Pac-Man
The yellow circle that eats dots in a maze while fleeing four colored ghosts — the first video-game character to cross fully into mainstream pop culture.
Origin
Released by Namco in Japan in 1980, designed by Toru Iwatani, who wanted a game his girlfriend would play (most arcade games at the time were space shooters built for boys). The shape is a pizza with one slice removed, taken literally from Iwatani's lunch. It was the highest-grossing arcade game of all time within two years — over $1 billion in quarters by 1981 — and triggered the first wave of merchandise, a hit song ('Pac-Man Fever,' 1982), a Saturday cartoon, and a Google Doodle that broke productivity worldwide in 2010. The ghosts have names: Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (cyan), Clyde (orange).
Modern usage
The yellow-circle-with-a-mouth shape is universally readable as 'video games.' 'Pac-Man' is a default reference for any retro-arcade pastiche. 'Eating' or 'gobbling up' a market is sometimes called a Pac-Man strategy in business writing.
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