Pac-Man World is a platform video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation . Controlling Pac-Man , the player must complete each of the game's six worlds by collecting keys to free his captive family members, and reaching the end of each stage. The plot follows Pac-Man's enemies, the ghosts, crashing his 20th birthday and kidnapping his friends and family to bring them to their homeland of Ghost Island — with his birthday in ruins and his family in trouble, Pac-Man sets out to rescue them and defeat the ghosts.
152-437: The game originally began as an open-world adventure game titled Pac-Man Ghost Zone , with development headed by director Bill Anderson and designer Scott Rogers. After being unhappy with the game's quality, Namco scrapped the game and fired nearly the entire team aside from Rogers and a few others. The development team focused on making the game live up to the "flavor and feel" of the original Pac-Man , and to successfully bring
304-412: 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
456-617: 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
608-531: A February 2019 interview that with changes in retailer procurement, their own switch to fewer but more quality titles, and the rapid spread of news via the Internet that having a trade show as late as June is no longer helpful, and that Sony had to create its own Destination PlayStation experience in February as to secure retailer sales. Industry Analyst Michael Patcher, speaking to GamingBolt, said, "I think it's
760-464: 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
912-490: A Pooka from Dig Dug was later added into the game due to the character's popularity in Japan. The game's main antagonist, Toc-Man, is named after Namcot, the older Japanese home console division of Namco. Pac-Man wasn't given a voice in the game due to Namco being unable to decide what he should sound like — some suggested that he sound like an adult male and others like a human child. To save money on voice acting and animation,
1064-555: 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
1216-420: A butt-bounce that can shatter crates and crush enemies, and a rev-roll that allows him to propel up ramps or activate moving platforms. Pac-Man has a health meter that allows him to sustain three hits before dying. He can find small fractions of health to replenish it in levels, as well as extra lives. The player can find crates scattered around in levels, some of them giving Pac-Man access to new abilities, such as
1368-488: 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
1520-529: A change, E3 would become extinct. Pachter also found that retailers were less interested in E3 due to the later calendar date. Activision , which had been a member of the ESA since its start, opted to leave the ESA in 2008 and to no longer participate in the E3 event, with their CEO Robert Kotick stating the company was too big for the E3 and ESA at that point, riding on revenue from World of Warcraft . Responding to
1672-531: 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
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#17327937886791824-474: 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
1976-525: A dedicated space at the next CES, which would have conflicted with the planned E3 event, requiring the companies to pick one or the other. Most of the IDSA members supported E3, while Nintendo and Microsoft were still supportive of the CES approach. After about three to four months, Ferrell was told by CEA's CEO Gary J. Shapiro that he had "won" and that they had canceled the CES video game event, effectively making E3
2128-580: A dedicated trade show for video games, building off IDG's established experience in running the Macworld convention . Ferrell contacted the IDSA who saw the appeal of using their position in the industry to create a video game-specific tradeshow, and offered to co-found the Electronic Entertainment Expo with IDG. Though several companies agreed to present at this E3 event, Ferrell discovered that CEA had offered video game companies
2280-509: 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. Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo )
2432-428: A grittier look. Namco's Japanese division put pressure on the project with strict guidelines — Anderson recalls being unable to use a 3D render of the character as a reference, requiring the team to make it themselves. Development was assisted by designer Scott Rogers, with music composed by Tommy Tallarico . When the prototype was presented to Namco, they became unhappy with it and cancelled it for quality reasons, firing
2584-404: A hit single, " Pac-Man Fever ", by Buckner & Garcia . The character of Pac-Man has become 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
2736-421: A large keynote presentation and instead have used pre-recorded Nintendo Direct and live video events during the E3 week since 2013 to showcase their new products, though they still run floor booths for hands-on demonstrations. Since 2014, there also have been Nintendo Treehouse Live streams that focused on several different games as well as tournaments for different titles. Electronic Arts, since 2016, have set up
