What are the names of the four ghosts in Pac-Man?

[mikecurtis]

@pulykamell

Actually, there might be some argument that Shadow, Speedy, Bashful, and Pokey, are not intended to be names of the characters, but rather describe their character (i.e. personality) while their nicknames are what they are supposed to be referred to as.

In Ms Pac Man, they are introduced by their nicknames only.

I concur!
If I had a quarter for every game of Pac Man I played. . . .

mc

[Kimble]

I knew Shadow, Speedy, Bashful, and Pokey.

As Thudlow Boink has now mentioned twice, here (GIF) is where the Pac-Man characters are introduced – from the attract mode of the game. Here’s the relevant text part:

CHARACTER / NICKNAME
-SHADOW    ”BLINKY”

-SPEEDY    ”PINKY”

-BASHFUL   ”INKY”

-POKEY     ”CLYDE”

If you want to say that “Character” just describes each ghost’s “character” instead of treating the list as a cast of characters, I guess I can’t stop you. However, I think the latter meaning is correct.

[pulykamell]

Interestingly, apparently the original Puckman had a DIP switch you could toggle to get an alternate nameset for the ghosts to use instead of the Japanese names (which you can see in video Thudlow linked to).

See here

Urchin/“Macky”
Romp/“Micky”
Stylist/“Mucky”
Crybaby/“Mocky”

Interestingly, there the two columns are titled “character/ghost” instead of “character/nickname.”

[boffking]

@Thudlow_Boink

See my link in Post #14.

Manuals? Packaging? What are you talking about? Pac-Man is that machine that you put a quarter in to play, over there in the corner of the pizza parlor.

Pac-Man has had many home releases.

[RivkahChaya]

@Quimby

This may be arrogant of me but I’m pretty sure the game show has it backwards. Their names are Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde. I was a kid when Pac Man first came out and remember it very clearly and this was always the case (Clyde became Sue in Ms Pac Man). These were also their names in the Pac Man Cartoon. Those other names were nicknames the programmers gave them when they were designing the game because they described how they were programmed to chase Pac Man and that wasn’t something that came out until much later.

We have an original cocktail table-style PacMan game, and ours does not introduce the ghosts by name. That was a later addition to the game.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@boffking

Pac-Man has had many home releases.

Pfft. Yeah, I remember the home release of “Pac-Man” for the Atari 2600.

To me, “Pac-Man” means the original arcade game, just like “Star Trek” means the television series from the 1960s, and “Star Wars” means the 1977 movie.

[pulykamell]

@RivkahChaya

We have an original cocktail table-style PacMan game, and ours does not introduce the ghosts by name. That was a later addition to the game.

That’s odd. What does it show for attract mode? Just the game? I’ve never seen a Pac Man console that didn’t have the names on it. Here’s an original 1980 cocktail version that shows it. Even the older Puckman cabinets have names (but different ones.)

[pulykamell]

@pulykamell

That’s odd. What does it show for attract mode? Just the game? I’ve never seen a Pac Man console that didn’t have the names on it. Here’s an original 1980 cocktail version that shows it. Even the older Puckman cabinets have names (but different ones.)

Actually, I bet it’s because it’s set in Free Play mode. Looking on the net, it seems that in Free Play mode it does not cycle through the usual screens, but just sits on the “Push Start Button” screen with “FREE PLAY” on the bottom left. There’s a couple of dip switches in the cabinet that control this.