Chips Off the Old Pac-Man Dot
Click to play a clone of Ms. Pac-Man. Drop in quarters with 5, press 1 or 2 to select game and control the Ms. with your arrow keys
Ms. Pac-Man arcade cabinet and game play: The better-half
Ten arcade sequels follow the original game, first of which is Ms. Pac-man, released in early 1982. Its development starts in June of 1981 as an unauthorized “mod” or modification of the original game, by a company founded by MIT students Kevin Curran and Doug Macrae called General Computer Corp. (GCC). Titled Crazy Otto, the game enhancement features a version of Pac-Man with legs being chased by monsters with feet, fruit prizes that move around the maze and a cartoon interlude where Otto and a female equivalent have a baby delivered by a stork. Having been burned previously by a lawsuit to the tune of $15,000,000 from Atari over Super Missile Attack, GCC’s enhancement board for their arcade game Missile Command, this time the company presents their version of Pac-Man to Midway before selling the mod kit directly to operators.
Conveniently, Midway is growing impatient waiting for Namco to produce a Pac-Man sequel for license. Midway thusly enters into an agreement with GCC on Oct. 29, 1981, to buy the game. It is quickly developed further by GCC into an even more obvious attempt to lure women into the arcade than the original. Instead of one maze, Ms. Pac-Man (a version of the original Pac-Man character wearing a red bow, lipstick and a beauty mark) has four different playfields, with the special treats roaming around instead of staying motionless under the monster cage. Released in 1981, it goes on to sell 115,000 units, becoming the biggest American-made arcade hit yet. Since the game is not authorized by Namco it helps sour their relationship with Midway, which is further strained by more unauthorized sequels from Midway such as Super Pac-Man and the GCC developed Jr. Pac-Man.
Click to play Super Pac-Man
GCC would bury the hatchet with Atari and later design many games for the company, as well as the 7800 ProSystem game console. As for Bally Midway, battered by the careening video game market the company loses $95 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1984. They announce their departure from the coin-op and video game industry the following year. This division of the company would be subsequently picked up by Williams Electronics.
The Missus, as released in 1981
JUMP: Crazy Otto played at California Extreme 2012, YouTube
Pac-Land handheld game by Namco, 1984
The other Pac-Man sequels are Pac-Man Plus (1982), Super Pac-Man (1982), Baby Pac-Man (1982), Jr. Pac-Man (1983), Pac & Pal (1983), Pac-Land, based heavily on the cartoon series (1984), Pac-Mania (1986), Pac-Attack (1993), and even a virtual reality 3-D Pac-man game called Pac-Man VR in 1996, produced by Virtuality Ltd. and released to major entertainment centres. In a nice little yellow circle, Nutting Associates puts together Professor Pac-Man (1983), a quiz game based on the IP that brings Nutting full circle, back to their roots as a coin-op trivia game company. The number of console, computer, and hand-held translations is too numerous to count in its entirety.
Probably the biggest is Atari’s license of the game for their aging 2600 game console in 1982. An obvious rush-job to make the deadline for Christmas that year, the translation as done by programmer Tod Frye breaks sales records but is deemed a creative disaster by critics. The well-done Ms. Pac-Man adaptation for the 2600, released in 1983 by Atari, goes a long way to redeeming their flagship console. Atari also has better luck porting Pac-Man to its 5200 console that year. Through its Atarisoft label, the company moves Pac through the maze of home console adaptations for competing systems such as the Mattel Intellivision, and various home computer conversions.
Pac-Man World for the PlayStation, 1999
Connecting the Dots
It’s pretty tough to cover all the bases when it comes to the myriad of subsequent games based on the Pac-Man IP, but here are some highlights. Thanks to the resurgent interest in classic arcade games through the besieged emulation scene, The Yellow One gets the obligatory 3D makeover in Namco’s celebration of 20 years of Pac-mania, with Pac-Man World – 20th Anniversary. The three-dimensional adventure game, complete with a 3D rendering of the original’s maze, is released for the Sony PlayStation in October 1999. This is not the first developed 3D version of Pac-Man, however. In 1997, Namco’s internal U.S. development team, under the management of Bill Anderson (Cool Spot, Sega Genesis 1993), begins work on Pac-Man: Ghost Zone. Featuring the tale of a young arcader who gets sucked into the world of Pac-Man Tron-style, the game is severely hampered by its janky controls. While the project ends up shelved by Namco, the 3D design of the title character is entered into the official style-sheet for such renderings, establishing his look in the later 3D games.
