Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Interview with Pac-Man Creator

Posted by Zonk on from the all-about-the-food dept.

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. "

6 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Marguerita pizza??? by russellh · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yeah. Those Japanese. Importing the classic Napoletana pizza. Crazy!

    --
    must... stay... awake...
  2. Re:Marguerita pizza??? by Reignking · · Score: 2, Informative

    It has nothing to do with the drink -- it is basically your normal cheese pizza.

    --
    One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
  3. Someone wanna fact check this UL by snorklewacker · · Score: 2, Informative

    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?

    --
    I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
    1. Re:Someone wanna fact check this UL by GeneralHorel · · Score: 3, Informative

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man

      --
      Slashdot sigs contain more useful information than the articals
    2. Re:Someone wanna fact check this UL by drunken-sosage · · Score: 2, Informative

      two additional links
      http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=P&gam e_id=9149
      http://www.puckman.net/main.html

  4. Re:A great game for a budding game programmer by sneakers563 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Interesting - That's almost exactly what I remember reading about Ms. Pacman. I wonder if the improvment to the AI in Ms. Pacman that I'm remembering was simply adding some variability to the ghosts' actions.

    I found this paper with an interview with the creator that bears out what you're saying. It's pretty cool, actually, that they gave the ghosts different personalities; I stand corrected.