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105-680: Pac-Man is a video game series and media franchise developed, published and owned by Bandai Namco Entertainment , a video game publisher that was previously known as Namco . Entries have been developed by a wide array of other video game companies, including Midway Games , Atari and Mass Media, Inc. , and was created by Toru Iwatani . The eponymous first entry was released in arcades in 1980 by Namco, and published by Midway Games in North America . Most Pac-Man games are maze chase games, but it has also delved into other genres, such as platformers , racing , and sports . Several games in

210-412: A Pac-Man telephone. There were more than 500 Pac-Man related products. 7-Eleven sold Pac-Man themed merchandise at its stores since the game's initial popularity in the 1980s. This has included collectible Slurpee and Big Gulp cups. In 2023, 7-Eleven included Pac-Man in its Spring 2023 marketing material including at Speedway and Stripes banner locations, and sold more merchandise around

315-617: A 1986 interview he said that this was only half-true, and that the Pac-Man character was also based on him rounding out and simplifying the Japanese character "kuchi" ( 口 ), meaning "mouth". The four ghosts were made to be cute, colorful and appealing, using bright, pastel colors and expressive blue eyes. Iwatani had used this idea before in Cutie Q , which features similar ghost-like characters, and decided to incorporate it into Pac-Man . He

420-464: A Pac-Man-like character is the main villain. In the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World , the titular character makes reference to the original Japanese name. The 2018 film Relaxer uses Pac-Man as a strong plot element in the story of a 1999 couch-bound man who attempts to beat the game (and encounters the famous Level 256 glitch) before the year 2000 problem occurs. Various attempts for

525-555: A bonus game, alongside the arcade versions of Dig Dug and Galaga . In 2014, Pac-Man was included in the compilation title Pac-Man Museum for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, alongside several other Pac-Man games. The NES version is one of 30 games included in the NES Classic Edition . Upon its North American debut at AMOA 1980, the game initially received a mild response. Play Meter magazine previewed

630-615: A brand new entry to the Pac-Man World series, more to be a reboot to the games. Pac-Man Museum was released on Xbox Live Arcade ( Xbox 360 ), PlayStation Network ( PS3 ) and Windows PC (through Steam ); the planned Nintendo eShop release for Wii U and 3DS was cancelled. Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 was also originally going to have a Windows version. Pac-Man is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and it

735-488: A certain amount of time, blue-colored ghosts flash white before turning back into their normal forms. Eating a certain number of dots in a level causes a bonus item—usually a fruit—to appear underneath the center box; the item can be eaten for bonus points. To the sides of the maze are two "warp tunnels", which allow Pac-Man and the ghosts to travel to the opposite side of the screen. Ghosts become slower when entering and exiting these tunnels. The game increases in difficulty as

840-531: A circular "Cross Ring" that attached to the d-pad to restrict it to four-directional movement. In 2001, Namco released a port of Pac-Man for various Japanese mobile phones , being one of the company's first mobile game releases. The Famicom version of the game was re-released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 as part of the Famicom Mini series, released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of

945-526: A creature that protected children from monsters by devouring them. Frank Fogleman, the co-founder of Gremlin Industries , believes that the maze-chase gameplay of Pac-Man was inspired by Sega 's Head On (1979), a similar arcade game that was popular in Japan. Iwatani has often claimed that the character of Pac-Man was designed after the shape of a pizza with a missing slice while he was at lunch; in

1050-430: A feature film based on Pac-Man have been planned since the peak of the original game's popularity. Following the release of Ms. Pac-Man , a feature film was being developed, but never reached an agreement. In 2008, a live-action film based on the series was in development at Crystal Sky . In 2022, plans for a live-action Pac-Man film were revived at Wayfarer Studios, based on an idea by Chuck Williams. The kid's area of

1155-485: A franchise can even be created, which ultimately leads to the creation of brand worlds. Since the creation of Disneyland in 1955, bringing fictional media franchises to life through the theme parks slowly became increasingly popular as the way to perfectly blend tourism and real-life involvement with media itself. Similar to transmedia, the concept of bringing fictional media into a non-fictional space where fans can immerse themselves in real-life versions of elements from

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1260-605: A game of Pac-Man, with roads as the maze and moving vehicles as ghosts. Planned as a sequel to Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness Pac-Man game featuring designs by animator Don Bluth . Many of the concepts went on to be used in Pac-Man World 3 . Planned sequel to Pac-Man Pinball Advance , but instead of it being developed by Human Soft, it was being developed by Zen Studios . Similar Wii games including Namco Museum Remix , Namco Museum Megamix , and Pac-Man Party have been released later on. Seemingly planned to be

1365-424: A modeling agency, several television shows ( Playboy's Penthouse , in 1959), and even its own television channel . Twenty-five years later, Playboy released private clubs and restaurants, movie theaters, a radio show , direct to video films, music and book publishing (including original works in addition to its anthologies of cartoons, photographs, recipes, advice, articles or fiction that had originally appeared in