Click to play Pac-Man World on the Sony Playstation
Pac-Man World is followed by two sequels, Pac-Man World 2 in 2002 for the popular consoles of the day, and Pac-Man World 3 in 2005. The formula also gains a multiplayer aspect in 2003, with the release of Pac-Man vs. for Nintendo’s Gamecube. The game requires Nintendo’s Gameboy Advance handheld in order to play. It also requires real-life friends, as vs. is multiplayer only. The player using the GBA attached to the Gamecube has a view of the entire maze, while at least one player on the Gamecube controls a ghost, with a limited view of the maze immediately around him. If he is able to catch Pac, the hunter becomes the hunted as the GBA is handed over to the new Pac. The game is designed by Mario and Link creator Shigeru Miyamoto, and it isn’t much of a stretch to see the whole Pac-Man vs. set-up as a trial-run for Nintendo’s Wii U console, released in 2012, with synchronous multiplayer facilitated by a large screen embedded right in the controller.
Pac-Man vs. gameplay, Game Boy Advance view lower right, ghost TV view upper left, 2003
In the same vein comes Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, released by Bandai Namco in October of 2013. Available for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and the PC via Steam, the game is based on the animated series premiering on the Disney XD cable channel the same year. This 3D platformer also features a 4-player split-screen multi-player mode where players take the role of the ghosts from the original game, all on the hunt for Pac. Multi-player also comes to Pac-Man on the arcade front with Pac-Man Battle Royale, put out by Bandai Namco in 2011 in two flavours: one a cocktail-type set up with four joysticks placed around the table, and an imposing deluxe version featuring four individual control podiums for players to stand at. Both allow gamers to duke it out in the maze Pac-Head to Pac-Head, where when one gobbles a power-pellet they can consume both the enemy ghosts and their fellow Pac-People.
Ad for Namco Museum Vol. 1, 1996
As for the creator of all this yellow mania, Toru Iwatani announces his retirement from Namco and the video game industry in 2007 at the age of 52, in order to devote his full energies to teaching at the Tokyo Polytechnic Institute. His swan song before leaving the company is Pac-Man Championship Edition, a fresh and highly-energetic take on the Pac-Man formula, first for the Xbox 360 gaming console in 2007, and later released for mobile platforms and the PlayStation 3. Namco follows-up Iwatani’s final effort with Pac-Man Championship DX, with some extra tweaks, for the same game platforms in 2010. Continuing with Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 in 2016, to the no doubt innumerable Pac-Man games since, Toru Iwatani’s legacy keeps gobbling up new generations of video game players. 
They really should have called them “Chompionship” Editions: Pac-Man Champion Edition 2, 2016
The Tomytronic handheld Pac-Man game, 1981
Close-up of Tomy Pac-Man game, 1981
Sources (Click to view)
Page 1 – Pizza Man
Development of Pac-Man
“Cutie Q.” The Spriters Resource. URL:https://www.spriters-resource.com/arcade/cutieq/ Retrieved 18 Dec. 2025. Images of cute sprites from the game Cutie Q.
“A Question of Character: Pac-Man.” Next Generation, Oct. 1998, p. 80. Where did the idea for Pac-Man come from? (Toru Iwatani) As I was eating pizza, I took a slice away and looked at what was left.
How did this idea evolve and change as Pac-Man developed? (Iwatani) In order to make a game that even girls who hadn’t played many arcade games could play and enjoy, I made the entire game controlled with just one joystick.
Parkin, Simon. “Pac-Man.” Illustrated History of 151 Video Games a Detailed Guide to the Most Important Games. Comp. Station10.cebu. Wigston, Leicestershire: Lorenz $c 2013, 2013. 28. Internet Archive. 24 Sept. 2019. Web. 19 Mar. 2022. Image of Toru Iwatani with Pac-Man stuffy
“Amazing Maze – Midway Manufacturing Co.” The Arcade Flyer Archive. Upl:Dphower. Retrieved 25 Nov. 2025. Image of Amazing Maze flyer.
Love, Gael. “Robert Mullane.” Interview Sep. 1986. Web. Internet Archive 7 Oct. 2021. Upl:MicrofilmIssueGenerator. Retrieved 18 Dec. 2025. B&W image of Robert Mullane. Photographer Dennis Manarchy.
