Pac-Man/Trivia
< Pac-Man
- Breakthrough Hit: For Namco. Pac-Man is their mascot because of this.
- Fan Nickname: "Ghosts" for the enemies chasing after Pac-Man; Namco has always simply referred to them as "monsters." The Atari 2600 version does call them ghosts in the manual, however. The TV show confusingly combines both names, calling them "ghost-monsters".
- Similarly, the big round dots that Pac-Man eats to turn the tables on the monsters/ghosts/ghost-monsters? "Energizers" in the arcade[1], "Power Pills" in the Atari versions, "Power Pellets" in the cartoon, which is actually closer to their official Japanese name: "Power Esa" (lit. "Power Food").[2]
- Ascended Meme: In the 3D games, they're now ghosts. It's sometimes implied that they're not ghosts, but living and made of flesh.
- When Pac-Man has eaten enough dots, Blinky goes faster. Fans call this "Cruise Elroy", but no one seems to know why.
- Marth Debuted in Smash Bros.: Despite Namco preferring to not speak about the unauthorized Bally Midway games (with the exception of Ms. Pac-Man, which was made official thanks to its success), that didn't stop their characters from appearing in official Pac-Man games. Japanese players would think that Junior got his beany propeller hat from Pac-Man 2, when he actually got it from Jr. Pac-Man, his starring role. There's also Professor Pac's appearance in Pac-Man World, when he originally came from Professor Pac-Man, minus the mustache.
- Port Overdosed: Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are two of the most widely-ported games ever made, right up there with Space Invaders and Tetris.