The PacMan game was first released in Japan in May 1980. The game was developed by Namco. PacMan joins Space Invaders, Pong and many others in the hall of fame for Classic Arcade Games that have made a huge impact in the entertainment video game industry. The PacMan game became a huge social icon in the 1980s and inspired the creation of an animated television series and a top 40 pop single sadly enough!
At the time of PacMan's release the current collection of games that were being played were all following the same genre and idea. Space Invaders, Asteroids, Defender and others were all aimed at space adventures, shooting and aliens. Pong and many copies of Pong were the only exception at the time. The PacMan Game broke the mould and offered a game with a completely new concept that appealed to males and females, children, teenagers and adults. Its unique quirky game play and sense of humour enlightened millions of people around the world.
PacMan took one developer 18 months to create! (Toru Iwatani). The game which was originally named Puck Man had trouble penetrating the Japanese market when first launched, due to games such as Space Invaders already being very popular.
It was launched in the US by a division of a company called Midway and became much more successful there offering gaming fans a refreshing change from all the space alien bliss that had exhausted the gaming market. It didn't take PacMan long to become a world wide phenomenon, after which a whole range of merchandise and copy cat video games followed. Now you can play a Free Online PacMan Game at our website. This version is designed by Paul Neave.
One of the more hilarious facts is that the name was changed from PucMan to PacMan in North America as the manufacturers were worried vandals would replace the p for an f! Thank goodness it was changed! it would have made a chuckling sight for all of 5 minutes before you began to feel sorry for the little yellow guy being desecrated all over American bars and arcades.
PacMan's gameplay brought a new dimension to video game entertainment in the 80s. You guide PacMan, a little round yellow chap through a maze and the aim is to eat all the dots without getting eaten yourself by the 4 ghosts inhabiting the small corridors! (I never knew that ghosts could eat things really, I wonder why the Japanese developer chose ghosts). Once all the dots have been scoffed you proceed to the next level.
Near each corner of the maze is an energiser tablet, this is a big fat pill that when consumed by PacMan, turns the four ghosts blue and they can then be eaten by PacMan (glorious revenge!). The ghosts also flee in the opposite direction to your yellow dude like cowards but are slowed down by the effects of the eaten pill. Sadly this effect doesn't last long, wearing off rather fast, the ghosts flash white as a warning to PacMan when the effect is about to run out. When a ghost is eaten its body is disembowelled and their eyes float back to the ghost pen in the center of the maze in order to respawn.
In later stages of the PacMan game, the time length of the ghosts turning blue is shortened and in the very later stages they no longer turn blue and are not susceptible to being consumed by PacMan, they only flee in the opposite direction. Fruit also appears in each level near the centre of the maze and can be eaten for bonus points.
At 10,000 points PacMan is given 1 extra life to use! This is the only time you can obtain an extra life (stingy game rules I think).
There are 256 levels in the PacMan game (an insane amount, why make so many?), you can play more PacMan Games under our pacman directory of Games Lunatic. Sadly there are not 256 levels in this version! Even more shocking is that one chap actually completed all 256 levels of the original game and achieved the maximum score possible, losing no lives, eating all fruit appearing and eating all 4 ghosts after each pellet was consumed on each level! This guy deserves recognition for being an insanely obsessed person in even attempting this. It took Billy Mitchell of Florida 6 hours to complete the game in 1999 (I wonder how much of his life was consumed practicing playing PacMan!).
To prove just how well respected and loved PacMan game truly is worldwide The Killer List of Video Games (A website run by The International Arcade Museum) ranks PacMan at number 1 for the all time best video game worldwide!