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The History Of PacMan

Many video games come out every year, and thousands have come out in the past 25 years, however, there is one video game that is above them all. It is a video game that has gone beyond simply being a game, and is an icon of an entire decade. That game is of course, Pac-Man.

It was first developed by a young Namco employee named Toru Iwatani who programmed it over the course of 18 months. Originally called Paku-Man (for the sound the main character made). He created the iconic look of the character, and the maze concept before finally naming the game Puck-Man for a wider release.

Oddly enough, when it was first released in Japan, it did not receive a big response, but when it was released in 1980 in the United States with the title of Pac-Man, it was welcomed as a breakaway from games like Space Invaders. This caused the game to become incredibly popular, turning it into a worldwide phenomenon that generated squeals, merchandize and more. It even spawned hundreds of copycat video games that followed the same concept. All of this came as a surprise to everyone, especially the marketing executives who overlooked the game for other games that would end up to be not as successful. Eventually, the game would go on the become the greatest-selling arcade game of all time, selling over 350,000 units.

Not only that, but it became an icon of the 1980s with shirts, toys, video games. It was even turned into a handheld video game, and pasta, which just shows how popular this little game became.

While it was popular with the public, especially teenagers, it was also incredibly popular with critics as well. In fact, The Killer List of Videogames listed PacMan as the greatest game of all time, and the game is an identifying characteristic of Generation X, who look at the game with a fond remembrance of their youth in the 1980s.

While the games graphics are archaic now, and the game play is quite simple, the game itself remains popular. It is still downloaded onto computers, and is often ranked in the top 10 of the greatest video games of all time. In fact, it is not unusual to find someone from Generation X with this game on their computer or even their PDA. Even the XBOX 360 has a variation of the game on its system.

There are only a few games in history that transcend the industry and become icons. Even people who have never played the game, or were born 10 years after the game peaked in popularity, know of Pac-Man. All of this came about because of a young Japanese man who decided to try a different method to playing games, and changed the video game industry forever.


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