Father Of Pac-Man Dies

The father of Pac-Man has died.

Masaya Nakamura founded the Japanese video game company Namco in 1955. Pac-Man was designed by Namco engineer and videogame maker Toru Iwatani, and went on sale in 1980.

Pac-Man is estimated to have been played more than 10 billion times, making it the world’s most successful coin-operated arcade game according to Guinness World Record.

As Bloomberg reported, the idea for Pac-Man’s design came from the image of a pizza with a slice carved out. Who knew?!

Nakamura was said to have chosen the word “Pac,” or “pakku” in Japanese, to represent the sound of the Pac-Man muching its prey.

It’s a sound I know I’ll never, ever forget.

RIP, Nakamura-san.