Ms. Pac-Man is a maze game developed by General Computer Corporation (GCC) and released by Midway in North American arcades in February 1982. GCC had been founded in 1981 by MIT students Kevin Curran and Doug Macrae, and the game began as their unofficial Pac-Man clone, Crazy Otto. A settlement with Atari over Super Missile Attack barred GCC from selling conversion kits without the manufacturer's consent, so the team showed the finished game to Midway instead. Namco received the same royalties per cabinet as it did for Pac-Man.
Compared with Pac-Man, the game has four maze layouts with alternating colors, bouncing fruit, less predictable ghosts and three intermission scenes; the orange ghost is called Sue instead of Clyde.
The arcade game never came out in Japan, where players met it in compilations such as Namco Museum Vol. 3 and Namco History Vol. 3. In August 2019 AtGames acquired the GCC royalties and Bandai Namco sued; the case was dismissed with prejudice on 27 October 2020 on confidential terms.12
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Ms. Pac-ManPublic debut on 3 February 1982 at Castle Park Entertainment Center, Sherman Oaks | Arcade | February 1982 | Midway | 1 |
| NA | Ms. Pac-ManAtari 2600 | Other | February 1983 | Atari, Inc. | 1 |
| NA | Ms. Pac-ManAtari 7800 | Other | May 15, 1986 | Atari, Inc. | 1 |
| NA | Ms. Pac-ManUnlicensed | NES | May 1990 | Tengen | 1 |
| NA | Ms. Pac-ManPAL Mega Drive release in 1995 | Genesis | July 1991 | Tengen | 1 |
| NA | Ms. Pac-ManLicensed release | NES | November 1993 | Namco | 1 |
| NA | Ms. Pac-ManEU release in March 1997 | SNES | Nov 11, 1996 | Namco | 1 |
| JP | ナムコヒストリー VOL.3Namco History Vol. 3 compilation; the arcade game was never released in Japan | Windows | Jun 9, 1998 | — | 2 |
| WW | Ms. Pac-ManXbox Live Arcade | Xbox 360 | Jan 9, 2007 | Namco Bandai Games | 1 |
| WW | Ms. Pac-Man | iOS | Jul 11, 2008 | Namco Bandai Games | 1 |
| WW | ARCADE GAME SERIES: Ms. PAC-MANSteam; also on PS4 and Xbox One | Windows | Apr 19, 2016 | Bandai Namco Entertainment | 3 |
Also known as: Crazy Otto NA1Pac-Woman NA1Miss Pac-Man NA1Mrs. Pac-Man NA1Mizu Pakkuman JP2
Box art by region
NA Ms. Pac-Man
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
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TitleCrazy Otto (prototype)Arcade (NA)
The game began as Crazy Otto, GCC's enhancement kit for Pac-Man. After Midway bought it, the heroine's name changed from Miss to Mrs. to Ms. within 72 hours of production.1
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GraphicsCrazy Otto (prototype)Arcade (NA)
Namco president Masaya Nakamura liked the character but asked GCC to remove her hair.1
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ContentPac-Man Museum+Arcade Archives Pac-Land (2022)
Since the 2022 Arcade Archives release of Pac-Land, Ms. Pac-Man has been replaced by Pac-Mom in games where she used to appear, and she is missing from Pac-Man Museum+.2
Where to play legally today
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Steam Purchase
Reception
By 1988 Ms. Pac-Man had sold 125,000 arcade units, and by 1987 it had grossed $1.2 billion. Cash Box and AMOA named it the highest-grossing arcade game of 1982, the Genesis version sold more than one million copies in the United States, and in 2022 it entered the World Video Game Hall of Fame.1
In lists
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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