Pac-Man: Difference between revisions
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</ref> Despite the criticism, it sold seven million units,<ref name="IGN-TopSelling"/> costing $37.95 each,<ref name="timemag"/> becoming the best selling game on the [[Atari 2600]] console, though it would eventually become one of the contributing factors to [[Atari, Inc.|Atari]]'s decline and the [[North American video game crash of 1983]], alongside Atari's ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (video game)|E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial]]''.<ref name="IGN-TopSelling">{{cite web| url = http://retro.ign.com/articles/903/903024p1.html| title = Top 10 Best-Selling Atari 2600 Games| first = Levi| last = Buchanan| date = August 26, 2008| publisher=[[IGN]]| accessdate =July 15, 2009}}</ref> |
</ref> Despite the criticism, it sold seven million units,<ref name="IGN-TopSelling"/> costing $37.95 each,<ref name="timemag"/> becoming the best selling game on the [[Atari 2600]] console, though it would eventually become one of the contributing factors to [[Atari, Inc.|Atari]]'s decline and the [[North American video game crash of 1983]], alongside Atari's ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (video game)|E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial]]''.<ref name="IGN-TopSelling">{{cite web| url = http://retro.ign.com/articles/903/903024p1.html| title = Top 10 Best-Selling Atari 2600 Games| first = Levi| last = Buchanan| date = August 26, 2008| publisher=[[IGN]]| accessdate =July 15, 2009}}</ref> |
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It was also released for the [[Apple II series]], Atari's [[Atari 5200|5200]] and [[Atari 8-bit family|8-bit computers]], [[IBM Personal Computer]], [[Intellivision]], the [[Commodore 64]] and [[Commodore VIC-20|VIC-20]] and [[Nintendo Entertainment System]]. For [[handheld game console]]s, it was released on the [[Game Boy]], [[Sega Game Gear]], [[Game Boy Color]], and the [[Neo Geo Pocket Color]]. |
It was also released for the [[Apple II series]], Atari's [[Atari 5200|5200]] and [[Atari 8-bit family|8-bit computers]], [[IBM Personal Computer]], [[Intellivision]], the [[Commodore 64]] and [[Commodore VIC-20|VIC-20]] and [[Nintendo Entertainment System]]. In December 1987, [[Mindscape]]'s [[PC game]] version of ''Pac-Man'' sold over 100,000 copies for that month alone.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Video Games Are Back|journal=[[The Bulletin]]|year=1988|issue=5609-5616|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?ei=rcolT8jYCoOh0QXF8ZnOCg&id=yCMYAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22sold+more+than+100000+copies+of+Pac+Man+for+the+PC+last%22&q=%22sold+more+than+100000+copies+of+Pac+Man+for+the+PC%22#search_anchor|accessdate=29 January 2012|editor1-first=J. Haynes|editor1-last=J.F. Archibald|page=134|quote=Mindscape, a software company based in Northbrook, sold more than 100,000 copies of Pac Man for the PC last December alone.}}</ref> For [[handheld game console]]s, it was released on the [[Game Boy]], [[Sega Game Gear]], [[Game Boy Color]], and the [[Neo Geo Pocket Color]]. |
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The game has also been featured in Namco's long-running ''[[Namco Museum]]'' video game compilations. Downloads of the game have been made available on game services such as [[Xbox Live Arcade]], [[GameTap]] and [[Virtual Console]]. Namco has also released mobile versions for [[Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless|BREW]], [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[iOS (Apple)|iOS]], as well as Palm PDAs and [[Windows Mobile]]-based devices. A port of ''Pac-Man'' for [[Android (operating system)|Android]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://androidcommunity.com/first-live-images-of-fullscreen-android-demo-20080528/ | title=First LIVE images and videos of fullscreen Android demos! | author=Nguyen, Vincent | date=May 28, 2008 | accessdate=July 5, 2008}}</ref> can be controlled not only through an Android phone's trackball but through touch gestures or its on-board accelerometer. |
The game has also been featured in Namco's long-running ''[[Namco Museum]]'' video game compilations. Downloads of the game have been made available on game services such as [[Xbox Live Arcade]], [[GameTap]] and [[Virtual Console]]. Namco has also released mobile versions for [[Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless|BREW]], [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[iOS (Apple)|iOS]], as well as Palm PDAs and [[Windows Mobile]]-based devices. A port of ''Pac-Man'' for [[Android (operating system)|Android]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://androidcommunity.com/first-live-images-of-fullscreen-android-demo-20080528/ | title=First LIVE images and videos of fullscreen Android demos! | author=Nguyen, Vincent | date=May 28, 2008 | accessdate=July 5, 2008}}</ref> can be controlled not only through an Android phone's trackball but through touch gestures or its on-board accelerometer. |
