Coins to Consoles

The History

     Pong is often credited with being the first video game, though some video game aficionados would disagree. However, if you say that Pac-Man was the game that put video gaming on the map, you probably won’t find anyone willing to argue. Pac-Man is synonymous with video games, and just when you think he is gone, Pac-Man always comes back to let people know who is in charge.

     Pac-Man was created 20 years ago when Tohru Iwatani, a Namco designer, got the idea when he looked at the shape of his pizza after removing the first slice. While shooting space aliens was all the rage, Pac-Man created a maze-game craze that shocked the video game world. Pac-Man is the best selling coin-operated game ever, selling approximately 100,000 machines in its first year. The game has been played more than 10 billion times, making over $100 million.

     Pac-Man inspired a cartoon show that ran for two seasons, and was the inspiration for Pac-Man Fever, a song written by Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia in 1981. The pellet-chomping icon was the inspiration for several spin-offs, Ms. Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, Baby Pac-Man and Pac-Land. In July, 1999, Billy Mitchell, a Florida resident achieved the first perfect score in Pac-Man (3,333,360) after six hours of play. He bested 256 boards, ate every dot, fruit, power pellet and ghost using only one quarter. Yes, even in 1999, Pac-Man was making news. No matter how many years have gone by, Pac-Man won't retire to that old age home as a new franchise has been created and the old one remembered in future games to hit the PS One and Game Boy Advance. We will take a look at both titles and see what's in store for the future of Pac-Man.

THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION THAT BROUGHT BACK THE CRAZE

     First, in 1999, to celebrate Pac-Man's 20th Birthday, Pac-Man World was created. This game took Pac-Man out of the maze into the side scrolling world dominated by Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog. The game debuted to rave reviews, even spinning off a 3-D title for his wife. The new game by Namco gave Pac-Man a brand new look, with arms and legs. I was skeptical of Pac-Man’s 1990’s overhaul, because Frogger sucked so badly, but Pac-Man World kicked ass. At first, the game seemed too easy, but the difficulty level picked up as the game went on. The game became challenging in a way that wasn’t too hard, but hard enough to have fun. The premise: Pac-Man must save his family from the evil Toc-Man, who believes he’s the real Pac-Man.

     Guiding the little yellow guy through six worlds that break past the traditional maze, was a lot of fun, as Pac-Man now runs, flies, swims and even throws pellets as weapons to get past a new array of bad guys who aren’t all ghosts. The children I played this game with loved it and didn’t want to stop playing, often asking me to bring it back the next time I came over to see my girlfriend. However, this game is not for kids alone. People who, like me, loved this game 20 years ago, can enjoy this new twist of the classic game, now in 3-D.

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