Happy Birthday Pac-Man!

Pac-Man, everyone's favorite pill popping, ghost chasing, big yellow guy is turning 25 this year. Pac-Man was not the first arcade video game, that distinction falls to 1971's Computer Space, although many people believe it was 1972's Pong. Both of which were created by Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari.

Pac-Man was created in Japan by Namco's Toru Iwatani. He was inspired by a pizza that was missing a slice. The original name of the game was Puck-Man, but was changed when it came to America because arcade owners were afraid of vandalism to machines by kids trying to spell a familiar four-letter profanity.

I fondly remember the Pac-man cartoon, but missed out on the Buckner & Garcia "Pac-Man Fever" craze of 1982. Pac-man and his "wife," the feminist Ms. Pac-Man are still going strong with versions of the games available for PC, TVs, Game Cube, Playstation 2, PDAs, XBOX and Cell Phones!

So, the next time you pass a Pac-Man machine, drop a quarter in for a true pioneer. Or better yet, play a free Java version on-line! Wacca-Wacca!