Revision as of 23:53, 29 January 2012
Pac-Man | |
---|---|
![]() North American Flyer | |
Developer(s) | Namco |
Publisher(s) | Namco, Midway |
Designer(s) | Tōru Iwatani – Game designer Shigeo Funaki (舟木茂雄) – Programmer Toshio Kai (甲斐敏夫) – Sound & Music |
Composer(s) | Toshio Kai |
Platform(s) | Arcade |
Genre(s) | Maze |
Mode(s) | Up to two players, alternating turns |
Arcade system | Namco Pac-Man |
Pac-Man (パックマン, Pakkuman) is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980.[1][2] Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture.[6][7][8][9] Upon its release, the game—and, subsequently, Pac-Man derivatives—became a social phenomenon[10] that sold a bevy of merchandise and also inspired, among other things, an animated television series and a top-ten hit single.[11]
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 derivative of Pong. Pac-Man succeeded by creating a new genre and appealing to both genders.[12] Pac-Man is often credited with being a landmark in video game history, and is among the most famous arcade games of all time.[13] It is also the highest-grossing video game of all time,[14] having generated more than $2.5 billion in quarters by the 1990s.[15][16]
The character has appeared in more than 30 officially licensed game spin-offs,[17] as well as in numerous unauthorized clones and bootlegs.[18] 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.[19] Pac-Man is one of the longest running video game franchises from the golden age of video arcade games, and one of only three video games that are on display at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. (along with Pong and Dragon's Lair).[20]
Gameplay
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/59/Pac-man.png/200px-Pac-man.png)
The player controls Pac-Man through a maze, eating pac-dots or pellets. When all dots are eaten, Pac-Man is taken to the next stage, between some stages one of three intermission animations plays.[21] Four enemies (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) roam the maze, trying to catch Pac-Man. If an enemy touches Pac-Man, a life is lost. When all lives have been lost, the game ends. Pac-Man is awarded a single bonus life at 10,000 points by default—DIP switches inside the machine can change the required points or disable the bonus life altogether. Near the corners of the maze are four larger, flashing dots known as power pellets that provide Pac-Man with the temporary ability to eat the enemies. The enemies turn deep blue, reverse direction and usually move more slowly. When an enemy is eaten, its eyes remain and return to the center box where it is regenerated in its normal color. Blue enemies flash white before they become dangerous again and the length of time for which the enemies remain vulnerable varies from one stage to the next, generally becoming shorter as the game progresses. In later stages, the enemies go straight to flashing, bypassing blue, although they still reverse direction when a power pellet is eaten.
Enemies
The enemies in Pac-Man are known variously as "ghosts" and "monsters".[22][23][24] Despite the seemingly random nature of the enemies, their movements are strictly deterministic, which players have used to their advantage.[25] In an interview, creator Toru Iwatani stated that he had designed each enemy with its own distinct personality in order to keep the game from becoming impossibly difficult or boring to play.[26] More recently, Iwatani described the enemy behaviors in more detail at the 2011 Game Developers Conference. He stated that the red enemy chases Pac-Man, and the pink and blue enemies try to position themselves in front of Pac-Man's mouth.[27] While he claimed that the orange enemy's behavior is random, a careful analysis of the game's code reveals that it actually chases Pac-Man most of the time, but also moves toward the lower-left corner of the maze when it gets too close to Pac-Man.[28]
Enemy Color | Original Puck Man[29] | American Pac-Man | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Character (Personality) | Translation | Nickname | Translation | Alternate character |
Alternate nickname |
Character (Personality) | Nickname | |
Red | Oikake (追いかけ) | chaser | Akabei (赤ベイ) | red guy | Urchin | Macky | Shadow | Blinky |
Pink | Machibuse (待ち伏せ) | ambusher | Pinky (ピンキー) | pink guy | Romp | Micky | Speedy | Pinky |
Cyan | Kimagure (気まぐれ) | fickle | Aosuke (青助) | blue guy | Stylist | Mucky | Bashful | Inky |
Orange | Otoboke (お惚け) | stupid | Guzuta (愚図た) | slow guy | Crybaby | Mocky | Pokey | Clyde |
Split-screen
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/da/Pac-Man_split-screen_kill_screen.png)
