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22 MAY 1980. That was the day Pac-Man arrived in arcades and helped shaped the gaming and cultural landscape as we know it.
That may sound like hyperbole but it’s no accident that the yellow ball is instantly recognisable, to the point that even kids of this generation would be able to tell who he is.
Every pop-culture reference that even mentions videogames or the 80s’ passively involves him in at some point and to this day, there are many, many games out there that it continues to influence.
In today’s gaming world, Pac-Man has struggled to make the transition from 2D to 3D, but instead, we’ll look back to happier times and why his debut was so important.
He was the first iconic character in gaming
You could argue that the Space Invader is also iconic, but at the time, there were few, if any, main characters that appealed to all demographics and was an instant success.
Its creator Toru Iwatani developed the game over the course of a year, and as you may have guessed, the game was based on eating.
The original Japanese title was Pakkuman, which was inspired by the slang word paku-paku which describes the sound of the mouth opening and closing while a person eats.
Pakkuman was later changed to Puck Man, but when he arrived in the US, his name was changed to Pac-Man as there were fears people would vandalise the cabinet and change the P to F (you can use your imaginations here).
While the original story from Iwatani stated that Pac-Man was inspired by a pizza missing a slice, that was only half-true. His design came from rounding off the Japanese character for mouth as he mentioned in an interview with Programmers at Work.
Well, it’s half true [the pizza story]. In Japanese the character for mouth (kuchi) is a square shape. It’s not circular like the pizza, but I decided to round it out. There was the temptation to make the Pac-Man shape less simple. While I was designing this game, someone suggested we add eyes. But we eventually discarded that idea because once we added eyes, we would want to add glasses and maybe a moustache. There would just be no end to it.
And that simplicity worked in Pac-Man’s favour. There’s a school of thought which suggests a character is truly recognisable when you can identify them via their silhouette. That’s certainly the case with Pac-Man as the simplicity alone means you automatically know who it is, and aided his success.
It created recognisable characters with their own personalities
Not only is Pac-Man recognisable, but the four ghosts that hunt him down are also recognisable. They weren’t just generic enemies, they all had personalities. They had their own colours, their own names (and nicknames) and their own AI.
Blinky – doggedly chases Pac-Man around the maze.
Pinky – Tries to position himself in front of Pac-Man’s mouth, specifically 32 pixels in front.
Inky – Similar to Pinky, he tries to position him in front of Pac-Man’s mouth, at another similar fixed spot.
Clyde – Chases Pac-Man but retreats to the lower left-hand corner if it gets too close.
Even when you know the above, it doesn’t make the game easier as the ghosts are always changing direction to achieve their goal.
The ghosts would come in waves, but then retreat, allowing for periods of stress and relief as you make your way around the maze. Ultimately, the AI allowed the game to be challenging, but not impossible to advance through.
Pac-Man was designed to appeal to women
In the same interview with Programmers at Work, Iwatani spoke about how the design choices were to make the game appealing to women since it was seen as a pursuit for boys.
There were no games that everyone could enjoy, and especially none for women. I wanted to come up with a “comical” game women could enjoy.
Well, there’s not much entertainment in a game of eating, so we decided to create enemies to inject a little excitement and tension. The player had to fight the enemies to get the food. And each of the enemies has its own character. The enemies are four little ghost-shaped monsters, each of them a different color–blue, yellow, pink, and red. I used four different colors mostly to please the women who play–I thought they would like the pretty colors.
It was the first game to include cutscenes in-between levels
They were pretty basic by today’s standards, usually involving one of the ghosts chasing Pac-Man, and the tables being turned.
However, they were important as they were short, they gave the player a bit of breathing space between levels, and they added to the overall charm and humour.
There was a hit single based on him
There are many, many examples of Pac-Man making his way into popular culture, but the best one was an 80s’ song based on the game. Well, let’s just say it’s no Take on Me.
The maximum possible score you can get is 3,333,360 points
The first person to achieve this feat was Billy Mitchell of Hollywood, Florida back in 1999. It took him six hours to obtain this score.
