Pac-Man ARCADE

Pac-Man is Namco’s 1980 maze-chase arcade game, designed by Toru Iwatani and released in the US by Midway. You guide the title character through a dot-filled maze while four ghosts — Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde — hunt him down, each governed by a distinct pursuit pattern; four power pellets per maze briefly let Pac-Man turn the tables and eat the ghosts instead.

Iwatani built it as a deliberate break from the shoot-’em-ups that dominated arcades at the time, aiming for something less violent and appealing to a wider audience, including women — a design goal credited with helping arcade games break out of a narrower niche. It remains one of the best-selling and most recognized arcade cabinets ever made.