On October 10th of 1980, the US met Pac-Man and his mortal enemies Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde.
In 1979 Toru Iwatani assembled a 9 person team to develop a video game that women could play and enjoy as well as men. In an interview he said, “The reason I created Pac-Man was because we wanted to attract female gamers. Back then, there were no home games. People had to go to the arcade center to play games. That was a playground for boys. It was dirty and smelly. So we wanted to include female players, so it would become cleaner and brighter.” He also wanted characters that were cute and colorful to welcome a younger audience of children into this growing field.
With the limitations of 8 bits, what kind of universe could you create? We had a main character who was an inspired amalgamation of a pizza missing a slice and the Japanese character for mouth, kuchi. The ghosts? They each had their own pastel colors with large expressive blue eyes. Why ghosts? Inspired by Casper the Friendly Ghost and the manga ‘Obake no Q-Taro’, ghosts were often seen in cartoons. It made sense to have colorful ghosts chasing the pizza mouth through the maze. Something else was done the public had not seen in a video game before. Each ghost not only had a name and a color, but a personality. Blinky chases Pac-Man. Pinky and Inky try to intercept and corner Pac-Man. Clyde? He vacillates between chasing Pac-Man and running from him. Was this AI? Not in the way we know it, but it gave us the possibilities of characters that had personalities and behaviors.
The great equalizer was power pellets. The inspiration? Popeye the sailor man. For a brief few moments the tables turned and they ran from Pac-Man. What about the bonus fruit? Slot-Machines.
Iwatani wanted to create a non-violent, cheerful video game. The reason was to bring women into the arcades and change what he saw as a toxic tone. More inclusive spaces are beautiful spaces. To create this vision he drew from inspirations from various pop culture spaces and included them into a vision that changed the game of gaming.
Maze based games, character driven games, games that had something new to offer to new audiences. Over $14 billion in revenue and 43 million units in sales combined, TV shows, a pop song, subsequent Pac-Man games and so much more have proven that his mission had merit and captured the hearts and imaginations of generations of people and cultures.
One of the women, Allaina, who shared her poignant story in our article, “The Important Reflections of Jenny’s Feedback“, recently did something amazing. She spoke about it on the news. Allaina saw limitations in the recreation and play space of life and wanted to design a space that showed us the possibilities of a fully inclusive space for all people to jam in the arts and recreation.
She drew from the inspirations of dance, story, music, sensory space, paint and so many other things. There was even a runway to model on that I may have done a few turns on. Like Iwatani, she worked with a team and an amazing vision came to life beautifully. To me, it was living jazz and a jam of people living in moments of delight and wonder. Did it have the impact Pac-Man did? No. But it had an impact on those of us who showed up and experienced wonder. And like Pac-Man, that experience has concentric ripples of change.
I think we all see spaces that could be cleaner and more inclusive. Imagine if a few more people assembled a team, drew inspiration from wherever they could, and created colorful and whimsical experiences that all can delight in. Limitations are always there. We only have so much time, so much money and so much processing power, but vision and whimsey can often find a way. That will always carry more power than a meme that may or not be accurate or useful.
An inclusive ghost story changed the world also showed us a path.
Support Me and Gen X Watch!
It would mean a lot.
There are three ways you can do this:
1. Share this story with a friend and leave a comment.
2. Tip me! I need your support!
3. Become a Members Only Patreon!
Thank you for your support and taking the time to read this.
Stay Totally Awesome! Stay true to you.
Leave a Reply