Masaya Nakamura, the 91-year-old founder of Japanese video game company Namco and father of Pac-Man, passed away on January 22.
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Nakamura is credited with pioneering Japanese arcade games, and had started with only two mechanical horse rides on a department store rooftop, Associated Press reported.
Namco was started in 1955. In 2005, the company merged with Bandai and became the now famous Bandai Namco, the developers of legendary video games like Dark Souls.
Pac-Man was the product of Namco's engineer Toru Iwatani and it began as a coin-operated game in 1980. It would go on to become the most-played game in history.
Pac-Man was made with simple game design where players had to guide Pac-Man through mazes to hunt for fruit.
Over the years, Pac-Man has become a popular culture icon. Recently, Hollywood film Pixel cast Pac-Man as the antagonist.
Pac-Man was inspired from the image of a Pizza, with a slice carved out.
Namco also developed other games like Galaga (1981), Dig Dug (1982), Xevious (1982), and Pole Position (1982).
Namco was Nintendo's first licensee and Nintendo Entertainment System accounted for 40 percent of Namco's sales. But after Nintendo took away the special terms, Namco supported Sega's console.
In 1993, Ridge Racer, a driving simulation game, entered arcades, featuring 3D computer graphics. In 1994, Tekken was released. In 1990, Namco purchased the arcade operations of Atari Games.
The AP report noted that Nakamura was a key player in the global growth of Bandai Namco and would take pride in the games his company made.
Nakamura was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame in Ottumwa, Iowa in 2010.
In tribute to the visionary, we list some classic arcade video games that we all should take time out to play....
Space Invaders (1978)
This is one of the earlier space-shooting games where players defeat waves of aliens with a gun, usually a laser cannon, to gain points. This game went on to inspire other video games and has several sequels.
Pac-Man (1980)
This non-violent game where a player steers Pac-Man through mazes to eat pac dots, has been credited with being a landmark in video game history and is among the most famous arcade games of all time.
Missile Command (1980)
This is a popular arcade game from Atari, which has sold over 2.5 million units. The player is attacked by several ballistic missiles, and has to defend against them at all costs. As levels increase, so do the frequency of the missile drops.
Galaga (1981)
Galaga is a shooter arcade game, and a sequel to Namco's Galaxian. In this game, the player is in control of a spacecraft that is situated at the bottom part of the screen. The enemy tries to capture or destroy the player's spaceship. The player has to destroy the incoming alien forces.
Donkey Kong (1981)
The Nintendo arcade game lets the protagonist, Mario, rescue a damsel in distress from a giant ape called Donkey Kong. This game is said to be one of the titles from the Golden Age of arcade video games. It is one of the most popular arcade games of all time.
