In 1980 the video games world was dominated by games like Space Invaders and Asteroids. These were aimed at boys, who mainly played them in video games arcades. That was until Japanese game developer Toru Iwatani set out to design a game to appeal to women. The inspiration reportedly came from a pizza he was eating.
Two slices in, the idea of a rounded character with a large mouth occurred to him.
He initially called the game “Pakkuman”, based on the sound your mouth makes when it opens and closes rapidly.
Later, when the game was launched in the US, this was changed to Pac-man and it became an over-night hit.
