Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Pac-Man

Pac-Man is one of the best-known arcade games in history. Decades after its release, the yellow maze-runner and his ghostly rivals remain instantly recognisable. Here are twenty facts about the game.

1. Pac-Man was originally called Puck Man.
2. The name was inspired by the Japanese phrase “paku-paku taberu”, associated with eating.
3. The character’s design was influenced by food and the idea of a mouth.
4. A very small team created the original game.
5. Creator Toru Iwatani was involved with only one of the many later spin-offs.
6. Each ghost has a different behaviour pattern.
7. The Japanese ghost names described their personalities.
8. The colourful characters helped the game appeal to a wider audience.
9. The original game breaks down beyond level 255.
10. A perfect score is 3,333,360 points.
11. Pac-Man strategy guides became bestsellers in 1982.
12. The small dots were conceived as cookies.
13. The larger dots were power cookies.
14. Guinness World Records recognised Pac-Man as an exceptionally successful coin-operated game.
15. It was the first game to use short intermissions between levels.
16. The original program was tiny by modern standards.
17. A safe hiding spot exists in the original maze.
18. Hundreds of thousands of cabinets sold soon after launch.
19. Pac-Man imagery has appeared in unexpected public designs around the world.
20. An original cabinet is held by the Smithsonian Institution.

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