Ascended Fanon: The ghosts were actually supposed to be monsters. This is apparent on both the game's flyer, and the artwork on the cabinet. However, most players interpreted them as ghosts because they look more like stereotypical Bedsheet Ghosts than they do monsters. The first known instance where the term was used officially was the Atari 2600 port.
Pac-Man Arrangement used the alternate Japanese names for the monsters as their "character" names in the English version (though that game mixes up Clyde and Blinky's nicknames). Shadow is now Urchin, Speedy becomes Romp, Bashful becomes Stylish, and Pokey becomes Crybaby.
Pac-Man World 3 makes quite a few nods to the first game, from incorporating Orson and Toc-Man to having Pac-Man claim "Well, at least this birthday's still better than my twentieth."
Completely Different Title: Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures was originally called Hello! Pac-Man in Japan.
Creator's Favorite Episode: Iwatani has gone on record and said his favorite game is, surprisingly, Pac-Land.
Creator Killer: The Atari 2600 port, despite decent sales, was reviled for being a poor port and was one of the games that led to the crash of 1983 and the crushing of Atari as a leading console developer. It didn't help that in an era where rival Coleco regularly ported inferior versions of arcade games for which it had the home console rights to the 2600 and Mattel's Intellivision while porting superior versions of the same to its own ColecoVision, the port demonstrated that Atari couldn't be relied on to make 2600 versions of games for which it had the home console rights look better than on the ColecoVision or even the Intellivision.
The ghosts' names were originally Oikake (meaning Chaser), Machibuse (Ambusher), Kimagure (Fickle), and Otoboke (Feigning Ignorance), respectively, cluing the player in on their patterns. However, the American release gave them less-accurate names (Shadow, Speedy, Bashful, and Pokey, respectively) for whatever reason. Speedy's name is particularly deceptive, since all four monsters move at the same speed (except when Shadow/Blinky is in "Cruise Elroy" mode, making him the fastest).
For that matter, their nicknames were mostly changed, too: Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde were originally Akabei, Pinky (the only one unchanged), Aosuke, and Guzuta - respectively, Red Guy, Pinky, Blue Guy, and Stupid/Slow.
On top of that, a dip switch setting in the Japanese version gave the monsters alternate names, turning them into Urchin, Romp, Stylist, and Crybaby, with nicknames of Macky, Micky, Mucky, and Mocky (the only setting where the orange monster isn't the Odd Name Out). The English version removes the alternate names entirely; flipping the dip switch changes their names to things like "AAAAAA".
Dummied Out: The original Japanese arcade release had a DIP switch that would display an alternate set of names◊ for the ghosts, which should look familiar to fans of Pac-Man Arrangement. When it was localized, the switch wasn't disabled (presumably due to being an excessive technical effort for little benefit), but the alternate names were replaced with meaningless strings of one letter◊.
The infamous color palette and blue background of the Atari 2600 version was a result of Atari forcing all games that weren't set in space to not use black backgrounds in order to showcase the color capabilities of the system.
Invoked to turn the disastrous production of Pac-Man Ghost Zone into Pac-Man World
Exiled from Continuity: After decades of being a mainstay of the franchise's supporting cast and compilations, Ms. Pac-Man became largely phased out during the late 2010s as a result of Bandai Namco's legal battle with AtGames, a retro gaming company that unexpectedly purchased half of the original arcade game's rights from original developers General Computer Coporation. With the character's rights in limbo, releases in The New '20s onwards replaced Ms. Pac-Man with the Suspiciously Similar Substitute Pac-Mom. Likewise, the Pac-Man: Birth Of An Icon book, an otherwise comprehensive history of the franchise and its memorabilia, mentions Ms. Pac-Man and its development history (including screenshots of the Crazy Otto prototype) but omits all promotional material or screenshots of the game itself.
Fandom Life Cycle: The original arcade game as well as Ms. Pac-Man are at an undoubtable Stage 5 due to the games being extremely iconic and well respected among video games. The rest of the franchise however stuck around at Stage 2 up until the Namco Bandai merger which seemingly brought it back down to Stage 1. Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures and the Super Smash Bros. games gave the series a small and temporary Newbie Boom.
Follow the Leader: Pretty much every game console and home computer in the Second Generation Of Video Games had either an adaptation of this game available or some maze game that resembled Pac-Man. Magnavox's K.C. Munchkin for the Odyssey 2, however, was deemed so close to the original due to the design of the characters that it was pulled from the market. This is despite having significant gameplay differences, with twelve moving dots that sped up as the level went on, invisible mazes, and a maze editor.
Inspiration for the Work:According to Tōru Iwatani, the idea of Power Pellets (which allow Pac-Man to turn the tables on his enemies), was directly inspired by Popeye and his spinach.
Jr. Pac-Man had a few ports on early systems (namely for the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS) and hasn't had any other rereleases since. It could be speculated that it being a Midway game deters it from getting ported again, but Pac-Man Plus (by the same company) was ported on official Plug-N-Plays, including the 35th anniversary collection, and multiple Arcade1Up cabinets due to the game being mainly produced by Namco.