1470-406: A more complicated strategy to zero in on him, and Pokey ("Clyde") alternates between chasing him and running away. (The ghosts' Japanese names are おいかけ, chase ; まちぶせ, ambush ; きまぐれ, fickle ; and おとぼけ, playing dumb , respectively.) To break up the tension of constantly being pursued, humorous intermissions between Pac-Man and Blinky were added. The sound effects were among the last things added to

1575-480: A nine-man team. Iwatani wanted to create a game that could appeal to women as well as men, because most video games of the time had themes of war or sports. Although the inspiration for the Pac-Man character was the image of a pizza with a slice removed, Iwatani has said he rounded out the Japanese character for mouth, kuchi ( Japanese : 口 ). The in-game characters were made to be cute and colorful to appeal to younger players. The original Japanese title of Puck Man

1680-435: A non-violent, cheerful video game that appealed mostly to women, as he believed that attracting women and couples into arcades would potentially make them appear to be much more family friendly in tone. Iwatani began thinking of things that women liked to do in their time; he decided to center his game around eating, basing this on women liking to eat desserts and other sweets. His game was initially called Pakkuman , based on

1785-632: A result. These include Taxman (1981) and Snack Attack (1982) for the Apple II, Jawbreaker (1981) for the Atari 8-bit computers, Scarfman (1981) for the TRS-80, and K.C. Munchkin! (1981) for the Odyssey². Namco produced several other maze games, including Rally-X (1980), Dig Dug (1982), Exvania (1992), and Tinkle Pit (1994). Atari sued Philips for creating K.C. Munchkin in

1890-514: A similar style of between-level intermissions in 1979. Pac-Man was a turning point for the arcade video game industry, which had previously been dominated by space shoot 'em ups since Space Invaders (1978). Pac-Man popularized a genre of "character-led" action games , leading to a wave of character action games involving player characters in 1981, such as Nintendo 's prototypical platform game Donkey Kong , Konami 's Frogger and Universal Entertainment 's Lady Bug . Pac-Man

1995-442: A small video game development group within the company and ordered them to study several NEC -produced microcomputers to potentially create games with. One of the first people assigned to this division was a 24-year-old employee named Toru Iwatani . He created Namco's first video game Gee Bee in 1978, which while unsuccessful helped the company gain a stronger foothold in the quickly-growing video game industry. He assisted in

2100-399: A techno album which consists mostly of samples from the game. The character appears in the music video for Bloodhound Gang 's " Mope ", released in 2000. Here, the character is portrayed as a cocaine addict. On July 20, 2020, Gorillaz and Schoolboy Q , released a track entitled " Pac-Man " as a part of Gorillaz' Song Machine series to commemorate the game's 40th anniversary , with

2205-469: A total of 2.5 million copies sold as of 2008. More than one million copies of the group's Pac-Man Fever album (1982) were sold. In 1982, "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a parody of " Taxman " by the Beatles as "Pac-Man". It was eventually released in 2017 as part of Squeeze Box: The Complete Works of "Weird Al" Yankovic . In 1992, Aphex Twin (with the name Power-Pill) released Pac-Man ,

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2310-619: A total of more than $ 12  billion in revenue. Pac-Man was awarded "Best Commercial Arcade Game" at the 1982 Arcade Awards . Pac-Man also won the Video Software Dealers Association 's VSDA Award for Best Videogame. In 2001, Pac-Man was voted the greatest video game of all time by a Dixons poll in the UK. The Killer List of Videogames listed Pac-Man as the most popular game of all time. The list aggregator site Playthatgame currently ranks Pac-Man as

2415-690: A version for the Nintendo Famicom in 1984 as one of the console's first third-party titles, as well as a port for the MSX computer. The Famicom version was later released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Tengen , a subsidiary of Atari Games . Tengen produced an unlicensed version of the game in a black cartridge shell, released during a time when Tengen and Nintendo were in disagreements over

2520-573: Is a hidden extra in the arcade game Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga - Class of 1981 (2001). A similar cabinet was released in 2005 that featured Pac-Man as the centerpiece. Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (1993) and Pac-Man World 2 (2002) have Pac-Man as an unlockable extra. Alongside the Xbox 360 remake Pac-Man Championship Edition , it was ported to the Nintendo 3DS in 2012 as part of Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions . The 2010 Wii game Pac-Man Party and its 2011 3DS remake include Pac-Man as

2625-496: Is an animated television series produced by 41 Entertainment , Arad Productions , a partnership between Sprite Animation Studios and OLM, Inc. , and Bandai Namco Entertainment for Tokyo MX (stereo version), BS11 (stereo version) and Disney XD (bilingual version).[3] It is the second animated series to be based upon the game franchise, following the 1982 TV series. The show aired from June 15, 2013, to May 25, 2015, running for three seasons and 52 episodes. Various attempts for

