Pac-Man was designed by Toru Iwatani at Namco and first location-tested on 22 May 1980 in Shibuya, Tokyo; Midway released it in North America later that year. Iwatani wanted a game that would appeal to women and couples, so he chose cute characters and pastel colours. The power-pellet idea came from Popeye eating spinach, and the Japanese working name Pakkuman comes from "paku paku", the sound of munching.
The game was ported to many home systems, from the Atari 2600 in 1982 to the Famicom, Game Boy and Game Gear, and later to modern collections. In 1984 a Tokyo District Court ruling in the "Pac-Man case" was the first to treat a video game's images as a cinematographic work under copyright law.
The arcade game has a famous limit: level 256 cannot be finished, because an integer overflow garbles half the screen, so the perfect score is 3,333,360 points. In 2012 Pac-Man entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.12
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Pac-ManSources conflict between October and December 1980 | Arcade | 1980 | Midway | 2 |
| NA | Pac-ManAtari 2600 | Other | 1982 | Atari, Inc. | 2 |
| NA | Pac-ManNamco reissue after Tengen's earlier NES versions | NES | 1993 | Namco | 3 |
| JP | パックマンLocation test from 22 May 1980 in Shibuya | Arcade | July 1980 | Namco | 1 |
| JP | パックマンFirst Namcot home title | MSX | Jan 18, 1984 | Namco | 1 |
| JP | パックマンFamicom | NES | Nov 2, 1984 | Namco | 1 |
| JP | パックマン | Famicom Disk System | May 18, 1990 | Namco | 1 |
| JP | パックマンTwo-player link play | Game Boy | Nov 16, 1990 | Namco | 1 |
| JP | パックマン | Game Gear | Jan 29, 1991 | Namco | 1 |
| JP | パックマン | PC-98 | Nov 13, 1992 | — | 1 |
| JP | パックマンFamicom Mini series | Game Boy Advance | Feb 14, 2004 | — | 1 |
| WW | ARCADE GAME SERIES: PAC-MANSteam; also on PS4 and Xbox One | Windows | Apr 19, 2016 | Bandai Namco Entertainment | 4 |
| JP | アーケードアーカイブス パックマンArcade Archives; PS4 on 7 Oct 2021 | Switch | Sep 24, 2021 | — | 1 |
| WW | PAC-MAN MUSEUM+Collection of 14 Pac-Man games | Windows | Jun 27, 2022 | Bandai Namco Entertainment | 5 |
| WW | Pac-ManNES version on Nintendo Classics (Nintendo Switch Online) | Switch | Apr 9, 2026 | Nintendo | 6 |
Also known as: Puck Man JP2Puckman JP7Pakkuman JP2Snapper NA2
Box art by region
NA Pac-Man
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
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TitleArcade (NA)
In North America the game was renamed from Puck Man to Pac-Man, out of fear that vandals would turn the P into an F.2
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TextArcade (JP)Arcade (US)
The ghosts' Japanese names — Oikake, Machibuse, Kimagure and Otoboke, nicknamed Akabei, Pinky, Aosuke and Guzuta — became Shadow, Speedy, Bashful and Pokey (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) in the US.1
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GraphicsArcade (US)
The US attract mode shows a Midway copyright line instead of the Namco logo; a DIP switch for alternate ghost names works in Japan but is disabled in the US version.7
Where to play legally today
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Nintendo Switch Online Subscription
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Steam Purchase
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Steam Purchase
Reception
Pac-Man is called the best-selling arcade game of all time: Guinness recognized its 293,822 cabinets as the most arcade machines installed, and the franchise has reached 43 million units combined. The Famicom and Game Boy Advance versions sold 598,000 copies in Japan.2
In lists
Sources
- 1ja.wikipedia.org
- 2en.wikipedia.org
- 3tcrf.net
- 4store.steampowered.com
- 5store.steampowered.com
- 6gameinformer.com
- 7tcrf.net
- 8ja.wikipedia.org
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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