After the release of Star Wars in 1977, space battles conquered the arcade world. Is it really the whole world? Nothing like that, because in 1980 a small yellow ball appeared, came to change the given and became the first mascott in the world of video games. Toru Iwatani, its creator, was working for the small company Namco at the time, believing that the arcade market did not attract anyone except teenagers who were passionate about wars in all genres. Then he decided to create a pacifist game to please everyone without exception and especially the female sex, who ignored slot machines at that time. This was also because he had an idea for a game in his head where the goal was simply to eat all the food on the screen, since, according to Iwatani, women love to eat well.
He was primarily inspired by the Japanese character "Kushi", which means mouth and is shaped like a square, to come up with the shape for his character. He also made a big cutout for the mouth. The character ended up taking the form of a pizza that was missing a piece. Pac-Man’s yellow color was chosen due to its neutrality and associations with the cheese covering the pizza. In the end, after some great brainstorming, the team settled on the name "Puck-Man" with a reference to the onomatopoeia Paku Paku (yum-yum). Gradually they felt that eating food for many levels was not very exciting, and Tohru, inspired by the car chases from the Tom and Jerry cartoons, added ghosts to the game, thereby putting pressure on the protagonist.
And here’s a brilliant idea: instead of giving enemies the same attack pattern (like the aliens in Space Invaders), implement a variety of artificial intelligence for each ghost, along with a cute name and color, so that they can be distinguished.
Ghost table
Further, to allow players to catch their breath a little, attack waves and patrol waves were written, in other words, after 20 seconds, the ghosts stopped their hunt and returned to the corresponding corner for each for 7 seconds, then continued hunting for the next 20 seconds, etc.d. Obviously, as the level increased, patrol time decreased.
However, nearing the end of development, Tohru and his team realized that the game lacked originality, and then Iwatani took inspiration from the Popeye the Sailor cartoon, thanks to which he added super dots (which he generally called cookies), allowing players to chase ghosts, gaining superpower, just as Popeye gained it by eating spinach.
As a result, a year after the start of development, Puk-Man was ready to appear before the players, but the reception was not very enthusiastic.
Level 256 bug: Since the birth of the arcade as a genre, many games have contained what we call the Screen of Death, blocking progress due to various bugs. For example, in Donkey Kong At level 117, the game timer was set to infinitely for 4 seconds, leading to the permanent death of Mario. Pac-Man had his own death screen: at level 256, the entire right side of the maze became invisible and therefore unplayable. Let’s explain. This is due to the fruit counter in the bottom right corner of the screen. At each level the game added a fruit and, starting from the 8th, it began to replace fruits. Unfortunately the game was 8-bit, and starting from level 256, the program funny tried to display 256 fruits on the screen instead of replacing them, which led to the deformation of this level.
Round like a ball
And yes, Puck-Man was received coldly by the Japanese side. This happened due to the following: the game was presented in the US along with three other Namco projects, and the publishers decided to flip a coin to split the rights to release slot machines among themselves. The anecdote was very funny: Dave Mafofsky from Midway-Bally invited Ken Anderson from Game Plan to play heads or tails, and the winner could choose two games from the three offered. So Ken Anderson won the throw and took Tank Battalion And King & Balloon, unfortunately for myself, leaving Puck-Man And Rally-X for Midway.
Here’s how Midway got the rights to Puck-Man, subsequently renaming the game to Pac-Man just before US release. Midway did this because they were afraid of children replacing “P” with “F”. (Fuck-man, yes, yes, we can swear, I hope. approx. translator) Quite contrary to the release of the game on Japanese territory, the appearance Pac-Man in American halls became a real phenomenon, leading two years later to two billion tokens consumed by the machine, then to a song in the American Billboard Top 10 (“Pac-Man Fever” Buckner & Garcia, 1982) and to an animated series from Hanna Barbera (Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones. approx. translator). Without knowing it, Toru Iwatani, as mentioned above, created the first mascot in the video game industry. Yet, despite his success, Pac-Man was not without flaws. The game only included one maze, which was broken due to a bug at level 256, and despite the artificial intelligence, it was very easy to calculate enemy patterns, then exploit the glitch by catching some ghosts on the way out of their “enclosures.”.