2730-399: Is caught by a ghost, he loses a life; the game ends when all lives are lost. Each of the four ghosts has its own unique artificial intelligence (A.I.), or "personality": Blinky gives direct chase to Pac-Man; Pinky and Inky try to position themselves in front of Pac-Man, usually by cornering him; and Clyde switches between chasing Pac-Man and fleeing from him. Placed near the four corners of

2835-720: Is named for a cosmetic resemblance to the character, in the mathematical study of the Mandelbrot set . The game's popularity has led to "Pac-Man" being adopted as a nickname, such as by boxer Manny Pacquiao and the American football player Adam Jones . In 2012, the Pac-Man was inducted into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. This addition was part of an initial selection (Wave 1) of fourteen video games . On August 21, 2016, in

2940-428: Is the Japanese term for a transmedia franchise. The term media mix gained its circulation in late 1980s and is first used to describe adaptations of Sakyo Komatsu 's Japan Sinks , but the origins of the strategy can be traced back to the 1960s with the proliferation of anime , with its interconnection of media and commodity goods. Some of the earlier popular Japanese franchises such as Vampire Hunter D in

3045-510: Is the best-selling arcade game of all time, with total estimated earnings ranging from 10 billion coins and $ 3.5 billion ($ 7.7 billion adjusted for inflation) to $ 6  billion ( $ 19  billion adjusted for inflation) in arcades. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man also topped the US RePlay cocktail arcade cabinet charts for 23 months, from February 1982 through 1983 up until February 1984 . The Atari 2600 version of

3150-800: Is the first series based on the franchise. It premiered on ABC and ran for 44 episodes over two seasons from September 25, 1982, to November 5, 1983. It was the first cartoon based on a video game. The series aired on ABC Saturday Morning in the following formats: Pac-Man Halloween Special The Halloween special consisted of two segments from the show, "Pacula" and "Trick or Chomp". The special aired in primetime on ABC on October 30, 1982. It has been replayed on channels like Cartoon Network and Boomerang during Halloween in later years until 2014. Christmas Comes to Pac-Land In this Christmas special, Pac-Man and his family help Santa Claus (voiced by Peter Cullen ) after he crash lands in Pac-Land (after

3255-432: The 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony , during a video which showcases Tokyo as the host of the 2020 Summer Olympics , a small segment shows Pac-Man and the ghosts racing and eating dots on a running track . A wide variety of Pac-Man merchandise have been marketed with the character's image. By 1982, Midway had about 95-105 licensees selling Pac-Man merchandise, including major companies, such as AT&T selling

Pac-Man (franchise) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3360-542: The Atari 5200 implementation a "splendidly reproduced" version of the arcade game, noting a difference in maze layouts for the television screen. It considered the Atari 2600 version to have "much weaker graphics", but to still be one of the best games for that console. In both cases the reviewer felt that the joystick controls were harder to use than those of the arcade machine, and that "attempts to make quick turns are often frustrated". Guinness World Records has awarded

3465-696: The Atari 8-bit computer version sold 42,359 copies in 1986 and 1990, Thunder Mountain's 1986 budget release for home computers received a Diamond certification from the Software Publishers Association in 1989 for selling over 500,000 copies, and mobile phone ports have sold over 30 million paid downloads as of 2010 . II Computing also listed the Atarisoft port tenth on the magazine's list of top Apple II games as of late 1985, based on sales and market-share data. As of 2016 , all versions of Pac-Man are estimated to have grossed

3570-741: The Game Link Cable peripheral. A version for the Game Gear was released a year later, which likewise enabled support for multiplayer. In celebration of the game's 20th anniversary in 1999, Namco re-released the Game Boy version for the Game Boy Color , bundled with Pac-Attack and titled Pac-Man: Special Color Edition . The same year, Namco and SNK co-published a port for the Neo Geo Pocket Color , which came with

3675-618: The Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008 , awarded in 2010. In 2009, Guinness World Records listed Pac-Man as the most recognizable video game character in the United States, recognized by 94% of the population, above Mario who was recognized by 93% of the population. In 2015, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted Pac-Man to its World Video Game Hall of Fame . The Pac-Man character and game series became an icon of video game culture during

3780-503: The Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as part of its Arcade Archives series, marking the first two Namco games to be included as part of the series. Pac-Man is included in many Namco compilations , including Namco Museum Vol. 1 (1995), Namco Museum 64 (1999), Namco Museum Battle Collection (2005), Namco Museum DS (2007), Namco Museum Essentials (2009), and Namco Museum Megamix (2010). In 1996, it

3885-551: The Pac-Man series eight records in Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008 , including "Most Successful Coin-Operated Game". On June 3, 2010, at the NLGD Festival of Games, the game's creator, Toru Iwatani, officially received the certificate from Guinness World Records for Pac-Man having had the most "coin-operated arcade machines" installed worldwide: 293,822. The record was set and recognized in 2005 and mentioned in

3990-587: The Pac-Man Watch Face for Android Wear , and Pac-Man Moving Stickers for iOS. In July 2015, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX was released on both iOS and Android . Both versions were discontinued in March 2020. A Pac-Man-themed desktop assistant that included screensavers, minigames and folder icons. A game that was exclusive to the Dreamcast version of Namco Museum and was played using

