History

      Pac Man (originally named Puck Man) was released in 1979 by the Japanese company Namco with the North American distribution rights going to Midway. Despite a disappointing response in Japan Pac Man became extremely popular after its American release, even surpassing Asteroids as the top selling arcade game of all time. At the time of its release Pac Man was unlike most other arcade games which were space themed shooters such Space Invaders or Asteroids. Pac Man even served as the inspiration for a Top 40 single and an animated TV show. Because of this Pac Man has become among the most famous arcade games ever made.

Game play

      In Pac-Man, the player controls Pac-Man running around a maze, eating Pac-dots. When all dots are eaten, you get taken to the next stage where you have another set of dots to eat. There are also 4 ghosts that roam the maze that try to eat Pac-Man. If a ghost succeeds in this, Pac-Man will lose a life, the game is over when you have lost all of your lives. In each maze there are 4 big glowing Pac-dots called "power pellets". When Pac-Man eats a power pellet, he gets the super power to eat the ghosts. When Pac-Man is powered up, the ghosts will turn blue and will try to get away. Eating a ghost will score you extra points, score increases for the more ghosts you eat using only one power pellet. When ghosts are eaten, their eyes float back to the ghost den where they get regenerated back into a new ghost, the ghost will then exit the den and continue to chase Pac-Man. When Pac-Man's power is running out, the blue ghosts will start flashing blue and white for a few seconds to warn you that they're about to turn back into their dangerous colors and chase Pac-Man again. As the levels get higher, the effect of the power pellets lasts less and less time. Fruits appear in the middle of the maze sometimes, Pac-Man can eat these for bonus points. As the levels get higher, the fruit score more points.

Source: Wikipedia