There are few more iconic video game characters than Pac-Man. One of the earliest and most recognizable video game mascots, Pac-Man was a massive and ongoing success, as cabinets remained mainstays in arcades and restaurants for decades after its original release. Bandai Namco is celebrating the anniversary of the game on May 22, 2025--a full 45 years after its first release in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Since then, the simple character has gone through several redesigns and revisions, from 3D platformers to pinball and even a kart racer. Bandai Namco has made the character broad and flexible, with oddball experiments like 2005's Pac Pix living alongside respectful homages like the breakout hit Pac-Man Championship Edition, which played very much like the original with new mechanics and mazes to test the skills of even the most dedicated Pac enthusiasts. But the original Pac-Man, along with Ms. Pac-Man that followed, is still the purest distillation of the idea, a game that has been ported countless times and been played throughout the years.
To mark the occasion, GameSpot spoke with Cyrus Rosenberg, SVP of licensing and business development at Arcade1Up, which has made a point of producing nostalgic, arcade-accurate scale cabinets of some of the most beloved classic arcade games around, including Pac-Man. The company has produced multiple cabinets based on Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, so we spoke with Rosenberg about working with the Bandai Namco license to create cabinets that replicate the feeling of plunking a quarter into an arcade machine in the corner of a pizza parlor.
Pac-Man stand-up cabinet from Arcade1Up
To start, Rosenberg says that it works with the licensor to obtain original arcade ROMs and then puts in the work to make sure they convert cleanly to its own modern-day boards. The importance, he says, is capturing the essence of how the game felt.
"Sometimes they are readily available. However, we go through an individual QA process on all ROMs, on all different machines to make sure that they are arcade accurate," he said. "And the way I personally, as a fan of our product, like to speak about it is it feels closer to what we're seeing in the modern video game remasters: as you remember, not how it was. And what I mean by that is we have fresh artwork, there's no broken controllers, it is essentially a brand-new arcade machine. Which you may remember, but actually compare it to what was in the original arcade, they may have been a little worn down from use."
And since they're using the original ROMs as the basis for their conversions, that means glitches are intact too. In the case of Pac-Man, that means that the original Map 256 Glitch can be triggered, if you have the skills to reach it.
Replicating that level of responsiveness with new hardware is an important factor, and that includes becoming intimately familiar with the original arcade cabinet. Small factors like the joysticks should be made to match as closely as possible, or players would notice that it doesn't match. Arcade1Up machines are typically built to three-quarters scale, so they're slightly smaller than the original arcades--and easier to fit in your living room--but other than that, the company aims for direct accuracy.
"Very similar to our ROMs, we always start with the model of an original machine. So even when it comes specifically to Bandai Namco products, there were some games that required a four-way joystick, some that required an eight-way joystick, but we always make sure they are a match to what was in the original arcade when it comes to format. Pac-Man's screen for example is a vertical screen and we made sure that the selected games list of ROMs that would match both the four-way control stick as well as the vertical screen itself. So again, while many of our arcades are about three-quarters scale, they do match the experience of an original arcade."
Similarly, Arcade1Up uses original artwork for its cabinets and converts them into the new form factor. Rosenberg says its key mission is "retro and authenticity," and so there could be minor shifts from artwork placement from the original cabinets, they should always be recognizably accurate to how the artwork appeared back in 1980.
Rosenberg says this approach to authenticity as a guiding principle was the result of feedback--fans wanted to see the same care and affection put into the cabinet hardware as the software.
"This is an example of fan feedback really directly influencing our company," he said. "In our original launch in 2018, we had a design that we called the shark fin just internally. And what that really was is a standard format size arcade across all of the different units. However, almost one of the very first pieces of feedback we got on our initial launch was that people wanted to match the original cabinet shape. Now, when it comes to the history of arcades at large, there are only a certain number of those shapes so that there would be some crossover. We match the design for both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man as much as possible. So while size is not retained, the shape absolutely is one-to-one."
Ms. Pac-Man will be celebrating its own anniversary in 2027, and it's often known as the superior retro Pac-Man game--it was famously an independent project brought to Midway and adapted into an official Pac-Man game. That occasion is sure to make gamers nostalgic all over again. But as well-crafted as that improved iteration was, the original stands alone as the trailblazer. Even 45 years later, the original game holds up beautifully with a simple elegance that most games can't hope to replicate, and in its own way Arcade1Up is helping to maintain it.
