Pac-Man was created by Namco and distributed by Midway in the US. The game is one of the highest grossing game of all time having grossed $2.5Billion in quarters by 1990. It has become one of the most famous games and is one of only three games on display at the Smithsonian in Washington DC (along with Pong and Dragon’s Lair). The game is so widely known and referenced in popular culture that the game created a spin-off TV series and a top 10 single.
Players control Pac-man through a maze using the directional controls while avoiding the many ghosts that haunt the maze, if hit by a ghost you lose a life and must respawn. The aim of the game is to eat all of the dots within the maze without dying to the ghosts, gaining points as you do. The game can be difficult in the sense of having to get all the dots in the quickest time possible while avoiding the ghosts and getting all of the bonus spawns of fruit. There are certain dots that, once eaten, cause the ghosts to turn blue so that Pac-Man and eat them; making it easier for the player to complete the level.
There is no true storyline for the game save the situations that the play finds themselves within; for example the maze, the dots and the ghosts. How Pac-Man ended up within the maze, why he must eat the dots and why the maze is haunted is very much left in the dark and the player really doesn’t have any idea.
While the enemies movements within the game appear very random the designer of Pac-Man is quoted as creating each colour ghost as having its own personality and routine of movements; which many players have used to their advantage in high-score listing.
The game has no true ending, least it was not designed to, however a software bug causes the game to crash after 255 levels. This occurs due to the level counter being stored within a single byte and once reaching 255 tries to roll over to 256 causing the game to draw other things erroneously, creating a bugged screen for the level which players cannot pass; this level is infamously knowing as the “Split-Screen” level.
Pac-Man is once again a legend among gaming history and holds its own place within history, sealed with its inclusion within the Smithsonian in Washington DC. There is even a well known gaming rumour that President Regan sent a letter to an eight year old boy for reaching over 6Million points.
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