Article
Ms Pac-Man is the first famous female game protagonist, but she started out as a male character. Designed by a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) dropouts who started a company called the General Computer Corporation (GCC), Ms Pac-Man was originally a modification for the original Pac-Man, called Crazy Otto. Due to legal action by Atari, GCC presented their modification kit to the North American Pac-Man distributor, who purchased it and worked with GCC to evolve the concept.
The result was Ms Pac-Man, which featured new mazes and improved the unpredictability of the ghost enemies to make the game more challenging. Original character designs featured Ms Pac-Man with hair, but this was soon replaced with her famous bow.
Curator Notes
“Introducing … the new femme fatale of the game world,” announced Midway’s 1982 advertisement for Ms Pac-Man, a sequel to Pac-Man that would go on to far exceed its predecessor in popularity and gameplay. Yet Ms Pac-Man’s legacy is a complicated one, not just because – like Bride Of Frankenstein – her very existence is defined by the male counterpart.
That same ad demonstrated just how prevailing the male gaze could be, as it set out to make a yellow sphere inherently shaggable by adding high heels, pearls, heavy make-up and a fur coat. The artwork on the side of one of history’s most successful arcade games leaned heavily into that same aesthetic, with the female protagonist posing sultrily in the arch of the ‘M’ while a male character leers nearby. It’s somewhat ironic then, that statistics showed most of Pac-Man’s players leading up to Ms Pac-Man’s release were women … not men.
– Maria Lewis
History of one of the best-selling arcade games of all time by YouTube channel PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries.
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Collection
Not in ACMI's collection
On display until
16 February 2031
ACMI: Gallery 1
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
P181279
Curatorial section
The Story of the Moving Image → Games Lab → GL-02. Cluster 2 → GL-02-C04
Object Types
3D Object
Arcade Game/Game