Pac-Man, stylized as PAC-MAN, is an arcade game developed by Namco and first released in Japan in May 1980. It was created by Japanese video game designer Toru Iwatani. It was licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway Games and released in October 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Upon its release, the game—and, subsequently, Pac-Man derivatives—became a social phenomenon that yielded high sales of merchandise and inspired a legacy in other media, such as the Pac-Man animated television series and the top-ten Buckner and Garcia hit single "Pac-Man Fever". Pac-Man was popular in the 1980s and 1990s and is still played in the 2010s.
When Pac-Man was released, the most popular arcade video games were space shooters—in particular, Space Invaders and Asteroids. The most visible minority were sports games that were mostly derivatives of Pong. Pac-Man succeeded by creating a new genre. Pac-Man is often credited with being a landmark in video game history and is among the most famous arcade games of all time. It is also one of the highest-grossing video games of all time, having generated more than $2.5 billion in quarters by the 1990s.
Donkey Kong is a series of video games featuring the adventures of an ape-like character called Donkey Kong, conceived by Shigeru Miyamoto in 1981. The franchise mainly comprises two different game genres, plus spin-off titles of various genres.
The games of the first genre are mostly single-screen platform/action puzzle types, featuring Donkey Kong as the opponent in an industrial construction setting. Donkey Kong first made his appearance in the 1981 arcade machine called Donkey Kong, in which he faced Mario, now Nintendo's flagship character. This game was also the first appearance of Mario, pre-dating the well-known Super Mario Bros. by four years. In 1994, the series was revived as the Donkey Kong Country series, featuring Donkey Kong and his clan as protagonists in their native jungle setting versus a variety of anthropomorphic enemies, usually against the Kremlings, a clan of crocodiles, and their leader King K. Rool. These are side-scrolling platform games. Titles outside these two genres have included rhythm games (Donkey Konga), racing games (Diddy Kong Racing), and edutainment (Donkey Kong Jr. Math).
A hallmark of the Donkey Kong franchise is barrels, which the Kongs use as weapons, vehicles, furniture, and lodging. The Donkey Kong character is highly recognizable and very popular; the franchise has sold over 40 million units worldwide.
Paperboy is a 1985 arcade game developed and published by Atari Games. The player takes the role of a paperboy who delivers a fictional newspaper called "The Daily Sun" along a suburban street on his bicycle. The game was ported to a wide range of video game consoles and personal computers beginning in 1986. The arcade version of the game featured bike handlebars as the controller. A sequel for home computers and consoles, Paperboy 2, was released in 1991.
After Paperboy was released in North American arcades in April 1985, the game was ported to video game consoles and home computers, starting in 1986. In some of these versions, the player could assume the role of a papergirl instead of a paperboy. Paperboy was ported to the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron by Andy Williams in 1986. Versions for the Amstrad CPC, Apple II, and TRS-80 Color Computer were also released in 1986. Elite Systems produced versions for the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64. The ZX Spectrum version had been released in the United Kingdom by October 1986, and the Commodore 64 version was published there by February 1987. Elite created versions for the Commodore 16 and Commodore Plus/4 later that year.
