Posted on 01/30/2017 10:25:31 AM PST by Red Badger
The Japanese games company Bandai Namco says Masaya Nakamura, the "Father of Pac-Man" who founded the Japanese video game company behind the hit creature-gobbling game, has died at age 91.
Nakamura, who died on Jan. 22, held an honorary position at Bandai Namco, formed in 2005 from a merger of two game companies. He founded Namco in 1955. Its beginnings were humble--just two mechanical horses on the rooftop of a department store.
Pac-Man, designed by video game maker Toru Iwatani, went on sale in 1980. Guinness World Record has named it the world's most successful coin-operated arcade game.
Bandai Namco reported Nakamura's death Monday, but would not comment on the cause of his death or other personal details, citing his family's wishes.
Another part of my childhood is gone.
I spent too many hours skipping school and giving this guy my life savings twenty-five cents at a time.
Good times. I wouldnt change a thing.
Many quarters on video arcade games and pinball machines back in the day.
Good times.
RIP.
Pac-Man ... Frogger ... Dig-Dug
Ah yes. And Space Invaders, Asteroid, Missile Command, Tempest, Joust...
Sensing a classic arcade game thread starting!
Now for pinball my faves were Captain Fantastic and Big Indian.
For those people who miss these games and if you live in Houston, there is a place called The Game Preserve in The Woodlands. The Game Preserve has all the coin operated video games and pinball machines you can ask for. You pay $15 to get in and play to your mind’s content. They have a juke box that has all the music from the 80’s and 90’s and the place is very nostalgic. Kind of like Flynn’s in Tron.
Glad I don’t live in Houston. I’d never go home...
I remember using up quarters in the 1980s playing PacMan. I still play it, have an app on my iPad, and a couple modern game machines that have a thousand games built in including PacMan. But the ones in the arcades were the best to play.
There are 256 levels in the original software.
Level 256 is un-playable because of a glitch in the programming.....................
I can't remember the highest level I reached, but it was nowhere near that! Anyway, I have a Namco or other machine, has a joystick and buttons just like the arcade version, and my iPad docks to it and it has 1,000 games in it. Another machine just connects to my TV, and again, it has hundreds of games built in. They include all the favorites like PacMan, Centipede, Asteroids, etc. It beats having to feed quarters into a machine to play a single game, or having to find cartridges that house only a single game. I still have the original Atari and Playstation machines from the past, along with cartridges. Nostalgic, I like remembering the old times playing along with my kids when they were little. The grandkids are into more modern games.
Have you ever introduced them to the ‘ancient’ games?
They might get as ‘addicted’ as we were.....................
My 4-yr-old granddaughter will play with my games on the iPad, mostly DigDug, Galaga and Pac-Man. These apps are remixed versions with better graphics than the ancient games. No addictions. Other than that, the grandkids play Angry Birds, bowling, and other modern games thru an internet connection on our HD TV. I think they consider the ancient games to be “baby” games. I’’m still hooked on the old games.
I had what they call a bo sod eks ffksas lllsd thing
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