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TVTranscript
00:02He was born in Japan to less than thrilled parents.
00:05They just didn't have high hopes for Pac-Man. Nobody had high hopes for Pac-Man.
00:09Yet the little yellow dot enchanted a nation.
00:12For the second time in history, the Japanese Mint had to start making more hundred yen pieces.
00:20And the world.
00:21Pac-Man is part of a national phenomenon that had to happen when the TV set married the computer.
00:29His popularity caused worldwide havoc.
00:32There was an American reaction to it. And it was a big reaction.
00:35And it was a very angry reaction.
00:37Hear the story of his birth.
00:39Nakamura-san was afraid that Americans would alter the P on Pac-Man.
00:44So he changed it to Pac-Man.
00:48His defeat.
00:49I had such a tight grip over the joystick at times, I was afraid I was going to shatter it.
00:53But I managed to cheat death.
00:54And how he captured our hearts.
01:00This is the story of Pac-Man.
01:23Back in the early 80's, every town would have a recreational center.
01:30There would be pinball games, pool tables, shuffleboard, air hockey, foosball, and then maybe a video game or two.
01:44And most people didn't bother to go to the recreation centers in their town until some of the more modern
01:50games started coming out.
01:52Video games have been out there since about 1972.
01:55But they really had no major impact on the public.
01:58But all that is about to change with the birth of Pong.
02:02A video game that paves the way for the golden age of arcades to officially begin.
02:13What you see here is part of a national phenomenon, a phenomenon that had to happen when the TV set
02:17married the computer.
02:22Space Invaders was like the first game in this three game progression that brought the public completely into the arcades
02:30and made them become enamored with video game play.
02:35Space Invaders had initiated the wave and the excitement in arcades in both Japan and the United States.
02:44And right after Space Invaders, Asteroids came out.
02:48And Asteroids suddenly had further enhanced gameplay where people could get very high scores
02:53and also got the competition going for people playing against each other in a bigger way than Space Invaders started
02:59for high score laurels.
03:02Video games were everywhere.
03:09Everybody wanted to go. Everybody wanted to play. Everybody wanted to be the best.
03:14It starts with a quarter.
03:17By 1979, the American craze for video games is just beginning.
03:21They seem to have captured America's imagination and its pocket change as well.
03:26But on the other side of the world, a young Japanese game designer named Toru Iwatani
03:30is inventing something new, something that will change video games forever.
03:37Iwatani-san is a very interesting fellow.
03:40He came to Namco. He wanted to make video games, arcade games, based on pinball.
03:45He wanted to make a game that would appeal to women.
03:48He wanted to make a game that would be non-violent.
03:50And he wanted to make a game using the word to barrel, which was to eat.
03:59Namco's president likes the premise.
04:03Iwatani is assigned a team of nine designers to help bring his vision to life.
04:09Bear in mind, back then, hardware was pretty limited.
04:11You could get shapes and colors, but they couldn't be very detailed.
04:16But he started the game, and one of the first things they ran into was,
04:20what does this character look like?
04:24When I interviewed Iwatani-san, he talked about going to a pizza parlor with his designers.
04:29They were eating a piece of pizza. Somebody pulled a slice out.
04:33And he looked down at the tray and there was Pac-Man staring at him.
04:36Fact or fiction? You make the call.
04:43After months of development and location testing, Pac-Man is ready for market.
04:48But he takes a back seat to a more conventional game.
04:51They made Pac-Man at the same time they made another game called Rally-X.
04:58And absolutely everybody at Namco loved Rally-X.
05:03So then they took the games to a Tokyo game show.
05:06And everybody at the show loved Rally-X.
05:10The main thing wasn't that people didn't like Pac-Man.
05:13They just didn't have high hopes for Pac-Man.
05:15Nobody had high hopes for Pac-Man.
05:18Despite the low hopes, Namco still finds an American distributor.
05:23They hooked up here with Midway games.
05:25Midway was going to import both games.
05:27They took both games to an AMA show.
05:30Everyone loved Rally-X still.
05:32Pac-Man was good.
