Everyone remembers Pac-Man. Who doesn't? Since 1980, he has been considered one of the god fathers of the art medium called 'video games.' His name has become almost synonymous with the term, and has been made into a symbol of the overall pop culture in the 1980's. As the first original mascot of any video game, this arcade superstar's classic debut has become such an awareness, that it holds an exhibit at the Smithsonian in D.C. Some of us may even remember the character's cartoon TV series. While reminiscing, we remember what the gameplay experience was like. And we remember the later, somewhat controversial, Ms. Pac-Man, which was not in fact, originally licensed by Namco.
In addition the extensive main series from the mind of Tōru Iwatani, our world has known a plentiful abundance of both licensed and unlicensed spin-off titles. Among the first were Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man, Baby Pac-Man, and Professor Pac-Man. Long after many more had hit the market, we saw an arcade title that also released on the NES, Atari Lynx and a number of home computers called Pac-Land. The gameplay was not of the classic Pac-Man format, but was instead a side scroll adventure. This came to be the inspiration for a later game on the Genesis and Super NES called Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures.
