Pac-Man

Pac-Man is a 1980 maze arcade video game developed and published by Namco, released in Japan in May 1980 and in North America that October through Midway Manufacturing. It was designed by Toru Iwatani, who led a nine-person development team and set out to make a game that could appeal to women as well as men, at a time when most video games were built around themes aimed at a male audience. Players guide Pac-Man through an enclosed maze, eating dots while avoiding four colored ghosts, and can eat large flashing Power Pellets that briefly turn the ghosts vulnerable and let Pac-Man eat them for bonus points, a mechanic that made it the first video game built around power-ups. It is credited with establishing the maze-game genre and is widely regarded as one of the most influential video games ever made; Guinness World Records credits it with eight records, including most successful coin-operated game, and in 2009 recognized Pac-Man as the most recognizable video game character in the United States, identified by 94 percent of people surveyed.