2888-465: A level will unlock a secret bonus stage. Some levels require Pac-Man to retrieve a key to rescue one of his captive friends. All family members must be rescued from each world before the final boss door containing Toc-Man can be opened. Galaxian flagships found in certain levels allow Pac-Man to access a 3D maze themed after the world he is in. These mazes play similarly to the original Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man , where Pac-Man will need to eat all
3040-567: A metal suit allowing him to walk underwater. Pac-Man can also interact with objects such as trampolines, doors and ramps, which can be used to solve puzzles to progress through the level. At the main menu, the player can play a port of the original Pac-Man arcade game, which is the same version found in Namco Museum Vol. 1 . Pac-Man World began as a prototype platform game for the PlayStation , titled Pac-Man Ghost Zone , which
3192-401: A mistake to skip the show, they will probably be there without a big booth. It was a surprise to me". As of 2016, revenues from running E3 accounted for about 48% of the organization's annual budget, with another 37% coming from membership dues. With Sony's withdrawal from the conference and the controversies surrounding outgoing ESA president Mike Gallagher, some member companies criticized
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#17327937886793344-406: 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
3496-435: 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
3648-632: 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
3800-476: A separate EA Play event in a nearby locale to announce and exhibit their titles, citing the move as a result of the lack of public access to the main E3 show. Other vendors, like Microsoft and Sony have used pre-E3 events to showcase hardware reveals, leaving the E3 event to cover new games for these systems. By 2015, traditional video game marketing had been augmented by the use of publicity through word-of-mouth by average gamers, persons not normally part of
3952-520: A separate but free "E3 Live" event at the nearby L.A. Live space that was to help provide a small-scale version of the E3 experience. While it drew about 20,000 people, it was found to be underwhelming. In 2017, the ESA reserved 15,000 tickets to the convention for members of the public to buy; these were all sold, leading to more than 68,000 attendees during E3 2017 , which led to noticeable crowding and floor management issues. ESA confirmed that E3 2018 would include public passes, but that for two of
4104-472: A separate location would be held as "Fan Days" for all members of the public. In January 2023, IGN reported that neither Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony would exhibit at E3 2023, with Nintendo confirming their absence the following month, citing that "this year's E3 show didn't fit into our plans." Microsoft confirmed in March 2023 they would not be on the E3 showfloor, but would be holding the digital events. In
4256-448: A separate venue in collaboration with ReedPop . The pandemic further accelerated the use of standalone presentations by individual publishers and media outlets to promote upcoming games directly to consumers, development timelines usually aligned around the convention had been disrupted, and publishers were increasingly concerned over the costs of exhibiting at the convention. E3 2023 was cancelled after all major publishers pulled out of
4408-514: 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
4560-442: 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
4712-488: A statement announcing that he would also be forgoing his attendance of E3 for the first time in the expo's 25-year history, citing his discomfort with the direction planned for the event in 2020. However, in the months leading to the 2020 event, the COVID-19 pandemic created concerns related to large gatherings such as E3. As late as March 4, 2020, the ESA had still intended to hold E3 2020, though said they were monitoring
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4864-399: 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
5016-469: 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 ,
5168-619: 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
5320-690: 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
5472-423: A voluntary standard rating system that was approved by Congress. The industry recognized that it needed some type of trade show for retailers. According to Eliot Minsker, chairman and CEO of Knowledge Industry Publications (which produced and promoted the show with Infotainment World), "Retailers have pointed to the need for an interpretive event that will help them make smarter buying decisions by interacting with
5624-534: A wide range of publishers, vendors, industry influentials, and opinion leaders in a focused show setting." Attempts were made between the video game companies and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) which ran CES, to improve how video games were treated at CES, but these negotiations failed to produce a result. Pat Ferrell, creator of GamePro which was owned by International Data Group (IDG), conceived of an idea for starting
