A game for people who don't shoot
Arcades were ruled by space shooters. Toru Iwatani wanted a game that would also appeal to women and couples. Legend has it that the shape of the character was inspired by a pizza with one slice taken out. Pac-Man became a phenomenon with toys, a song and cartoon series.
Every ghost is different
The four ghosts behave differently: Blinky heads straight for the player, Pinky tries to get ahead of him, Inky combines the two, and Clyde is unpredictable. It was one of the first examples of enemy “artificial intelligence” in games.
The perfect game
After level 255 the game breaks down into a garbled screen because of a bug in the code. The maximum achievable score is therefore 3,333,360 points, and only a handful of people have managed it.