 1986 interview, he said that this was only partially true and that the character's appearance was also the result of rounding and simplifying the Japanese character "kuchi" (口), meaning "mouth". He was inspired by the television series Casper the Friendly Ghost and the manga series Obake no Q-Taro. The idea for the fruit bonuses was based on graphics displayed on slot machine. Namco president Masaya Nakamura had originally requested that all of the ghosts be colored red and appear indistinguishable from one another. The ghosts were programmed to display their own distinct personalities in order to prevent the game from becoming too boring or impossibly difficult to play. Each ghost's name provides a hint to its strategy for chasing Pac-Man: Shadow ("Blinky") always chases Pac-Man, Speedy ("Pinky") tries to get ahead of him, Bashful ("Inky") uses a more complicated strategy and Pokey ("Clyde") alternates between chasing and escaping. In a design session, Iwatani noisily ate fruit and emitted gurgling noises to describe to Kai how he wanted the eating effect to sound. Masaya Nakamura chose to rename the game Pac-Man, which he felt was closer to the original Japanese title of Pakkuman. After the Puck Man title was abandoned but before Pac-Man was selected, early American promotional material used the name Snapper.
When Namco presented Pac-Man and Rally-X to potential distributors at the 1980 AMOA tradeshow in November 1980, executives believed that Rally-X would become the best-selling game of the year. According to Play Meter magazine, both Pac-Man and Rally-X received mild attention at the show. Namco had initially approached Atari to distribute Pac-Man, but Atari refused the offer. Midway Manufacturing subsequently agreed to distribute both Pac-Man and Rally-X in North America, announcing their acquisition of the manufacturing rights on November 22 and releasing the games in December.
Ports
Pac-Man was ported to several home video-game systems and personal computers. The most infamous of these is the 1982 Atari 2600 conversion designed by Tod Frye and published by Atari, Inc. This version of the game was widely criticized for its inaccurate recreation of the arcade version and for its peculiar design choices, especially the flickering effect of the ghosts. However, it was a commercial success, selling over seven million copies. Atari released versions for the Intellivision, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Apple II, IBM PC compatibles, TI-99/4A, ZX Spectrum and the Atari 8-bit computers. A port for the Atari 5200 was released in 1983, a version that is considered as a significant improvement over the Atari 2600 version.
Namco released a version for the Family Computer in 1984 as one of the console's first third-party titles, as well as a port for the MSX computer. The Famicom version was later released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Tengen, a subsidiary of Atari Games. Tengen produced an unlicensed version of the game in a black cartridge shell, released during a time when Tengen and Nintendo were in disagreements over the latter's stance on quality control for its consoles; this version was re-released by Namco as an official title in 1993, featuring a new cartridge label and box. The Famicom version was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1990 as a budget title for the Disk Writer kiosks in retail stores. The same year, Namco and SNK co-published a port for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, which came with a circular "Cross Ring" that attached to the d-pad to restrict it to four-directional movement.
In 2001, Namco released a port of Pac-Man for various Japanese mobile phones, being one of the company's first mobile game releases. The Famicom version of the game was re-released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 as part of the Famicom Mini series, released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Famicom; this version was released in North America and Europe under the Classic NES Series label. Namco Networks released Pac-Man for BREW mobile devices in 2005. The arcade original was released for the Xbox Live Arcade service in 2006, featuring achievements and online leaderboards. In 2009 a version for iOS devices was published; this release was rebranded as Pac-Man + Tournaments in 2013, featuring new mazes and leaderboards. The NES version was released for the Wii's Virtual Console in 2007, while the Game Boy version was released for the Nintendo 3DS' Virtual Console in 2011. A Roku version was released in 2011. Pac-Man was one of four titles released under the Arcade Game Series brand, which was released for the PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One in 2016. Hamster Corporation released the arcade version of Pac-Man (alongside Xevious) as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch in September 2021 and PlayStation 4 in October 2021, marking the first of two Namco games to be included as part of the series.
Pac-Man is included in many Namco compilations, including Namco Museum Vol. 1 (1995), Namco Museum 64 (1999), Namco Museum Battle Collection (2005), Namco Museum DS (2007), Namco Museum Essentials (2009), and Namco Museum Megamix (2010). In 1996, it was re-released for arcades as part of Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2, alongside Dig Dug, Rally-X and special "Arrangement" remakes of all three titles. Microsoft included Pac-Man in Microsoft Return of Arcade (1995) as a way to help attract video game companies to its Windows 95 operating system. Namco released the game in the third volume of Namco History in Japan in 1998. The 2001 Game Boy Advance compilation Pac-Man Collection compiles Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, Pac-Attack and Pac-Man Arrangement onto one cartridge. Pac-Man is a hidden extra in the arcade game Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga - Class of 1981 (2001). A similar cabinet was released in 2005 that featured Pac-Man as the centerpiece. Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (1993) and Pac-Man World 2 (2002) have Pac-Man as an unlockable extra. Alongside the Xbox 360 remake Pac-Man Championship Edition, it was ported to the Nintendo 3DS in 2012 as part of Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions. The 2010 Wii game Pac-Man Party and its 2011 3DS remake include Pac-Man as a bonus game, alongside the arcade versions of Dig Dug and Galaga. In 2014, Pac-Man was included in the compilation title Pac-Man Museum for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, alongside several other Pac-Man games. The NES version is one of 30 games included in the NES Classic Edition. The NES version was also added to the Nintendo Classics library on April 9, 2026.