![]() ![]() members of The Antlers, Bing & Ruth, and Port St. Birthmark (Nate Kinsella of American Football) – Birth of Omni Our Upcoming Releases calendar includes upcoming albums, EPs, 7-inches, live albums, and more in genres including rock music, alt-rock, hip-hop, folk, electronica, and more. Mass appeal games like The Sims, Dance Dance Revolution, and Candy Crush can thank Pac-Man for proving that anyone can enjoy video games.An expansive, frequently updated list of upcoming releases in music. The industry ever since has produced games marketed to broader audiences in addition to those targeted specifically to serious gamers. ![]() In addition to its own success, Pac-Man brought gaming itself into the mainstream. The “Pac-Man Fever” of the early 80s eventually broke, but Pac-Man never truly faded from pop consciousness. Pac-Man became a global phenomenon, spawning books, a cartoon, a top-ten pop song, and hordes of merchandise from breakfast cereals to roller skates. Creator Toru Iwatani designed Pac-Man to appeal to an audience beyond the typical hardcore gamer, and that it did. Pac-Man is the most popular arcade game of all time, and the little yellow chomper is the most recognizable icon in all of gaming. Mass Appeal Must-haves for the Gen-X middle schooler. Pac, Baby Pac, Professor Pac, and Chomp-Chomp, as well as Pooka (from the Dig Dug series). All of them are there including Pac Junior, Ms. Though it may not be the primary focus, dozens of games utilize stealth in one form or another, all beginning with a pixelated circle running from ghosts. The Pac family is having a birthday party to celebrate Pac-Man 20th anniversary as a video game character. Stealth play has become a staple of modern gaming. More sophisticated games such as Metal Gear Solidand Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cellheavily employ Pac-Man’s conflict avoidance strategy, focusing gameplay on eluding the enemy until the right time to strike. Pac-Man popularized the concept of stealth in gaming, that hiding from danger can be just as compelling as running from it. Pac-Man, however, defeated his foes not by attacking, but by avoiding them. Until Pac-Man came along, the primary objective of arcade games had been to shoot at as many enemies as you could or to beat your opponent in a sports simulation. Power-ups have become as diverse in gaming as they are numerous, and they all owe their existence to Pac-Man. You’ve discovered a new weapon against the ghosts, and more importantly, the first power-up in gaming history.įrom med packs to weapons upgrades to flowers that let you shoot fireballs, hardly a game exists that doesn’t in some way allow you to enhance your natural abilities. You chase after them, gobbling up as many as you can. Suddenly, the colorful ghosts turn blue and run. You make for a corner, scarfing down a power pellet. Five quarters in and you’ve finally managed to survive more than twenty seconds. You’re playing Pac-Man for the first time. From Mario to Lara Croft to Master Chief, the best characters help elevate their games from a simple exercise of skill to an immersive world a player can inhabit by proxy. Pac-Man showed game designers the true importance of character and helped make the player character a staple of gaming. Pac-Man popularized the concept of the player character to the point that the little yellow circle with a mouth became a star in his own right. ![]() The Playable Character "Woka woka woka woka."Īlthough some early computer games did feature crude examples of a playable character, Pac-Man was the first arcade game to utilize the concept, creating a mascot that would become the face of the game. Even today, video games owe a debt to Pac-Man for breaking ground in so many ways. Unlike anything that had come before it, it took the world by storm and changed the video game industry forever. The game featured a maze, colorful ghosts, and what looked like a partially-eaten cheese wheel. In 1980, an odd little game began appearing in arcades, bars, and shopping centers first in Japan, and later the US.
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