Father of Pac-Man dies at 91

The father of the world's most iconic arcade game Pac-Man, Masaya Nakamura, has died at the age of 91. Nakamura founded the Japanese company Namco in 1954, which began as two mechanical horse rides on a department store rooftop but went on to pioneer game arcades and amusement parks. The company launched Pac-Man in 1980, …

[chivo243]

Let me the first to say

wacca wacca, wacca, wacca.

wacca.

This makes me feel old!

[Ugotta B. Kiddingme]

Re: Let me the first to say

or, perhaps more appropriately at the moment, this sound

RIP, Nakamura-san

[Dwarf]

Nooooo..

If only he had managed to get a couple more dots and some cherries for that next extra life

Anyone got a spare £1 to give him another go ?

[Dr Who]

Hours. Days. Weeks. Months on my Atari playing this! RIP.

[John 104]

@ Dr. Who

Ugh. The ATARI version was awful! Horrid sounds, barely passable graphics. Not sure how they screwed it up so badly.

[kain preacher]

damn it the ghost bit him

[TRT]

he might come back as a ghost...

[joeldillon]

Umm from the sound of it the father of Pac-Man is a chap named Toru Iwatani, from this story?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, Masaya Nakamura made Namco, and Toru Iwatani wrote PacMac. You can't have one without the other, so we honor Mr Namco on his passing, and hope Toru is feeling well and continues high-scoring. :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaya_Nakamura_(Namco)

In other PacMac news US President Donny Trumpy has declared war on the PacMac Ghosts and has issued a warrant for their arrest; "Those ghosts, I never liked them. They're red, blue, pink, and even my own color, orange, but not white. Why is that? I smell more conspiracy, so we must round them up! Who's with me?! I'm not an idiot! Ghosts are real and I saw them on a TV show. Plus, I think they voted for Hillary, so there you go, voter fraud too. Wherever I can distract people from me giving away money and influence to shitheads, I'll be there." -- Donald J. Trump AKA Tinyhands McPresidon't

[bombastic bob]

"In other PacMac news US President Donny Trumpy"

your parody was good, up until the last line about giving away money and influence. then it flopped. no up/down for that. just a 'meh'.

[Anonymous Coward]

CAN WE

Just fucking STOP the Trump comments on stories that have absolutely fuck all to do with Trump.

FFS, this article is about a video game designer / founder of a company that provided trillions of hours of entertainment to billions of people.

He has died, show some fucking respect.

[Fan of Mr. Obvious]

Thanks for the memories

Many memories of play that game, and in some cases associated events, burned into my brain. Most vivid ones are play Pac-Man on a table style arcade at a pizza place that my family went to a couple times each month.

[Professur]

In his honour, tonight, I'll watch Pixels. Who's with me?

[Sandtitz]

Hmm, let's see... Adam Sandler? I'll pass.

[cray74]

Hmm, let's see... Adam Sandler? I'll pass.

I'll blaspheme: I liked parts of his performance in the movie. His interaction with Michelle Monaghan while he tried to set up her son's entertainment system had some of the best romantic comedy dialogue I've heard in years, most because he realistically struck out.

Then, you know, video game invaders and cookie cutter plot happened.

[Robert Helpmann??]

Adam Sandler?

I'll blaspheme: I liked parts of his performance in the movie.

There really is no arguing with taste. The thing about Sandler is that he is capable of turning in a decent performance and yet fails to do so time and again. However, to return to the subject at hand:

HIC REQUIESIT IN PAC-MAN

[Law]

I'll pass too, but I've got my kids playing pacman with me instead in honour of the man.

[Anonymous Coward]

No need to restrict it to "Pixels" - you can watch any Adam Sandler movie, and at the end still say you watched "Pixels"...

[Anonymous Coward]

A sad day indeed ...

Many a day was invested in the arcades during my youth. Pacman still resides in my all-time top 10 go-to arcade machines even to this day.

RIP Masaya Nakamura

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/mattamand/Pacman-Namco-IM1-1.jpg

[bombastic bob]

Re: A sad day indeed ...

"Pacman still resides in my all-time top 10 go-to arcade machines even to this day."

And, it resides in bowling alleys, skating rinks, and other places where classic games can be found.

It's "timeless".

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: A sad day indeed ...

"Many a day was invested in the arcades during my youth."

And a sizable portion of my pocket money...

[Mage]

Ah ... Pac Man

Oddly the first computer game I had, though I'd used computers for 4 years. I had Pac man clone on a Jupiter Ace, written in Forth. Maybe 1983.

[BebopWeBop]

Re: Ah ... Pac Man

Ahh good memories. While I very much doubt I had any hand in your version, my sister in law (only about 15 at the time) aquired an Ace, and I wrote a version of Packman (pacmanc - guess where I was a student) for her that had a very small distribution :-( but it got me brownies with wiff to be :-)

[Haku]

I think we should all be worried for our lives now.

After all, he was patient zero of 'Pac-Man Fever'.

[Potemkine]

Thank you Mr. Nakamura

Rest in peace.

[Androgynous Cow Herd]

In his honor

I will eat some cherries and ghost meat.

[Anonymous Coward]

A man well ahead of his time, who would have thought twenty years after it was created a lot of the kids that played it would be eating pills and listening to repetitive music in dark rooms. Pacman had a lot to answer for

RIP and thanks for the many atari 2600 hours I spent in my early youth.

[Haku]

“If Pac-Man had affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.”

-- Marcus Brigstocke

[kain preacher]

it skip a gen. Pac man rave :)

[jelabarre59]

Munchies

I remember first seeing what became PacMan at a night club in Mt. Vernon, NY. It was in a Space Invaders cabinet, monochrome CRT, and wasn't even called "Pac-Man" yet. It had the name "Munchies" on the top panel in Letraset press-on letters.

Would love to have had a picture of Andy Gill (Gang of Four) playing it when they played there.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

obligitory cultural references

#1 Zappa's Valley Girl

"You know me, I'm like into like the clean stuff. Like PAC-MAN and like, I don't know?"

#2 Marcus Bridgstocke's (him an his misplaced 'e') Fringe-worthy joke:

“If Pac-Man had affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.”

[0laf]

Pac-Man is eternal. My 6yr old son discovered it a year ago and loves it, my 71yr old mother loves it too. IT doesn't need to be a 3D driven 4k production to be entertaining.

RIP Nakamura-san and long life and happiness Iwatani-san

[BinkyTheMagicPaperclip]

beeeeowww blip blip

Still an awesome game, with many decent successors - Pacman Vs, Pacman Championship Edition, Pacman racing.. Thanks for all the gaming times.