Sometimes, the simplest games are the best, and Pac-Man is a perfect example of that. A yellow guy eats dots and avoids ghosts – that’s the whole game. But that yellow circle with a mouth would go on to become one of the first A-listers in the gaming industry and has established himself as a recognizable mascot in the years since he first ate his way through arcades in 1980.

Pac-Man’s popular origin story – according to its creator, Toru Iwatani, as quoted in Steven L. Kent’s The Ultimate History of Video Games – is that in April 1979 Iwatani set out to create “a game for the female gaming enthusiast” based around the concept of eating, and that the appearance of the Pac-Man character himself came to Iwatani while he was having pizza for lunch. Whether this is true or not is up for debate; some sources, including previous interviews with Iwatani himself, contradict this account.

But whatever his precise origins, there’s no denying that Pac-Man has become one of the most enduring and recognizable video game characters in history. From the original blockbuster arcade game Pac-Man, released by Namco (and distributed in the USA by Bally/Midway) in 1980, to the recent Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures games, Pac-Man has gobbled his way into the hearts of millions of gamers.

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