4095-678: The PlayStation 2 that features Pac-Man World 2 , Pac-Man World 3 and Pac-Man World Rally . A compilation of various "S" (score attack) variations of Pac-Man , Rally-X , Dig Dug , Galaga , Gator Panic and Pac-Chain . It was delisted from the App Store on March 30, 2015. An endless runner game featuring characters from the Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures television series. A party video game released exclusively for Apple Arcade . Developed by Pastagames. Also having been released as iOS applications are ports of

4200-491: The fantasy and science fiction genres. Similarly, fantasy, science fiction films and television shows are frequently adapted into animated television series , video games, or both. A media franchise does not have to include the same characters or theme, as the brand identity can be the franchise, like Square Enix 's Final Fantasy or the National Lampoon series , and can suffer from critical failures even if

4305-560: The reindeer were startled by the floating eyes of the Ghost Monsters after Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Baby chomped them). Mezmeron was the only character from the cartoon that is not in the special (although his lair, which is covered in snow, appears). It was shown every December on the Boomerang Christmas Party until 2014. Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures , known in Japan as Pac-World , Pac-World ,

Pac-Man (franchise) - Misplaced Pages Continue

4410-480: The "P" in Puck Man to an "F". Masaya Nakamura chose to rename it to Pac-Man , as he felt it was closer to the game's original Japanese title of Pakkuman . In Europe, the game was released under both titles. After Puck Man was ruled out but before Pac-Man was decided upon, early American promotional material used the name Snapper . When Namco presented Pac-Man and Rally-X to potential distributors at

4515-438: The #53rd top game of all-time & game of the year. Pac-Man is considered by many to be one of the most influential video games of all time. The game established the maze chase game genre, was the first video game to make use of power-ups , and the individual ghosts have deterministic artificial intelligence (AI) that reacts to player actions. Pac-Man is considered one of the first video games to have demonstrated

4620-509: The 1980 AMOA tradeshow in November, executives believed that Rally-X would be the best-selling game of that year. According to Play Meter magazine, both Pac-Man and Rally-X received mild attention at the show. Namco had initially approached Atari to distribute Pac-Man , but Atari refused the offer. Midway Manufacturing subsequently agreed to distribute both Pac-Man and Rally-X in North America, announcing their acquisition of

4725-470: The 1980s . The game has inspired various real-life recreations, involving real people or robots. One event called Pac-Manhattan set a Guinness World Record for "Largest Pac-Man Game" in 2004. The business term " Pac-Man defense " in mergers and acquisitions refers to a hostile takeover target that attempts to reverse the situation and instead acquire its attempted acquirer, a reference to Pac-Man ' s energizers. The "Pac-Man renormalization "

4830-423: The 1980s and Pokémon in the late 1990s, acted as benchmarks in the country's transmedia dominance. The latter in particular began as a video game available on Nintendo 's Game Boy , and crossed through the media of television, film, news, and other non-media related realms, such trading cards, merchandise, and more. A number of Japanese media franchises have gained considerable global popularity, and are among

4935-549: The Dreamcast VMU memory pack. A handheld TV game released by Jakks Pacific as part of its TV Games line in 2004. As of 2007, over 15 million Pac-Man TV Games units were sold. Pac-Man appears as a DLC golfer as of August 22, 2013. Pac-Man Smash is a Pac-Man themed air hockey table released into arcades by Namco Bandai Games . It is a localization of a Japanese air hockey table called Big Bang Smash . Japan's Big Bang Smash has no references to Pac-Man in it,

5040-660: The Famicom; this version was released in North America and Europe under the Classic NES Series label. Namco Networks released Pac-Man for BREW mobile devices in 2005. The arcade original was released for the Xbox Live Arcade service in 2006, featuring achievements and online leaderboards. In 2009 a version for iOS devices was published; this release was rebranded as Pac-Man + Tournaments in 2013, featuring new mazes and leaderboards. The NES version

5145-489: The Ghostly Adventures aired on Disney XD from June 15, 2013 to May 25, 2015. The original Pac-Man game plays a key role in the plot of Ernest Cline 's video game-themed science fiction novel Ready Player One . The Buckner & Garcia song " Pac-Man Fever " (1981) went to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and received a Gold certification for more than 1 million records sold by 1982, and

5250-471: The Japanese onomatopoeia term "paku paku taberu", referencing the mouth movement of opening and closing in succession. The game that later became Pac-Man began development in early 1979 and took a year and five months to complete, the longest for a video game up to that point. Iwatani enlisted the help of nine other Namco employees to assist in production, including composer Toshio Kai, programmer Shigeo Funaki, and hardware engineer Shigeichi Ishimura. Care

5355-463: The Pac-Man references were added into the localization. It is a four way air hockey table with many pucks instead of only one puck. The game was to be a maze-pinball hybrid, very similar to Baby Pac-Man. A planned 3D platformer developed by Namco Hometek. The project would eventually be reworked into Pac-Man World . A game that would use the WonderGate addon to convert the player's location to