05:34Rally-X was the game of the show.
05:36And then they came out and...
05:38Well, when's the last time you played Rally-X?
05:46In 1980, Pac-Man is released in Japan.
05:50And instantly develops a feverish following.
05:52Pac-Man was a hit right off the bat.
05:55It was an immediate success in Japan.
05:57For the second time in history, the Japanese Mint had to start making more 100 yen pieces.
06:06Because so many 100 yen pieces were sitting in the bellies of Pac-Man machines at that time.
06:13Now it's time to release the game in America.
06:15Well, with one major exception.
06:21It was originally going to be Pac-Man based on the shape.
06:25And Nakamura-san was afraid that Americans with their quote-unquote proclivities towards dirty words would alter the P on
06:35Pac-Man.
06:36And so he changed it to Pac-Man.
06:40With the new name in place, the Bally Midway Company releases Pac-Man in October 1980 to a hungry American
06:48market.
06:52Coming up, Pac-Man Mania.
06:55Pac-Man is known as the cute game.
06:58What's the object?
06:59You have to clear it up.
07:01Yes, you have to get all the dots off.
07:16Yellow creature gobbles dots while being pursued through maze by monsters.
07:21In October 1980, Pac-Man is released in U.S. arcades and America catches the fever.
07:27Oh, I played Pac-Man the moment it arrived at a 7-Eleven just outside of Burley, Idaho.
07:32When Pac-Man came out, it caused everybody to fall in love with video games.
07:48The biggest arcade game of all time, by a long shot, the biggest arcade game of all time.
07:54In the United States, it caught on.
07:56You'd go into any large arcade by mid to late 1980 and you'd see an entire row of Pac-Man
08:02machines.
08:03And manufacturers have trouble keeping up with the demand.
08:06In suburban Franklin Park, you'll find Midway Manufacturing feverishly turning out 350 Pac-Man games every day in three different
08:14cabinet styles.
08:15Remember, we're talking about 1980. We're talking about the beginning of MTV.
08:20People are still fascinated. They're fascinated with technology.
08:23They're fascinated with video, bright images, music, and the future.
08:27Pac-Man brought more people in.
08:29People went to arcades specifically looking for Pac-Man.
08:32The little yellow guy becomes the media's biggest star.
08:36Believe it or not, Pac-Man games are wildly successful.
08:44Pac-Man finds himself in some very strange places.
08:48They pop up everywhere. I mean, you know, 7-Elevens would carry them.
08:52Grocery stores are carrying them.
08:55The funny one is that at least one funeral home had a couple of arcade machines in its basement.
09:02Pac-Man was so good that it managed to escape the arcade and be a unique item for entertainment
09:07that could be found any place, not just an arcade.
09:11It was an incredible phenomenon at that time.
09:18Suddenly, everyone wants a piece of the Pac-Man pie.
09:22Pac-Man was the granddaddy in marketing history of gaming property.
09:30Pac-Man was the one that made it onto everybody's bedsheets, their pillowcases, their underwear.
09:36Pac-Man is everywhere.
09:37There are Pac-Man cartoons, there's a Pac-Man cereal, Pac-Man lunchboxes, Pac-Man board games.
09:42Things they wear on their wrists, things they wear around their neck, things they wear on their feet.
09:46There are Pac-Man trash cans, Pac-Man toilet seat.
09:49Just anything you can imagine, Pac-Man is there.
09:55Pac-Man was really the beginning of all that for the video game industry.
09:59It's not unique anymore because everything seems to be doing that now, but they're just following the path that was
10:06trailblazed by Pac-Man 20-some years ago.
10:12Love for Pac-Man knows no boundaries.
10:15Women loved Pac-Man, and they came into the arcades to play it.
10:25But Pac-Man causes mayhem among parents, and he finds himself on the wrong side of the law.
10:32Look at the age group that was being attracted to arcades.
10:35You know, it was a new hangout.
10:37There was concern about how much time children were playing at the arcades, that they were squandering their lunch monies
10:43at arcades.