Popularity of Pac-Man
Lehrian, Lorrie. “Pac Man Fever Is Sweeping the Area.” Public Opinion [Chambersburg, PA] 06 Apr. 1982: 15. Newspapers.com. Web. 27 July 2021. Image of kids thronging a Pac-Man machine in Chambersburg, PA. Photo by Christopher Shatzer
Teverbaugh, Rick. “New Games in Old Town”. May 1983: 76. Internet Archive. May 28 2013. Upl: Sketch the Cow. Image of Pac-Man Parlor at Old Towne arcade, Toledo.
Gray, Rob (photographer). “Video Games’ Holiday Gift Guide.” Video Games Jan. 1983. 37. Web. Internet Archive 20 Apr. 2022. Retrieved 12 Mar. 2026. Image of Pac-Man merchandise, including yo-yo, Tomytronics handheld game and a Pac-bank.
Sly | Image | BoardGameGeek – boardgamegeek.com/image/832103/sly
Blumberg, T. & station57.cebu. (2022). Pop Culture With Character: A Look Inside Geppi’s Entertainment Museum. Gemstone Pub./Geppi’s Entertainment Museum. (Original work published 2006) Image of Pac-Man wind-up toys by Tomy
Image of Pac-Man board game courtesy of A Board Game A Day: Pac-Man – aboardgameaday.blogspot.ca/2011/09/day-eleven-pac-man.html
Video Games, “The House That Pac Built”, by Andrea Stone, pgs. 53 – 55, 72, Vol. 1 Num. 3, Dec 1982
Billboard, “For Cross-Merchandising, ‘Pac-Man’ Made In Heaven”, pg. 6, Apr 24 1982
Pac-Man Demands a Sacrifice! (2013, May 28). Vidiot!, https://archive.org/details/Vidiot_Vol_1_No_3_1983-05_CREEM_Magazine_US/page/n7/mode/2up. (Original work published 1983) Image of actor Robert Hays being chased by Pac-Man. Photo by Michael N. Marks
Reading Eagle (UPI), “Pac-Man Maker Forced To Fight Imitators”, pg. 74, Mar. 14 1982
Stanley Jarocki interview, raw footage for “Wired In”, a 1982 uncompleted technology news show, archived at Media Burn Archive – mediaburn.org/video/wired-in-raw-29/
“Cosa Vi Siete Persi”. Game Republic May 2012. 98. Web. Internet Archive 27 Feb. 2019. Retrieved 5 Dec. 2025. Image of Toru Iwatani holding Pac-Man merch.
“Cover: Bally Midway Executives Stanley Jarocki and Charles Farmer.” Cash Box 22 May 1982: Cover. Web. 9 Apr. 2021. Cover image of Stanley Jarocki and Charles Farmer surrounded by Pac-Man machines and sequels
Schenecty Gazette (AP), “Smile! Pac-Man Moving Into Millions of Homes”, pg. 30, Mar. 17, 1982
Goodman, Danny. “Pac-Mania” Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games: 122-123. Internet Archive. Upl: scottithgames Feb 22 2016. Retrieved Nov 9 2025. Image of Pac-Man merchandise featuring blue shirt. Photo by Tom Zuk.
“Introduction.” Pac-Mania. New York: Beekman House, 1982. 5. Print. Image of model wearing Pac-Man shirt, carrying a Pac-Man bag
“Pac-Man Products.” Pac-Mania. New York: Beekman House, 1982. 37,40. Print. Image of model inside Pac-Man sleeping bag. ;Model holding Pac-Man towel.
“Pac-Man Day.” Pac-Mania. New York: Beekman House, 1982. 50-55. Print. Images of National Pac-Man Day festivities.
Starlog, “Toys and Games for ’82”, by Susan Adamo and Bob Greenberger, pg. 31, Jul 1982
“Puck-Man?” By the Editors of Consumer Guide: Pac-Mania. Ed. Jason Scott. New York: Beekman House, 1982. 62. Print. Image of Ms. Pac-Man filling the Midway manufacturing plant, 1982
Electronic Games, “Meet Pac-Man’s Video Godfather” by Gabe Essoe, pgs. 22-28, Jan 1984. Retrieved from the Internet Archive, Electronic Games magazine collection
Johnson, R. & scottithgames. (1983, March). What’s Round & Yellow & Laughs All The Way To The Bank? Vidiot, 20–23. Image of Pac-Man merchandise laid out on red background. Photo by Larry Kaplan
Fromm, Randy. “Pac-Attack! Pac-Attack!” Play Meter 15 Aug. 1982: 48-49. Internet Archive. Web. 9 Aug. 2023. Retrieved 19 Nov. 2025. Images of Pac-Man store at the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, TN.
