Masaya Nakamura, known to many as the Father of Pac-Man, died earlier this week at the age of 91. In 1980, his company, Namco, released the original Pac-Man game by designer Toru Iwatani — and we’ve been busting ghosts ever since. The influence of Pac-Man on popular culture these past 30-odd years is hard to underestimate, but if you’re feeling nostalgic, fire up the Android, iOS and Windows app versions of the game.
If you prefer a desktop experience, download the ROMs to play on an emulator with your PC or Mac. The Internet Archive’s software repository has several versions of Pac-Man for your web browser. Google even did a browser-playable Google Doodle of the game for its 30th anniversary in 2010. You can buy the chomping yellow fellow for consoles or even in standalone gadgets.
Many live-action versions of the game have popped up over the years, with people running through the streets. (The Pac-Manhattan event here in New York City is a big one.)
And if you grew up playing Pac-Man in the big console cabinet at the video arcade in the mall, you can relive those days, too — for about $3000, Amazon will ship a 237-pound working replica to your home.