PAC-MAN°

noun Also written PacMan or Pac-man (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Science and Technology) The trade mark of an electronic computer game in which the player guides a voracious blob-shaped character through a maze, gobbling up lines of dots on the way and avoiding being eaten by opposing characters. Also, the name of the central character, represented on the screen as a yellow circle with a section missing for the mouth (similar to a pie-chart from which one 'slice' of the pie has been removed). Etymology: Like most trade marks, this one is of uncertain origins; Pac is probably a respelling of pack, referring to the fact that the little creature's whole object in life is to pack away (eat) everything that gets in its way. History and Usage: Pac-Man appeared on the market in October 1980, at the height of a boom in video games in the US, and proved one of the most successful and popular of the games then available in video arcades. Surprisingly it was not registered as a trade mark in the US until 1983, by which time it was widely available in other countries and the video arcade market was beginning to wane. The Pac-Man character had become a well-known symbol in its own right by the mid eighties--giving rise to the figurative sense in Pac-ManÜ--and even acquired a family (including Pac Baby and a cat) in versions for home video use. The idea of the game was copied in a computer virus in the late eighties (see the Network World quotation below). Among the viruses now invading or about to invade systems are: The PacMan virus. This one shows up on Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh systems. The user gets to watch as PacMan eats the file on the screen. Network World 6 Feb. 1989, p. 85 1981: Joystickmania was led by Pac-Man, which gobbled up nearly $1 billion--25 cents at a time--in a nation suddenly hip-deep in video arcades. Life Fall 1989, p. 63