Obviously, many other companies, in the wake of the game’s success, began to offer their own clones Pac-Man, How Lady Bug for arcade machines, Clean Sweep for the Vectrex console, or of course, Mouse-Trap 1981 for slot machines, which improved the genre by adding doors that could open and close. Iwatani intended to implement this function in Pac-Man, but refused. Correctly judging that the goose should continue to lay golden eggs, Midway decided to release their own copy Pac-Man, giving birth to Ms. Pac-Man – the first unofficial sequel.
Pac-Man on Atari 2600
Released on Christmas Day in 1982 after approximately six weeks of development, Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 is considered one of the worst ports in history. Due to the weak technical characteristics of the console: phantoms were free to get stuck, the maze was stretched horizontally, Pac-Man had no animation, and the number of points had to be radically reduced (the French called them video waffles). Instead of music there were only terrible noises and, to top it all off, Pac-Man was white at times.
The day after Christmas, scores of angry parents demanded refunds from stores, and ultimately, despite 7 million copies sold, Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 was added to the company’s list of serious mistakes, becoming a participant in a serious video game crisis in 1983. At the same time the ports Ms. Pac-Man And Jr. Pac-Man on the same console they succeeded and succeeded.
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While Pac-Man began her incredible career in the United States, seven developers from General Computer Corporation had recently launched Super Missile Attack, which was actually an improved version Missile Command from Atari. Seeing that the game was selling well, they decided to attack the new arcade favorite. Thus, production of the clone was launched Pac-Man, which they called Crazy Otto.
Unlike Iwatani’s game, Crazy Otto had four labyrinths instead of one, waves of enemy attacks began randomly, and there were even options to return to the center of the screen and turn left at the next intersection. In the end, even the fruits ceased to be motionless and moved themselves inside the maze. And, like its predecessor, the game was buggy upon arrival at level 256. Along with this, during the development of the game, Atari filed a complaint for plagiarism Missile Command, but immediately abandoned this procedure and offered to work for myself. But since Atari was absolutely not interested in publishing Crazy Otto, Kevin Curran, one of the developers, called Dave Mafofsky from Midway-Bally to pitch the game to him. Mafofsky advised Curran to replace the sprites from Crazy Otto to the corresponding ones from Pac-Man, changing them slightly so that it remained within the law (Midway could publish Pac-Man, but did not have the rights to the character). Voila, Crazy Otto became Ms. Pac-Man 1981. The unofficial sequel came out about a year after the first game, and, funnily enough, it was not yet owned by Namco. It was necessary to wait until 1982 so that the Japanese company could obtain the rights to the project.
Ms. Pac-Man became the very first heroine in the video game universe, then joining her husband in the cartoon from Hanna Barbara, along with the rest of the family, consisting of baby Pac-Man and teenage Pac-Man. Of course, not stopping on such a good note, Midway released a few months later in 1982 Pac-Man Plus, which was just an improved version of the first game with simply increased difficulty and with additional objects, for example, a tablet that makes the maze invisible. Then, that same year, Bailly-Midway released Baby Pac-Man, flipper followed by a mini video game, then Professor Pac-Man, arcade-based quiz. Finally, next year, the creators Ms. Pac-Man relapsed with Jr. Pac-Man, where you had to escort the older members of the Pac-Man family to the center of a maze that was twice as large as before. At the same time, the game had horizontal scrolling instead of a fixed screen. However, the “death screen” now, unfortunately, appeared at level 146 and, in addition to the labyrinth, the pills also disappeared. But Namco was already fed up with all these "official games" and, tired, ended its partnership with Bally Midway. This happened because five unapproved Namco sequels were too much, and yet the official sequels had nothing to do with such success.
