Have you ever wondered where the idea for Pac-Man came from? Did you know that only one
of the ghost was chasing you? For over 30 years, Pac-Man has been eating his way to become a legendary game, and even though he has evolved in some ways, nothing beats the classic version. During a Game Developers conference last week, the creator of the game discussed some facts that many do not know. So let’s eat some cherries and join Pac-Man in his journey.
When Toro Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man, came up with the idea of the game, it was to bring out the gaming in women and family. Back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, arcades were known to be hangouts for the male gender. So, Toro wanted to try and bring the female gamers into the world of arcades.
Now you would think that four ghosts are chasing you the whole time, however, that is not the case at all. In fact, it is only the Red ghost, also known as Blinky, that is chasing you through the game. The pink ghost, Pinky, is programmed to be 32 pixels in front of Pac-Man. The blue ghost, Inky, is trying to find a spot in a similiar position. And Clyde, the orange ghost, is just moving across the board in a random motion. So even though you think ythey are all chasing you, they are really just trying to do their own job.
Another fun fact about these enemies is that they were almost one color. Apparently the president of Namco asked Toro to make all the ghosts red, this way the gamer would be confused with who was friendly and who was the enemy. However, Toro refused to change the colors. And to back him up, he asked the game testers if they would prefer just one color. It was a unanimous decision that four colors would be more popular.
Finally, there is a piece to the game that was never added. A shelter was going to be put into the game. This would disfigure the ghost and keep Pac-Man safe.
He’s been doing it for over 30 years now. Let’s see how much longer Pac-Man can keep going.