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5460-454: The US by 1982. Pac-Man related merchandise products included bumper stickers , jewellery , accessories (such as a $ 20,000 Ms. Pac-Man choker with 14 karat gold), bicycles , breakfast cereals , popsicles , t-shirts , toys and pasta. Lego released an exclusive set of a PAC-MAN arcade machine for their Lego Icons line. A Lego version of PAC-MAN, Clyde, and Blinky are featured on

5565-401: The US, before it caught on upon release there. Some arcades purchased entire rows of Pac-Man cabinets. It became a nationwide success. Upon release in 1980, it was earning about $ 8.1  million per week in the United States. Within one year, more than 100,000 arcade units had been sold which grossed more than $ 1  billion in quarters . It overtook Atari 's Asteroids (1979) as

5670-432: The annual Game Machine charts, dethroning Space Invaders (1978) which had topped the annual charts for two years in a row and leading to a shift in the Japanese market away from space shooters towards action games featuring comical characters. Pac-Man was Japan's fourth highest-grossing arcade game of 1981. In North America, Midway had limited expectations prior to release, initially manufacturing 5,000 units for

5775-578: The best-selling arcade game in the country, and surpassed the film Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) with more than $ 1  billion in revenue. Pac-Man was the United States' highest-grossing arcade game of 1981 , and second highest game of 1982 . By 1982, it was estimated to have had 30 million active players across the United States. The game's success was partly driven by its popularity among female audiences, becoming "the first commercial videogame to involve large numbers of women as players" according to Midway's Stan Jarocki, with Pac-Man being

5880-470: The case Atari, Inc. v. North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp. , leading to Munchkin being pulled from store shelves under court order. No major competitors emerged to challenge Pac-Man in the maze subgenre. Pac-Man inspired 3D variants of the concept, such as Monster Maze (1982), Spectre (1982), and early first-person shooters such as MIDI Maze (1987; which had similar character designs). John Romero credited Pac-Man as

5985-419: The commercial profitability of the franchise and create strong feelings of identity and ownership in its consumers. Those large groups of dedicated consumers create the franchise's fandom , which is the community of fans that indulge in many of its media and are committed to interacting with and keeping up with other consumers. Large franchise-based fandoms have grown to be even more popular in recent years with

6090-463: The day-in-the-life episodes of the many different Real Housewives series. Documentaries and docuseries are other highlights of the non-fiction branch of media franchises, such as the popular Planet Earth series, which serves as both a film and television transmedia franchise. Pac-Man Pac-Man, originally called Puck Man in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and released by Namco for arcades . In North America,

6195-565: The favorite coin-op game among female gamers through 1982. Among the nine arcade games covered by How to Win Video Games (1982), Pac-Man was the only one with females accounting for a majority of players. The number of arcade units sold had tripled to 400,000 by 1982, receiving an estimated total of between seven billion coins and $ 6  billion. In a 1983 interview, Nakamura said that though he did expect Pac-Man to be successful, "I never thought it would be this big." Pac-Man

6300-725: The fictional worlds they love, adds to the overall narrative the franchise creates through its other media. Marvel's Avenger's Campus park is one of the many franchise-based theme parks created in recent times, following the creation of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure and Star Wars' Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland and Disney World . Media franchises tend to cross over from their original media to other forms. Literary franchises are often transported to film, such as Nancy Drew , Miss Marple , and other popular detectives , as well as popular comic book superheroes . Television and film franchises are often expanded upon in novels , particularly those in

6405-470: The film The Matrix Reloaded and the video game Enter the Matrix were produced at the same time, using the same actors on the same sets, and released on the same day. Transmedia franchises occasionally release content through certain media that is not canon to the main or greater story that the franchise is built around, meaning that the elements of said content do not truly exist in the main timeline of

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6510-467: The financial logic of cost-recovery for expensive productions by identifying that a single medium launch is a lost opportunity, the timeliness of the production and release is more important than its integrity, the releases should raise brand awareness and the cross-ability of the work is critical for its success. American Idol was a transmedia franchise from its beginnings, with the first season winner Kelly Clarkson signing with RCA Records and having

6615-498: The flickering effect of the ghosts. However, it was a commercial success, selling over seven million copies. Atari released versions for the Intellivision , VIC-20 , Commodore 64 , Apple II , IBM PC compatibles , TI-99/4A , ZX Spectrum , and the Atari 8-bit computers . A port for the Atari 5200 was released in 1983, a version that is considered as a significant improvement over the Atari 2600 version. Namco released

6720-555: The focus on the content of the commodity to "overlapping the commodity image with the character image". The book Anime's Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan, by Marc Steinberg, details the evolution of the media mix in Japan. Long-running franchises were common in the early studio era, when Hollywood studios had actors and directors under long-term contract. In such cases, even lead actors are often replaced as they age, lose interest, or their characters are killed. Spin-offs and adaptations of popular pieces of media within

