Editing Pac-Man (section)

==Development==
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.<ref name="nytimes nakamura">{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/business/pac-man-masaya-nakamura-dead.html?_r=0 |title=Masaya Nakamura, Whose Company Created Pac-Man, Dies at 91 |first=Jonathan |last=Sobel |date=January 30, 2017 |access-date=January 30, 2017 |work=[[New York Times]]}}</ref><ref name="Ultimate History"/> Company president [[Masaya Nakamura (businessman)|Masaya Nakamura]] created a small video game development group within the company and ordered them to study several [[NEC]]-produced microcomputers to potentially create games with.<ref name="AAN">{{cite book |author1=Microcomputer BASIC Editorial Department |title=All About Namco |date=December 1986 |publisher=Dempa Shimbun |isbn=978-4885541070 |language=ja}}</ref><ref name="Supercade">{{cite book |title=Supercade |last=Burnham |first=Van |year=2001 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-262-02492-6 |page=181}}</ref> One of the first people assigned to this division was a 24-year-old employee named [[Toru Iwatani]].<ref name="Programmers At Work"/> He created Namco's first video game ''[[Gee Bee (video game)|Gee Bee]]'' in 1978, which while unsuccessful helped the company gain a stronger foothold in the quickly-growing video game industry.<ref name="4Gamer">{{cite web |last1=Kurokawa |first1=Fumio |title=ビデオゲームの語り部たち 第4部：石村繁一氏が語るナムコの歴史と創業者・中村雅哉氏の魅力 |url=https://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999905/20180313040/ |language=ja |website=[[4Gamer]] |publisher=Aetas |access-date=2 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190801205701/https://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999905/20180313040/ |archive-date=1 August 2019 |date=17 March 2018}}</ref><ref name="Akagi">{{cite book|last=Masumi|first= Akagi |title=It Started With Pong |publisher=Amusement News Agency |year=2005 |pages=183–184}}</ref> He assisted in the production of two sequels, ''[[Bomb Bee]]'' and ''[[Cutie Q]]'', both released in 1979.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bomb Bee - Videogame by Namco |url=http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7179 |website=[[Killer List of Videogames]] |publisher=The International Arcade Museum |access-date=1 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802063946/http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7179 |archive-date=2 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Cutie Q - Videogame by Namco |url=https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7462 |website=[[Killer List of Videogames]] |publisher=The International Arcade Museum |access-date=1 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016144809/https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7462 |archive-date=16 October 2017}}</ref>

[[File:Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man, at GDC 2011 (cropped to upper body).jpg|thumb|right|Creator of ''Pac-Man'', [[Toru Iwatani]], at the 2011 [[Game Developers Conference]]]]
The Japanese video game industry had surged in popularity with games such as ''[[Space Invaders]]'' and ''[[Breakout (video game)|Breakout]]'', which led to the market being flooded with similar titles from other manufacturers in an attempt to cash in on the success.<ref name="Eurogamer Interview"/><ref name="Iwatani">{{cite book|last=Iwatani |first=Toru |title=Introduction to Pac-Man's Game Science |publisher=[[Enterbrain]] |year=2005 |page=33}}</ref> Iwatani felt that arcade games only appealed to men for their crude graphics and violence,<ref name="Eurogamer Interview"/> and that arcades in general were seen as seedy environments.<ref name="Time"/> For his next project, Iwatani chose to create a non-violent, cheerful video game that appealed mostly to women,<ref name="Power-Up"/> as he believed that attracting women and couples into arcades would potentially make them appear to be much more family friendly in tone.<ref name="Eurogamer Interview"/> 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.<ref name="Q&A"/> His game was initially called ''Pakkuman'', based on the Japanese onomatopoeia term "paku paku taberu",<ref>{{cite web |title=Top 25 Smartest Moves in Gaming |url=http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/july03/25smartest/index6.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218003840/http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/july03/25smartest/index6.shtml |archive-date=February 18, 2009 |publisher=Gamespy.com |access-date=July 26, 2010}}</ref> referencing the mouth movement of opening and closing in succession.<ref name="Power-Up">{{cite book| first=Chris | last=Kohler |year=2005|title=Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life|publisher=[[BradyGames]]|pages=51–52|isbn=0-7440-0424-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=auMTAQAAIAAJ|access-date=July 16, 2019}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Dossier">{{cite web |last1=Pittman |first1=Jamey |title=The Pac-Man Dossier |url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-pac-man-dossier |website=Gamasutra |access-date=1 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109075706/https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132330/the_pacman_dossier.php |archive-date=9 January 2020 |url-status=live |date=23 February 2009}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Szczepaniak">{{cite book |last1=Szczepaniak |first1=John |title=The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers |date=11 August 2014 |isbn=978-0992926007 |pages=201 |publisher=SMG Szczepaniak |edition=First |url=https://archive.org/details/TheUntoldHistoryOfJapaneseGameDevelopersVol.2JohnSzczepaniak/page/n361?q=cutie+q |access-date=12 August 2019}}</ref> Care 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.<ref name="Dossier"/><ref name="Time"/> 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 the time;<ref name="Dossier"/> this technological accomplishment allowed Iwatani to greatly enhance his game with bright pastel colors, which he felt would help attract players.<ref name="Dossier"/> 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;<ref name="Q&A"/> it is believed that Iwatani was partly inspired by a Japanese children's story about a creature that protected children from monsters by devouring them.<ref name="Dossier"/> Frank Fogleman, the co-founder of [[Gremlin Industries]], believes that the maze-chase gameplay of ''Pac-Man'' was inspired by [[Sega]]'s ''[[Head On (video game)|Head On]]'' (1979), a similar arcade game that was popular in Japan.<ref name="Horowitz 2018 p3-6">{{Cite book|title=The Sega Arcade Revolution, A History in 62 Games|last=Horowitz|first=Ken|publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|year=2018|isbn=978-1-4766-3196-7|ref=refHorowitz2018|pages=24–26}}</ref>