I Got a Fever!
Pac-Man Fever Music Record
Electronic Games, “Electronic Games Hotline: Pac-Man Fever is Catching”, pg. 9, May 1982. Retrieved from the Internet Archive, Electronic Games magazine collection
Neato Coolville: I’LL ALWAYS HAVE PAC-MAN FEVER – neatocoolville.blogspot.ca/2011/11/ill-always-have-pac-man-fever.html
Pac-Man Fever – Buckner & Garcia : AllMusic – www.allmusic.com/album/pac-man-fever-mw0000222904
Hunt, Dennis. “Double Dose of Pac-Man Fever.” The Los Angeles Times 21 Mar. 1982: 82-83. Newspapers.com. Web. 19 Aug. 2021. Image of Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia together, Buckner at top of picture. Other info: Garcia…explained how they became Pac-Man addicts: “It happened at this bar in Atlanta. We had just finished working on some project and we had some extra time. We saw this machine and we didn’t understand it. We put $15 to $20 in it before we figured out how to play it. Then everyday we’d go and try to beat the machine. ;”What’s funny is that when we finally wrote the song in October we were worried we were too late with it.” ;The single, which they wrote in a few hours, was released by Columbia late last year and started to get extensive air play in January… ;It took us only three or four weeks to write and record the whole album [Pac-Man Fever]. ;Buckner and Garcia, who’ve been buddies since junior high school… ;While waiting for a break in the music business, they have been earning money writing and producing radio and TV commercials.
ArtInBase – Buckner and Garcia – www.artinbase.info/artist/4733/Buckner_&_Garcia/
Page 1 – The TV Maze
Saturday Morning TV Show
Scottithgames, comp. “More Pac-Mania.” Videogaming Illustrated Aug. `982: 8. Internet Archive. 26 May 2013. Web. 19 Aug. 2021. Now, Louis Scheimer, president fo Filmation Associates, has announced that his company recently obtained from Midway Manufacturing Co. the rights to the billion-dollar gobbler [Pac-Man] for a Saturday morning cartoon series.
Essoe, Gabe. “Meet Pac-Man’s Video Godfather.” Comp. Jason Scott. Electronic Games Jan. 1984: 22+. Internet Archive. 28 May 2013. Web. 30 Jan. 2022. Image of Joe Barbera, 1984. Other info: From Interview with Joe Barbera – “Next cam Network’s Programs and Practices,” continues Barbera good naturedly, “and they said we can’t show the eating of characters on-screen. It’s too violent.”
Boyer, Peter J. “GAMES KIDS AND NETWORKS PLAY.” The Los Angeles Times 30 Oct. 1982: V-1+. Newspapers.com. Web. 19 Aug. 2021. In fact, they have embraced this mutant dandy [Pac-Man] so enthusiastically that ABC has accomplished a remarkable turnaround on Saturday morning, overtaking NBC and the one-mighty “Smurfs” and establishing a foothold on first place for ABC.
Image of Marty Ingels with Pac-Man, as well as other information, from Video Games, “Blips – Life in the Fast Maze with Marty Ingels”, by Sue Adamo, pgs. 10, 12, Vol. 1 Num. 5, Feb 1983
Image from Hanna-Barbera TV show featuring Ghosts, Mezmaron and Pac-Man from Electronic Games, “Dear Pac-Man” by Gabe Essoe, pgs. 46-52, Dec 1983. Retrieved from the Internet Archive, Electronic Games magazine collection
Title screen for The Pac-Man Rubik the Amazing Cube Hour from Toonarific
Still of Rubik, the Amazing Cube from X-Entertainment
The Arcade Flyer Archive – flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=home
Page 2 – Chips Off the Old Dot
Ms. Pac-Man and Midway’s Lawsuit Against General Computer Corporation
Associate-manuel-dennis, comp. “Atari Sues Boston Firm In Vid Game Infringement Suit.” Cash Box 26 Apr. 1981: 30. Internet Archive. 26 Sept. 2016. Web. 22 Oct. 2019. <https://archive.org/details/cashbox43unse_12/page/30>. Atari, Inc. announced that it is suing General Computer Corporation (Boston) and its principals for $5,000,000 each for alleged violation of Atari’s copyrights and trademarks involving its corporate name, its logotype and its coin-operated video game “Missile Command”.
