Game History - Pacman-Retro Arcade Game
Pac-Man, stylized as PAC-MAN, is an arcade game developed by Namco and first
released in Japan in May 1980. It was created by Japanese video game designer
Toru Iwatani. It was licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway
Games and released in October 1980. Immensely popular from its original release
to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium,
and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Upon its release, the game—and,
subsequently, Pac-Man derivatives—became a social phenomenon that yielded high
sales of merchandise and inspired a legacy in other media, such as the Pac-Man
animated television series and the top-ten Buckner and Garcia hit single
"Pac-Man Fever". Pac-Man was popular in the 1980s and 1990s and is still
played in the 2010s.
When Pac-Man was released, the most popular arcade video games were space
shooters—in particular, Space Invaders and Asteroids. The most visible minority
were sports games that were mostly derivatives of Pong. Pac-Man succeeded by
creating a new genre. Pac-Man is often credited with being a landmark in video
game history and is among the most famous arcade games of all time. It is also
one of the highest-grossing video games of all time, having generated more than
$2.5 billion in quarters by the 1990s.
The character has appeared in more than 30 officially licensed game spin-offs,
as well as in numerous unauthorized clones and bootlegs. According to the
Davie-Brown Index, Pac-Man has the highest brand awareness of any video game
character among American consumers, recognized by 94 percent of them. Pac-Man is
one of the longest running video game franchises from the golden age of video
arcade games. It is part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington, D.C. and New York's Museum of Modern Art.