5776-463: Is a 3D platform video game . Controlling Pac-Man , the player must complete each of the game's six worlds to rescue his family and friends, who are held captive by the ghosts in their homeland of Ghost Island. Worlds consist of four levels each (except the Ruins world, which has three), which are completed by reaching the end of each level, sometimes requiring special doors and pathways to be opened along
5928-573: 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
6080-720: 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
6232-510: 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
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6384-432: 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
6536-542: 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
6688-696: 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
6840-518: The COMDEX trade show to shut down. Several large vendors told the ESA that they were going to pull out of the next E3, which would have had a domino effect on other vendors. To avoid this, the ESA announced in July 2006 that E3 would be downsized and restructured due to the overwhelming demand from the exhibitors, and would limit attendees to those from the media and retail sectors. For 2007 and 2008, E3
6992-741: 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
7144-618: 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
7296-503: 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
7448-551: 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
7600-461: The Sega Saturn , priced at $ 399. Sony also introduced the first PlayStation console , with Sony Computer Entertainment North America's president Steve Race came on stage during their press event to simply say "$ 299" before leaving the stage to applause. The surprise undercutting price had a significant impact on Sega and the current console war between Sega, Sony, and Nintendo. From then on, E3
7752-408: The greatest video games of all time . Pac-Man is an action maze chase video game; 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
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#17327937886797904-480: 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
8056-413: The "flavor and feel" of the original Pac-Man , and to bring the character into an entertaining platform game. Inspiration was taken from earlier platform games in the series, notably Pac-Land (1984) and Pac-In-Time (1995). During development, Rogers noted that trying to live up to the game's source material put a large amount of pressure on the team, claiming that most players were only familiar with
8208-451: The "professional" development community. The ESA began to seek ways to allow these people to attend E3 in limited numbers without overwhelming the normal attendees. For E3 2015 , 5,000 tickets were distributed to vendors to be given to fans to be able to attend the event. That same year also marked the introduction of the "PC Gaming Show", featuring games for personal computers across a range of developers and publishers. E3 2016 featured
8360-438: 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
8512-509: 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
8664-470: 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 "
8816-463: The 2023 show was a result of three factors: that the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted the typical development cycle for most companies; that the current economy had publishers and developers re-evaluate the need for attending E3; and that, as a result, there has been more exploration of the mix of in-person and digital marketing events that individual companies have run. While Pierre-Louis stated that ESA
8968-512: The ESA announced that the in-person version of E3 2022 had been cancelled due to COVID-19, with no immediate confirmation of a virtual event. Although this announcement came amid spread of the Omicron variant , IGN reported that unlike past years, E3 2022 had no dates publicized by either the ESA or the LACC—which had cast doubt (especially amid the internal issues surrounding the 2020 event, and
9120-658: The ESA confirmed that E3 2023 would occur at the Los Angeles Convention Center during the second week of June 2023, and that they have partnered with ReedPop , who operate conventions such as PAX events , New York Comic Con , and the Star Wars Celebration , to help manage the event. In September 2022, the ESA announced that the event would also include three "Business Days" where the floor would be limited to developers, publishers, retailers, and recognized journalists, while two days at
9272-405: The ESA for splitting its focus between producing E3 and acting as a legislative advocacy group, with neither focus receiving adequate attention. This led to calls advocating for the business of running E3 to be split out into a separate company. Developers and publishers complained of the increasing cost to have a booth presence at E3 compared to simply holding a digital event streamed online, saying
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#17327937886799424-484: The ESA once notified. A number of journalists on the lists reported that they were subsequently harassed and had received death threats due to their private information being released as part of the leak. Ahead of E3 2020, the ESA stated they were taking stricter security measures to protect the privacy of those registering for E3 as a result of the leak. ESA president Stanley Pierre-Louis stated they plan to collect less data from attendees and take measures such as securing