The reason why there is a maximum score is because there’s a glitch at level 256, where half the screen is corrupted and is filled with random symbols.
Ok, I’m feeling nostalgic. Where can I play this right now?
Well, if you don’t want to pay for the privilege, you could play Google’s tribute to the game. It doesn’t have the same layout as the original, but it’s definitely a lot of fun.
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Everyone having a moan about Dublin not being locked down..little do they know that unfortunately it would result in possibly an extra 1 billion of added debt to the taxpayer
@MarkQ: you have a source for that or did you just pull €1b out of your hoop?
@RogersRabbit: seeing as Dublin pulls in 73billion alone, it would far exceed 1 billion if Dublin was in lockdown!
@MarkQ: so it’s ok to lockdown other counties but not Dublin? The government day after day give a big speal about saving lives but won’t do shit when it comes to Dublin.
@MarkQ: if it was about money, we wouldn’t be in the state we’re in.
What a joke of a taoiseach he is, I suppose he has to get permission from eamonn Ryan first , this is my third time trying to post this comment, good auld journal looking after their masters!!
@Liam O Connor: he was trying to but Ryan was snoozing!!
@Liam O Connor: it was a class comment, thank god you persevered.
This government are a shambles. A week ago Donnelly said there will be no Dublin lockdown. Today Micheál is like “well maybe tho ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ “
@Jimmy Fagan: you’d expect a fluid approach with case numbers fluctuating day by day. The reaction as to be agile and fluid.
Carve dublin out and push it over to the UK. Half the city thinks it is from there anyway!
@T Dawg: stay in your back ward bog and don’t bother coming to Dublin then.
@SB: I’m from London. A place you try to emulate. There’s a good lad!
@T Dawg: Well toddle on back to London then cockney boy, Dublin is nothing like that dum p in the slightest.
@SB: such angry little people.
@T Dawg: back under your bridge troll!!
@SB: you are very insecure about your city and quick to anger. Perhaps something you should work on.
@T Dawg: how come your comment posted in the 1970s took 50 years to appear ?
@T Dawg: don’t know a single person that thinks they are from the UK
@T Dawg: Emulate are you having a laugh. We would have to be ina ahell of a bad way to be like that cesspit
@Warren Mcdermott: What is the first thing you learn to explain to be across the world, English no Irish and then they smile at you
@Gary Kearney: you are butchering our beautiful language there. Why do you not use your poetic native tongue?
@T Dawg: blank profile. Says it all.
@T Dawg: I’m born and bred Dublin, I have never ever met anyone who thinks they’re from the UK?
I think a measured approach is a wise decision in order to keep businesses going, maybe curfews could be an alternative
What did we do to deserve such a downright incompetent, shocking, clueless government who have presided over disaster after disaster and expect people to take them seriously, without question the worst government of all time.
@SB: voted
@SB: Leo and his bunch of rookies were worse to be fair.
@Willie: they were bad but they weren’t in the same league as this farcical coalition
@SB: yet on the other hand you are saying that the government have controlled the number of deaths here, we are doing fantastically on the fatality front and open everything up. Which is it? Have they done a great job in protecting us from this virus, which was the goal, or not?
@GrumpyAulFella: no I wouldn’t at all as they have made an absolute mess of the whole thing, ludricious nonsensical restrictions, people just cannot take them seriously anymore, they’ll be decimated come the next election.
@SB: by who? The party that has disappeared since the pandemic began, sent it’s leadership the funeralgate and took no accountability for it and had a councillor partying in Lanzarote while at the same time gingerly calling for heads to roll due to no social distancing in Clifden? Also, you keep saying that death rates are low and we should open up. Who has laid down the rules that have managed to keep our date rate in check? What are your own alternative guidelines to achieve the same result?
@GrumpyAulFella: ah a sinn fein hater now your showing your true colours here, enough said!!
Open the Dubs
Brace yourself Dublin!! Winter is coming!
@Jonnie Marre: Well it is September.
