Pac Man (known as pac man style in all capitals) is an arcade game designed by Toru Iwatani (1955 -) of Namco, which was released in the form of Buckman in Japan in May 1980. It is licensed by midway games for distribution in the United States. The game was released in October 1980, when the most popular arcade games were "harsh" space shooting games, such as the galaxy and asteroids. Bean eaters have established the practice of maze pursuit, which is considered to be one of the classics in the history of video games and a symbol of popular culture in the 1980s. There may be a gender gap between different types of gamers; according to an estimate released in 1982, 60% of PAC eaters are women, while 90% of Omega race participants are men.

Pacman is one of the highest paid video games ever, with revenues of more than $2.5 billion in the quarter to the 1990s. Adjusted for inflation, all versions of pac man have an estimated total revenue of more than $12 billion. The series of games and their follow-up works have become a social phenomenon, and have been transferred to other media, such as 1982 animated TV series "bean eater" and 1981 top ten single "bean eater fever" by Buckner and Garcia.

In the next few years, dozens of similar "maze games" appeared, some of which were successful in their own right. The role of the same name has appeared in more than 30 officially licensed game derivatives, let alone pirated versions. In 2010, it is estimated that more than one billion people have played Google doodle.

According to the David Brown index, among American consumers, the brand awareness of "bean eater" is the highest among all video game characters, with 94% awareness. Pac Man series is one of the longest running video game series since the golden age of arcade games. Bean eaters are part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of modern art in New York.

Players navigate the pac man in an endless maze of dots (called PAC dots) and four colored Ghosts: blinky, pinky, inky, and Clyde. There is also a channel from the left side to the right side of the screen. Four power balls are distributed between the four quadrants, and a fruit appears at each level.

The goal of the game is to accumulate as many points as possible by collecting points, fruits and eating blue ghosts, while generally avoiding four ghosts. When all points in a phase are eaten, the phase ends and the player advances to the next phase. Between some stages, play one of three intermittent animations. Four ghosts roam the maze, chasing the bean eater. If any ghost eats the bean eater, it will die. When all lives are lost, the game is over. The player starts with three lifetimes, but the dip switch in the machine can change the number of lifetimes to one, two or five. After gaining 10000 points, players will receive additional life rewards. Bonus life points can be changed to 15000 or 20000, or completely disabled.

Near the corner of the maze, there are four blinking power balls, which allow bean eaters to temporarily eat ghosts and earn bonus points in this way. Enemies will turn dark blue, move in the opposite direction and away from pac man, usually more slowly. After swallowing the enemy, its eyes will stay in place and return to the central phantom box, where the phantom will regenerate in its normal color. Blue enemies flash white, indicating that they will return to normal color and become dangerous again, and the time for the enemies to remain vulnerable varies from one stage to the next, usually shortened as the game progresses. At a later stage, when the pill is consumed, the enemy blinks directly, bypassing the blue, which means that they can only take it for a short time, although they will still reverse when taking the pill. From stage 19 onwards, these ghosts were not edible at all, but they were still reversed.

Just below the middle phantom box, there will be two more fruits at each level. One can give 100 to 5000 points. The table lists the types and values of fruits that appear at each stage, the time when the ghost turns blue when eating the powerful particles, and how many times the ghost blinks before it returns to normal.