Pac-Man (Atari 2600 video game)

Pac-Man is a 1982 maze video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. under official license by Namco, and an adaptation of the 1980 hit arcade game of the same name. The player controls the title character, who attempts to consume all of the wafers in a maze while avoiding four ghosts that pursue him. Eating flashing wafers at the corners of the screen causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue and flee, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points. Once eaten, a ghost is reduced to a pair of eyes, which return to the center of the maze to be restored.

Programmed by Tod Frye, Pac-Man took six months to complete. Expecting high sales, Atari produced over a million copies of the highly anticipated game and held a "National Pac-Man Day" on April 3, 1982 to promote its release.

It remains the best-selling Atari 2600 game of all time, selling over 8 million copies, and was the all time best-selling video game for several years. Despite its commercial success, Pac-Man was panned by critics for poor graphics and sound, and for bearing little resemblance to the original game. It has been considered one of the worst video games ever made and one of the worst arcade game ports released on the system.