Pac Man: All you wanted to know about him

For those fans of the retro-game which of us can forget 1980, when Pac-Man first appeared in slot machines? The game is still a worldwide phenomenon.

Extremely popular since its initial release, Pac-Man is considered one of the real classics of arcade games and is actually a synonym for the entire video game.

PAC-Man is also a real icon of pop culture of the 80s, becoming one of the events of the decade.

So, let’s look at one of the greatest characters of the video game of all time.

When Pac-Man was released, the most popular arcade games were space shooters such as Asteroids and Space Invaders.

The most noticeable minority was sports games that were still derived from Pong.

Pac-Man succeeded in creating a new game genre that the wide range of players liked. That is why Pac-Man is often called a milestone in the history of video games, and now it is one of the most famous arcade games of all time.

The character also appears in more than 30 officially licensed spin-offs of games (with versions for home game systems and computers, such as Vectrex, Commodore Vic 20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, ORIC 1 and ORIC ATMOS.

There were also many unauthorized clones and boots that appeared on a large number of game consoles

Pac-Man is one of the oldest franchises of the video game, which began in the golden age of arcade games and is still as strong as before, thirty years later (you can play Pac-Man among many online games).

Will the brand still be known as well in thirty years? You would not put it against this.

The game was developed mainly by Torah Ivatani during the year, starting from April 1979. The game was based on the concept of food – the character of Pakman was partially inspired by a pizza with an absent sliced, and partially – a Japanese character in a heap.

Ivatani tried to attract a broader audience of gamers, which prompted him to add elements of the maze, as well as pretty ghostly enemy characters. The final result was called Puck Man.

Later in the same year, the game began to produce in the United States Midway. For the North American market, the name was changed from Puck Man to Pac-Man, since the vandals most likely change the letter P in the word puck to f.

The player controls Pakman https://1redcasino.uk/ through the labyrinth, eating packages while moving.

When all points are eaten, Pac-Man proceeds to the next stage (all the same labyrinth) with an increased level of complexity.

Between some stages, one of the three animations of the intermission is reproduced, which again was a rather new feature at that time.

Four ghost enemies (pancakes, kicks, Inca and Clyde) roam the labyrinth, all the time trying to catch Pak-Men. If the ghost concerns Pac-Man, life is lost. When all lives are lost, it is not surprising that the game ends.

Near the corners of the Labyrinth there are four large flashing points, known as energy granules that “activate” Pak-man and give it temporary ability to eat ghosts. It lasts a few seconds for each granul eaten.

Enemies become dark blue, change the direction and usually move slower. When the enemy is eaten, his eyes remain and return to the central holding corral, where the ghost is restored in its usual color. Additional glasses are also charged to the player.

Blue enemies blink white before they become dangerous again (as the effect of the energy fraction weakens), and the amount of time during which the enemies remain vulnerable, varies from stage to stage to stage. The time period usually becomes shorter in the course of the game.

At later stages, enemies do not change color at all, but still change the direction when the energy is eaten.

In addition to the points and granuls next to the central part of the labyrinth, bonus objects appear (usually in the form of fruits). These items give the player additional bonus glasses when eating. As the game passes, objects change, and bonus values increase.

Red Ghost (nicknamed Blinka) – pursues Pac Man and can be called “aggressor”.

Pink ghost (nicknamed Pinky) – moves around the labyrinth at high speed.

Blue Ghost (nicknamed Inca) – is unstable and will not always attack Pac Man

Orange ghost (nicknamed Clyde) – stupid and moves completely randomly

It should be noted that the behavior of each ghost was very cunningly programmed and is an earlier example of artificial intelligence in the arcade game.

When Namco first launched the game in Japan in 1980, it caused a sluggish reaction, because at that time cars such as Space Invaders were more popular (and other similar arcade games).

However, the game became more and more well -known and eventually became more successful in North America.

As Pac-Man’s popularity grew, he really “gained popularity” among the general public and has become much more popular than anything in the gaming industry until that moment.

Asteroids record as the most popular arcade game was supplanted from the water, and 350,000 Pac-Man units were sold.

As we all know, Pac-Man has become an icon of video game culture in the 1980s, and many Pac-Man products associated with the character were sold on the market.

There is even spaghetti in the bank!

In short, from 1982 to 1984 there was a cartoon, which was shown in many countries of the world.

The game also inspired various “entertainments” from real life, in which, as a rule, real people participate, and sometimes robots (for example, Pacmanhattan).

Pac-Man cannot be underestimated .

1. PAC-Man was originally released as Puck-Man. The original name comes from the Japanese word “Paku”, which means “champion”. Seeing that the name is too similar to one English word f, the company decided to make changes, ultimately creating a cult name Pac-Man.

2. Pac-Man was officially confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records as the most recognizable character of the video game. Interestingly, an amazing figure of 94% of Americans immediately recognized the characteristic yellow symbol.

3. The maximum possible number of points in the original arcade version of the PAC-Man can be achieved by playing the so-called perfect game. To achieve the perfect game, the player needs to score the maximum number of points at the first 255 levels, having eaten all possible points, fruits, powerful granules and enemy ghosts, and then again get the maximum number of points at the last level, the so -called level of the divided screen, at which the game flies away. The maximum number of points is 3 333 360.

4. Pac-Man was awarded the title of “The most successful game with coins” by the Guinness Book of Records in 2005

5. Initially, the game was developed to attract female players, since in the 70s the game world mainly consisted of men. According to the creator of the game Torah Ivatani, the gaming centers were a “playground for boys”. He was dirty and smelly. Therefore, we wanted to include female players so that everything became cleaner and brighter. “.

6. Pac-Man is also an economic term, since the so-called “Pac-Man Protection” refers to the company that they are going to purchase, in return for which it becomes hostile.

7.Perhaps this will not impress more modern gamers, but Pac-Man is considered a hostage of the basics of the stels-game genre. The emphasis on the evasion of enemies and the pursuit of players will be directly used in games such as Metal Gear.