Pac-Man was designed to have no ending – as long as the player keeps at least one life, he or she should be able to play the game indefinitely. However, a bug keeps this from happening: Normally, no more than seven fruit are displayed at the bottom of the screen at any one time. But when the internal level counter, which is stored in a single byte, reaches 255, the subroutine that draws the fruit erroneously "rolls over" this number to zero, causing it to try to draw 256 fruit instead of the usual seven. This corrupts the bottom of the screen and the entire right half of the maze with seemingly random symbols, making it impossible to eat enough dots to beat the level. Because this effectively ends the game, this "split-screen" level is often referred to as the "kill screen". Emulators and code analysis have revealed what would happen should this 255th level be cleared: The fruit and intermissions would restart at level 1 conditions, but the enemies would retain their higher speed and invulnerability to power pellets from the higher stages.[30]
Perfect play
A perfect Pac-Man game occurs when the player achieves the maximum possible score on the first 255 levels (by eating every possible dot, power pellet, fruit, and enemy) without losing a single life, and then scoring as many points as possible in the last level.[31][32] As verified by the Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard on July 3, 1999, the first person to achieve this maximum possible score (3,333,360 points) was Billy Mitchell of Hollywood, Florida, who performed the feat in about six hours.[32][33]
In September 2009, David Race of Beavercreek, Ohio, became the sixth person to achieve a perfect score. His time of 3 hours, 41 minutes, and 22 seconds set a new record for the fastest time to obtain a perfect score.[34]
In December 1982, an 8-year-old boy, Jeffrey R. Yee, supposedly received a letter from U.S. President Ronald Reagan congratulating him on a worldwide record of 6,131,940 points, a score only possible if he had passed the Split-Screen Level.[32] Whether or not this event happened as described has remained in heated debate among video-game circles since its supposed occurrence.[citation needed] In September 1983, Walter Day, chief scorekeeper at Twin Galaxies, took the US National Video Game Team on a tour of the East Coast to visit video game players who claimed they could get through the Split-Screen Level. No video game player could demonstrate this ability. In 1999, Billy Mitchell offered $100,000 to anyone who could pass through the Split-Screen Level before January 1, 2000. The prize went unclaimed.[32]
Development
The game was developed primarily by a young Namco employee named Tōru Iwatani over the course of a year, beginning in April 1979, employing a nine-man team. It was based on the concept of eating, and the original Japanese title was Pakkuman (パックマン), inspired by the Japanese onomatopoeic slang phrase paku-paku taberu (パクパク食べる),[35][36] where paku-paku describes (the sound of) the mouth movement when widely opened and then closed in succession.[37]
Although Iwatani has repeatedly stated that the character's shape was inspired by a pizza missing a slice,[10] he admitted in a 1986 interview that this was a half-truth and the character design also came from simplifying and rounding out the Japanese character for mouth, kuchi (口).[38] Iwatani attempted to appeal to a wider audience—beyond the typical demographics of young boys and teenagers. This led him to add elements of a maze, as well as cute ghost enemy characters. The result was a game he named Puck Man.[39]
Later in 1980, the game was picked up for manufacture in the United States by Bally division Midway,[38] which changed the game's name from Puck Man to Pac-Man in an effort to avoid vandalism to the letter 'P'. The cabinet artwork was also changed.[40]
Impact and legacy
When first launched in Japan by Namco in 1980, the game received a lukewarm response, as Space Invaders and other similar games were more popular at the time.[12] However, the game found far more success in North America. Pac-Man's success in North America took competitors and distributors completely by surprise in 1980. Marketing executives who saw Pac-Man at a trade show prior to release completely overlooked the game (along with the now classic Defender), while they looked to a racing car game called Rally-X as the game to outdo that year.[41] The appeal of Pac-Man was such that the game caught on immediately with the public; it quickly became far more popular than anything seen in the game industry up to that point. Pac-Man outstripped Asteroids as the best-selling arcade game in North America,[42][43] where it would sell more than 350,000 arcade cabinets[44][45] (retailing at around $2400 each)[46] for $1 billion[44] (equivalent to over $2.3 billion in 2011)[47] within 18 months,[44] and gross over $1 billion in quarters within a year,[15][48] surpassing the revenues grossed by the highest-grossing film Star Wars.[49] Towards the end of the 20th century, the game's total gross in quarters had been estimated at more than 10 billion quarters ($2.5 billion),[15][16] equivalent to over $3.4 billion in 2011,[47] making it the highest-grossing video game of all time.[14]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/57/Pacman-cutscene.png/220px-Pacman-cutscene.png)
