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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. "

14 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Let me be the first to say by BlackCobra43 · · Score: 3, Funny

    wakka wakka wakka wakka

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

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

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  3. Re:Marguerita pizza??? by Reignking · · Score: 2, Informative

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

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  4. A great game for a budding game programmer by tcopeland · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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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    1. Re:A great game for a budding game programmer by badasscat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      AI? I thought the ghosts in Pacman followed predetermined paths irrespective of what the player is doing, hence the ability of the player to "cheat" and use a predefined pattern to successfully complete the maze.

      No, you're confusing patterns that were "discovered" that allowed you to win by beating the AI (which do exist), with patterns that the ghosts followed (which don't). The ghosts follow no pre-determined patterns - in fact each one is programmed to act and react in a different manner from the other. I don't recall all the differences but there are things like one of them being smart enough not to come near you while you're close to a power pellet, one of them being able to see you all the way on the other side of the board, etc. There is real uniqueness in how they act, though you wouldn't notice it unless you really played a lot.

      The patterns come about because the AI is not advanced enough that it's going to do anything different given the same situation. So, assuming that Pac-Man travels at the same speed in every game (which he does), and you don't screw up, you can use the same pattern every time and the ghosts will act in the same way. But that doesn't mean they're not using AI.

    2. 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.

  5. Toru Iwatani by Bnderan · · Score: 3, Funny

    What was his name before running it through the Star Wars name generator?

  6. 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?

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    1. Re:Someone wanna fact check this UL by GeneralHorel · · Score: 3, Informative

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

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    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

  7. Okay... by Sierpinski · · Score: 2, Funny

    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?

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    1. Re:Okay... by Doom+bucket · · Score: 2

      "Wakka Wakka" is the japanese equivelent of "Munch Munch".

      Different languages have different "sounds".

    2. Re:Okay... by lightspawn · · Score: 2, Funny

      But where, I ask, WHERE did he get the idea for that 'wakka wakka' sound?

      Fozzie Bear, of course.

  8. Remids me of the old joke... by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "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."