Pac-Man

The video game involves a yellow circular character with a rapidly opening and closing mouth, as the player guides it through a maze, eating pellets and avoiding the four colored ghosts (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) that wander around. Four larger "Power Pellets," sometimes called "Energizers" or "Power Pills" exist in the four corners of the maze. When eaten, the four ghosts flash blue, and Pac-Man is able to eat them - turning them into a pair of wandering eyes that make their way back to the center square, and re-form into ghosts. The maze can be exited on the left or right side, resulting in Pac-Man (or a ghost)'s re-entry to the opposite side. Bonus point fruit items appear on occasion, and add significantly to the player's score once eaten. A level is complete when all of the dots on the screen are completely eaten.

The video game was later ported to home console, PC, and portable systems from Atari, to Nintendo, and Sega. It also had several variants, such as Ms. Pac-Man and Super Pac-Man.

Pac-Man not only became an iconic video game, but also a staple in 1980s retro-cultural history. The franchise spawned hundreds of merchandising opportunities, and endless "clone" version games that were popularized both in shareware and on the internet.

Hanna-Barbera released an animated series for Pac-Man in 1982 as a part of ABC's Saturday morning cartoon lineup. Featuring Pac-Man, Mrs. Pepper Pac-Man and Baby-Pac, the setting takes place in Pac-Land, an area inhabiting a forest full of trees that sprout power pellets. The family was constantly pestered by an evildoer named Mezmeron, who was the "boss" of the ghosts: Blinky, Pinky, Inky, Clyde and female ghost Sue (who was actually a new ghost, featured in the Ms. Pac-Man game). In each episode, the ghosts attempted to steal energizer pellets from Pac-Land, but failed, thanks to Pac-Man.

The cartoon series inspired a marketing blitz across a whole line of TV commercials: most notably, that of the Chef Boyardee line of canned pasta, and General Mills' marshmallow Pac-Man cereal.

:: Watch the intro to the 1982 Pac-Man cartoon
:: Watch the closing credits of the 1982 Pac-Man cartoon

:: Watch an Arby's commercial for Pac-Man glasses, from 1980
:: Watch the 1985 commercial for Pac-Man Cereal
:: Watch the original 1987 Chef Boyardee commercial with Pac-Man

Pac-man's "better half" gets her own arcade game: Ms. Pac-Man, which was arguably as popular as the original series that spun it off. Very similar in nature to Pac-Man, this game featured 6 different layouts for levels. Additionally, ghosts behaved more randomly than they did in Pac-Man, and bonus point fruit moved around the playing field, rather than sitting still in a given spot.

Aside from these aesthetics, Ms. Pac-Man has a distinct pink bow, lipstick, and a Marilyn Monroe-style mole. Just like her counterpart, Ms. Pac-Man had a breakfast cereal, as well.

:: Watch the original 1982 commercial for the Ms. Pac-Man game

In Super Pac-Man, gameplay was much different than in the other series. Rather than having to eat a field of dots, Super Pac-Man required you to 'unlock' wall segments with keys, and eat the fruit or objects within the walls to complete the level. Beyond your standard Power pellet, were special Super pellets which would vastly increase Pac-Man's size as he became Super Pac-Man. In this mode, he was invulnerable to ghosts and did not need keys to enter locked areas.

The arcade console for Super Pac-Man also included a big "SUPER" button. When pressed, Super Pac-Man experienced a significant speed boost.

In 1987, Namco released this brand new twist on the Pac-Man franchise; a "2.5D" arcade version of the game, with an interesting isometric rendering of the game field and characters. In Pac-Mania, the rules were basically the same: eat all of the pellets, avoid the ghosts, eat an Energizer to vanquish the ghosts...plus, the addition of the "jump" ability.

The game field was vastly larger, as your character was centered on the screen, and it was sometimes unclear as to where the remaining pellets were located without a little exploration. A handful of interesting stages were included - one of which appeared to be constructed of Legos. Two new ghosts were introduced, which would also jump if Pac-Man attempted to jump over them, resulting in a lost life.