Ball that got stuck
Released in Japan in 1982 Super Pac-Man, the very first official continuation of the saga, developed personally by Toru Iwatani, who, unfortunately, did not follow his own advice. And in fact, if the success of the first Pac-Man relied on gameplay simplified to the maximum, then in Super Pac-Man everything was complicated by the addition of new features, including the return of many ill-fated doors opened with keys. The goal was to consume all the fruits and famous super cookies in the level, but the fruits were locked in a kind of cage that could not be opened except by collecting a certain key for a certain door. And if pink super-cookies allowed us to fight ghosts, then there were, for example, two yellow tablets that enlarge the hero so that he could open doors. In short, a boring game even according to its creator, who preferred to focus on an excellent project Pole Position.
Namco nevertheless decided to continue the adventure, and in 1983 the company released Pac & Pal, which aimlessly confused the formula even more. This time in the first level you only had to eat three fruits, again hidden in locked chambers. To open the chambers it was necessary to go through the maps scattered throughout the level. Each card opened its own door and it was important to reach the fruit before Maru, the new ghost, took him to the center of the maze (0_o, approx. translator). Fortunately, Maru did not kill the player and it was possible to take the fruit from her, but paying attention to the other ghosts in the maze. In addition, there were no traces of the presence of super cookies in the game, as Pac-Man now received superpowers worthy of Superman by collecting items from Namco games, for example, the starship from Galaga or the car from Rally-X.
It’s obvious that Pac & Pal was a mistake. The game was only released in Japan and in very small quantities, making it very valuable to collectors today. However, there was another version called Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp, in which Maru’s sprite was replaced with Pac-Man’s dog (meaning the dog belonging to the hero. approx. translator). Of course, this project was even more rare than the previous one. All that was left was to wait Pac-Land, released in 1984, for which Iwatani finally decided to get his hands dirty and radically change the gameplay.
While Japanese sequels failed one after another, the reputation Pac-Man remained untainted thanks to the Midway-Bally games and the Pac-Man cartoon series broadcast on numerous channels (which, somewhat ironically, used a large number of unofficial characters). Wanting to capitalize on this craze, Namco sent Pac-Man, centered on the animated series, and thus Pac-Land was born in 1984, which, according to Shigeru Miyamoto, gave him the inspiration for his Super Mario Bros. Since from the moment of release Jungle Hunt in 1982, a lot of side-scrolling platformers started coming to the arcade, Toru Iwatani thought the genre was perfect for the universe Pac-Man. So, the end of the labyrinths: Pac-Land is an ultra-cute platformer where the goal is to escort our yellow ball through numerous haunted cities in order to return the little fairy to her home.
Yes, the game could be called Ghost Land, because it was inhabited by ghosts driving a variety of vehicles: cars, buses, pogo sticks and even flying saucers. And, having arrived at the fairy’s home, it was also necessary to make the return journey with Pac-Man, wearing boots that gave him the ability to fly, accompanied by the classic theme song of the series. What surprises you most when you play Pac-Land, so it’s a weird non-intuitive gameplay since we use buttons instead of a joystick. The game was controlled by four buttons, two on the edges to jump, and two in the center to move (left-right)
However, you get used to the controls quickly, so Pac-Land remains very enjoyable to play today and has been ported to numerous consoles. Proud Pac-Land, Tohru sat down to work on the next repetition of his Pac-Man, what came out Pac-Mania in 1987 for an arcade game that brought back mazes, but this time in isometric 3D. Forgotten superpowers and all sorts of Maru, Pac-Mania returned to what gave the charm of the first game, offering only mazes, ghosts and dots. Pac-Man lost his arms again, but retained the ability to jump from his time in Pac-Land. It is now possible to jump over ghosts, but naturally new ghosts have appeared that have the same ability. Along with rock music and new pop graphics, Pac-Mania seriously improved the gameplay of the first part, without particularly modifying it. You could still find super ghost-eating cookies, the first maze, and even the original Pac-Man. So, leaving out the jumping and isometric 3D, you can discover two new tablets that sometimes appeared in place of fruits and that allow you to speed up or get more points, thank God, this is very far from the superpowers from previous games. Thus, due to its simplicity, the project achieved success and was adapted for many computers and consoles of the time, but then, to our deepest regret, it was necessary to wait patiently for many years before returning Pac-Man under Iwatani’s supervision.
