On this day the most iconic video game character of all time was released to the public in the country of his inception, Japan. No, I am not talking about Nintendo's Mario, on May 22nd 1980 Pac-Man (Japanese: Pakkuman) was released in Japanese Arcades by Namco (Now known as Bandai Namco). At first Pac-Man received a lukewarm reception as Space Invaders, Asteroids and other similar machines dominated the arcades at the time. Pac-Man was something very different to else arcade. The lead developer (Toru Iwatani) was attempting to break away from the stereotypical audience of teen boys and trying to expand the audience to the female market. For this reason the maze and 'pretty ghosts' were added into the game design. It was not until Pac-Man was introduced to North America that the franchise really took off. Since 1980 there have been many Pac-Man releases and derivatives, in fact Pac-Man has been on more consoles than any other video game character in history and is not only iconic with the video game community but also the general audience indicated by his breakaway into pop-culture, homewares, clothing and TV. Pac-Man had been awarded eight records by 2008 in the Guinness World Records: Gamers Edition and was inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame in 2015. There have been many incarnations of Pac-Man throughout the years and you can play one of his games on most consoles, PC, Mac or even on the web. #thisdayingaming #onthisdaygaming #todayingaming #videogamehistory #videogames #Pacman #PakkuMan #PacManFever #CultClassic #1980 #1980Arcade #JapaneseRelease #ChangingDemographic #Namco #NamcoBandai #BandaiNamco #NamcoEnterprisesAsia #NamcoAmerica #NamcoOperationsEurope #BandaiNamcoHoldings #JapaneseDeveloper #ToruIwatani #VideoGameHallOfFame #GuinnessWorldRecord #Midway
