Wow that last "cutscene" with that pink creature really has shaken my ground. What are they really?

It's interesting to note that, like maybe some other younger folks here, I for one never really had the time (or skill) to play the original Pac-Man enough to see that one weird cutscene with Blinky losing a bit of his "cloth" even though I remember it being mentioned in Smash Bros. It's one of the more...interesting parts of the game, really that no one else really talks about, as iconic as the game is. :/

I don't know where you heard Pac-Man was based on the kanji for "mouth." The story I heard is that the creator ate a slice of pizza and was like, "Oh hey, I should make a character out of this pizza with a missing slice."

Ghosts apparently taste like fried eggs if you manage to eat one in real life.

the character 'kuchi' means 'mouth' and was originally more circular in ancient times. The shape of the character has changed but its meaning hasn't. Also, the 'pac' from his name is from the onomatopoeic Japanese word 'pakupaku' (which roughly translate to 'nom nom') so the mouth-based design isn't that far fetch. It's all still weird as hell. Especially when they turn into worms.

Props Tom for making another episode based on a game that one would think we could not find weird anymore....... I never played the arcade version, so I never knew about those animations

I don't know what is weirder. Pac-Man, the Weird Video game series, or the comments section.

"Coptic Blast" Has to be the best original pun I've heard in a long time!😂

Sheet ghosts have been around since the 1800s. It originated in English theater as a way to deviate from the image of men in clunky armor and imitate the ethereal nature of spirits. Japan, being influenced by western culture since the Meiji era, was most likely familiar with that image by 1980. If that is what Iwatani-san was going for, it's probably because they're easier to draw as 8-bit sprites.

That third sourced page is in Dutch, and it also calls them ghosts.

I can't wait for Captic Blast Homecoming!

this channel is pure gold, where have you been all my life

I was ten when Pac Man came out. And from what I remember, it was a very unique experience at the time. As for the first 'cute' game? Possibly. I can't think of an arcade game before Pac Man that could be categorized as 'cute'. As for the 'ghosts'. Back in 1980, everyone just seemed to refer to them as ghosts (as opposed to 'goblins') so I guess that is how they were officially referred to (at least in North America) but having never been very good, I never saw the cut scene with the torn 'sheet' or the weird thing under it.

It's no surprise this game made the list. The references to illegal drugs are all over the place - extreme hunger, power pills that seem to alter the rules of reality, the flashing of the mazes when all the dots are eaten, enemies that seems to suffer "memory lapses" and suddenly abort hunting down Pac-man ... The list goes on. Even the graphics are deliberately unrealistic, as the images of both the "hero" and the "enemies" are greatly distorted by influence of the drug. You're not sure what these things actually look like in real life, but you're so immersed by everything that you're doing and what's going on, you don't ever really think about it. And although what happens in Level 256 in definitely a bug, it does open the door to a long list of interpretations as to what just happened.

Pac-man is in fact based off of a pizza with a slice taken out of it

... I would totally read Coptic Blast.

The story I always heard was that the designer and some other people were eating a pizza, the designer saw it with a slice or two missing, and that inspired the design.

Ice cream goblin ghosts sound reasonable! They are tasty, fast and have ghost powers!

Thumbs up for Coptic Blast!

Hahaha. I enjoyed your take on things. It is a trippy game when you stop & think about it. Thanks!

I would like to bring up that "monsters" comes from the marquee in the Midway publications of the game. No clue about Goblin, although it was used as the name for a bootleg multicart (like the one reviewed by Rinry)

Whoa! I'd never seen that last cutscene before -- I've always wondered if there were more after the nail one -- rather disturbing-looking! Kind of nice that you immortalized what the Wikipedia page used to claim the ghosts' different names were. I was recently editing the page to note that the 1980 American arcade flyer called them both "monsters" and "ghost monsters" before the 2600 version manual called them ghosts, and I was skeptical about the "goblins", "demon" [sic.], "octopi", and "ice cream", but I gave it a pass since I figured it might be true in international versions of the game; however, someone came along just after my edit and took out everything but "ghosts" and "monsters" (though thankfully they left my second reference to "ghost monsters").

Why only 7k subs? Why?

Since when has a ghost ever said "Woowoowoowoo?" Are you confusing a ghost with an ambulance? (I'm being facetious, of course.)

Mmm, now I want to go look up Forbidden Forest again. I love the Archer and his sweet dance moves.

There actually is a game where one of the characters (sort of, he's more of the narrator) is the kanji mentioned here - it's called Mojib-Ribbon.

Pacman reminds me of the Bavarian Butt Biter.

I think there's a very obvious reason they changed his name from puckman.

You don't get it. Pac-man is a 7/8 fraction circle. Tell me explain: when someone take a slice of pizza from a whole pizza, Pac man was born!

Ah... Marilyn Manson references:P

Alright, that last part made me curious.

so all this time you have playing a evil bad guy.

Pac-Man was used to at least normal and classic arcade game. ... 'Til he married wtih Ms. Pac-Man... And have son, and made more crossovers and spin-offs.

Maybe pacman should be called the yellow snapslug

Mmm, delicious ghosts.

According to a documentary I saw years ago, Iwatani-san made this game to appeal more to women, and he noticed that women liked eating, so he made the game about eating. Wikipedia says appealing to women is why he made it cute, and he got the eating idea from Popeye. Okay, then.

Pac-Man didn't invent anything in my opinion. It's a clone of Space Chaser, and its cuteness is taken from Heiankyo Alien. Also Heiankyo Alien's title screen starts with a UFO appearing overhead and a bunch of aliens tumbling out to spell the word "alien", so Pac-Man didn't invent funny cutscenes either. Pac-Man also supposedly introduced girls to games, even though Pong was more popular with girls than boys. My own guess for the first "cute" game would be Space Invaders.

Does anyone have more info about pacman unknown things?

Yup.... this game be weird. No denying.

I like to think there slugs under the sheat

Hey Tom :) you really should do a let's play of a classic game in twitch an hour or so in a month, it'd actually be pretty cool. Annouce it via a yt video to let us now. Think about it!

I had a full blown argument about pac mans shape and she said maybe if you look at him from the front he looks like kuchi and I’m just like 🙄

Q*bert is a cute game but pac man I never was able to beat it

The best Pac-Man game, is clearly the Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, where the player has absolutely no agency over the protagonist. A really crap version of Wonder Project J, if you will.

Wait Pac-Man isn’t a puck? The ghost weren’t ghost? Weird.

There worms from worms

pac-man is a pizza.

REUPLOAD THE DI'S BABY VIDEO!

I don't think that Pac man and the japanese word for mouth, kuchi, are related. Pac in japanese is more connected to the onomatopoeic word paku, that is the sound of someone who eats a lot in a hurry…voraciously

If you over-analyze every little bit weirdness in video games you take all the fun out of them. It's their being illogical, or having a different logic or set of rules than real life that makes them fun. Same goes for cartoons. Who wants to play a game where everything is normal? Boring!

fact: it was made coz of pizza.