Tōru Iwatani (岩谷 徹, Iwatani Tōru, born January 25, 1955) is a former Japanese video game designer and created one of the most popular arcade games of all time, Pac-Man.
Iwatani was born in the Meguro ward of Tokyo, Japan. He joined the computer software company Namco in 1977, where he started his career in the video game business. There, he came up with the idea for a game called "Puck-Man" and in 1980, he, along with programmer Shigeo Funaki (舟木...
more
Tōru Iwatani (岩谷 徹, Iwatani Tōru, born January 25, 1955) is a former Japanese video game designer and created one of the most popular arcade games of all time, Pac-Man.
Iwatani was born in the Meguro ward of Tokyo, Japan. He joined the computer software company Namco in 1977, where he started his career in the video game business. There, he came up with the idea for a game called "Puck-Man" and in 1980, he, along with programmer Shigeo Funaki (舟木茂雄), a hardware engineer, a cabinet designer and Toshio Kai (甲斐敏夫) for sound and music, finished the game. It was released to the Japanese public on May 10 of that year, where it became a huge success. It caught the attention of arcade-game manufacturer Midway, who bought the United States rights for the game and released the game in the U.S. as "Pac-Man", for fear that kids might deface a Puck-Man cabinet by changing the 'P' to an 'F'. Due to its innovative concept and continuing international popularity, it is regarded as one of the all-time...
less
