Interesting Facts

Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde are the names of the ghosts in Pac-Man. (The red one is Blinky, the blue one Inky, the pink one is (you guessed it) Pinky, and the orange one is Clyde. According to studies, the red ghost chases Pac-Man all of the time, the pink and blue ones try to position themselves in front of Pac-Man's mouth, and the orange one chases Pac-Man most of the time, but also moves toward the lower-left corner of the maze when it gets too close. I'm still rubbish at it, I just panic when the ghosts chase me / it / him.)

Pac-Man started life as Pakkuman in Japan, created from the Japanese phrase “paku-paku taberu”, slang for smacking your lips. (According to the creator Toru Iwatani, it was to be called Puck-Man for its US release, but the name was changed because they realised someone might vandalize the “P” and turn it into an “F”, so they changed it to Pac-Man. And the rest, as they say, is history.)

The video game Pac-Man holds the Guinness World Record for having the most "coin-operated arcade machines" installed world wide. (293,822 to be exact. It is thought that Namco has made nearly 3 billion dollars from the little guy, but the creator Toru Iwatani never made a penny, apart from his salary.  Such is the fate of many a wage slave.)

22nd May The all-time classic video game Pac-Man was shown to the public for the first time.