WHAT IS PAC MAN EATING_

What Does Pac-Man Eat – Can You Name All 13 Things?

(Last Updated On: December 4, 2023)

Everybody knows who Pac-Man is don’t they, but what does Pac-Man eat? Pac-Man is one of if not the first iconic gaming character to gain global popularity. Starting off in arcades and making his way into homes through home system conversions and licensed electronic games as well as knock off clone titles Pac-Man was truly a global phenomenon.

Board games, a cartoon and loads of other merchandise was produced and sold in the 1980’s. I can remember playing the board game and setting out the little white balls on the game board, but do you know what Pac-Man eats?

So, What Does Pac-Man Eat?

The tiny dots that Pac-Man eats as he moves around each game level are called Pac Dots (or just dots). The flashing power capsules are the larger dots he uses to eat the ghosts – Inky (light blue), Blinky (red), Pinky (Pink) and Clyde (orange). During the games there also the following bonus items he can eat: Cherries, strawberries, apples, melons, galaxians, bells and a key in the very later stages of the game.

  1. Pac-Dots
  2. Power Capsules
  3. Inky _ Ghost
  4. Blinky – Ghost
  5. Pinky -Ghost
  6. Clyde – Ghost
  7. Cherry – Bonus Item
  8. Strawberry – Bonus Item
  9. Apple – Bonus Item
  10. Melon – Bonus Item
  11. Galaxian – Bonus Item
  12. Bell – Bonus Item
  13. Key – Bonus Item
Midway Pac-Man arcade flyer.

Well if you read the back of the Midway arcade flyer it simply calls the dots that you need to eat to complete each level dots. Yes, Midway just call them dots although the term Pac-Dots is used a lot and I do prefer that term.

What Does Pac-Man Eat to Power Up!

Of course, there are the power ups which the same arcade flyer from the games original American release titles these Power Capsules. I do like this term and it sounds like something you could do with on a Monday morning, where’s my Power Capsule? I have also seen these called power pellets but to me there is something more exciting about the term Power Capsule (isn’t there?).

What Else Does Pac-Man Eat?

Apart from dots and power capsules there are other items for Pac-Man to eat. First off there is the fruit which appear twice per stage and helps those players chasing a high score add bonus points. During stages 1 through to 8 the following fruit appears.

From stage 9 onwards the edible bonus items get a little strange. We go from fruit to a Galaxian, a Bell and a key. But the bonus points do ramp up.

  • Stage 1 – Cherry (100 points)
  • Stage 2 – Strawberry (300 points)
  • Stage 3 – Orange (500 points)
  • Stage 4 – Orange (500 points)
  • Stage 5 – Apple (700 points)
  • Stage 6 – Apple (700 points)
  • Stage 7 – Melon (1000 points)
  • Stage 8 – Melon (1000 points)
  • Stage 9 – Galaxian (2000 points)
  • Stage 10 – Galaxian (2000 points)
  • Stage 11 – Bell (3000 points)
  • Stage 12 – Bell (3000 points)
  • Stage 13 Onwards – Key (5000 points)

Ghost Buster Pac-ManEating Ghosts

Having eaten a Power Capsule Pac-Man can of course for a short time pursue and eat those pesky ghosts who will turn blue. Pac-Man’s designer Toru Iwatani designed each ghost to have their own personality so that the game doesn’t get boring. The amount of time the ghosts turn blue varies on each stage starting off at 6 seconds then decreasing before increasing again at stage 6.

What is Pac-man eating to power up?

The Ghosts are…

  • Blinky – red with a shadow personality (chases Pac-Man)
  • Pinky – pink with a speedy personality (aims for a position in front of Pac-Man)
  • Inky – Cyan (light blue) with a bashful personality (fickle will head towards Pac-Man and sometimes head away from him too)
  • Clyde – Orange with a pokey personality (will aim for Pac-Man when he is some distance away but when close to Pac-Man he will aim towards the lower left corner of the maze).

So How Much Can Pac-Man Actually Eat?

He eats a lot doesn’t he, especially if you are good at the game but how much can Pac-Man actually eat? Well the simple answer he can potentially eat everything on the screen up to stage 255. At stage 256 a bug hits the right half of the screen which fills up with random symbols which means you can’t complete that stage and just must try and gets as many points as possible whilst using up your remaining lives.

So, he eats dots/Pac dots, power capsules, fruit, Galaxian’s, bells, keys and ghosts. Basically, anything on screen, he can pretty much eat.

What the PuckPac-Man’s Original Name

Pac-Man was originally called Puck Man on its Japanese release where it was originally developed and released by Namco which begs the question where those dots called Puck-Dots? I can’t read Japanese but if you can take a look at the Puck Man arcade flyer from Namco and let me know if it gives the dots another name.

Pac-Man was originally called Puck man in Japan as seen in this arcade flyer.

Midway secured the license to distribute Puck Man in the United States and this was where his name changed. Originally called Puck Man because he looks like the shape of a hockey puck Midway had concerns that the title could be easily altered to the ‘F Bomb man’ (I won’t swear on my blog) by aspiring graffiti artists/mischievous arcade gamers who simply had to change the P to an F. Because of this his name was changed to Pac-Man.

This wasn’t the only change that western audiences would experience as the pace and difficulty of the game was also increased to appeal their tastes.

A New Genre was Born

At the time of release Pac-Man was a refreshing change in arcades where the most popular games of the time were all space shooters such as Space Invaders, Asteroids and Galaxian. Pac-Man started the maze chase genre that would produce so many similar games all trying to emulate the success of the legendary title. Even Ms Pac-Man started out as unauthorized hack called Crazy Otto that was eventually sold to Midway without Namco’s permission. This also happened with other titles like Pac Man Plus, Jr Pac-Man and baby Pac-Man resulting in Namco ending their business dealings with Midway.

Pac-Man Coleco electronic game

Legacy

Pac-Man still features in games and in arcades to this day and is a legendary and iconic game character that has stood the test of time and should be regarded in the same league as those other legendary characters Mario and Sonic. A true gaming great.

Playing Pac-Man

I can remember playing Pac-Man as a small kid in the early 1980’s as you would find it everywhere. My first home gaming experience was of Pac-Man was playing a clone called Snapper for the Acorn Electron (my first home computer). It is such a memorable game I don’t think we will ever see Pac-Man disappear from the public’s consciousness and that is a very good thing.

For more 80s gaming memories take a look at this post.

You can also find out my Top 10 Commodore 64 Games Here.

Thanks for reading this post on what is Pac-Man Eating, you can find my previous post here.


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