6825-433: The franchise's characters and settings. As one author explains, "For the studios, a home-run is a film from which a multimedia 'franchise' can be generated; the colossally expensive creation of cross-media conglomerates predicated on synergistic rewards provides an obvious imperative to develop such products." The trend later developed wherein franchises would be launched in multiple forms of media simultaneously; for instance,

6930-415: The franchise. Canon content often times breaks continuity, leading fans to speculate or seek to confirm which media are canon and which are not, which can get confusing if the franchise does not provide an answer themselves since entire media can be non-canon to the greater story, with a popular example occurring. On the other hand, specific episodes, volumes or parts of a series can be canon while others in

7035-411: The game and called it "a cute game which appears to grow on players, something which cute games are not prone to do," saying that there's "more to the game than at first appears" but criticized the sound as a drawback, saying it is "good for awhile, then becomes annoying." Upon release, the game exceeded expectations with wide critical and commercial success. When it was first released in Japan, Pac-Man

7140-421: The game as well as rebranding some of its products after the ghosts. This included its house blend coffee (Clyde's Coffee Blend), two Slurpee flavors (Blinky's Cherry & Inky's Blueberry Raz), and a special limited time only cappuccino flavor (Pinky's Strawberry White Chocolate Cappuccino), the latter of which came out pink to match the ghost. Pac-Man themed merchandise sales had exceeded $ 1  billion in

7245-599: The game sold over 8 million copies, making it the console's best-selling title . In addition, Coleco 's tabletop mini-arcade unit sold over 1.5 million units in 1982, the Pac-Man Nelsonic Game Watch sold more than 500,000 units the same year, the Family Computer (Famicom) version and its 2004 Game Boy Advance re-release sold a combined 598,000 copies in Japan, the Atari 5200 version sold 35,011 cartridges between 1986 and 1988,

7350-401: The game that had the biggest influence on his career; Wolfenstein 3D includes a Pac-Man level from a first-person perspective. Many post- Pac-Man titles include power-ups that briefly turn the tables on the enemy. The game's artificial intelligence inspired programmers who later worked for companies like Bethesda . Reviewing home console versions in 1982, Games magazine called

7455-527: The game was done in June, followed by a nationwide release in July. Eyeing the game's success in Japan, Namco initialized plans to bring the game to the international market, particularly the United States. Before showing the game to distributors, Namco America made a number of changes, such as altering the names of the ghosts. Another was the game's title, as executives at Namco were worried that vandals would change

7560-432: The game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The player controls Pac-Man , who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating large flashing dots called "Power Pellets" causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points. Game development began in early 1979, directed by Toru Iwatani with

7665-561: The game, created by Toshio Kai. In a design session, Iwatani noisily ate fruit and made gurgling noises to describe to Kai how he wanted the eating effect to sound. Upon completion, the game was titled Puck Man , based on the working title and the titular character's distinct hockey puck-like shape. Location testing for Puck Man began on May 22, 1980, in Shibuya, Tokyo. Non-gamers responded well to it, finding it easy to learn, while arcade regulars were not impressed. A private showing for

7770-527: The ghosts be red and thus indistinguishable from one another. Iwatani believed that the ghosts should be different colors, and he received unanimous support from his colleagues for this idea. The ghosts were programmed to have their own distinct personalities, so as to keep the game from becoming too boring or impossibly difficult to play. Each ghost's name gives a hint to its strategy for tracking down Pac-Man: Shadow ("Blinky") always chases Pac-Man, Speedy ("Pinky") tries to get ahead of him, Bashful ("Inky") uses

7875-606: The latter's stance on quality control for its consoles; this version was re-released by Namco as an official title in 1993, featuring a new cartridge label and box. The Famicom version was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1990 as a budget title for the Disk Writer kiosks in retail stores. The same year, Namco released a port of Pac-Man for the Game Boy , which allowed for two-player co-operative play via

7980-473: The magazine), footwear, clothing of every kind, jewelry, housewares (lamps, clocks, bedding, glassware), guitars and gambling, playing cards, pinball machines and pet accessories, billiard balls, bedroom appurtenances, enhancements, plus countless other items of merchandise. Non-fiction media franchises also exist in the television and film media, with reality TV being one of the most well-known examples; ranging from competition shows like The Amazing Race to

8085-478: The manufacturing rights on November 22 and releasing them in December. Pac-Man was ported to several home video game systems and personal computers; the most infamous of these is the 1982 Atari 2600 conversion , designed by Tod Frye and published by Atari, Inc. This version of the game was widely criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of the arcade version and for its peculiar design choices, most notably

8190-422: The maze are large flashing "energizers" or "power pellets". When Pac-Man eats one, the ghosts turn blue with a dizzied expression and reverse direction. Pac-Man can eat blue ghosts for bonus points; when a ghost is eaten, its eyes make their way back to the center box in the maze, where the ghost "regenerates" and resumes its normal activity. Eating multiple blue ghosts in succession increases their point value. After