9576-605: The ESA stated it still planned to hold the 2021 event, announcing its normal June dates to partners in April 2020. While the ESA had planned for a combined in-person and virtual event, the organization notified its partners in February 2021 that it was dropping the in-person event but maintaining the virtual event plans. According to Video Games Chronicle , the ESA still planned to use the LACC to broadcast some of these virtual events during E3 2021 , as well as planning on further use of
9728-660: 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
9880-666: The GBA version held a score of 59.00%. By 2007, the game had sold over 1.24 million copies in North America alone. GameSpot compared the game favorably to Namco's own Klonoa: Door to Phantomile , praising its colorful graphics, character animations and controls, concluding that it was "worthy of anyone's library". IGN had a similar response, liking the game's originality, graphics and soundtrack — they especially praised its gameplay for standing out among other platform games, with its puzzle solving and animation style. GameFan praised its gameplay, puzzle-solving mechanics and inclusion of
10032-558: 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
10184-559: 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 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
10336-471: 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
10488-484: The Los Angeles Convention Center in 1999, and continued to grow in attendance, ranging from 60,000 to 70,000 attendees. In addition to the event, E3 started to support (or became associated with) several websites. One was E365, introduced in 2006, an online community which attendees used to network and schedule meetings. Following the 2006 convention, the IDSA—now ESA—found that many exhibitors were worried about
10640-401: The Los Angeles Convention Center, but also capped attendance at about 5,000. ESA was harshly criticized for these smaller events. Industry analyst Michael Pachter said that because consumers had been eliminated from attending the events, there was little external media coverage of these E3s, reducing the visibility and commercialization opportunities for publishers, and suggested that without
10792-709: The PlayStation version was digitally re-released for the PlayStation Network in 2013 under the PSone Classics brand. It was followed by two sequels, Pac-Man World 2 and Pac-Man World 3 , and a racing spin-off, Pac-Man World Rally . A remake developed by Now Production and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment , titled Pac-Man World Re-Pac , was released on August 26, 2022 on Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Windows , Xbox One , and Xbox Series X/S . Pac-Man World
10944-454: 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
11096-401: 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
11248-433: The aforementioned reception to E3 2021) over whether the event was even being planned at all. Furthermore, IGN reported via anonymous sources that the ESA had made a decision to cancel the event as early as late-2021. The ESA formally announced on March 31, 2022, that they had fully cancelled E3 2022. In June 2022, the ESA stated that they still planned to return with a physical and virtual show in 2023. One month later,
11400-399: The aftermath of its first year, E3 was already regarded as the biggest event in the video game industry. The IDSA realized the strength of a debut trade show, and subsequently renegotiated with IDG to allow the IDSA to take full ownership of the show and the intellectual property associated with the name, while hiring IDG to help with execution of the event. During this E3, Sega had introduced
11552-432: 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
11704-578: 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
11856-470: 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
12008-463: The center has had to make the space more appropriate for their needs. Gallagher said that the ESA was working with the City and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) which owns the Los Angeles Convention Center and the space around it, with plans to have nearly 500,000 sq ft (46,000 m ) of additional exhibition space added by 2020, but that they would judge this in the 2018 show. During 2018,
12160-439: The character into an enjoyable 3D adventure game. Pac-Man World was a critical and commercial success, selling over 1.25 million copies in North America alone. Reviewers praised the game's originality, colorful graphics, gameplay mechanics, and soundtrack. Some criticized it for being repetitive after a while and its constant use of backtracking. A Game Boy Advance remake was developed by Full Fat and released in 2004, while
12312-542: The character was left largely unvoiced with no lines spoken. Tommy Tallarico's studio was hired back for the game's audio, with Joey Kuras being responsible for the sound design and Todd Dennis composing the music. The game was first shown at the 1998 Electronic Entertainment Expo ( E3 ) tradeshow in Atlanta, Georgia, under the working title Pac-Man 3-D . Rogers recalls it being a popular title, saying that many play testers shared with him their memories with Pac-Man series. It
