Eeny, meeny, miny, moe? Nope, but close enough! The names of the Pacman ghosts that give you a hard time at the arcade are Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. Well, at least those are the US names for the Pac Man ghosts.
In the original Japanese arcade, the Pac Man ghosts were called Oikake” or “Chaser” for Blinky, “Kimagure” or “Fickle” for Inky, “Machibuse” or “Ambusher” for Pinky and “Otoboke” or “Feigned Ignorance” for Clyde.
Yeah, Clyde doesn’t really complete the rhyme but it’s the Pac Man ghost most tricky, as it can behave like Blinky.
“It was tricky because the monster movements are quite complex,” said its maker, adding that “This is the heart of the game … The AI in this game impresses me to this day!”. If you have trouble remembering the Pac Man characters, you can always play this cool trivia game from Techspot.
It not only mentions the names of the Pac Man ghosts but also gives you a cool conversation piece about the AI in Pac Man.
Did you know that the least predictable Pac Man ghost was Inky, the cyan ghost? It makes sense, since in Japan they call it “Fickle”. Keep a close eye on it the next time you go to an arcade! If you want to learn more about the Pac-man ghosts AI, this is a fascinating watch:
If you love documentaries about old games and retro gaming in general, Youtuber Slope’s Game Room put together a fascinating insight into the history of Pac Man and why this game in particular became such a phenomenon.
And if you’re looking for more cool facts about Pac Man, read on, ‘cause we found the best of them.
- Game designer Toru Iwatani was only 24 when he made Pac Man and he called it Puck Man. The publisher, afraid people might vandalize arcades to play around with that “Puck” part, dubbed it Pac Man for the Western audiences.
- The name is inspired by the phrase paku paku meaning “chomp chomp” and the idea of eating pills came from Popeye, who got more powerful when he ate spinach.
- There’s even a Pac Man strategy manual, written by professional blackjack player Ken Uston, which sold more than 1m copies.
- The best score you can get at Pac Man is 3,333,360 because of a bug that ruins the 256th screen.
- Pac Man is in MoMA’s collection so, the next time you’re going to an art show there, maybe pop in the Architecture and Design area to pay your respects.
Know any good ones? Share yours in the comments below!
Also read: Online Museum Celebrates The History Of the Mobile Phone
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