8295-400: The media fictional material is unrelated. Non-fiction literary franchises include the ...For Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to... reference books . An enduring and comprehensive example of a media franchise is Playboy Enterprises , which began expanding well beyond its successful magazine, Playboy , within a few years after its first publication, into such enterprises as

8400-463: The music video depicting the band's frontman, 2-D , playing a Gorillaz-themed Pac-Man arcade game. The Pac-Man character appears in the film Pixels (2015), with Denis Akiyama playing series creator Toru Iwatani. Iwatani makes a cameo at the beginning of the film as an arcade technician. Pac-Man is referenced and makes an appearance in the 2017 film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and

8505-401: The official mascot of Bandai Namco Entertainment . The game remains one of the highest-grossing and best-selling games, generating more than $ 14 billion in revenue (as of 2016 ) and 43 million units in sales combined, and has an enduring commercial and cultural legacy, commonly listed as one of the greatest video games of all time . Pac-Man is an action maze chase video game;

8610-522: The original Pac-Man , Ms. Pac-Man , Pac-Mania , and Pac-Man Championship Edition (all of these except for Pac-Mania have also been released on Android ). Emulated versions of the original Pac-Man and Pac-Land are included in the defunct Namco Arcade application for iOS and Android. There was also a Pac-Man themed Twitter application for iOS devices, the Pac-Man Live Wallpaper application for iOS and Android devices,

8715-433: The overarching story and narrative of the franchise itself. A connection between the characters, settings, and other elements of the media franchise do still exist within the different media, regardless of the fact that they are being presented in sometimes completely different ways, such as the shared, interweaving storylines and elements of Spider-Man films, television shows, comics and video games. Espen Aarseth describes

8820-417: The park originally opened in 1983 as Pac-Man Land . Today the park is called Bugs Bunny Boomtown since 2014. Due to the appearance of Looney Tunes characters since 1985. The attractions are now based on Looney Tunes characters. Media franchise A media franchise often consists of cross-marketing across more than one medium. For the owners, the goal of increasing profit through diversity can extend

8925-578: The platforms, and has grossed over US$ 14 billion, most of which has been from the original arcade game. The character of Pac-Man is the official mascot of Bandai Namco, and is one of the most recognizable video game characters in history. The franchise has been seen as important and influential, and is often used as a representation for 1980s popular culture and video games as a whole. Pinball game with minor maze-game elements, developed by Bally Midway. Hybrid pinball / video game , developed by Bally Midway. Developed by Raw Thrills A box set for

9030-509: The player controls the eponymous character through an enclosed maze. The objective of the game is to eat all of the dots placed in the maze while avoiding four colored ghosts—Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (cyan), and Clyde (orange)—who pursue Pac-Man. When Pac-Man eats all of the dots, the player advances to the next level. Levels are indicated by fruit icons at the bottom of the screen. In between levels are short cutscenes featuring Pac-Man and Blinky in humorous, comical situations. If Pac-Man

9135-544: The player progresses: the ghosts become faster, and the energizers' effect decreases in duration, eventually disappearing entirely. An integer overflow causes the 256th level to load improperly, rendering it impossible to complete. This is known as a kill screen . After acquiring the struggling Japanese division of Atari in 1974, video game developer Namco began producing its own video games in-house, as opposed to licensing them from other developers and distributing them in Japan. Company president Masaya Nakamura created

9240-484: The popular Twilight book series that was adapted into the five films of The Twilight Saga . Other neologisms exist to describe various franchise types including metaseries , which can be used to describe works such as Isaac Asimov 's Foundation series . Multimedia franchises usually develop through a character or fictional world becoming popular in one medium, and then expanding to others through licensing agreements , with respect to intellectual property in

9345-422: The potential of characters in the medium ; its title character was the first original gaming mascot , it increased the appeal of video games with female audiences , and it was gaming's first broad licensing success. It is often cited as the first game with cutscenes (in the form of brief comical interludes about Pac-Man and Blinky chasing each other), though actually Space Invaders Part II employed

9450-527: The production of two sequels, Bomb Bee and Cutie Q , both released in 1979. The Japanese video game industry had surged in popularity with games such as Space Invaders and Breakout , which led to the market being flooded with similar titles from other manufacturers in an attempt to cash in on the success. Iwatani felt that arcade games only appealed to men for their crude graphics and violence, and that arcades in general were seen as seedy environments. For his next project, Iwatani chose to create

9555-415: The release of A Moment Like This becoming a #1 hit on Billboard Hot 100. The success resulted in a nationwide concert tour, an American Idol book that made the bestseller list and the film From Justin to Kelly . A transmedia franchise however is often referred to by the simpler term "media franchise". The term media franchise is often used to describe the popular adaptation of a work into films, like

9660-409: The rise of social media platforms, as many fans seek to interact with one another for discussion, debate and even to create their own fan-made pieces of media revolving around the franchise, on websites like tumblr , Reddit and Fandom . In the case of successful transmedia franchises, each different medium should expand the target demographic and fandom, build the interest of the consumers and add to