12464-477: The company withdrew its support in favor of its PlayStation Expo. Sega then pulled out at the last minute, leaving Nintendo the only big-three company to appear. Held November 1–4, 1996, the presence of several other gaming expos and lack of support from Japanese game manufacturers led to reportedly poor turnout and rumored E3 events in Singapore and Canada did not take place. Due to failed negotiations for
12616-541: The complaints from the previous two years, the ESA announced that E3 2009 would be more open, but capping attendance at about 45,000 and closed to the public, as to achieve a balance between the two extremes. All subsequent E3s took place in June of the calendar year at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Starting in 2013, some of the major video game companies, particularly Nintendo and Electronic Arts , have opted not to showcase at E3. In Nintendo's case, they have foregone
12768-653: The convention space in Los Angeles, the E3 conventions in 1997 and 1998 were held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Turnout at these shows was dramatically lower than at the first two E3s, which has been attributed to a declining number of game developers and the fact that many video game companies were based on the West Coast, making the cost of sending staff and equipment to Atlanta prohibitive. The show returned to
12920-400: The data on separate servers to avoid this type of leak from occurring again. During the last day of the event in 2019, it was confirmed that E3 would be held at the LACC for at least another year, with the 2020 edition. The ESA affirmed they had renegotiated use of the LACC through 2023, but retained the rights to break that contract if desired. The ESA's membership approved an increase in
13072-604: The days, the event would be open only to industry attendees for three hours prior to admitting the public. The ESA unveiled the new logo for E3, replacing its previous one using three-dimensional block letters with a flatter, stylized graphic, in October 2017. While the ESA has the Convention Center space reserved through 2019, ESA's CEO Mike Gallagher said, following the 2017 event, that they were considering other options due to lack of modernization and upgrades that
13224-410: The disruption caused by the pandemic made it impossible to host an online equivalent, fully cancelling the event, though the ESA would help its partners to present individual announcements via E3's website. Keighley would organize Summer Game Fest —an event series encompassing various publisher-led digital presentations and demo offerings from May to August 2020. Despite cancelling the 2020 event,
13376-512: The dots and avoid the ghosts. Completing these mazes will unlock them for replay from the main menu, and completing all 36 mazes in the game's marathon mode will unlock the Pac-Gallery, where players can view concept art for the game. Most levels also contain Pac-Man's nemeses, the ghost gang, which can be defeated by consuming large Power Pellets and eating them. Pac-Man has two main moves, which can be used to defeat enemies and other objects:
13528-445: The entire development team aside from Rogers, an artist and a programmer. Namco also pushed the release date back to 1998 to allow the game to be reworked. The team decided to revamp the project with a new gameplay engine. Rogers, who had previously worked on localization for Namco's own Soul Edge and Xevious 3D/G , became the head designer of the project and created many of the enemies and stage layouts. The team set out to retain
13680-458: The event drew 69,200 attendees, the largest since 2005. With announcements of the dates for E3 2019 , the ESA declined to state where they had planned to hold the 2020 event. Sony Interactive Entertainment had announced that it would not be participating in E3 2019, having had participated in every E3 since its launch. Sony stated that they "are exploring new and familiar ways to engage our community in 2019". Sony's CEO Shawn Layden stated in
13832-620: The event, and E3 2024 was cancelled in September 2023 in order to evaluate plans for 2025. On December 12, 2023, the ESA announced that E3 had been retired and would no longer be held. Before E3, game publishers went to other trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show and the European Computer Trade Show to display new or upcoming products as well as to pre-sell shipments to retailers for
13984-429: The exposure afforded by E3 was not always worth the price. Sony and Electronic Arts' departure and Nintendo's move to a digital-only keynote diminished E3's status as the premier game announcement event, which further eroded its ability to attract exhibitors. E3 lost nearly 1/3 of its exhibitors between 2017 and 2019, going from 293 to 209. On August 3, 2019, it was found that an unsecured list of personal attendee data
14136-565: 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
14288-498: 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
14440-432: The former reportedly planned to have a "complete reinvention". On December 12, 2023, the ESA announced that E3 had been discontinued, citing "the new opportunities our industry has to reach fans and partners". Pierre-Louis said that events like Summer Game Fest were not responsible for the decision to end E3, while the increasing number of publisher-specific showcases was a reason. He further stated that ReedPop's departure