Atari Coin Connection, “Atari Pursuing Copyright Infringers”, pg. 2, Sep 1981. “Recently, the General Computer Corporation of Boston received a restraining order from Judge Robert E. Keeton of the U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, to temporarily prevent them from manufacturing, advertising or selling “Super Missile Attack”, their product designed to “enhance” the game play on Missile Command.” Retrieved from Pinball Pirate, Atari Coin Connection archive, Sep 16 2015.
Video Games, “Briefs – The Fight for Ms. Pac-Man”, by Steve Bloom, pg. 98, Vol. 1 Num. 5, Feb 1983
Image of Crazy Otto and other associated images and information from Steve Golson’s lecture for MIT Labs, part of the “Push Button: Examining the Culture, Platforms, and Design of the Arcade” lecture series, Jan
Ahl, David H. “Industry Insider.” Creative Computing Mar. 1985: 14. Creative Computing Magazine (March 1985) Volume 11 Number 03. Internet Archive. Web. 06 Mar. 2016. After a $95 million loss in the fourth quarter, Bally (Pac-Man) is dropping out of the coin-op and videogames business.
Page 2 – Connecting the Dots
The Aftermath of Pac-Man
“Pac-Man: Ghost Zone.” Next Generation, Aug. 1997, pp. 82–83. “We had to put our model before Namco Limited’s staunchest critics, and the model we have now is the official 3D model for the style guide.”
amazon.ca, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, PS3 – www.amazon.ca/dp/B00CSLIYTI
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, official Bandai Namco site – www.pacisback.com/en/index.html
Blumberg, T. & station57.cebu. (2022). Pop Culture With Character: A Look Inside Geppi’s Entertainment Museum. Gemstone Pub./Geppi’s Entertainment Museum. (Original work published 2006) Image of horrific Pac-Man puppets by Commonwealth
Image of Shigeru Miyamoto holding a Game Boy from – Firestone, Mary. Nintendo: The Company and Its Founders. ABDO Publishing Company, 2011. p. 57.
“This Game is Better Than Pac-Man 99! | Pac-Man Vs.- 4-Player – Session #1.” YouTube. TheGamingMasterGuys. URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vgz5udJp7c 6 Jun. 2021. Retrieved 28 Dec. 2025. Snapshot of gameplay for Pac-Man Vs.<.span>
Images of Iwatani and his original design drawings from Control Magazine, “Prof. Toru Iwatani: ‘This is how I made Pac-Man!'”, by Matthijs Dierckx, June 22 2010 – www.controlmagazine.net/2010/06/22/prof-toru-iwatani-this-is-how-i-made-pac-man/
Scottithgames, comp. “The Father of Pac-Man?” Electronic Fun with Computers & Games Mar. 1983: 18. Internet Archive. 28 May 2013. Web. 2 Jan. 2022. Image of Masaya Nakamura playing Pac-Man
Photo of Pac-Man Yahtzee games by William Hunter, 2014
Unannotated, Uncategorized, or I Just Don’t Damn Remember!
The Pac-Man Dossier, by Jamey Pittman, 2011 – home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html
Video Games, “The Absolutely, Positively Last Word on Pac-Man”, an excerpt from “Video Invaders”, a book by Steve Bloom, pgs. 23 – 26, 78, Vol. 1 Num. 1, Aug 1982
Music Credits
Pac-Man Fever, Pac-Man Fever 30 Year Anniversary. Music by Buckner & Garcia. Published by BGO Records/Columbia-CBS Records, 1982
External Links (Click to view)
With the motto W.W.P.M.D.? (What Would Pac-Man Do?), this is the holy religious site (NOT A RELIGION. DO NOT WORSHIP) The 1st Church of Pac-Man, now saved in the warehouse of antiquity, The Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive – https://web.archive.org/web/20191101144605/http://www.flamingmayo.com/firstchurchofpacman/index2.htm
Pac-Man: A Tribute Page, by Shawn Williams – Play accurate javascript versions of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, including a version of the Pac-Man enhancement game Crazy Otto (just click on Ms. Pac-Man at the top of the Ms. Pac-Man page). It also has a fascinating breakdown of the “AI” of the ghosts. With the original site years defunct, the link from this text will take you to the latest working version of the site archived at The Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive.
Namco English website – https://www.bandainamcoent.com
Official Buckner & Garcia ‘Pac-Man Fever’ page – http://bucknergarcia.com
I’ve heard a lot a people say in books and in other articles that say puckman was originally released In Japan on October 10th 1979. Just about every book I read about the history of video games contradicts the may 22 1980 release for pacman. I’m still confused about the relase date.
uh no puckman was DEVELOPED in 1979 not relased sir.