9765-525: The same medium are not, such as the fact that only some of the Battlestar Galactica comics are canon, with a large amount of them breaking the continuity of the main story. In Japanese culture and entertainment, media mix ( wasei-eigo : メディアミックス , mediamikkusu ) is a strategy to disperse content across multiple representations: different broadcast media , gaming technologies, cell phones, toys, amusement parks , and other methods. It

9870-408: The series were released for a multitude of home consoles and are included in many Bandai Namco video game compilations , The franchise contains 2 animated series and an upcoming film. Pac-Man is one of the longest-running, best-selling, and highest-grossing video game franchises in history, and the game has seen regular releases for over 40 years, has sold nearly 48 million copies across all of

9975-475: The time; this technological accomplishment allowed Iwatani to greatly enhance his game with bright pastel colors, which he felt would help attract players. The idea for energizers was a concept Iwatani borrowed from Popeye the Sailor , a cartoon character that temporarily acquires superhuman strength after eating a can of spinach; it is believed that Iwatani was partly inspired by a Japanese children's story about

10080-459: The top of the machine, with a minifigure playing a miniature version of the machine. The Pac-Man animated television series produced by Hanna–Barbera aired on ABC from 1982 to 1983. It was the highest-rated Saturday morning cartoon show in the US during late 1982. A computer-generated animated series produced by Bandai Namco Games , 41 Entertainment , Arad Productions , OLM Digital and Sprite Animation Studios titled Pac-Man and

10185-595: The video game, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy . The game, the character, and the ghosts all appear in the film Wreck-It Ralph , as well as the sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet . In Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale , Kirito and his friends beat a virtual reality game called PAC-Man 2026 , which is loosely based on Pac-Man 256 . In the Japanese tokusatsu film Kamen Rider Heisei Generations: Dr. Pac-Man vs. Ex-Aid & Ghost with Legend Riders ,

10290-477: The world's highest-grossing media franchises . For example, Pokémon 's penetration into the American market of the franchise along with others of Japanese origin, such as Yu-Gi-Oh! , gave rise to the recognition of what is variously called transmedia storytelling , crossmedia, transmediation , media synergy, etc. Researchers argue that the 1963 Tetsuwan Atomu marked a shift in Japanese marketing from

10395-463: Was derived from the Japanese phrase paku paku taberu , which refers to gobbling something up; the title was changed to Pac-Man for the North American release. Pac-Man was a widespread critical and commercial success, leading to several sequels, merchandise, and two television series, as well as a hit single, " Pac-Man Fever ", by Buckner & Garcia . The character of Pac-Man has become

10500-403: Was initially only a modest success; Namco's own Galaxian (1979) had quickly outdone the game in popularity because its predominately male player base was familiar with its shooting gameplay as opposed to Pac-Man ' s cute characters and maze-chase theme. Pac-Man eventually became very successful in Japan, where it went on to be Japan's highest-grossing arcade game of 1980 according to

10605-484: Was inspired by the television series Casper the Friendly Ghost and the manga Obake no Q-Taro . Ghosts were chosen as the game's main antagonists because they were used as villainous characters in animation. The idea for the fruit bonuses was based on graphics displayed on slot machines, which often use symbols such as cherries and bells. Originally, Namco president Masaya Nakamura had requested that all of

10710-452: Was one of the first popular non-shooting action games, defining key elements of the genre such as "parallel visual processing" which requires simultaneously keeping track of multiple entities, including the player's location, the enemies, and the energizers. Maze games became popular on home computers after the release of Pac-Man . Some of them appeared before official ports and garnered more attention from consumers, and sometimes lawyers, as

10815-640: Was re-released for arcades as part of Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2 , alongside Dig Dug , Rally-X and special "Arrangement" remakes of all three titles. Microsoft included Pac-Man in Microsoft Return of Arcade (1995) as a way to help attract video game companies to its Windows 95 operating system. Namco released the game in the third volume of Namco History in Japan in 1998. The 2001 Game Boy Advance compilation Pac-Man Collection compiles Pac-Man , Pac-Mania , Pac-Attack and Pac-Man Arrangement onto one cartridge. Pac-Man

10920-650: Was released for the Wii Virtual Console in 2007. A Roku version was released in 2011, alongside a port of the Game Boy release for the 3DS Virtual Console . Pac-Man was one of four titles released under the Arcade Game Series brand, which was published for the Xbox One , PlayStation 4 and PC in 2016. In 2021, according to Nintendo Direct , it was announced that Hamster Corporation would release Pac-Man , along with Xevious , for

11025-409: Was taken to make the game appeal to a "non-violent" audience, particularly women, with its usage of simple gameplay and cute, attractive character designs. When the game was being developed, Namco was underway with designing Galaxian , which used a then-revolutionary RGB color display, allowing sprites to use several colors at once instead of using colored strips of cellophane that was commonplace at

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