14592-442: The four corners of 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
14744-411: 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
14896-421: 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
15048-599: 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,
15200-401: 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
15352-540: The game tied in a platform game with mechanics from the original, highly praising its gameplay and originality. Game Revolution was particularly negative towards the game, saying that it simply existed as a marketing ploy to scoop up additional money from the name recognition. They criticized the game for lacking originality, particularly comparing it unfavorably to Donkey Kong Country and Crash Bandicoot , as well as for having an unbalanced difficulty level and "quick, corner-cutting development". They only recommended
15504-526: The game to hardcore Pac-Man fans, although mockingly commented that they "probably bought [it] already." A remake of Pac-Man World , titled Pac-Man World Re-Pac , was announced through a Nintendo Direct in June 2022. Developed by Now Production , using the Unity engine, the game recreates the game from the ground up. The remake was released on Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , and PC via Steam on August 26
15656-425: 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
15808-561: 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
15960-527: 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
16112-445: 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 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
16264-457: The high costs of presenting at the event, spending between $ 5–$ 10 million for their booths. They had also found that a larger proportion of attendees were bloggers and attendees who were not perceived to be industry professionals by vendors, managing to secure access to the conference. These additional attendees diluted the vendors' ability to reach out to their target audience, retailers and journalists. Both of these reasons had previously caused
16416-606: 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
16568-462: The level objects after eating a Power Pellet, and Pac-Man being able to hover in the air. Production on the remake began in 2020 in conjunction with Pac-Man Museum+ , and was largely influenced by fans of the game asking for a remake for years. Production focused on updating the game presentation while also leaving core aspects intact. Several members of Pac-Man's family have been replaced; Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man Junior and Baby Pac-Man were replaced by
16720-478: 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
16872-463: 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
17024-573: 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 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
17176-432: The number of public passes from 15,000 to 25,000 for the 2020 show. Alongside this, the ESA had presented proposed, but not finalized, plans to make the 2020 event a "fan, media, and influencer festival". To mitigate the longer lines caused by increased public attendance, they aimed to use "queuetainment" to advertise to attendees while they wait, as well as a FastPass -like system of reserving game demos in advance similar to
17328-481: The one employed by Disney Parks . They planned to give priority to " influencers " by providing them appointment-only presentations on new games. Additionally, with these changes, the ESA were considering adding an extra day on the Tuesday of the convention week that would be an industry-only day before the floor of the convention was opened to public passes. Sony affirmed it would not attend the 2020 show, stating that
17480-424: The original Pac-Man , while Official US PlayStation Magazine applauded its gameplay, vibrant graphics, challenge and boss fights, saying that the game's use of nostalgia doesn't feel forced on the player. GameFan also wrote that the game "perfectly mimics those old 8-bit and 16-bit platformers we used to go nuts over", comparing the game's quality favorably to Klonoa: Door to Phantomile . Atari HQ liked how
17632-404: The original Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man with no memories for later games in the series, which left the team having to make the game appeal to players of those two games. The game originally featured cameos from other Namco characters, including Taizo Hori from Dig Dug and Valkyrie from Valkyrie no Densetsu ; however, these were replaced with members of Pac-Man's family in the final version —
17784-488: The original Pac-Man World game designer Scott Rogers found disappointing and received criticism from fans. An update released on November 16, 2022 added the original team's credits to the credits, which later received praise from Scott Rogers. On November 16, 2022, paid DLC was released for the game that gives Pac-Man a special skin and unlocks a jukebox to listen to the game's music. Pac-Man World Re-Pac received favorable reviews for its gameplay and visual improvements, but
17936-544: 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
