Pacman

Pac-man: an old arcade game. Outdated, right? Wrong. Pac-man may have been invented back in 1980, but it is still really popular today. It was originally invented by a man in Japan, and Pac-man's design was based off of a pizza with some slices missing and the game was originally called Puck-man. Later on, the game was taken to America where it was renamed 'Pac-man'.

The game play mechanics are simple, you control the pizza thing himself, Pac-man, while avoiding ghosts and trying to collect as many dots as possible. Power dots turn the ghosts dark blue and give Pac-man the ability to eat the ghosts which give points. The maze is always the same and as the player progresses ghosts get faster and tougher. There are meant to be endless levels but a glitch ruins the game at level  256:

The Infamous 'Kill screen'

A game released in America a few years after Pac-man was an unlicensed ripoff of Pac-man. This was called ms. Pac-man and had a version of Pac-man with a bow in her hair. The game was so popular that Atari bought the rights and licensed it.

A real life version of Pac-man named Pac-Manhattan was created using people in costume running around a designated area of Manhattan. The people have 'generals' guiding them, and the generals have a birds-eye view.

I personally think that Pac-man is still popular today as the addictive - yet simple- game play can just be played for hours. Many games nowadays over complicate the mechanics. Pac-man has had new versions but has always stuck to the age old formula. Nostalgia may also get people coming back for memories of their childhoods.

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      The names of ghosts