Pac-Man (Atari 2600)

Pac-Man
The Atari 2600 cover of Pac-Man features the titular protagonist and the ghost antagonists.
Developer(s)	Atari, Inc
Publisher(s)	Atari, Inc
Designer(s)	Tod Frye
Platform(s)	Atari 2600
Release	March 1982
Genre(s)	Maze
Mode(s)	Single-player, two-player alternating

In 1982, Atari Inc. released a port of Namco's hit arcade game Pac-Man for its Atari 2600 video game console. Like the original arcade version, the player controls the title character with a joystick. The object is to traverse a maze, consuming all the wafers within while avoiding four ghosts.

The game was programmed by Tod Frye, who was given a very limited time frame by Atari to complete the project. The technical differences between the Atari 2600 console and the original's arcade hardware—particularly the amount of available memory—presented several challenges to Frye. Given the popularity of the property, Atari produced approximately 12 million units (which was more than the estimated number of Atari 2600 consoles sold at the time), anticipating a high number of sales.

While the port is the best selling Atari 2600 game of all time, selling an estimated 7 million copies, and was the best-selling home video game of all time when it was released, critics focused on the gameplay and audio-visual differences from the arcade version. Initially, the port boosted the video game industry's presence in retail. It was followed by Atari 2600 ports of Pac-Man's arcade sequels.

Pac-Man is a version of the original arcade game, which Namco released in 1980, and features similar gameplay.

The maze has a landscape orientation. The warp tunnel is located at the top and bottom as opposed to the sides. The screen consists of 126 dashes (called wafers). The ghost box is square with the door on the right side. The four ghosts start in the box one on top of the other. The point values of items are much lower. The prize at the bottom of the ghost box is a square called a vitamin worth 100 points. It behaves like a regular fruit. However, if Pac-Man loses a life when the vitamin is shown, the vitamin may not necessarily be forfeited.

The player uses a joystick to navigate the round, yellow title character, which starts each game at the center of a maze. The goal is to eat wafers scattered throughout the maze by moving Pac-Man over them while avoiding four ghosts (enemies). Each time Pac-Man comes into contact with a ghost, he dies, losing a life and reappearing at the center of the maze. When Pac-Man runs out of lives, the game ends. The game starts with four lives and a bonus life is earned at each cleared maze.