From the page Tim referred to:
‘pac-man’
... that other popular yellow character of the ‘pokémon’
has not managed to usurp the spotlight from the beloved ‘pac-man’
just yet.
in 1980, namco game designer moru iwatani is tired of the glut
of shoot-em-ups littering the arcades. he wants to create an arcade
game that looks more like a cartoon than a videogame, and
appeals to women as well as men.
like many famous figures, its origins have taken on mythical proportions.
the designer was inspired by ‘paku’, a japanese folk hero known for his
appetite,his original design calls for an animated pizza with a missing
wedge for a mouth running around a maze eating everything in sight.
technological restraints at the time, however, require a graphics
scale-back to a simple, solid yellow circle.
The account is almost identical to what I have hitherto heard about Pacman, except for two points. First, the developer’s name is Toru Iwatani. Second, I could not get hold of any explanation as to who is this ‘paku,’ a japanese folk hero in any Japanese website, including one that contained an interview with Iwatani.
Flam,
who must have been six or seven when he first played pacman
