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Interview with Pac-Man Creator
Rogueywon writes "The UK's Times newspaper has a featured interview with Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man. The article offers an insight into the inspiration behind the old arcade classic and reflects on the lack of material gain that the franchise has brought to its creator." From the article: "Iwatani sits down and tells the whole story, starting exactly 26½ years ago when a 24-year-old Namco programmer strolled into a now demolished restaurant in central Tokyo, called Shakeys. It was here that he ordered the marguerita pizza that, with one slice removed, provided the visual inspiration for Pac-Man's famous profile. "
wakka wakka wakka wakka
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Old game developers are awesome because they usually were poor and put their all into fun games. Go Pacman!
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WTF is that? The Japanese do some pretty crazy things to pizza. When I visited about 10 years ago, I remember seeing a poster for a pizza with strange sea creature parts, mayo, and corn sprinkled on it. Blech...
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Wow... I miss Shakey's Pizza. The Shakey's Pizza Parlor that was in Minnetonka, MN just west of Hwy 7 and 494 is the first place I ever saw a video arcade machine -- a pong game! :-)
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Oh yeah thats where I was first introduced to video games too, my Shakeys was near Washington DC...I spent hours (with no quarters) just watching the demo screens and others play all those great old games, though I must have been there later then you because they had Centipead, Aarkanoid, and that game with the spys and the elevators by the time I was there....what ever happened to Shakeys anyways?
Writing a Pacman clone is a great exercise if you're trying to learn how to program games. There's graphics, hit detection, path-finding, "AI" strategy, high score tracking; all kinds of good stuff to think about.
Another good one is Tetris; lots of interesting challenges in there.
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What was his name before running it through the Star Wars name generator?
I think it's interesting that the theme of eating was used to lure the female sex into arcades. I think its kind of like how Konami used http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_1st_Mix">Dance Dance Revolution to lure the female persuasion back into the arcades using game's namesake.
It seems that Shakey's is still around. Clearly not in the same numbers as it once was, though.
Story is that the name of the game was originally "Puck-Man" (due to the shape), but that vandals were scratching out part of the "P" on the console to spell the obvious derivative word.
Any truth to that?
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Okay so he got the icon from a slice-removed pizza pie. But where, I ask, WHERE did he get the idea for that 'wakka wakka' sound?
And they said zombies weren't real!
"Computer games don't affect kids. I mean, if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around darkened rooms, munching magic pills, and listening to repetitive electronic music."
It was here that he ordered the marguerita pizza that, with one slice removed, provided the visual inspiration for Pac-Man's famous profile. "
Is it just me or does this seem extremely....Spinal Tap?
Is to determine if the Dreamcast logo was first found on top of a hamburger (prior to applying the top bun, of course).
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Shakey's is a little different in Japan than it is in the U.S. They have an all you can eat pizza-by-the-slice buffet, but since they use super-thin crust on thier pizza, your average American can eat dozens of slices before they are seriously full. Many of the pizzas are generally not palatable to most Americans, but if you don't mind corn and tuna on your pizza you'll be fine. Eating tons of pizza does make the management unhappy with you though. (I almost got kicked out of one for eating too much, and have acquaintances that have...)
I can speak from personal experience on that one. I wrote a Tetris game just for the fun/challenge of it. This was after I made a text adventure as a programming assignment (the assignment was make a text adventure) as part of a regular programming class (not a games-oriented elective). If I were teaching a class in game (or even other complex) programming, a Tetris clone would definitely be an assigned project.
as much as the game idea was fun and the graphics attractive, I think for me pacman was mostly about the sounds, the startup jingle, the wakkawakkawakka and let's not forget the death sound: I really wonder who came up with those!
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As for the Dreamcast logo, look at these spirals, especially the last four.
There is one like that in Mexico City. The crust is almost like a saltine and comes with no tomato sauce. Ketchup packets are provided however.
>> ...and that game with the spys and the elevators...
Elevator Action!
Used to love that game
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Shakey's Pizza is a chain from the US... They're still around in Japan, but less so than they were 20 years ago. They talk about it in the 2nd Wayne's World movie. Incidentally, there's still one in Roppongi near the Meiji Shrine, I think there's still one in Kichijoji... The one in Shibuya is gone... The all you can eat lunch buffet is a great deal!