It began with pizza.
Back in 1979, 27year old Namco employee Toru Iwatani claims he was staring at a humble pizza when he had an idea for a video game that centered around eating. What inspired him? The pie was missing two slices and thus resembled a mouth. What resulted was Pakkuman – a name that was derivative of the Japanese phrase “paku-paku taberu”. This is a onomatopoeic slang term that is used to describe the sound that a mouth makes when it’s opened widely and then closed again in close succession. In short – exactly what the Pac-Man character does to eat up his delicious dots. Speaking of eating, the inspiration behind Pac-Man consuming food to gain power was reportedly derived from Popeye.
Up until this point in time, the most popular arcade games (such as Asteroids and Space Invaders) were primarily targeted towards and enjoyed by young boys and teenagers. Iwatani wanted his game to appeal to a far wider demographic, which led him to add both the maze element of the game as well as the ‘kawaii’ ghost enemies (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde). The game was changed to Puck Man before releasing due to the shape of the character. Please make sure you re-hide as found or better as the container is unique and theme related.
