'Pretty much anyone could watch someone playing it for 10 seconds and understand everything about it,' said Steve Meretzky, a veteran game designer who created famous Infocom titles like Leather Goddesses of Phobos and the game version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was really the first time, where people looked at video games not merely as this odd thing that teenage boys would their quarters into, but which had much broader social significance.'

'It was by no means the first, but earlier offerings, no matter how compelling to nerds like me.Pac-Man was really the first what I would call the broad cross-section of society, men and women. 'I think there's no question that Pac-Man was sort of a watershed event in the popularity and possibilities of video games,' said Richard Garriott, a veteran designer known for his pioneering work on Ultima and Ultima Online, as well as his leading roles on Lineage, City of Heroes, and Tabula Rasa. And unlike so many of the hit games that have come and gone since then, the little yellow disc with the missing pie-slice for a mouth has become a legend in the video games industry, as well as an inspiration for many of the best-known designers in the field. And on Saturday, Pac-Man celebrates its 30th anniversary. Regardless, a global phenomenon was born that day. The title was rejected in the United States because some worried that the 'P' would chip off the cabinet and look like an 'F.' On May 22, 1980, a Japanese company called Namco Bandai released a game in Japan called Puck-Man.

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