Vintage Games

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PAC-MAN (1980): JAPANESE GUMPTION, AMERICAN CONSUMPTION

Now that we're awash with countless videogame mascots, it's hard to imagine when there was only one—a little yellow pizza with a missing slice, named Pac-Man. Yet long before the days of Master Chief, Lara Croft, Sonic, and of course Mario, this humble pie guy chomped out of the arcades and into public consciousness.¹ Here was proof that videogames were more than the sum of their parts; they could have personality and charisma. Pac-Man eventually found his way onto lunchboxes, breakfast cereal, Saturday morning cartoons, a hit song, toys, and pretty much anything else that could be affixed with his image and sold in a store. Indeed, the cavalcade of collectibles eventually grew large ...