Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon

Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon is a book detailing the history of Pac-Man. It was written by Arjan Terpstra and Tim Lapetino, and published by Cook and Becker on November 9th, 2021, under license from Bandai Namco Entertainment. The book was released for Pac-Man's 40th anniversary.
== Overview ==
Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon details the history of the original Pac-Man video game. The book primarily focuses on Pac-Man's development and creation at Namco, the initial release of Puckman in Japan, and Pac-Man's unprecedented success in North America through Bally Midway's distribution. The book also includes information on General Computer Corporation's Crazy Otto - which was reworked into Ms. Pac-Man - as well as minor information on later Pac-Man titles. The book features extensive images of artwork, design documents, and merchandising. An English translation of "Pac-Man's Game Study Manual" - a Japanese book written by Toru Iwatani - is included at the end of Birth of an Icon.
Numerous new interviews, mainly with former developers and employees, were conducted for the book: including interviews with Toru Iwatani, Tadashi Yamashita, and the Bally Midway staff. Because of this, some information presented in Birth of an Icon was otherwise undocumented before its publication. The information in Birth of an Icon is largely accurate, particularly for the original Pac-Man game's history; however, a few sections appear to have minor inaccuracies, mainly for other Pac-Man sequels.
The book was originally released in two forms. The "Standard Edition" only included the main hardcover book; the "Collector's Edition" included a reproduction 7" vinyl of "Pac-Man Fever", among other extras. A limited run of Collector's Edition copies were signed by Toru Iwatani.
== Trivia ==
*While Birth of an Icon details the history of Crazy Otto, including images of the game, little to no images of Ms. Pac-Man are present; this is presumably due to the legal issues regarding the game. In some cases, images are flat-out cropped off to "hide" Ms. Pac-Man being present on them.
**Despite this, images of Ms. Pac-Man in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon are included, as their usage was licensed through Warner Bros. under different contract.
**A few proper Ms. Pac-Man images were captured by Tim Lapetino, presumably for usage in Birth of an Icon, though were not utilized in the book. These pictures were published on the Cook and Becker website shortly following the book's release.https://www.cookandbecker.com/en/article/302/ms-pac-man-love-letter-to-the-lady-arcaders.html
== References ==
Category:Books
Category:Merchandise