PacMan celebrates 30 years - from Google doodle to gaming history

by Andrea DeCosta

Long considered a cultural and gaming icon, PAC-MAN, along with gal-pal, Ms. PAC-MAN, and leagues of loyal followers, celebrates three decades of fun. A hit soon after its 1980 release in the United States, the Bandai Namco Games creation attracted the interest of gamers, young and old - many braving long waits for a chance to run the maze.

Evading the jaws of a punctuation eating parade of brightly hued gobbling critters, and their trademark tunes, was PAC-MAN’s main thrust. The Japanese video game boasted simple, easy to understand rules, and cute, colorful characters. The desire to attract an audience beyond the male spectrum is the primary rationale used by developers, who cite the main character’s yellow hue as an effort to promote the sense of a peaceful PAC-MAN.

Combining fun and quirky characters, unique visual and musical sound effects, and subtle humor, PAC-MAN propelled the gaming industry from dark, testosterone filled back rooms, into the forefront of international business and cultural prominence. Japan’s Toru Iwatami, the games designer, talks of sewing stuffed prototypes of merchandise himself – products ultimately destined for toy stores and the hearts of children worldwide.

With more than 100,000 games and 400 different types of related merchandise sold in the USA each year,  PAC-MAN has gone on to become one of Japan’s all-time best-selling games. In the United States alone, PAC-MAN received additional airplay with its own cartoon and adult programming. In 2005, PAC-MAN was acknowledged by the Guinness World Records as the “Most Successful Coin-Operated Game”.

The advances of PAC-MAN have created an entirely new market for gaming and video game platforms, from home gaming consoles, like Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo Entertainment System, to individual, hand-held versions. No Christmas list would be complete without the mention of a video game – or two.

Even those of us tethered to our cell phones can thank the amiable yellow chap for advances in what would become the seventh grail of mass media communication – mobile phone technology. Perhaps Iwatami-san was on to something – bringing together the forces of creativity, innovation, and social networking may well prove to be a universal design for peace.