One of the first people assigned to this division was a young 24-year-old employee named Toru Iwatani. Company president Masaya Nakamura created a small video game development group within the company and ordered them to study several NEC-produced microcomputers to potentially create new games with. Īfter acquiring the struggling Japanese division of Atari in 1974, video game developer Namco began producing its own video games in-house, as opposed to simply licensing them from other developers and distributing them in Japan. An integer overflow causes the 256th level to load improperly, rendering it impossible to complete. The game increases in difficulty as the player progresses: The ghosts become faster, and the energizers' effect decreases in duration, eventually disappearing entirely. Ghosts become slower when entering and exiting these tunnels. To the sides of the maze are two 'warp tunnels', which allow Pac-Man and the ghosts to travel to the opposite side of the screen. Eating a certain number of dots in a level causes a bonus item-usually a fruit-to appear underneath the center box the item can be eaten for bonus points. After a certain amount of time, blue-colored ghosts flash white before turning back into their normal forms. Eating multiple blue ghosts in succession increases their point value. Pac-Man can eat blue ghosts for bonus points when a ghost is eaten, its eyes make their way back to the center box in the maze, where the ghost 'regenerates' and resumes its normal activity. Placed near the four corners of the maze are large flashing 'energizers' or 'power pellets.' When Pac-Man eats one, the ghosts turn blue with a dizzied expression and to reverse direction. Each of the four ghosts has its own unique artificial intelligence (A.I.), or 'personality': Blinky gives direct chase to Pac-Man Pinky and Inky try to position themselves in front of Pac-Man, usually by cornering him and Clyde switches between chasing Pac-Man and fleeing from him. If Pac-Man is caught by a ghost, he loses a life the game ends when all lives are lost. In between levels are short cutscenes featuring Pac-Man and Blinky in humorous, comical situations. Levels are indicated by fruit icons at the bottom of the screen. When Pac-Man eats all of the dots, the player advances to the next level. The objective of the game is to eat all of the dots placed in the maze while avoiding four colored ghosts-Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (cyan), and Clyde (orange)-who pursue Pac-Man. Pac-Man is an action maze chase video game the player controls the eponymous character through an enclosed maze. At bottom left is the player's life count, and at bottom right the level icon (in this case a cherry). The ghosts are in the center with Pac-Man below them. The game remains one of the highest-grossing and best-selling games, generating more than $14 billion in revenue (as of 2016 ) and 43 million units in sales combined, and has an enduring commercial and cultural legacy, commonly listed as one of the greatest video games of all time. The character of Pac-Man has become the official mascot of Bandai Namco Entertainment. Pac-Man was a widespread critical and commercial success, leading to several sequels, merchandise, and two television series, as well as a hit single by Buckner & Garcia. The original Japanese title of Puck Man was derived from the Japanese phrase 'Paku paku taberu' which refers to gobbling something up the title was changed to Pac-Man for the North American release. The in-game characters were made to be cute and colorful to appeal to younger players. Although the inspiration for the Pac-Man character was the image of a pizza with a slice removed, Iwatani has said he also rounded out the Japanese character for mouth, kuchi ( Japanese: 口). Iwatani wanted to create a game that could appeal to women as well as men, because most video games of the time had themes of war or sports. Game development began in early 1979, directed by Toru Iwatani with a nine-man team. Eating large flashing dots called 'Power Pellets' causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points. The player controls Pac-Man, who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Pac-Man, originally called Puck Man in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades.

Single-player, multiplayer (alternating turns)

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