Can you hear it? That unmistakable waka-waka-waka echoing from your favourite arcade? It’s hard to believe, but Pac-Man is turning 45 years old in 2025! For nearly half a century, this iconic yellow circle has been chomping dots, dodging ghosts and making history in the world of video games.
Personally, it’s hard to imagine a time where I didn’t have a plethora of video games to suit every mood or genre at my fingertips, but back in the 1970s the gaming world was a very different place. The 1970s marked a pivotal period in video gaming history. It was a period of rapid growth, technical development and significant cultural influence with the introduction of arcade machines. What has come to be known as the golden age of arcade games spanned from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The release of Space Invaders in 1978 led to a wave of shoot-’em-up games such as the vector graphics-based Asteroids (1979), made possible by new computing technology that had greater power and lower costs. Video games were a relatively new medium, and the recipe for success had boiled down to something quite simple: people wanted to shoot things.
But a young game designer, Toru Iwatani, thought it might be time to try something a little different. In 1977, at the age of 22, Iwatani joined video game publisher Namco. Namco had acquired the rights to the Japanese division of Atari Inc., giving them the rights to distribute many of the company’s games, such as Breakout, across the country. This was an undisputed success for Namco and sparked the idea of producing games in-house rather than having to rely on other companies to make them. Iwatani was assigned to the video game development division and got to work.
Initially wanting to create pinball machines, an idea which was quickly shot down by Namco executives due to patent issues, Iwatani was allowed to develop a game based on the concept of pinball. With the assistance of programmer Shigeichi Ishimura, Iwatani created Gee Bee. While not as successful as the company had hoped, it did help Namco get a foot in the door of the gradually expanding video game market. Towards the end of 1979, Iwatani began to grow disillusioned with the video game industry, thinking that the market only appealed to men through its use of violent ‘war’ games such as Space Invaders and sports games such as Pong. He decided to create a video game that appealed to women, with a cute and colourful character design and easy to understand gameplay, based around the concept of eating.
The game which would eventually become Pac-Man began development in 1979 and took around a year and five months to complete. A development time of this length was unheard of at the time, but is nothing by today’s standards. Extra care was taken to make the game appeal to a “non-violent” audience with its use of simple gameplay and cute, attractive character design. All the while, Namco was underway with the development of Galaxian, which used a then-revolutionary RGB colour display instead of coloured strips of cellophane—which was more commonplace at the time—meaning that sprites could use several colours at once. This technological accomplishment allowed Iwatani to enhance his game with bright, pastel colours.
The idea for energisers was a concept borrowed from Popeye The Sailor and his ability to temporarily gain superhuman strength after eating a can of spinach, and the ghosts were partially inspired by a Japanese children’s story about a creature that protects children from monsters by devouring them. But it is the iconic design of Pac-Man himself which stands out. Iwatani would often claim that the character design for Pac-Man was based on a missing slice of pizza from his lunch. However in a 1986 interview, he stated this was only half true, with the character also being based on the rounding out and simplifying the Japanese character “Kuchi” (口), meaning “mouth”, and the name stemming from the onomatopeic Japanese word paku-paku (パクパク), a term for gobbling something up. Upon completion of the game, the character and the game itself where titled Pakkuman (パックマン).
Pac-Man made his grand debut on 22 May 1980 in Shibuya, Tokyo. Non-gamers seemed to respond well, but the die-hard arcade regulars weren’t as impressed. A second private showing was carried out in June, followed by a nationwide release in July. Though Pac-Man was initially a modest success, Namco’s own Galaxian (1979) had quickly outpaced the game in popularity, due to the player base being more familiar with the shooting mechanic, as opposed to Pac-Man’s cute character design and maze mechanics. But Pac-Man eventually became incredibly successful, becoming the highest grossing arcade game of the 1980s, even dethroning Space Invaders (1978).
Eyeing the game’s success in Japan, Namco began plans to bring the game to an international audience—particularly the United States. But before showing the game to distributors, a number of changes were made, most famously the name. Namco America executives were worried that vandals would change the “P” in Puck Man to an “F”, Masaya Nakamura chose to rename the game Pac-Man and he felt that it remained close to the original Japanese title of Pakkuman.
Now considered by many to be one of the most influential video games of all time, the game established the ‘maze chase’ genre and was the first game to implement ‘power ups’. Even the ghosts are one of the first examples of AI that reacts to the choices the player makes. Pac-Man became a turning point for the arcade video game industry and popularised charcater-led action games, leading to a wave of character action games such as Nintendo’s Donkey Kong and Konami’s Frogger .
Pac-Man wasn’t just a video game—it became a pop culture explosion. By the early ‘80’s it was everywhere. Arcades were packed with fans trying to beat the high score. Merchandise flooded the shops, from T-shirts and lunchboxes to breakfast cereal. Pac-Man starred in cartoons, and in 1981 even climbed the Billboard charts with the hit song ‘Pac-Man Fever’. It was one of the first video game franchises to achieve global mainstream success, laying the foundation for the video game industry as we know it today.
Over the last four and a half decades, Pac-Man has evolved in fascinating ways. 1982 saw the arrival of Ms Pac-Man, introducing new mazes and a smarter AI. Pac-Man Championship Edition gave the game a neon-soaked and high-speed twist and Pac-Man 256 reimagined the game as an endless maze with glitch-based mechanics.
More recently, he even made his way into Super Smash Bros, and hit the silver screen in movies like Pixels and Ralph Breaks the Internet—even getting referenced in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
Pac-Man’s legacy is that of a true pioneer—one that reshaped the gaming landscape and left a tangible mark on global culture. From its innovative design and groundbreaking AI to its role in broadening the appeal of video games beyond niche audiences, Pac-Man proved that games could be fun, accessible and iconic. Its influence stretches far beyond the arcade, continuing to inspire generations of game designers, spawning a multimedia empire and earning its place as a timeless symbol of the industry’s early creativity and charm. More than four decades later, Pac-Man remains not just a game but a cultural landmark.
Learn more about the arcade boom of the 1970s and immerse yourself in a hands-on gaming in Power Up, our new permanent gaming experience. Play your way through classic arcade games, iconic consoles and brand-new games made in Bradford. Find out more and book tickets on our website.
Brilliant 👌