See Pac-Man Arcade1Up at Amazon
See Ms. Pac-Man Arcade1Up at Amazon
Source
Since then, the simple character has gone through several redesigns and revisions, from 3D platformers to pinball and even a kart racer. Bandai Namco has made the character broad and flexible, with oddball experiments like 2005's Pac Pix living alongside respectful homages like the breakout hit Pac-Man Championship Edition, which played very much like the original with new mechanics and mazes to test the skills of even the most dedicated Pac enthusiasts. But the original Pac-Man, along with Ms. Pac-Man that followed, is still the purest distillation of the idea, a game that has been ported countless times and been played throughout the years.
To mark the occasion, GameSpot spoke with Cyrus Rosenberg, SVP of licensing and business development at Arcade1Up, which has made a point of producing nostalgic, arcade-accurate scale cabinets of some of the most beloved classic arcade games around, including Pac-Man. The company has produced multiple cabinets based on Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, so we spoke with Rosenberg about working with the Bandai Namco license to create cabinets that replicate the feeling of plunking a quarter into an arcade machine in the corner of a pizza parlor.
Pac-Man stand-up cabinet from Arcade1Up
To start, Rosenberg says that it works with the licensor to obtain original arcade ROMs and then puts in the work to make sure they convert cleanly to its own modern-day boards. The importance, he says, is capturing the essence of how the game felt.
"Sometimes they are readily available. However, we go through an individual QA process on all ROMs, on all different machines to make sure that they are arcade accurate," he said. "And the way I personally, as a fan of our product, like to speak about it is it feels closer to what we're seeing in the modern video game remasters: as you remember, not how it was. And what I mean by that is we have fresh artwork, there's no broken controllers, it is essentially a brand-new arcade machine. Which you may remember, but actually compare it to what was in the original arcade, they may have been a little worn down from use."
And since they're using the original ROMs as the basis for their conversions, that means glitches are intact too. In the case of Pac-Man, that means that the original Map 256 Glitch can be triggered, if you have the skills to reach it.
Replicating that level of responsiveness with new hardware is an important factor, and that includes becoming intimately familiar with the original arcade cabinet. Small factors like the joysticks should be made to match as closely as possible, or players would notice that it doesn't match. Arcade1Up machines are typically built to three-quarters scale, so they're slightly smaller than the original arcades--and easier to fit in your living room--but other than that, the company aims for direct accuracy.
"Very similar to our ROMs, we always start with the model of an original machine. So even when it comes specifically to Bandai Namco products, there were some games that required a four-way joystick, some that required an eight-way joystick, but we always make sure they are a match to what was in the original arcade when it comes to format. Pac-Man's screen for example is a vertical screen and we made sure that the selected games list of ROMs that would match both the four-way control stick as well as the vertical screen itself. So again, while many of our arcades are about three-quarters scale, they do match the experience of an original arcade."
Similarly, Arcade1Up uses original artwork for its cabinets and converts them into the new form factor. Rosenberg says its key mission is "retro and authenticity," and so there could be minor shifts from artwork placement from the original cabinets, they should always be recognizably accurate to how the artwork appeared back in 1980.
Rosenberg says this approach to authenticity as a guiding principle was the result of feedback--fans wanted to see the same care and affection put into the cabinet hardware as the software.
"This is an example of fan feedback really directly influencing our company," he said. "In our original launch in 2018, we had a design that we called the shark fin just internally. And what that really was is a standard format size arcade across all of the different units. However, almost one of the very first pieces of feedback we got on our initial launch was that people wanted to match the original cabinet shape. Now, when it comes to the history of arcades at large, there are only a certain number of those shapes so that there would be some crossover. We match the design for both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man as much as possible. So while size is not retained, the shape absolutely is one-to-one."
Ms. Pac-Man will be celebrating its own anniversary in 2027, and it's often known as the superior retro Pac-Man game--it was famously an independent project brought to Midway and adapted into an official Pac-Man game. That occasion is sure to make gamers nostalgic all over again. But as well-crafted as that improved iteration was, the original stands alone as the trailblazer. Even 45 years later, the original game holds up beautifully with a simple elegance that most games can't hope to replicate, and in its own way Arcade1Up is helping to maintain it.
See Pac-Man Arcade1Up at Amazon
See Ms. Pac-Man Arcade1Up at Amazon
Source