Of the arcade titles released in the 1980s, Professor Pac-Man is the only non-pinball game to have never received any port or rerelease, in addition to having a very limited release in arcades that makes finding a cabinet in the wild almost impossible.
Most of the mobile games throughout the franchise's life have been delisted from online stores at some point. While a good amount have been archived through unofficial means, many remain lost media.
Cross-promotional webgames with other IP and brands have been having limited lifespans as well.
None of the versions of Pac-Attack except the Genesis and SNES versions have been re-released.
Due to legal issues with AtGames, Ms. Pac-Man seems to be heading toward this, being removed from compilations and not being ported to any consoles from 2020 onwards.
The Atari 2600 port did extremely well due to the popularity of the arcade original, with nearly 8 million copies sold in a very short timeframe. However, the low quality of the port actually ended up contributing to The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 due to how prolific it was.
Market-Based Title: The game's Japanese title is "Puck-Man", named after Pac-Man's circular shape. However, the developers were worried that people would vandalize the cabinets and change the "P" to an "F". The Pac-Man name has stuck between all regions ever since.
Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": Despite Namco preferring to not speak about the unauthorized Bally Midway games (with the exception of Ms. Pac-Man, which was made official thanks to its success), that didn't stop their characters from appearing in official Pac-Man games. Japanese players would think that Junior got his beany propeller hat from Pac-Man 2, when he actually got it from Jr. Pac-Man, his starring role. There's also Professor Pac's appearance in Pac-Man World, when he originally came from Professor Pac-Man, minus the mustache.
Heck, Ms. Pac-Man's own game wouldn't have made it to Japan until 1990 with the release of its Atari Lynx port. She previously only made character appearances in other games.
Milestone Celebration: Museum+ was released not long after the first game's 42nd anniversary.
Of the original arcade games, Pac & Pal was the only one never released outside of Japan. There were plans for a localization (as Pac-Man and Chomp Chomp, with Miru replaced by Pac-Man's dog from the animated series), but it was cancelled. The ROM eventually found its way online, however.
Midway's Pac-Man games wouldn't get to see releases in Japan until years later, Ms. Pac-Man included.
Following the unsuccessful Japanese release of Pac-Man World 2, Pac-Man games that were managed by Namco's USA division, Namco Hometek, wouldn't get to be released in Japan. This included Pac-Man Fever, Pac-Man World 3, Pac-Man Pinball Advance, the GBA versions of Pac-Man World, Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness, and Pac-Man World 2, and even Pac-Man World Rally despite releasing under the Bandai Namco name when it wrapped up production.
Pac-Man's DLC appearance in Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational was exclusive to Japan.
All of the Pac-Man games that were created under the Catalog IP project label never saw an official release outside Japan. These ranged from mobile titles to region-locked browser-based games, and were available until the Catalog IP license expired.
Port Overdosed: Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are two of the most widely ported games ever made, right up there with Space Invaders and Tetris.
Championship Edition has also been ported to no less than 14 different platforms, even including an authorized demake for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Promoted Fanboy: Shigeru Miyamoto has stated several times his favorite video game series was Pac-Man. He was eventually able to make his own game in the series, Pac-Man Vs.
Saved from Development Hell: The Ms. Pac-ManSNES port was going to be released alongside the Genesis version in 1991. It wound up being pushed to 1996, near the end of the console's life having changed developers in the interim.
Screwed by the Lawyers: Since about 2002, the rights to the Ms. Pac-Man arcade game have been embroiled in a huge legal mess. The game was originally created as a Game Mod for the original Pac-Man by General Computer Corporation (GCC), who worked with both Midway (Namco's distributor at the time) and Namco to release the game.
As explained by GCC designer Steve Golson in the closing segment of the Game Developers Conference presentation "Classic Game Postmortem: Ms. Pac-Man", coin-op arcade releases of the game - and explicitly only coin-op arcade releases - required that Namco pay royalties to GCC and its successors. This was all fine and dandy in Namco's favour with the death of arcades and the rise of home consoles, with the company's succeeding executives in the following years being completely unaware of GCC's contract. However, Namco stepped on a landmine by releasing the Ms. Pac-Man "Class of '81" coin-op arcade cabinet in 2001, spurring GCC to call upon an arbitrator to collect their royalties. During the legal case, the arbitrator analyzed the text of the original contract and, decreeing that with the vague wording of the contract and because Technology Marches On with the advent of mobile gaming and digital distribution, expanded the types of Ms. Pac-Man releases that GCC would receive royalties from to any and all devices that can connect to the Internet. As a result, re-releases of Ms. Pac-Man eventually stopped.
Further complicating matters was when plug-n-play manufacturer AtGames seemingly purchased royalty rights from the successors of GCC, which would lead to a turbulent legal battle between Bandai Namco and AtGames. This is also believed to be one of the reasons why Namco has started to phase out the character herself from the franchise starting in the late 2010s, going as far as to replace her with substitute characters in re-releases and remakes in The New '20s.
Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures isn't the first game to be called "Pac-Man 2" - That honor belongs to a handheld released by Entex in 1981.
The name Pac-Man Arrangement can refer to one of two games: The original that was released in Namco Classics Collection Vol. 2 (and likewise featured in the sixth-generation Namco Museum games and Pac-Man Collection) and the second alliteration in 2005 that first appeared in Namco Museum Battle Collection, also known as Pac-Man Remix in certain re-releases.
Bandai's Pac-Junior handheld is not too far off of Pac-Jr., a minigame featured in the Genesis version of The New Adventures.
The party game Pac-Man Fever shares the name of the Buckner & Garcia song.
A Wendy's Kids Meal game, Pac-Man Bowling, shares the same name as Pac-Man Bowling for pre-smartphone mobile devices.
Pac-Man 256 is either the mobile game by Hipster Whale or the game present in the 35th anniversary Plug-N-Play. The former is an autorunner while the latter is the original Pac-Man that begins at the 255th stage.
Tie-In Cereal: Pac-Man Cereal was released in 1983 to capitalize on Pac-Man's monster popularity at the time.
Pac-Man was planned to have an RV-like shelter/trap in the game but due to size limitations, the idea was scrapped.
Ms. Pac-Man started out as an enhancement kit for Pac-Man called Crazy Otto created by a group of programmers. The titular Otto was Pac-Man with legs and the ghosts were changed into apple-shaped Cartoon Creatures with antenna. Midway bought the rights and made the game into an actual Pac-Man game. Working Titles included Super Pac-Man (Not to be confused with the game of the same name), Pac-Woman, Pac-Girl, Pac-Lady. Pac-ette, Miss Pac-Man, and Mrs. Pac-Man.
Midway once had plans to create a game called Count Pacula. The game was to be a maze-pinball hybrid, very similar to Baby Pac-Man. Instead of ghosts, Count Pacula is chased by the Pac-Man family (with a new character named "Cousin Six Pac") holding wooden stakes. Upon eating a Power Pellet, Pacula could bite the good Pacs and temporarily turn them gray. When a Pac-family member was in the gray state, they would briefly help Pacula and bite the others. It was scrapped due to its dark and grim nature.
A scrapped SNES game that would make use of the Exertainment Bike peripheral. The only evidence of the game's existence is from a Nintendo Power article from 1995.
Pac-Man World started out as a video game named Pac-Man Ghost Zone. When the developers demonstrated it to Masaya Nakamura, however, the majority of the team got fired and were forced to rework the game into something else.
The Pac-Man Fever video game was originally going to use the song of the same name as the title screen theme. However, Namco did not want to pay the license to use it.
Plans for a Wipeout-style Pac-Man Game Show was planned but due to lack of network support the idea was scrapped.
There were plans for a feature film in 2008 but nothing came of it.
A next gen Pac-Man World title was meant to come out in 2010 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 tenatively titled Pac-Man World 2010, fitting with the concept of Pac-Man platformers being released on birthday milestones. While it didn't get realized, assets from it, most importantly Pac-Man's redesign, would later be used in Pac-Man Party and Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures.
Chuck McCann did voices for both Blinky and Pinky.
The Danza: Susan Silo played Sue. Likely either an inversion or a coincidence, as the name "Sue" had been used for a ghost in the Ms. Pac-Man video game (although it was simply Clyde from the original with a different name).
Follow the Leader: By Hanna Barbera standards, Pac-Man was another small village type show similar to The Smurfs (1981). Mezmaron fills the Gargamel-type role with the quest to do some harm. However the Pac-Family themselves adhere more closely to the sitcom-style family à la The Flintstones and The Jetsons.
Despite airing in 1982, the Hanna-Barbera series saw no VHS or DVD releases until January 2012, when the first season was released on DVD. The second season was released in September that same year. Both are available as manufacture-on-demand DVDs from the "Warner Archive" program, although they can also be bought via Amazon, eBay, and various other Internet auction sites.
In the 1980s, there actually were a number of VHS releases for the series...outside America.
Recursive Adaptation: An arcade video game called Pac-Land was released in 1984, which was a side-scrolling platformer that was clearly based on the cartoon. Pinky's portrayal as a male ghost, Inky's lazy eye and Sue's purple cloak and eyes survived into the design of the monsters in Pac-Mania. But Blinky and Clyde's names/colors were swapped around, making Clyde the red, more aggressive, ghost and leader of the gang, and Blinky the orange and more laid-back ghost. In the Pac-Man World games, however, the cartoon is mostly forgotten. There are only four ghosts, and Pinky is now female.
For some time after the release of Pac-Man Arrangement, Blinky's and Clyde's names were swapped around for some time similar to Pac-Mania. This continued even into the second and third World games. Whenever or not this could be considered a homage to the cartoon or simply a mistake on Namco's parts is up to the viewer.
◊ for the ghosts, which should look familiar to fans of Pac-Man Arrangement. When it was localized, the switch wasn't disabled (presumably due to being an excessive technical effort for little benefit), but the alternate names were replaced with meaningless strings of one letter
