Happy Birthday, Pac-Man!

A lot has happened in the past 30 years, but it doesn't seem like that long ago that I was plopping quarters into a machine at the roller rink to guide the little yellow man who is all head, chomping my way through a maze filled with dots all the while steering clear of four colored ghosts, whose weakness it seems is when I eat the power pill that can be found in the four corners.

The time of my life when Pac-Man made his debut was filled with excitement and a little chaos, being a military brat and re-locating to a foreign country, and the one thing that tied me to home was the Pac-Man video game in the commissary cafeteria.

When Atari hit the market, home video game systems became affordable and popular, and Pac-Man was the game to play. I remember competitive evenings with my father, out-scoring each other at every opportunity, watching, learning, and gaining new skills. I remember hearing the term "Atari Thumb" when my father complained to his doctor about sore hands (interestingly enough, not so long after that he was diagnosed with "Nintendo Thumbs". I love my father.).

I think almost everybody from my generation (that would be Generation X) has some kind of memory about Pac-Man. This weekend marks the 30-year anniversary of the yellow fellow, and Google is joining in the revelry by having a free version of the classic on their homepage, which you can access through

Here are some interesting things you may or may not know about Pac-Man:

• Pac-Man's original name was "Puck-Man". Due to the other word that I would never say in public that rhymes with "Puck", the creators changed the name to what we know today.
• In 2005, the Guinness World Records named Pac-Man the most successful coin-operated game
• In 2010, Guinness named Pac-Man himself as the most recognizable video game character of all time, with 94 percent consumer recognition.
• Pac-Man can boast to over 400 licensed products, ranging from toys to cereal.
• No. 9 on the pop charts in 1982 was a song titled "Pac-Man Fever" by Buckner & Garcia.
• When Pac-Man eats a ghost, the eyes never go straight back to the ghost box.
• Instead, they take a scenic route around the maze.
• Ms. Pac-Man is not an official release from the creators of Pac-Man.
• The intended Pac-Man sequel was "Super Pac-Man", where the characters diet included cake and burgers (dots get so boring).
• Each ghost has a real name and a nick name. Shadow is Blinky, Speedy is Pinky, Bashful is Inky, and Pokey is Clyde.

Go take a trip down memory lane. Play Pac-Man on Google, challenge your friends, and get the high score!