The game is regarded as one of the most influential video games of all time, for a number of reasons: its titular character was the first original gaming mascot, the game established the maze chase game genre, it demonstrated the potential of characters in video games, it opened gaming to female audiences, and it was gaming's first licensing success.[52] In addition, it was the first video game to feature power-ups,[53] and it is frequently credited as the first game to feature cut scenes, in the form of brief comical interludes about Pac-Man and the ghosts chasing each other around during those interludes,[50] though Space Invaders Part II employed a similar technique that same year. Pac-Man is also credited for laying the foundations for the stealth game genre, as it emphasized avoiding enemies rather than fighting them,[54] and had an influence on the early stealth game Metal Gear (where guards chase Solid Snake in a similar manner to Pac-Man when he is spotted).[55] Pac-Man has also influenced many other games, ranging from the sandbox game Grand Theft Auto (where the player runs over pedestrians and gets chased by police in a similar manner)[56] to early first-person shooters such as MIDI Maze (which had similar maze-based gameplay and character designs),[57][58] Wolfenstein 3D (which was similar in level design[59] and featured a Pac-Man level from a first-person perspective)[60][61] and Doom (with its similar emphasis on mazes, power-ups, killing monsters, and reaching the next level).[62]
Remakes and sequels
Pac-Man is one of the few games to have been consistently published for over three decades, having been remade on numerous platforms and spawned many sequels. Re-releases include ported and updated versions of the original arcade game.
One of the first ports to be released was the much maligned port for the Atari 2600. The Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man only somewhat resembled the original, and its flickering ghosts were widely criticized.[63][64][65] Despite the criticism, it sold seven million units,[66] costing $37.95 each,[11] becoming the best selling game on the Atari 2600 console, though it would eventually become one of the contributing factors to Atari's decline and the North American video game crash of 1983, alongside Atari's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[66]
It was also released for the Apple II series, Atari's 5200 and 8-bit computers, IBM Personal Computer, Intellivision, the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 and Nintendo Entertainment System. In December 1987, Mindscape's PC game version of Pac-Man sold over 100,000 copies for that month alone.[67] For handheld game consoles, it was released on the Game Boy, Sega Game Gear, Game Boy Color, and the Neo Geo Pocket Color.
The game has also been featured in Namco's long-running Namco Museum video game compilations. Downloads of the game have been made available on game services such as Xbox Live Arcade, GameTap and Virtual Console. Namco has also released mobile versions for BREW, Java, iOS, as well as Palm PDAs and Windows Mobile-based devices. A port of Pac-Man for Android[68] can be controlled not only through an Android phone's trackball but through touch gestures or its on-board accelerometer.
In addition, Namco has repeatedly re-released the game to arcades. In 2001, Namco released a Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga "Class of 1981 Reunion Edition" cabinet with Pac-Man available for play as a hidden game. To commemorate Pac-Man's 25th anniversary in 2005, Namco released a revision that officially featured all three games.
Namco Networks ported Pac-Man to the PC (bought online) in 2009 which also includes an "Enhanced" mode which replaces all of the original sprites with the sprites from Pac-Man Championship Edition but it's still the original Pac-Man otherwise, Namco Networks also made a bundle (also bought online) which includes their PC version of Pac-Man as well as their port of Dig Dug called Namco All-Stars: Pac-Man and Dig Dug.
In 2010 Namco Bandai has announced that they are releasing this game on Windows Phone 7 as an Xbox Live game.[69]
Pac-Man's spawned sequels and spin-offs includes only one which was designed by Tōru Iwatani . Some of the follow-ups were not developed by Namco either – including the most significant, Ms. Pac-Man, released in the United States in 1981. Originally called Crazy Otto, this unauthorized hack of Pac-Man was created by General Computer Corporation and sold to Midway without Namco's permission. The game features several changes from the original Pac-Man, including faster gameplay, more mazes, new intermissions, and moving bonus items. Some consider Ms. Pac-Man to be superior to the original, and even the best in the entire series.[13] Namco sued Midway for exceeding their license. Eventually, Bally Midway struck a deal with Namco to officially license Ms. Pac-Man as a sequel.
