It all started with pizza…
In 1979, 27-year-old Toru Iwatani, employee of Namco, When you look at a normal pizza, According to him, had the idea to create a video game, the main theme of which would be food. What inspired him? From Pizza were cut two slices, and this made her look like a mouth. So the name Pakkuman is derived from the Japanese phrase "paku-paku Taber». It is onomatopoeic slang expression. It depicts the sound, which is obtained, When the mouth is opened widely and repeatedly immediately closes. Just eat your delicious the point character Pacman. As regards food, the idea had Picked food for gaining strength taken, How to believe, from Popeye.
Until then, the most popular arcade games (such as Asteroids and Space Invaders) have been calculated mainly on boys and adolescents. Iwatani wanted, to his game was much more interesting to the general public. So he added the game maze and hostile ghosts in the style of kawaii (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde). Before the release of the game was renamed the Puck Man, in line with the image of the character.
With the release of the game in the United States, some changes have been made. In the first place, per Western audience was increased complexity. Changed the speed and design. The most important thing, due to concerns, that hooligans will turn "r" to "F", the name has been changed. Very smart move.
Another significant difference was, the game was adopted. In Japan reacted to her cool, in the United States it was different. Investors didn't find great merit in this game, were not impressed by its promotional shows before the release of. Expected, What is the most popular game of the year will be a racing game called Rally-X. Investors, of course, wrong. Pac-Man became an instant hit in the States, quickly bypassed Space Asteroids by revenue and brought more than $ 1 billion in dvadcatipâticentovyh coins in the first year. In 90-s profit from the arcade game was over two and a half billion dollars. It's a whole mountain of such coins. Today, Pac-Man is often referred to as the most profitable video game of all time. And now imagine, that would have been, If Toru Iwatani wanted that night to eat a Chinese meal instead of pizza.
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