Forever dotty for Pac-Man

Another example of a good idea that becomes the undisputed leader, while everyone else is just cheap imitations.

via Australian IT:

For a video game, Pac-Man is getting old. The ghost-wary hero with an insatiable appetite for dots turns 25 this month. From the early 1980s Pac-Mania to today's endless sequels and rip-offs, the master of maze management remains a bright yellow circle on the cultural radar.
But there was more to Pac-Man's broad appeal than eating dots and dodging on-screen archrivals Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde.

"This was the first time a player took on a persona in the game," says Leonard Herman, author of Phoenix: The Rise and Fall of Videogames.

"Instead of controlling inanimate objects like tanks, paddles and missile bases, players now controlled a living creature. It was something that people could identify, like a hero."

It all began in Japan, when young Namco designer Toru Iwatani took inspiration from a pizza that was missing a slice.

Puck-Man, as it was originally called, was born but because of obvious similarities to a certain four-letter profanity, Puck became Pac when it debuted in the US in 1980.