Following Ms. Pac-Man, Bally Midway released several other unauthorized spin-offs, such as Pac-Man Plus, Jr. Pac-Man, Baby Pac-Man and Professor Pac-Man, resulting in Namco severing business relations with Midway.[10][70]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/57/Pacmance1.jpg/220px-Pacmance1.jpg)
Various platform games based on the series have also been released by Namco, such as 1984's Pac-Land and the Pac-Man World series, which features Pac-Man in a 3-D world. More modern versions of the original game have also been developed, such as the multiplayer Pac-Man Vs. for the Nintendo GameCube and Tōru Iwatani-developed Pac-Man Championship Edition and its sequel.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7e/Pacman10-hp.png/277px-Pacman10-hp.png)
For the weekend of May 21–23, 2010, Google changed the Google logo on its homepage to a Google Doodle of a fully playable version of the game[71] in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the game's release. The game featured the ability to play both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man simultaneously.[72] After finishing the game, the website automatically redirected the user to a search of Pac-Man 30th Anniversary.[73] Companies across the world experienced slight drops in productivity due to the game, though the reported $120 million total loss "spread out across the entire world isn't a huge loss, comparatively speaking"[citation needed]. Some organizations even temporarily blocked Google's website from workplace computers on the Friday it was uploaded, particularly where it violated regulations against recreational games.[74][75][76] Because of the popularity of the Pac-Man doodle, Google decided to allow access to the game through a separate web page.[77]
In 2011, Namco sent a DMCA notice to the team that made the programming language Scratch saying that a programmer had infringed copyright by making a Pacman game using the language and uploading it to Scratch's official website.[78]
In April 2011, Soap Creative published World's Biggest Pac-Man working together with Microsoft and Namco-Bandai to celebrate Pac-Man's 30th anniversary. It is a multiplayer browser-based game with user-created, interlocking mazes.
In popular culture
Pac-Man went on to become an icon of video game culture during the 1980s, and a wide variety of Pac-Man merchandise was marketed with the character's image, from t-shirts and toys to hand-held video game imitations and even specially shaped pasta. An animated TV series produced by Hanna–Barbera aired on ABC from 1982 to 1983.[79] The Killer List of Videogames lists Pac-Man as the #1 video game on its "Top 10 Most Popular Video games" list.[80] At one time, a feature film based on the game was also in development.[81][82] In 2010, a computer-generated animated series was reported to be in the works.[83][84]
Guinness World Records has awarded the Pac-Man series eight records in Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008, including First Perfect Pac-Man Game for Billy Mitchell's July 3, 1999 score and "Most Successful Coin-Operated Game". On June 3, 2010, at the NLGD Festival of Games, the game's creator Toru Iwatani officially received the certificate from Guinness World Records for Pac-Man having had the most "coin-operated arcade machines" installed world wide: 293,822. The record was set and recognized in 2005 and mentioned in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008, but finally actually awarded in 2010.[24]
Pac-Man has been referenced in numerous other media. In music, the Buckner & Garcia song "Pac-Man Fever" went to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts,[11] and received a Gold certification with over a million records sold.[85] Their Pac-Man Fever album also received a Gold certification for selling over a million records.[86] "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a song titled "Pac-Man" that was a parody of The Beatles' "Taxman", in 1981.[87] Hip hop emcee Lil' Flip sampled sounds from the game Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man to make his top-20 single "Game Over". Namco America filed a lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment for unauthorized use of these samples. The suit was eventually settled out of court.[88][89]
The game has also inspired various real-life recreations, involving either real people or robots. One event called Pac-Manhattan set a Guinness World Record for "Largest Pac-Man Game" in 2004.[90][91][92]
The term Pac-Man defense in mergers and acquisitions refers to a hostile takeover target that attempts to reverse the situation and take over its would-be acquirer instead, a reference to Pac-Man's power pellets.[93]
References
- ^ a b Namco Bandai Games Inc. (June 2, 2005). "Bandai Namco press release for 25th Anniversary Edition" (in Japanese). bandainamcogames.co.jp/. Archived from the original on December 30, 2007. Retrieved October 10, 2007.
2005年5月22日で生誕25周年を迎えた『パックマン』。 ("Pac-Man celebrates his 25th anniversary on May 22, 2005", seen in image caption)
- ^ a b Tony Long (October 10, 2007 (questionable)). "Oct. 10, 1979: Pac-Man Brings Gaming Into Pleistocene Era". Wired.com. Retrieved October 10, 2007.
[Bandai Namco] puts the date at May 22, 1980 and is planning an official 25th anniversary celebration next year.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ Year 1980 shown on North American Pac-Man title screen.
- ^ "Game Board Schematic". Midway Pac-Man Parts and Operating Manual (PDF). Chicago, Illinois: Midway Games. 1980. Retrieved July 20, 2009.
