Masaya Nakamura; started Namco video game company . By Yuri Kageyama
Associated Press . TOKYO - Masaya Nakamura, the "Father of Pac-Man"
who founded the Japanese video game company behind the hit
creature-gobbling game, died Jan. 22. He was 91. Mr. Nakamura founded
Namco, part of Bandai Namco, in 1955. It started out as just two
mechanical horse rides on a department store rooftop but went on to
pioneer game arcades and amusement parks. Bandai Namco, formed in 2005
from a merger of two game companies, confirmed that Mr. Nakamura had
died. "Pac-Man," designed by Namco engineer and video game maker Toru
Iwatani, went on sale in 1980, at a time when there were few rival
games, such as "Space Invaders. The plucky yellow circle with a huge
mouth was a huge hit. It is estimated to have been played more than 10
billion times: Guinness World Records has named it the world's most
successful coin-operated arcade game. The game was just challenging
enough to hook players into steering the Pac-Man for hours through its
mazes on the hunt for ghostly tidbits. The iconic Pac-Man adorns
T-shirts and other merchandise and inspired animation shows, a
breakfast cereal, and even the nickname for Filipino boxer Manny
Pacquiao. The idea for Pac-Man's design came from the image of a pizza
with a slice carved out. Mr. Nakamura reportedly chose the word "Pac,"
or "pakku" in Japanese, to represent the sound of the Pac-Man munching
its prey. " 'Pac-Man' is a gamer-friendly game with tons of cute
characters and that's why it was loved for such a long time," Iwatani
said in 2015 at a New York red carpet premiere of "Pixels," that
featured Pac-Man creatures and featured him in a cameo role. The game
started out as an arcade item and then was played on the Nintendo
Family Computer home console. It since has been adapted for cellphones,
PlayStation, and Xbox formats. Other hits from Namco include driving
simulation games like "Ridge Racer" and a drumming game. Mr. Nakamura
was a key player in Bandai Namco's global growth. His pet saying was
that his company delivered varied and total entertainment. He took
pride in having fun and games for his job.
