News-Letter

The best-selling coin-operated game in history, Pac-Man's Japanese developer, Namco, estimates that the original Pac-Man arcade title has been played more than ten billion times in its 20-year history. Namco's total Pac-Man revenues have reached $100 million, one quarter at a time.

And it's no wonder. Pac-Man's had a headstart in the industry, born 1980, the same year as our graduating seniors. We can only hope the Class of 2002 will come to enjoy the same wealth and fame that Pac-Man has.

We all remember him from our youth, a yellow dot with a triangle for a mouth, almost like a pizza with a slice taken away. Actually, that's literally what he is. Young Namco game designed Tohru Iwatani was out eating pizza with his friends one night, and came up with this yellow-fellow as the good-guy of his creation. Kinda takes the cuteness out of him, doesn't it?

Namco originally wanted to name him Puck-Man before the American release. Good thing they changed it — the innocent yellow guy would suddenly found himself getting a lot of vulgar action.

All through the '80s, Pac-Man found himself being vaulted to the top of every chart. Pac-Man was licensed to several food companies and was eaten by consumers in General Mills' Pac-Man cereal as well as Chef Boyardee's Pac-Man Pasta. In total, Pac-Man has been licensed to more than 250 companies for over 400 products. There are Pac-Man air fresheners, cereal boxes, flip phones, costumes, record books and even a hot rod.

In the fall of 1981, musicians Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia spoofed Ted Nugent's song Cat Scratch Fever with a song of their own: Pac-Man Fever. Pac-Man Fever climbed to number nine in the US, with the first two verses singing

I gotta pocket full of quarters,

And I'm headed to the arcade.

I don't have a lot of money

But I'm bringing everything I've made.

I've gotta callus on my finger,

And my shoulder's hurtin' too.

I'm gonna eat 'em all up,

Just as soon as they turn blue.

In other mediums: 1982 saw the Hanna-Barbera debut of ABC's animated cartoon, simply titled "The Pac-Man Show," which ran for two seasons. The video game character gets his own show, in which he stars with his wife, Ms. Pac, a liberated lady; the energetic Baby Pac; Chomp Chomp, a loveable dog; and Sour Puss, their sly cat, in fantasy adventures that take place in Pac-Land, a pretty pastel world composed of glowing dots. The sinister Mezmaron threatens to rob the Power Pellet Forest of the power pellets Pac-Land thrives on. His attempts are usually bungled by his ghosts, Inky, Blinky, Clyde and Sue.

The game itself has spawned many sequels with different features, and conversions to other platforms, like Atari and pinball machines (although, despite repeated attempts, these conversions were mainly huge let-downs).

The growth of the Pac-Man family began as an effort to draw more females into the digital world, with the development of Ms. Pac-Man and her adventures in 1982. Although her game is essentially the same, the more humaness of her features — the red bow, the lipstick, the mole — has led many players to prefer her over the Mister, and her game is more commondly found in arcades and convenience stores than Pac-Man. We always knew that girls have more fun.

In the 1990s, as expected, Pac-Man went virtual. Attempts at Pac-Land — the world of the Man and his fam in 3D — bombed, proving that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Pac-Man VR (1995) displayed fantastic 3D graphics and was played from the Man's point of view. Pop culture just wasn't ready for a pop-up version of a lovable 2D character.

But he isn't out of the picture yet. Namco is releasing versions of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man for both the Game Boy Color and the N64. With the development of systems like Playstation and Neo Geo Pocket Color, the chomping pizza naturally has a front-row seat. Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary for Playstation is the latest and greatest collection of Pac-Games for all those hard-core munchers out there. It features the original Pac-Man (down to each individual line of code), 36 new 3D mazes, a Mario Bros.-type quest mode, and a hidden art gallery.

And it's obvious that pop culture isn't quite ready to trade him in for bloodier games. In July of 1999, Florida resident and die-hard Pac-Man fan Billy Mitchell achieved the first perfect score in Pac-Man (3,333,360) after playing for six hours straight. He beat all 256 screens eating every dot, fruit, and ghost (all four ghosts were eaten with each power pellet) — using only one Pac-Man.

The Pac-Man obsessed generation hasn't forgotten him. The business world has co-opted Pac-Man's name as a technique to protect against a hostile takeover. Known as the Pac-Man defense, the defending company would instead swallow the larger company. He's still taking over the world.

Hey, for a chomping head, he hasn't done all that bad. Armed with a helluva lot more than that, the Class of 2002 should do even better. (Source: http://videogames.gamespot.com)