{{cite book}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help)[dead link] - ^ Nitsche, Michael (March 31, 2009). "Games and Rules". Video Game Spaces: Image, Play, and Structure in 3D Worlds. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. p. 26. ISBN 0-262-14101-9.
[...] they would not realize the fundamental logical difference between a version of Pac-Man (Iwatani 1980) running on the original Z80 [...]
- ^ http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2010/05/22/Pac-Man-still-going-strong-at-30/UPI-74821274544243/
- ^ http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/10/dayintech_1010
- ^ http://www.gamespot.com/ds/action/pacnroll/review.html?tag=rvwBody
- ^ Wolf, Mark J. P (2008). "The video game explosion: A history from PONG to Playstation and beyond". ISBN 9780313338687.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ a b c Green, Chris (June 17, 2002). "Pac-Man". Salon.com. Retrieved February 12, 2006.
- ^ a b c "Pac-Man Fever". Time Magazine. April 5, 1982. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
Columbia Records' Pac-Man Fever ... was No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week.
- ^ a b Goldberg, Marty (January 31, 2002). "Pac-Man: The Phenomenon: Part 1". Classicgaming.com. Retrieved July 31, 2006.
- ^ a b Parish, Jeremy (2004). "The Essential 50: Part 10 – Pac Man". 1UP.com. Retrieved July 31, 2006.
- ^ a b Steve L. Kent (2001). The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond : the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world. Prima. p. 143. ISBN 0761536434. Retrieved May 1, 2011.
Despite the success of his game, Iwatani never received much attention. Rumors emerged that the unknown creator of Pac-Man had left the industry when he received only a $3500 bonus for creating the highest-grossing video game of all time.
- ^ a b c Mark J. P. Wolf (2008). The video game explosion: a history from PONG to Playstation and beyond. ABC-CLIO. p. 73. ISBN 031333868X. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
It would go on to become arguably the most famous video game of all time, with the arcade game alone taking in more than a billion dollars, and one study estimated that it had been played more than 10 billion times during the twentieth century.
- ^ a b Chris Morris (May 10, 2005). "Pac Man turns 25: A pizza dinner yields a cultural phenomenon – and millions of dollars in quarters". CNN. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
In the late 1990s, Twin Galaxies, which tracks video game world record scores, visited used game auctions and counted how many times the average Pac Man machine had been played. Based on those findings and the total number of machines that were manufactured, the organization said it believed the game had been played more than 10 billion times in the 20th century.
- ^ "The Legacy of Pac-Man". Archived from the original on January 21, 1998.
- ^ "Pac Man Bootleg Board Information". Archived from the original on July 2, 2007.
- ^ "Davie Brown Celebrity Index: Mario, Pac-Man Most Appealing Video Game Characters Among Consumers". PR Newswire. Archived from the original on June 27, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
- ^ http://www.thocp.net/software/games/golden_age.htm#PacMan
- ^ Pacman Game; retrieved May 21, 2010. Ch. 4
- ^ http://arcadeflyers.com/?page=flyer&db=videodb&id=765&image=2
- ^ "What is Pacman?". Pacman.com. Namco. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- ^ a b Martijn Müller (June 3, 2010). "Pac-Man wereldrecord beklonken en het hele verhaal" (in Dutch). NG-Gamer.
- ^ The Pac-Man Dossier, Jamey Pittman Ch. 3
- ^ Mateas, Michael (2003). "Expressive AI: Games and Artificial Intelligence" (PDF). Proceedings of Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference, Utrecht, Netherlands.
- ^ http://www.cnbc.com/id/41888021
- ^ The Pac-Man Dossier, Jamey Pittman Ch. 4
- ^ DeMaria, Rusel & Wilson, Johnny L. (December 18, 2003). High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. ISBN July 0 223172-6.
{{cite book}}
: Check|isbn=
value: invalid character (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Don Hodges. "Pac-Man's Split-screen level analyzed and fixed". Retrieved April 29, 2008.
- ^ Pac-Man review at OAFE
- ^ a b c d Ramsey, David. "The Perfect Man – How Billy Mitchell became a video-game superstar and achieved Pac-Man bliss." Oxford American, issue 53. Spring 2006.
- ^ "Pac-Man at the Twin Galaxies Official Scoreboard". Twin Galaxies. Archived from the original on May 23, 2006. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Twin Galaxies Announces New All Time Pac-Man Champion, Twin Galaxies, September 11, 2009
- ^ "Top 25 Smartest Moves in Gaming". Gamespy.com. Retrieved July 26, 2010.
