Given the sheer number of maze-type arcade games there have been over the years (some of them really popular…Lady Bug was huge everywhere I went), I think it’s pretty amazing how this one ambiguious yellow ball-thing (along with some associated family members) became such an enduring icon.
So, just how many Pac-Man games are there? Here are the ones I know of:
Pac-Man - The birth of a legend.
Ms. Pac-man - The “sex appealing” one, much more complicated and difficutl to pattern.
Pac-Man Plus - A highly challenging hack of the original game. Not too popular.
Super Pac-Man - A juiced-up version of the old game with super energizers and apples, doughnuts, cups of coffee, and the like replacing dots.
Pac 'n Pal - I never even heard of this before MAME; probably the weirdest game of the franchise.
Baby Pac-Man - Unusual video game/pinball hybrid.
Jr. Pac-Man - The almost completely forgotten “final installment” with expanded boards and treacherous energizer-zapping bonus items.
Pac-Land - Based on the cartoon (or is it vice-versa?), this was a sidescroller where the hero had to evade pits, traps, and a horde of ghosts.
Pac-Mania - 1987 revamp featuring a bouncing Pac-Man and about a gazillion ghosts on the final board.
“Arrange” Pac-Man - One of the games in the “Namco classics” series. Built more or less on the Pac-Mania engine.
Pac-Man World series - 3D free-roaming games…dunno how many.
Pac-man Fever - PS2 party game
I know that there’s something called “Professor Pac-Man” floating out there, but I’ve never seen it.
(Note: Just the actual Pac-Man games, not the ones where he’s a guest star, like Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune.)