Bashful cyan colored) was the fickle member of the four who could either be as aggressive as Blinky or whose tactics could be as ambush-based as Pinky, and finally, there was Clyde (aka. Speedy pink colored) was the lone female ghost who used ambush tactics to attack Pac-Man, Inky (aka. Shadow red colored) was the fastest, most aggressive member of the quartet, Pinky (aka. Once consuming a Power Pellet, the yellow character, “Pac-Man,” was energized and made powerful enough to eat any of the ghosts - albeit for a limited time.Īppearing more similar to the harmless-looking McDonaldland “Fry Guys” in design than any ghoulish spectres that appeared within a Universal Classic Monster movie, the colorful ghost enemies of Pac-Man had personalities all their own - unlike the nameless, faceless antagonists of Galaga or Space Invaders: “Blinky” (aka. However, the tables could be turned on the villainous spooks if the yellow character could eat any of the four Power Pellets - large, flashing dots which were strategically placed in each one of the four corners on the map. The yellow character’s job is to eat every single dot within each maze, “clearing the board,” before being caught by a ghost. The strategy of Pac-Man could be comprehended by anyone at a mere glance: a bright yellow character with a furiously opening mouth is chased by a quartet of fast, colorful ghosts. It offered more than the established conventional, run-of-the-mill space-shooter games that then dominated the industry and which built upon a male-dominated Luke Skywalker/Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers sci-fi adventure fantasy. In a male-dominated industry like that of video games - particularly in Japan - the Namco company’s designers were given an edict: attract more female players into male-dominated arcades, and Pac-Man was intended to do just that. It was a very appealing game that made accessible by design. But Pac-Man, a simple chase game, changed all that. There was simply no competition between Pac-Man the arcade game (whether cabinet or tabletop version) and Pac-Man the console game offered by Atari, Intellivision, and the like: Every single aspect of the arcade gaming experience was superior to the relative comfort provided to a gamer when playing the “same title” at home.Īntique Trader: Space-shooter games such as Asteroids and Space Invaders dominated video games arcades. The reason: The graphics and gameplay of arcade video games such as Pac-Man, Asteroids, Galaga, Frogger and Donkey Kong were far superior to those same games when translated onto a cartridge for home-based console game play. Pac-Man changed the video arcade landscape forever.Īntique Trader: We live in a world dominated by home systems such as Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Switch, for the uninitiated can you describe the video arcade scene in the 1980s?īellomo: The video arcade scene of the early 1980s was darned similar in scope and method to the modern casinos of Las Vegas and Atlantic City: ostentatiously colorful architecture, vibrant lights strobing and flashing, bells and electronic sounds ringing and tweeting, and the lack of any semblance of the passage of time - all which were designed to separate kids from every single quarter lining their pockets.īefore the rise of (second generation) home entertainment/video game systems such as the Atari 2600, Intellivision, Odyssey, and Colecovision, and then during the systems’ proliferation and eventual glut on retail shelves (and downfall of the systems) in ’82, the video arcade environment thrived.