- ^ Kohler, Chris (2005). Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life. Brady Games. ISBN 0-7440-0424-1.
- ^ "Daijisen Dictionary entry for ぱくぱく[[Category:Articles containing Japanese-language text]] (paku-paku), in Japanese". Retrieved January 27, 2007.
{{cite web}}
: URL–wikilink conflict (help) - ^ a b Lammers, Susan M. (1986). Programmers at Work: Interviews. New York: Microsoft Press. p. 266. ISBN 0-914845-71-3.
- ^ Kohler, Chris. "Q&A: Pac-Man Creator Reflects on 30 Years of Dot-Eating". Wired. Retrieved July 15, 2010.
- ^ Kent, Steve. Ultimate History of Video Games, p.142
- ^ Bowen, Kevin (2001). "Game of the Week: Defender". ClassicGaming.com. Retrieved August 17, 2006.
- ^ "Player 2 Stage 4: Two Superstars". The Dot Eaters. Retrieved August 17, 2006.
- ^ Mark J. P. Wolf (2001). The medium of the video game. University of Texas Press. p. 44. ISBN 029279150X. Retrieved April 9, 2011Template:Inconsistent citations
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ a b c Marlene Targ Brill (2009). America in the 1980s. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 120. ISBN 0822576023. Retrieved May 1, 2011Template:Inconsistent citations
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Kevin "Fragmaster" Bowen (2001). "Game of the Week: Pac-Man". GameSpy. Retrieved April 9, 2011.
- ^ Infoworld Media Group, Inc (April 12, 1982). "Video arcades rival Broadway theatre and girlie shows in NY". InfoWorld. p. 15. ISSN 0199-6649. Retrieved May 1, 2011Template:Inconsistent citations
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has generic name (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ a b "CPI Inflation Calculator". Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved March 22, 2011.
- ^ Bill Loguidice & Matt Barton (2009). Vintage games: an insider look at the history of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the most influential games of all time. Focal Press. p. 181. ISBN 0240811461. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
The machines were well worth the investment; in total they raked in over a billion dollars worth of quarters in the first year alone.
- ^ "Electronic and Computer Games: The History of an Interactive Medium". Screen. 29 (2): 53. 1988. doi:10.1093/screen/29.2.52. Retrieved January 25, 2012.
Revenue from the game Pac-Man alone was estimated to exceed that from the cinema box-office success Star Wars.
{{cite journal}}
: More than one of|pages=
and|page=
specified (help) - ^ a b Gaming's Most Important Evolutions, GamesRadar
- ^ Aaron Matteson. "Five Things We Learned From Pac-Man". http://joystickdivision.com.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help) "This cutscene furthers the plot by depicting a comically large Pac-Man".|publisher=
- ^ The Essential 50 – Pac-Man, 1UP
- ^ Playing With Power: Great Ideas That Have Changed Gaming Forever, 1UP
- ^ Al-Kaisy, Muhammad (06/10/11). "The history and meaning behind the 'Stealth genre'". Gamasutra. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ David Low (April 2, 2007). "GO3: Kojima Talks Metal Gear History, Future". Gamasutra. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
- ^ Brian Ashcraft (July 16, 2009). "Grand Theft Auto And Pac-Man? "The Same"". Retrieved March 8, 2011.
- ^ "25 years of Pac-Man". MeriStation. July 4, 2005. Retrieved May 6, 2011. (Translation)
- ^ "Gaming's Most Important Evolutions". GamesRadar. October 8, 2010. p. 5. Retrieved April 27, 2011.
- ^ Stephan Günzel, Michael Liebe, Dieter Mersch (2008). Sebastian Möring (ed.). Conference Proceedings of The Philosophy of Computer Games 2008. Potsdam University Press. pp. 191–2. ISBN 3940793493. Retrieved May 6, 2011Template:Inconsistent citations
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Book of Games: The Ultimate Reference on PC & Video Games. Book of Games. 2006. p. 24. ISBN 829973780X. Retrieved May 6, 2011Template:Inconsistent citations
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ "Game developer" (Document). Miller Freeman. 1995. p. 62.
If you made it to the secret Pac-Man level in Castle Wolfenstein, you know what I mean (Pac-Man never would have made it as a three-dimensional game). Though it may be less of a visual feast, two dimensions have a well-established place as an electronic gaming format.
{{cite document}}
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ignored (help) - ^ Media, Spin L.L.C. (September 1995). "Children of Doom". Spin. p. 118. ISSN 0886-3032. Retrieved May 6, 2011Template:Inconsistent citations
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ "Creating a World of Clones". Philadelphia Inquirer. October 9, 1983. p. 16.
