Tōru Iwatani

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Tōru Iwatani ( Japanese 岩 谷 徹 , Iwatani Tōru ; born January 25, 1955 in Meguro , Tokyo , Japan ) is a Japanese professor and former video game developer . With Pac-Man he created one of the most popular arcade games in the 1980s .

Life

Iwatani joined Namco computer software company in 1977 , which started his career in the video game industry. There he came up with the idea for a game called Puck-Man and completed it together with the programmer Hideyuki Mokajima and three other employees of Namco in 1979. It was released on October 10 of the same year in Japan , where it was a great success has been. It drew the attention of the arcade game manufacturer Bally / Midway Games , which then secured the US rights for the game and the release in the US under the name Pac-Man , fearing that children would play with Puck Man - Arcade -Automatic machines could change the 'P' to an 'F'. Its success in North America and later around the world cemented its place in video game history .

Iwatani created a few other video games, including Libble Rabble , but none of them matched Pac-Man's success .

He left Namco in 2007 after almost three decades and moved to Tokyo University to teach budding game developers. In April 2005, Iwatani received a visiting professorship at Osaka University , where he taught character design studies.

Others

Toru Iwatani was 2015 cameo as "Electric Dream Factory Repairman" (arcade game mechanic) in the science fiction - Comedy pixel . He himself was portrayed in the film by Denis Akiyama . The film is about the fight against aliens who challenge the inhabitants of the earth to duels in the form of arcade game characters from the 80s. In the film sequence with Tōru Iwatani, the protagonists fight against Pac-Man.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pac-Man creator leaves Namco Bandai for school ( Memento of July 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) July 10, 2006
  2. ↑ Pac-Man Creator Toru Iwatani Is in Pixels, But He Doesn't Play Toru Iwatani , accessed August 1, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Iwatani, Tōru
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 岩 谷 徹 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese video game developer
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Meguro , Tokyo , Japan