10:47We're talking about in 1981, Americans dropped 20 billion quarters into arcade machines.
10:55They spent 75,000 man years playing arcade games in 1981.
11:02That's a lot of time that could have been used doing homework.
11:07A lot of time that could have been used in movie theaters, according to Hollywood.
11:11A lot of time that should have been used listening to music, according to the record companies.
11:16People in all kinds of industries looked at it as a very unhealthy competition.
11:23Pac-Man becomes the poster child for the anti-video game movement.
11:27Pac-Man really was at the forefront, because it was the most popular, and it was an image that everyone
11:32knew.
11:32Everyone knew the little yellow ball.
11:35Clearly, that was the focal point.
11:38And there was so much press.
11:39Everybody who wanted to control and regulate and limit video game play,
11:44well, then it becomes sort of a renegade thing.
11:46You're a renegade if you play it, if you buck the system.
11:48You make all the older people mad, or you annoy them, or you do what they're telling you you shouldn't
11:52be doing.
11:53There were big court cases where arcades were limited in the hours they could open, and where they could be
11:58located.
11:59There was an American reaction to it, and it was a big reaction, and it was a very angry reaction.
12:05But the protests do little to reduce the fever.
12:12In fact, Pac-mania is just beginning.
12:15Pac-Man had a very long lifespan.
12:17In 1981, Pac-Man was competing with Donkey Kong.
12:23But before it was competing with Centipede, and it was competing with Battlezone.
12:27I mean, Pac-Man had just these long, long legs.
12:35Pac-Man was hot right up until Ms. Pac-Man came and eclipsed it.
12:41Ms. Pac-Man is released in January 1982.
12:45But the game is created by college students.
12:48Not Toru Iwatani, the creator of Pac-Man.
12:52Ms. Pac-Man's a great story.
12:53Yeah, I'm cool.
12:54It had nothing to do with the creation whatsoever.
12:56A team of MIT grad students develop an add-on board,
13:00which they attach to an existing Pac-Man board to enhance the game.
13:05They went to Midway, and they said,
13:08we've got this Pac-Man add-on, would you like to buy it?
13:11And the president of Midway basically said,
13:12hey, you know, we've been looking for a sequel to Pac-Man.
13:16So they bought that add-on, and they added it to Pac-Man.
13:21All they need now is a name.
13:24So originally they were going to call it Mrs. Pac-Man,
13:26but somebody said that Mrs. Pac-Man was offensive to women.
13:31So then they were going to call it Pac-Woman.
13:33But the problem was, in the cut scenes, she's a baby.
13:38And, you know, heaven forbid we show any Pac-Man promiscuity.
13:42Honey, don't you know, I'm more than Pac-Man with a bow.
13:51So, a very politically correct Ms. Pac-Man is ready for the arcades.
13:57Upon release, she immediately outperforms her predecessor,
14:01selling over 115,000 units.
14:05But her fame is short-lived.
14:08Oh!
14:26By mid-1982, the arcade craze fades as fast as it grew.
14:36Inevitably, there was a shake-out, and the number of arcades that were existing in America at that time,
14:41which numbered maybe about 20,000, which was a lot.
14:43It was an arcade in every town, essentially.
14:45Then it shook out so that there were only about 12,000 left,
14:48and then it shook out more, and there were only about 4,000 left.
14:51The Pac-Man family alone isn't enough to save the ailing arcade business.
14:58Games become unpopular when people get very good with them.
15:01You see, Pac-Man is one of the greatest games, and the reason it's one of the greatest games
15:04is because it's also one of the hardest games.
15:07Players who become adept at it know that there are patterns.
15:13And so now, all of a sudden, instead of people playing for 30 seconds,
15:16now you have people who can come in, they'll drop a quarter in, and they'll play for an hour.
15:21Or they'll play for two hours, or they'll play until they're just bored and go home.
15:25And that all of a sudden makes the arcade business extremely expensive.
15:29By this time, the public's attention has already shifted to another technological boom.
15:36In the spring of 1982, home versions of popular arcade games are flooding the market.