- ^ Thompson, Adam (Fall). "The King of Video Games is a Woman". Creative Computing Video and Arcade Games. 1 (2): 65.
{{cite journal}}
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and|year=
/|date=
mismatch (help) - ^ Ratcliff, Matthew (August). "Classic Cartridges II". Antic. 7 (4): 24.
{{cite journal}}
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and|year=
/|date=
mismatch (help) - ^ a b Buchanan, Levi (August 26, 2008). "Top 10 Best-Selling Atari 2600 Games". IGN. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
- ^ J.F. Archibald, J. Haynes, ed. (1988). "Video Games Are Back". The Bulletin (5609–5616): 134. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
Mindscape, a software company based in Northbrook, sold more than 100,000 copies of Pac Man for the PC last December alone.
- ^ Nguyen, Vincent (May 28, 2008). "First LIVE images and videos of fullscreen Android demos!". Retrieved July 5, 2008.
- ^ "A quick look at some of the new WP7 games from Namco". BestWP7Games. November 9, 2010.
- ^ "Ms. Pac-Man". Killer List of Videogames. Retrieved July 31, 2006.
- ^ "Google gets Pac-Man fever". cnet. May 21, 2010.
- ^ http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20005528-52.html
- ^ "'Insert Coin': Google Doodle Celebrates Pac-Man's 30th Anniversary". ABC. ABC. May 21, 2010. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
- ^ http://technology.canoe.ca/2010/05/21/14037951.html
- ^ http://www.inquisitr.com/73441/google-pac-man-insert-coin/
- ^ http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20005622-52.html
- ^ Google Pac-Man
- ^ http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102542-Namco-Shuts-Down-Students-Pac-Man-Project
- ^ "The Pac-Page (including database of Pac-Man merchandise and TV show reference)". GameSpy. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2011.
- ^ McLemore, Greg. "The Top Coin-Operated Videogames of All Times". Killer List of Videogames. Archived from the original on July 17, 2006. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Crystal Sky, Namco & Gaga are game again". Crystalsky.com. Retrieved on August 11, 2008.
- ^ Jaafar, Ali (May 19, 2008) "Crystal Sky signs $200 million deal". Variety.com. Retrieved on September 4, 2008.
- ^ White, Cindy. (June 17, 2010) "E3 2010: Pac-Man Back on TV?". IGN.com. Retrieved on July 7, 2010.
- ^ Morris, Chris. (June 17, 2010) "Pac-Man chomps at 3D TV. Variety.com. Retrieved on July 7, 2010.
- ^ "Popular Computing". McGraw-Hill. 1982: Volume 2. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
Pac-Man Fever went gold almost instantly with 1 million records sold.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ RIAA Gold & Platinum Searchable Database – Pac-Man Fever. RIAA.com. Retrieved November 1, 2009.
- ^ Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes #4, a Demento Society members-only compilation from 1994, contains the demo. It was never commercially recorded or released.
- ^ Simon Carless, "Namco, Sony Music Settle Over Pac-Man Samples", Gamasutra, Aug. 29, 2005.
- ^ Marcus Lai, "Namco and Sony settle Pac-Man lawsuit", Punch Jump, Aug. 29, 2005.
- ^ "About Pac-Manhattan". Pac-Manhattan. 2004. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
- ^ "Roomba Pac-Man Web Site". Retrieved October 10, 2009.
- ^ Lau, Dominic. "Pacman in Vancouver". SFU Computing Science. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
- ^ "Origins of the 'Pac-Man' Defense". The New York Times. January 23, 1988. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
Further reading
- Trueman, Doug (November 10, 1999). "The History of Pac-Man". GameSpot. Comprehensive coverage on the history of the entire series up through 1999.
- Müller, Martijn (June 3, 2010). "Tōru Iwatani on how Pac-Man came to be". NG-Gamer.
- Morris, Chris (May 10, 2005). "Pac Man Turns 25". CNN Money.
- Vargas, Jose Antonio (June 22, 2005). "Still Love at First Bite: At 25, Pac-Man Remains a Hot Pursuit". The Washington Post.
- Hirschfeld, Tom. How to Master the Video Games, Bantam Books, 1981. ISBN 0-553-20164-6 Arcade strategy guide to several games including incarnations of Pac-Man. Includes hand drawings of some of the common patterns for use in the arcade Pac-Man. 1982 edition ISBN 0-553-20195 covers home versions.
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