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'Father of Pac-Man' dies, aged 91
Masaya Nakamura, founder of Japanese toy and game software maker Bandai Namco Holdings and the 'Father of Pac-Man', has died at the age of 91.
Japanese video game publisher Bandai Namco has announced that Namco founder Masaya Nakamura, known as the "Father of Pac-Man", has died at the age of 91.
Nakamura, who can be credited as one of the people responsible for building the Japanese video game industry that saw incredible worldwide success in the 80s and 90s, died on January 22, the group said in a statement. It did not give details of the cause of his death.
![Masaya Nakamura.](/web/20170130210317im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/1/t/p/s/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gu1tlr.png/1485808850112.jpg)
In 1955 Nakamura founded Nakamura Manufacturing, a company which created and installed mechanical amusement rides during Japan's post-war recovery. In the 70s the businessman saw potential in the video game industry, making several shrewd business moves — including the purchase of Atari's aborted Japanese division — and hiring a team of designers and engineers to create original software for arcade machines.
He also changed the name of the company to Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company, which later became Namco. In the early days, he reportedly tested his employees' games himself to judge their entertainment value.
Pac-Man, the company's most iconic title, was created by one Nakamura's new hires, Toru Iwatani, and was published in 1980. Because of Nakamura's hand in developing arcade games as a form of entertainment in the first place, he is often referred to as the father of the pop culture icon, which is listed by Wikipedia as the second highest grossing arcade game of all time.
The company also created the first multi-cabinet multiplayer arcade game, in Final Lap, and produced many popular games for the fledgling Nintendo Entertainment System. Much later, the company would dominate the 3D fighting and light-gun genres both at home and in arcades with titles including Tekken, Point Blank and Time Crisis.
The original Pac-Man, which created a new genre of game in a landscape of space shooters and sports simulators, is still popular to this day. The brand has seen a resurgence this decade, with the most recent traditional-style game being Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 in 2016. Recent years have also seen the release of Pac-Man 256 on smartphones, a series of TV shows and games aimed at kids, and the inclusion of the character in Nintendo's popular fighting game series Super Smash Bros.
Nakamura stepped down as Namco CEO in 2002, almost 50 years after founding it. He continued to serve as an advisor to the company, even after it merged with rival Bandai in 2005, and for his achievements was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government in 2007.
With Reuters
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