15:43I'd like an Atari 2600 system, please, and everything that goes with everything.
15:46You sure you want everything?
15:47I want everything.
15:48Arcade knockoffs did not have to be especially good or especially attractive.
15:52They need to have decent gameplay, and they need to have the name of the arcade game right on them.
15:58But can home consoles save Pac-Man from extinction?
16:03In April 1982, anticipation rises for Atari's version of Pac-Man for the VCS.
16:10Here comes Pac-Man, biggest game in the history of arcades.
16:14People are really excited.
16:17The pre-orders are huge.
16:19Atari is so sure that this is going to be a hit.
16:22That they made more copies of Pac-Man than there were active VCSs in people's homes.
16:29Because people would play it, and this would be a huge hit.
16:32But the game stunk.
16:35The game really, really stunk.
16:39There was just nothing right in it.
16:43Despite the lackluster graphics, the public loves having Pac-Man in their homes.
16:48And Ms. Pac-Man follows closely behind.
16:51This Ms. plays only on the Atari 5200 super system.
16:55Now you're talking!
16:58It's a big deal.
17:00It's a big deal.
17:01Attempting to cash in, competitors released their own versions of Pac-Man.
17:05There were all kinds of knockouts.
17:07So what these companies have to do is, these companies have to create something that's very Pac-Man-esque.
17:13And so you have all kinds of games that look like Pac-Man.
17:16Meanwhile, Pac-Man's legitimate relatives continue to flood arcades.
17:25There's Junior Pac-Man.
17:27Baby Pac-Man.
17:29Super Pac-Man.
17:30There are all kinds of Pac-Mans.
17:32But all the Pac-Man spin-offs in the world can't save the arcade business.
17:40By the mid-1980s, the quarters stopped flowing.
17:45The golden age of video arcades is over.
17:48Yet Pac-Man still has his loyal fans.
17:55Over the past 20 years, Pac-Man has been released on virtually every system.
18:18And the desire for high scores never wanes.
18:22In 1999, Pac-Man finally meets his match.
18:27Billy Mitchell becomes the first person to play the perfect game.
18:30I'd say, yeah, people think I'm nuts.
18:32You have to be a little nutty to be this obsessive about something.
18:35On July 3, 1999, Mitchell, the president of a Florida hot sauce company,
18:41walks into New Hampshire's Fun Spot Arcade and slides a quarter into the Pac-Man machine.
18:52I had such a tight grip over the joystick at times, I was afraid I was going to shatter it.
18:56It was for sure the most difficult thing.
18:59Six hours later, Mitchell manages to eat every dot, every ghost, and clear 256 screens.
19:08He actually beats the game.
19:11Six hours isn't really any big deal.
19:13I could easily do 12 hours.
19:26The record-breaking feat makes Mitchell somewhat of a celebrity.
19:30If I was looking for one to gain fame from, then I'd pick the right one.
19:35If I'm traveling someplace and if I'm traveling with Billy Mitchell, it's interesting to see the reaction that the public
19:41gives him.
19:42He has this unique persona, and people notice that, even when they don't know that he's Billy Mitchell, the world
19:47-famous Pac-Man player.
19:49Is he too old to be playing Pac-Man? Maybe. Am I too old to be doing what I do?
19:54Probably.
19:55For the young, or the young at heart, Pac-Man is still evolving, and still a blast to play.
20:07There are very few game characters from the early 80s who are still active in today's gaming scene.
20:18Pac-Man would be probably the main one. Pac-Man is engraved in that gaming psyche.
20:23Pac-Man did leave an indelible mark on 20th century culture, and especially late 20th century culture.
20:32And Pac-Man continues to enchant gamers worldwide with his latest adventure.
20:38For Namco, Pac-Man is still very much alive.
20:40It's a sign that everything has gone full circle, and now the original games are being recognized and given their
20:47due once again, but in a new way.
20:49There will always be the people who are going to think about Robotron 2084, or Defender, or Donkey Kong.
20:56But the biggest group will be thinking about Pac-Man when they think about arcades in the early 80s.
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21:30I'll be right back.
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