18088-409: The porn vendors to find us. That particular year it was pouring rain, and the rain leaked right over our new Genesis system. I was just furious with the way CES treated the video game industry, and I felt we were a more important industry than they were giving us credit for." Sega did not return to CES the following year, and several other companies exited from further CES shows. Separately, in 1994,
18240-422: 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
18392-488: The premier trade show for the video game industry. The first event was held from May 11–13, 1995 at the Los Angeles Convention Center , which would generally be the convention's location in future years. The organizers were unsure of how successful this would be, but by the end of the convention, they had booked most of the space at the Convention Center, and saw more than 40,000 attendees. In
18544-404: The press. During its existence, E3 was the world's largest and most prestigious annual gaming expo. E3 included an exhibition floor for developers, publishers, and manufacturers to showcase their titles and products for sale in the upcoming year. Before and during the event, publishers and hardware manufacturers usually held press conferences to announce new games and products. Before 2017, E3
18696-527: 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
18848-435: The rest of the year including the late-year holiday season as well as to view for press coverage of upcoming games. As the game industry grew rapidly during the early 1990s, industry professionals felt that it had outgrown the older trade shows. According to Tom Kalinske , CEO of Sega America, "The CES organizers used to put the video game industry way, way in the back. In 1991, they put us in a tent, and you had to walk past all
19000-404: The same month, Ubisoft also announced that they would not be attending E3 2023, and would be hosting their own presentation event in June instead. On March 29, IGN reported that both Sega and Tencent would be skipping E3 2023. On March 30, 2023, the 2023 event was cancelled because of a lack of "sustained interest". According to ESA's president, Stanley Pierre-Louis, the choice to cancel
19152-536: The same year. Unlike prior releases in this console generation ( Katamari , Mr. Driller , Klonoa ), it is not a part of Namco's "Encore" series of 3D franchise remakes. Pac-Man World Re-Pac features several alterations to the game, ranging from visual overhauls to several worlds and alterations to gameplay. Various stages have been altered from the original, as well as boss battles being overhauled and new enemies being added. The remake also introduces several new techniques for Pac-Man, such as being able to destroy
19304-416: The similar Pac-Mom, Pac-Boy and Pac-Sis respectively, similarly to previous Pac-Man re-releases including Pac-Man Museum+ . Bandai Namco has not officially stated reasons for the replacement of the characters, though news outlets have assumed the changes are tied to Ms. Pac-Man's ongoing AtGames dispute . The initial release for the game did not feature credits from the original game's development staff, which
19456-406: The situation around the outbreak. On March 11, 2020, the ESA announced that E3 2020 had been cancelled due to the pandemic. The ESA also claimed that they would both fully refund prospective attendees and exhibitors and devise a virtual event that would enable exhibitors to hold digital presentations during the same week in lieu of a physical meeting. However, by April 7, 2020, the ESA stated that
19608-414: The space in 2022 and 2023. The virtual event faced a mixed reception among users and the industry, including issues with the event's official mobile app, and assessments that E3 as a virtual event was redundant to streaming presentations that could be held as standalone events by publishers. While Mayor Eric Garcetti stated that the ESA had planned E3 2022 to be an in-person event, on January 7, 2022,
19760-475: 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
19912-459: 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
20064-780: The video game industry had formed the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA, later becoming the Entertainment Software Association, ESA, in 2003) in response to attention the industry had drawn from the United States Congress over a lack of a ratings system in late 1993. The IDSA was formed to unify the video game industry and establish a commission, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to create
20216-539: 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 ,
20368-465: The vision for E3 2020 did not meet their goals, and instead would showcase their games at other events throughout the year. In the wake of Sony's announcement, ESA affirmed that the 2020 show "will be an exciting, high-energy show featuring new experiences, partners, exhibitor spaces, activations, and programming that will entertain new and veteran attendees alike". On February 12, 2020, Geoff Keighley , host of E3 Coliseum and The Game Awards , released
