Some of the most beloved characters from the golden age of arcades belonged to one company in particular – Namco. Between the likes of Pac-Man and Galaga, among many others, the company was one of the frontrunners of video game publishing throughout the 1980s. Though now a part of Bandai-Namco following a 2005 merger, the company’s roots actually date back 60 years.

The company was founded as Nakamura Manufacturing in 1955 by Masaya Nakamura and originally was focused on producing children’s rides seen at department stores throughout Tokyo. The company later was renamed to Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company, which would later be used to form “Namco.” By the 1970s, Namco was fully in the coin-operated arcade business.

In 1974, Namco acquired the Japanese branch of Atari, which was struggling financially, for $500,000. Though it would take a few years to pay off the debts that Atari Japan owed, Namco’s deal on the matter secured exclusive licensing rights to Atari games for the next decade. The company quickly got to work on opening arcades that featured popular Atari titles.

The first original game developed by Namco was Gee Bee in 1978. Designed by Toru Iwatani, it used pinball-inspired gameplay with the goal of simply preventing the ball from falling off the bottom of the screen. It received two sequels, Bomb Bee and Cutie Q, both released the following year.

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