@Jonnie Marre: you watching game of thrones again
It would be advisable that the government ceases their veiled threats. It’s intolerable.
@Isabel Oliveira: what threats?
Lock it down
@Galwaygogo: and does that mean theyll come to galway then….??
Lock the goverment down,better option.
Is mehole s time up yet
“Living with Covid” is a completely totally wrong message to be leading with in relation to the health of our nation. How did it come to this. What fool coined that phrase. Why would any politician ever dare use it. We cannot coexist with a dangerous virus. We must avoid it. Please change the messaging to “Avoiding Covid”. Living with it has resulted in nobody social distancing because they think we need to “live with it” as if it did not exist.
@Imagine !: their PR firm informed them it sounded friendly and fluffier.
That colour coded system is also consultant 101; if you give a consultancy firm a problem without a real solution they’ll eventually recommend colour coding something as a solution.
@Imagine !: It’s not dangerous anymore. Zero deaths day after day. Time to address the real virus…….FEAR
Martin or Monty Burns?
Can’t tell from the picture.
Every country in the world put their people in to lock-down, with the plan, that this only had a 3 week incubation period, and it would dissapear, it hasn’t, but who is spreadining it, we have essencial services, from the Health departments,food industry, postral, and delivery personal, somewhere along the line, some of their staff, carried this virus, and kept speading it. it’s the only logical expalnation. 90% of the deaths have been in eldeley people, whether in a hospital or nursing home, 70% or more had under lying illinesses. we live with the Flu, on a yearly basis, and have nearly a thousand deaths a year, due to it directly, never mind underling issues, we haven’t even doubled that yet.
As regards social distancing, you get on the Dart or Luas, people, have taken up the designated seats, so many stand at the doors,afraid to sit down, now, so there is as many gathered at the doors as there are sitting, there is no such thing as social distancing, when they get off, particularly at the end stop, you can, nearly have a hundred or more trying to get through the exits, all at the one time, and from both sides of the platform. so it ain’t working.
@Peter Dunwoody: while the stats you give to flu deaths are those for a bad year, the average estimate is 200 the 500 annually (HSE website), and wechave already breached the higher estimate.
Worst tioseach since John Brutal.
@Chris Jordan: Leo is giving him a run for his money.
I was in Dublin city centre last week, it’s so quiet in there, nobody around Grand Canal Dock or Grafton Street areas, further restrictions would finally kill off whatever hope businesses have in there
Bulls**t
Gathering of thousands and thousands of people outside the Journey office in Dublin today with no masks on.
Is the journal the new RTE for fake news now.
YILL DO NUTIN …..
“He added that research shows the pandemic “has had a terrible impact on physical and mental health”. ”
Not even a month ago you would have been called theatrical if you said this kind of thing.
Sure..
Your afraid to lockdown Dublin because all you care about is the tax take
Numbers are rising all across Europe and the rest of the world, its a second wave but not as bad as it would have been.
The response has to be fluid as the situation is so fluid.
leo and co screwed up with the nursing homes and that is why the death rate is so high
W⚓
Well get on with it then…Kildare residents were done over immediately due to a few Meat Barons and their Economic Migrant work force. Like for like please
Sure what would the Government be afraid of if they implement ” measures”.??
If by restrictions he means that house hold rule, that should be the limit to which restrictions are considered so as not to strange small businesses like in Kildare, Laois, offally
Furthermore, that HSE division of Dublin is a bit two longitudal. I don’t think Glencullen and Ranelagh should be restricted together or Lusk abd Raheny or Brittas and Greenhills.
I’m a Dub… I’d rather see us suffer a lockdown than a doubling of cases.
.
@ed o brien: very juvenile comment to be honest.can we not just be a little more mature in this situation,if Dublin is a problem then maybe restrictions are required but it has to be targeted to the problem areas,Ireland is a small country so we do need to be aware of the economic consequences of a lockdown while at the same time be aware of health issues among our citizens,and to those that suggest that fine gael handled the pandemic better in government let me say 2 things,they created the nursing home crisis through incompetence and duh they are part of the government now.
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