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Pac-Man (universe): Difference between revisions
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After Masaya Nakamura's company, Nakamura Amusement-machine Manufacturing Company (or [[Bandai Namco|NAMCO]]), founded Namco's American subsidiary in order to license its video arcade machines to companies such as Atari and Midway Games for distribution in the U.S., Namco released its first internally designed video arcade game in 1978, ''Gee Bee''. Following this, Namco developed and released the highly popular fixed shooter game ''Galaxian'' in 1979 to compete with Taito Corporation's successful earlier game, ''Space Invaders''. ''Galaxian'' revolutionized the arcade industry as the first game to use RGB-color graphics, and it and its 1981 sequel ''Galaga'' became fixtures in what was subsequently remembered as the "Golden Age of arcade video games" — the peak era of arcade video game popularity and technological innovation. | After Masaya Nakamura's company, Nakamura Amusement-machine Manufacturing Company (or [[Bandai Namco|NAMCO]]), founded Namco's American subsidiary in order to license its video arcade machines to companies such as Atari and Midway Games for distribution in the U.S., Namco released its first internally designed video arcade game in 1978, ''Gee Bee''. Following this, Namco developed and released the highly popular fixed shooter game ''Galaxian'' in 1979 to compete with Taito Corporation's successful earlier game, ''Space Invaders''. ''Galaxian'' revolutionized the arcade industry as the first game to use RGB-color graphics, and it and its 1981 sequel ''Galaga'' became fixtures in what was subsequently remembered as the "Golden Age of arcade video games" — the peak era of arcade video game popularity and technological innovation. | ||
However, Namco's project in between, 1980's ''Pac-Man'', would arguably become even more definitive of both the era and Namco's legacy. A young Namco employee named Toru Iwatani designed the game with the intention to appeal to a wider audience beyond young boys and teenagers — demographics that were typical of the time because of the prevalence of space shooter-themed arcade machines. He therefore fashioned a game out of maze-like elements and a colorful aesthetic with cute character designs, including a player character he originally named "Puckman" after the Japanese phrase ぱくぱく ("paku paku"), an onomatopoeia used to represent the sound of eating. The character and the game itself were renamed ''Pac-Man'' for the North American release, as it was realized the original name could be vandalized | However, Namco's project in between, 1980's ''Pac-Man'', would arguably become even more definitive of both the era and Namco's legacy. A young Namco employee named Toru Iwatani designed the game with the intention to appeal to a wider audience beyond young boys and teenagers — demographics that were typical of the time because of the prevalence of space shooter-themed arcade machines. He therefore fashioned a game out of maze-like elements and a colorful aesthetic with cute character designs, including a player character he originally named "Puckman" after the Japanese phrase ぱくぱく ("paku paku"), an onomatopoeia used to represent the sound of eating. The character and the game itself were renamed ''Pac-Man'' for the North American release, as it was realized the original name could be vandalized from changing the P into an F. | ||
The original ''Pac-Man'' is set in a static, neon-colored maze, where the wedge-shaped [[Pac-Man]] must traverse every corridor and lane at least once in order to eat every pellet distributed across the screen. Pac-Man is at constant risk from four differently-colored "[[ghosts]]" that roam the maze with the intention to collide into him, but whenever Pac-Man eats through any four of the larger [[Power Pellet]]s in a maze, the ghosts temporarily turn vulnerable, and will be briefly taken out of the game when Pac-Man collides with a ghost in this state. When a maze is cleared, the board will be reset, and the game essentially continues endlessly until the player runs out of lives (or reaches level 256, the bugged "kill screen" which cannot be cleared). The point score — the ultimate objective of the game, like with many arcade games — can be further increased by eating [[Bonus Fruit|fruits]] that appear at certain thresholds. When all levels are cleared perfectly, the maximum possible score is 3,333,360 points. | The original ''Pac-Man'' is set in a static, neon-colored maze, where the wedge-shaped [[Pac-Man]] must traverse every corridor and lane at least once in order to eat every pellet distributed across the screen. Pac-Man is at constant risk from four differently-colored "[[ghosts]]" that roam the maze with the intention to collide into him, but whenever Pac-Man eats through any four of the larger [[Power Pellet]]s in a maze, the ghosts temporarily turn vulnerable, and will be briefly taken out of the game when Pac-Man collides with a ghost in this state. When a maze is cleared, the board will be reset, and the game essentially continues endlessly until the player runs out of lives (or reaches level 256, the bugged "kill screen" which cannot be cleared). The point score — the ultimate objective of the game, like with many arcade games — can be further increased by eating [[Bonus Fruit|fruits]] that appear at certain thresholds. When all levels are cleared perfectly, the maximum possible score is 3,333,360 points. | ||