Pac-Mania
Pak dot poisoning
Since the 90s, Pac-Man was adapted into all existing genres to such an extent that some games were just remakes of other, unknown projects, but with sprites from Pac-Man. Let us mention, of course, the puzzle Pac-Panic 1993, which was an improved version for testing Cosmo Gang The Puzzle from Namco, produced in 1992 (and this is generally a clone Tetris), or Pac in Time, released in 1994 on the Super Nintendo, and borrowed its gameplay entirely from the French game Fury of Furries, but with Pac-Man instead of a hairball. However, while playing those games, it was felt that the universe Pac-Man was sewn with white thread to these projects that had nothing to do with the license. It is even more incredible to note the existence of a very strange Pac-Man 2: The New Adventure on Super Nintendo and Megadrive, which tried to serve our yellow ball with point’n click sauce, and Pac-Man VR with FPS sauce in virtual reality in the heart of the famous labyrinth. At this time, in the arcade, our heroes made a rather unnoticeable return, thanks to the pretty and practically unknown Pac-Man Arrangement, appeared in 1996 for the Namco Museum Volume 2 slot machine, a little later adapted for the GBA (Game Boy Advance). Just like its name says, this game is a remake Pac-Man 1980 with brighter textures, the ability to accelerate and the addition of new ghosts.
But precisely since 1999 Pac-Man began to become more and more noticeable with magnificent Pac-Man World on PlayStation, celebrating its twentieth anniversary a year earlier. This time, a new villain under the name Tok-Man kidnapped the family of the beloved hero (characters from the Midway games and even Professor Pac-Man from the 1983 slot machine) and, in fact, this is our task – to go free them with the help of the new abilities of Pac-Man, who from now on could shoot pac-dots and do somersaults in the manner of a spin-dash from Sonic. Add to this the music composed by the excellent Tommy Tallarico (Aladdin, Cool Spot) and we will see a project that is not revolutionary either in platforming or in 3D, but very pleasant for the player. Pac-Man World gave birth to two sequels in 2002 and 2005 with decreased quality. As a result, the only interest of the third part is to hear the voice of Pac-Man in an adventure written unofficially by Rihanna Pratchett eight years before she wrote the script for the Tomb Raider reboot. In parallel with this, Pac-Man has descended into racing in a clone Mario Kart called Pac-Man World Rally, and also tried to parody Mario Party terrible project Pac-Man Fever 2002 and appeared several times in DS games, quite interesting as Pac-Pix or Pac n’ Roll in 2005.
Pac-Man World
Victorious return
There was a surprise at Nintendo’s E3 2003 conference when Toru Iwatani appeared on stage alongside Shigeru Miyamoto for a presentation Pac-Man Vs., which they jointly developed. Thanks to the cable connection on the Game Cube, the player controlled Pac-Man with his Gameboy Advance, while other players controlled the ghosts on the TV screen (without knowing where Pac-Man was). The goal was for Pac-Man to eat all the dots, while the ghosts were to grab him. Available on Switch shortly, Pac-Man Vs. Many people liked it, even though the game was easy to block, leaving the ghost at the last point. In any case, this game remains the only offspring of Miyamoto and Iwatani, who very soon left to teach character design at the University of Osaka, Japan.
The story of Pac-Man could have ended here, but fortunately, in 2007, Namco turned to the hero again, creating an incredible Pac-Man Championship Edition, which improved the labyrinth concept by making Pac-Man under substances, where the goal was to eat as many ghosts as possible and build crazy combos from lighting effects.
So, from a simple piece of pizza, Toru Iwatani created a real phenomenon. Pac-Man is still present in a large number of console, computer and mobile games, and even participates in an orgy Super Smash Bros.
As you can see, the way to the heart really is through the stomach.
Magazine: VIDEOGAMER Retro hors-série “Le collector retro gaming”, Juillet – Out – Septembre 2019