Japanese game designer Toru Iwatani conceived the idea for Pac-Man while staring at the incomplete pizza of which he was, at that time, consuming. Minus the slice he was eating, the pizza took the shape of a hungry mouth. Puck-Man was born and it marks the first and only time that the future of videogames was determined by Italian cuisine!

Puck-Man? That’s no typo! Puck-Man was the original name for Pac-Man and the name used in Japanese arcades. Namco wisely chose to alter the name in America and other English speaking countries to deter obvious potential acts of vandalism by teenage and otherwise immature individuals.

Pac-Man was popular. REALLY Popular, and started a marketing craze across the globe that allowed the Pac to join other character icon superstars such as Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse and and set the stage for upcoming videogame heroes such as Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Awesome Possum, and others. Okay, perhaps Awesome Possum wasn’t so awesome, but Pac-Man was the first videogame mascot and was featured on hundreds of items from lunch boxes, to tooth brushes, to bed sheets and more!

If you are one of the millions of millions of individuals that have played Pac-Man, then you know that the yellow pellot-eating hero is on the run from four distinctly different ghost nemesis. You might know them as Bashful, Speedy, Shadow and Pokey, but did you know that there are 25 distinctly different names for the same four ghosts? Twenty-six if you consider ‘Sue’ from the Pac-Man with a bow, Ms. Pac-Man.

Why so many? Well, there were the original Japanese names, that were changed to be more acceptable to the American market. There were also nick-names for the ghosts for both languages. There are nine English names or nick-names for Pac-Man’s antagonists, and 16 Japanese alternatives. Only the name ‘Pinky’ was used in both territories.

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