20520-491: The way. The final level of each world has a boss that Pac-Man must defeat in order to progress. At the beginning of the game, only three worlds are available, while the other three are unlocked by completing all prior worlds. The six worlds in the game each feature distinctive themes, e.g. the first world, Pirate, features ships, cannons, and beaches. Levels contain fruit that can be eaten for bonus points, alongside letters that spell out "PACMAN". Collecting all of these letters in
20672-588: Was an annual trade event for the video game industry organized and presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). It was held principally in Los Angeles from 1995 to 2019, with its final iteration held virtually in 2021. The event hosted developers , publishers , hardware manufacturers, and other industry professionals who used the occasion to introduce and advertise upcoming games, hardware, and merchandise to
20824-427: Was an industry-only event; the ESA required individuals wishing to attend to verify a professional relationship with the video game industry. With the rise of streaming media , several press conferences were broadcast to the public to increase their visibility. E3 2017 became open to the public for the first time, with 15,000 general-admittance passes for those who wanted to attend. When hosted in Los Angeles, E3
20976-492: Was criticized for its lack of innovation. 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, 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
21128-420: Was held in the Los Angeles Convention Center . The event was cancelled for the first time in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic , and the event in 2021 was held as a virtual event to mixed reception. The 2022 event was cancelled also due to the pandemic, and with no virtual event held. The ESA had planned to return to a full in-person convention in 2023 with a new format, including a fan convention component at
21280-403: 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
21432-484: 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
21584-417: Was intending to hold E3 in 2024, they were looking themselves to find a balance that works for the industry. The ESA affirmed in September 2023 that there would be no E3 2024, that they would not be using the LACC in the immediate future, and that ReedPop was no longer working to help organize future events. The ESA stated they were still in discussions with their partners on E3 2025 and future shows, with
21736-509: Was later released in Japan on November 2, 1999 and in Europe on February 28, 2000. A Game Boy Advance version was developed by Full Fat and released in 2004. The PlayStation version was digitally re-released on the PlayStation Network in 2013, part of the PSone Classics brand. Pac-Man World was well received by critics for its gameplay, soundtrack, graphics and originality, holding an 81% score on aggregator website GameRankings though
21888-452: 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
22040-542: Was only shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1997 and intended for released in the fall of that same year. Headed by Namco Hometek director Bill Anderson, the game followed a teenager being sucked into a Pac-Man arcade cabinet by the ghosts and their leader the Ghost Lord, and transforming into Pac-Man . The game was made to break the mold of previous Pac-Man games, such as having
22192-520: Was publicly accessible from the ESA's site. The list contained the information of over 2,000 people, most of them being the press and social media influencers that had attended E3 2019. ESA removed the list after it was found, and apologized for allowing the information to become public. However, using similar techniques to access the 2019 data, users found similar data for over 6,000 attendees of past E3 events still available on user-authenticated portions of their website; these too were subsequently pulled by
22344-640: 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
22496-650: 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
22648-679: Was renamed to the E3 Media and Business Summit, and moved into the July timeframe, about two months later in the year than previous shows. The 2007 show was held at the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport and other nearby hotels in Santa Monica, California with attendance limited to about 10,000, and was the last time the show was not physically held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The 2008 event returned to
22800-526: Was seen to play a major part in other console wars, with journalists reporting on which manufacturer "won" E3 based on their product offerings. In 1996, IDG and the IDSA tried a Japanese version of E3, in preparation for a worldwide series of events, at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo (as E3 Tokyo '96) in association with TV Asahi . Although Sony Computer Entertainment was the show's original sponsor,
22952-409: 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
23104-475: Was then shown off at E3 1999 under the final title of Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary . The game was released in North America on October 15, 1999, to coincide with the original release of Pac-Man in the United States. The advertisements notably featured Mr. T and Verne Troyer as neighbors in Beverly Hills who are shocked to see Pac-Man move into and renovate the house across the street from them. It
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