Pac-Man is one of the most recognizable video games ever, even at today’s levels. Pac-Man is a Japanese creation, created by Namco, and in 1982 it was released in the United States. Pac-Man was a huge success and became a major icon in popular gaming culture. Pac-man managed to inspire a cereal, an animated TV series and a top 40 pop single.

Pac-Man’s look was inspired by a pizza with a slice missing. Namco designer Tohru Iwatani ate pizza and the rest is history.

Pac-Man became one of the best-selling coin-operated games in history. More than 350,000 Pac-Man Machines were manufactured and sold worldwide.

The original Pac-Man game consisted of 256 levels. However, due to a bug, only the first 255 levels are playable. The right half of level 256 is messed up and the level cannot be finished. So the highest score achievable is 3,330,360, which can only be achieved by eating every fruit, dot, power pellet, and blue ghost for 255 levels.

Due to the sudden and enduring popularity of Pac-Man, Namco was forced to offer players something new. The most notable and significant was Ms. Pac-Man, which featured various improvements and changes, such as faster gameplay, more mazes, new intermissions, and moving bonus items. Others not taken in such scope were and later were discontinued and forgotten.

Pac-Man Sequels:

• Ms. Pac-Man (1982)
• Super Pac-Man (1982)
• Pac and friend (1983)
• Pac-Man and Chomp Chomp (1983)
• Pac Land (1984)
• Pacmania (1987)
• Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (1994)
• Pac in Time (1995)
• Pac-Man’s World (1999)
• Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness (2000)
• Pac-Man: Adventures in Time (2000)
• Ms. Pac-Man: The Quest for the Golden Maze (2001)
• Pac-Man All Stars (2002)
• Pac Man World 2 (2002)
• Pac-Man Fever (2002)
• Pac-Man Versus (2003)
• Pac-Man Pinball Preview (2005)
• Pac-Pix (2005)
• Pac’n’roll (2005)
• Pac Man World 3 (2005)
• Pac-Man World Rally (2006)
• Pac-Man Championship Edition (2007)
• Pac-Man World 4: Spooky Returns (2008)

Pac-Man was more than just a game, but for an entire generation it became a culture. Only with Pac-Man was every generation able to sit back and enjoy a fun game, unlike today where video games are known as violent gaming pieces of technology. Pac-man attracted doctors, children, lawyers, grandparents, everyone to play. The next time you think that Halo and Grand Theft Auto changed our gaming world, think that Pac-Man managed to capture our imaginations so much that it even created a shortage of yen coins in the country.