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 a 1986 interview he said that this was only half-true,<ref name="Programmers At Work">{{cite book |last=Lammers |first=Susan M. |title=Programmers at Work: Interviews |year=1986 |page=[https://archive.org/details/programmersatwor00lamm_0/page/266 266] |publisher=Microsoft Press |location=New York |isbn=0-914845-71-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/programmersatwor00lamm_0/page/266 |url-access=registration}}</ref> and that the Pac-Man character was also based on him rounding out and simplifying the Japanese character "kuchi" ([[wikt:口|口]]), meaning "mouth".<ref name="salon"/><ref name="Programmers At Work"/> The four ghosts were made to be cute, colorful and appealing, using bright, pastel colors and expressive blue eyes.<ref name="Dossier"/> Iwatani had used this idea before in ''Cutie Q'', which features similar ghost-like characters, and decided to incorporate it into ''Pac-Man''.<ref name="Eurogamer Interview">{{cite web |last1=Purchese |first1=Robert |title=Iwatani: Pac-Man was made for women |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/iwatani-pac-man-was-made-for-women |website=[[Eurogamer]] |access-date=19 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304181633/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/iwatani-pac-man-was-made-for-women |archive-date=4 March 2019 |date=20 May 2010}}</ref> He was inspired by the television series ''[[Casper the Friendly Ghost]]'' and the manga ''[[Little Ghost Q-Taro|Obake no Q-Taro]]''.<ref name="Q&A"/> Ghosts were chosen as the game's main antagonists because they were used as villainous characters in animation.<ref name="Q&A">{{cite magazine |last1=Kohler |first1=Chris |title=Q&A: Pac-Man Creator Reflects on 30 Years of Dot-Eating |url=https://www.wired.com/2010/05/pac-man-30-years/ |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |access-date=1 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712174728/https://www.wired.com/2010/05/pac-man-30-years/ |archive-date=12 July 2019 |date=21 May 2010}}</ref> The idea for the fruit bonuses was based on graphics displayed on slot machines, which often use symbols such as cherries and bells.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Iwatani |first1=Toru |title=The Development of Pac-Man |url=https://www.glitterberri.com/developer-interviews/the-development-of-pacman/ |website=Game Staff List Association Japan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190213032515/https://www.glitterberri.com/developer-interviews/the-development-of-pacman/ |archive-date=February 13, 2019 |date=2003}}</ref>
Originally, Namco president Masaya Nakamura had requested that all of the ghosts be red and thus indistinguishable from one another.<ref name="Business Insider"/> Iwatani believed that the ghosts should be different colors, and he received unanimous support from his colleagues for this idea.<ref name="Business Insider">{{cite web |last1=England |first1=Lucy |title=When Pac-Man was invented there was a huge internal fight with the CEO over what colour the ghosts should be |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/pac-man-ghosts-were-almost-all-one-color-2015-6 |website=Business Insider |access-date=19 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807132255/http://www.businessinsider.com/pac-man-ghosts-were-almost-all-one-color-2015-6 |archive-date=7 August 2017 |date=11 June 2015}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Dossier"/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Mateas |first=Michael |title=Expressive AI: Games and Artificial Intelligence |url=http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~mateas/publications/MateasDIGRA2003.pdf |year=2003 |journal=Proceedings of Level up: Digital Games Research Conference, Utrecht, Netherlands |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120514225846/http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~mateas/publications/MateasDIGRA2003.pdf |archive-date=May 14, 2012 |access-date=September 21, 2007 }}</ref> 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 a more complicated strategy to zero in on him, and Pokey ("Clyde") alternates between chasing him and running away.<ref name="Dossier"/> (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.<ref name="Iwatani"/> The sound effects were among the last things added to the game,<ref name="Dossier"/> created by Toshio Kai.<ref name="Time">{{cite magazine |last1=Peckham |first1=Matt |title=Pac-Man Creator Toru Iwatani on the Character's Past and Future |url=https://time.com/3892662/pac-mans-35-years/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |publisher=[[Time Warner]] |access-date=1 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607072436/http://time.com/3892662/pac-mans-35-years/ |archive-date=7 June 2019 |date=22 May 2015}}</ref> In a design session, Iwatani noisily ate fruit and made gurgling noises to describe to Kai how he wanted the eating effect to sound.<ref name="Time"/> Upon completion, the game was titled ''Puck Man'', based on the working title and the titular character's distinct hockey puck-like shape.<ref name="Ultimate History"/>