January 1, 2008 at 21:29Pac-Man fever (the story of the great game)
Toru Iwatani , who worked for Japanese toy maker Namco , created his masterpiece in 1980. The game for automatic machines was called "Puck-Man" and gained great popularity in Japan.
It was a new genre: at that time, mostly space shooters (like Asteroids) and various versions of the game “Pong” were produced (the one where two rectangles symbolizing racquets are thrown by a square ball). And in "Puck-Man" you had to control the character in a single-screen maze, dodging ghosts and eating balls. During the movement, the character claps his mouth, which is accompanied by the sounds of “pack-pack-pack”, hence the name of the hero and the name of the game. The level ends if all the balls are eaten. The story repeats until 255 screens change. Alas, the 256th is displayed with errors, so it's impossible to play it. Midway Purchases
Rights for Puck-Man in the US; however, it was decided that it was better to release the game under the name “Pac-Man” - in the Japanese version it would be very simple for children to spoil the machine case by redirecting “P” to “F”: “Fuck-Man” ... The
miracle of Japanese thought firmly entered the American pop culture. In 1982, the disco-rock duo Buckner & Garcia even recorded the song "Pac-Man Fever", which sings :
In the wake of popularity, Buckner & Garcia signed to Columbia and were forced to make an entire album about video games.
A lot of alterations were released for Pakman: Caterpillar Pac-Man (caterpillar escapes from spiders), Piranha (piranha escapes from octopuses), Lock'n'Chase (thief escapes from police). The game “ Mrs. Pakman ” became especially popular - perhaps the first arcade game in which it was proposed to act as a female character, also a kind of breakthrough. There was a complicated story about Mr. Pakman, Mrs. Pakman and their child, which was realized in the animated television seriesabout how the pack family defends the pack land from ghosts. In the series, in general, a bunch of words got the prefix “pak-”, and all the objects of the painted world were spherical.
Pac-Man has been published for Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Game Boy. Later, of course, in a variety of incarnations, for PC, XBox, and so on.
Related links:
It was a new genre: at that time, mostly space shooters (like Asteroids) and various versions of the game “Pong” were produced (the one where two rectangles symbolizing racquets are thrown by a square ball). And in "Puck-Man" you had to control the character in a single-screen maze, dodging ghosts and eating balls. During the movement, the character claps his mouth, which is accompanied by the sounds of “pack-pack-pack”, hence the name of the hero and the name of the game. The level ends if all the balls are eaten. The story repeats until 255 screens change. Alas, the 256th is displayed with errors, so it's impossible to play it. Midway Purchases
Rights for Puck-Man in the US; however, it was decided that it was better to release the game under the name “Pac-Man” - in the Japanese version it would be very simple for children to spoil the machine case by redirecting “P” to “F”: “Fuck-Man” ... The
miracle of Japanese thought firmly entered the American pop culture. In 1982, the disco-rock duo Buckner & Garcia even recorded the song "Pac-Man Fever", which sings :
'Cause I've got Pac-Man fever!
(Pac-Man fever!)
It's driving me crazy!
(Driving me crazy!)
I've got Pac-Man fever!
(Pac-Man fever!)
I'm going out of my mind!
(Going out of my mind!)
In the wake of popularity, Buckner & Garcia signed to Columbia and were forced to make an entire album about video games.
A lot of alterations were released for Pakman: Caterpillar Pac-Man (caterpillar escapes from spiders), Piranha (piranha escapes from octopuses), Lock'n'Chase (thief escapes from police). The game “ Mrs. Pakman ” became especially popular - perhaps the first arcade game in which it was proposed to act as a female character, also a kind of breakthrough. There was a complicated story about Mr. Pakman, Mrs. Pakman and their child, which was realized in the animated television seriesabout how the pack family defends the pack land from ghosts. In the series, in general, a bunch of words got the prefix “pak-”, and all the objects of the painted world were spherical.
Pac-Man has been published for Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Game Boy. Later, of course, in a variety of incarnations, for PC, XBox, and so on.
Related links: