'Father of Pac-Man,' Masaya Nakamura, Dies At Age 91 (japantimes.co.jp)

AmiMoJo writes from a report via The Japan Times: Masaya Nakamura, the founder of game developer Namco and known as "the father of Pac-Man," has died at age 91. He founded Nakamura Seisakusho in 1955, which was renamed Namco in 1977. The company developed numerous hit video games, including "Galaxian," "Pac-Man" and "Ridge Racer." "Pac-Man," designed by Namco's inhouse video game maker Toru Iwatani, is one of the most recognizable and popular video games in history. In 2005 it was listed by Guinness World Records as the "most successful coin-operated arcade machine."

Comments

What?!?!

[freeze128]

Masaya Nakamura was the FOUNDER of NAMCO, the company who made Pac-Man. However, the Pac-Man video game was designed by Toru Iwatani. This is like a reality show: Who is the REAL father?

Re:Pac *man*

[AmiMoJo]

They both have their particular unique qualities.

PacMan is brilliant for so many reasons. It was the first game to have convincing AI. Previously enemies moved in simple patterns or randomly, but PacMan's ghosts seemed to have personalities and players would read intent and emotion into behaviours that were actually governed by relatively simple but cleverly designed rules.

The game itself is tweaked to perfection. The collision detection uses 8x8 blocks, for example, so ghosts can actually slightly overlap PacMan without killing him. That might seem like a bug, but it actually makes the game more exciting as they get right on your tail. The speed at which everything moves is calibrated perfectly too.

Ms. PacMan altered the ghost behaviour to make it more random, removing the ability to use patterns to beat every level consistently. This was actually a key moment in the formation of Western and Japanese video game styles. Western games tended to be more random and rely on players being able to react, where as Japanese games offered patterns that could be learned or ignored as the player chose. For those not aware, Ms. PacMan was developed as a ROM hack in the west and then made into an official product.