Franchise: Pac-Man

Pac-Man appears during a scene in the 1982 movie Tron. On the bridge of Sark's battle cruiser there is a schematic diagram showing corridors full of dots. Off to one side there is a little Pac-Man. You can also here the iconic "Wacka Wacka" noise in the background.

During an interview with Namco Bandai's Mike Chang, it was confirmed that the Pac-Man in the Ghostly Adventures series is actually the son of the original Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.

In 2004, Namco contacted Don Bluth (known for Dragon's Lair and Space Ace) to do designs for a new Pac-Man game, under the working title "Pac Man Adventures". Don did concept drawings for the game, but it was ultimately cancelled for unknown reasons. Some of the ideas for the game were later used in Pac-Man World 3.

In a 2020 interview with IGN, series creator Toru Iwatani revealed that the ghosts Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde, were inspired by the Japanese manga "Little Ghost Q-Taro" and the American cartoon character "Casper the Friendly Ghost". He also revealed that the ghosts were conceived to always be ghosts, meaning that they never died to become ghosts, and are more akin to Yōkai in Japanese culture as "ethereal beings and concepts that reside among nature that were simply 'there' from the very beginning."

In a 1986 interview published in the out-of-print book "Programmers at Work" by Susan M. Lammers, series creator Toru Iwatami explained the kind of character he intended Pac-Man to be:

The first appearance of a yellow, spherical character named "Puck-Man" with a ravenous appetite was a 1974 bank toy by Tomy, which came in a variety of colors including yellow. It is unknown if the video game character was plagiarized or Pac-Man's design similarities are all a bizarre coincidence, with game creator Toru Iwatani claiming in an unrelated court hearing to have not heard of the toy until after the release of the game. No legal action was taken by Tomy, and the 1970's Tomy Puck-Man toys would be rebranded with Namco's Pac-Man after the success of the game.

"ZIP, CARTOON - FIJIT REWIND 02", a common cartoon sound effect originating from the Hanna-Barbera sound library, is a sped up and reversed version of the Pac-Man cartoon theme song, better known as the theme song to Pac-Land.

When asked by Kotaku what ghosts taste like in the Pac-Man universe, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 director Kunito Komori answered:


He would then pause, possibly realizing that if the ghosts tasted bad then Pac-Man would be more hesistant to eat them, and changed his answer:

In 2019, AtGames, a company specializing in replica microconsoles containing compilations of retro or retro-styled games, acquired a portion of the rights to Ms. Pac-Man from General Computer Corporation, the company that made the original Ms. Pac-Man game for Midway and Namco - this led to a lawsuit over the IP, with an undisclosed turnout. After this, Ms. Pac-Man would begin to disappear from Pac-Man games, implying that AtGames won the case, with Ms. Pac being replaced by a character named Pac-Mom, who has a visual design resembling Ms. Pac-Man's mother from Pac 'N Roll.

Pac-Mom first appeared in the Arcade Archives release of Pac-Land through graphical modification to the original ROM, and would then be named for the first time in Pac-Man Museum+ alongside modifications to other games that originally featured Ms. Pac-Man such as Pac-in-Time, and would appear again in Pac-Man World: Re-Pac in place of Ms. Pac-Man.

Ms. Pac-Man's final appearance in an original title would be on the Pac-Land stage in 2018's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Pac-Man Championship Edition is the last game in the Pac-Man series to involve series creator Toru Iwatani before his retirement, of which was announced at the Pac-Man World Championship in New York City on June 5, 2007, and was preceded with this statement: