Namco's Pac-Man is a video game that needs no introduction. Toru Iwatani's 1980 coin-op smash-hit has spawned sequels, TV shows, songs, merchandise and much more besides, and the character is so famous he's even included in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster. Plenty has been written about the pill-shaped hero over the past 40 years, but Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon aims to be the definitive account of his creation, success and legacy.
Published by Cook and Becker and written by Arjan Terpstra and Tim Lapetino, this impressive tome charts the early history not just of Pac-Man, but of Namco itself. Peppered with insightful interviews, it looks at the history of the Japanese coin-op industry, and how Japanese games dominated the arcade scene in the west. Even the interesting story of how the unofficial-then-official sequel Ms. Pac-Man came to be is covered here.
It's not only packed with official artwork and concept designs but also features contemporary photos that show the immense cultural impact Pac-Man had on the world – such as snaps taken in arcades all over the globe and even candid images of '80s kids blowing out candles on a Pac-Man birthday cake. Indeed, 'Pac-Man merch' occupies a large section of the book, and ample space is also devoted to the astonishing commercial success of the many home ports which were published in the wake of the arcade original's release.
Many books claim to be 'exhaustive' but Pac-Man: Birth Of An Icon really does leave no stone unturned when it comes to fully presenting the story of this remarkable video game mascot – there's even a section at the back which lists all of the games Pac-Man has starred it, which is a greater undertaking than you might assume. The special colletor's edition shown here even comes with a reproduction 7" vinyl copy of the 1982 single 'Pac-Man Fever' by Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia, as well as a limited edition Pac-Man arcade coin – the catch being that it's limited to just 2000 copies costs $100.
If you still fancy it, you can pick up a copy of this truly unique book by visiting the Cook and Becker site. Orders will ship next month.
Comments 13
Oh man...that's too much for a book...right? Right? Oh this is quite the dilemma!
@Ogbert Yeeeeeeaaaaaaah, and I think the standard edition still costs a bit too much.
@GamingBread But I do really want it.... I wonder how long these things tend to stay in stock for. I've not heard of this site before.
I don't see any mention of an ebook version anywhere. Hopefully this comes to Kindle!
Tim Lapetino is a cool dude. I ask him a few questions about some Pac-Man history and he always seemed pretty happy to answer them. I'm going to have check this book out some time.
Pac-Man was my first video game. Gaming history books are fun reads. It's just the books are generally expensive.
Does it acknowledge that Ghostly Adventures happened?
@The-Nate If memory serves me right, I think it mainly covers the first Pac-Man game but it will touch upon other aspects of the franchise as well.
I remember the Pac Man machines when they first came out.
The lines to play it were unbelievable, every kid couldn't wait to play it.
It was a great time in gaming history.
I love Pac Man so much I recently got the Arcade 1up 40th anniversary machine complete with Pac Man chair.
Now I don't have to worry about Pac Man eating up all my spare change like I did when I was a kid.
@John_Koshiro I was asking because it shows his design from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon on one page, as seen in the previews on Cook & Becker's website
@The-Nate I'd imagine that it's brought up to show that Pac-Man had such an impact when it came to America, that it managed to get one of the biggest animation studios, at the time, to produce a TV series back when video games adaptations were unheard of.
@John_Koshiro No, it's there to show all the different interpretations of him around the time
I want to see Ghostly Adventures get acknowledged to show that Bamco hasn't entirely swept that failure under the rug (although I guess you could argue that it being on HBO Max counts)
I gave in. I bought it.
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