The Anomaly of PAC-MAN

[indenton]

Now I wouldn't classify myself as a retro gamer, but I do have a great appreciation for the retro scene and the huge strives in game design which were made during the time.  PAC-MAN is a solid example.  Now here's my issue:



PAC-MAN hit arcades in the US & Japan in 1980.  That's the US & Japan... what happened with the EU.  The date of Pac-Man's debut in EU is almost intentionally avoided on the wikipedia entries.  The earliest arcade release in Europe I can uncover is Pac-Mania in 1987?  Does anybody have another source, it couldn't of taken 7 years for Pac-Man to make the scene in Europe, could it?!

[davifus]

Maybe, It wasn't that popular in EU.

Best Pac Man Stage Music

[pacpix]

Hell yeah!  Pac & Pal is severely underrated.  My personal favorite game of the classic arcade series.

As for the arcade release of Pac-Man in the EU I have never actually thought about it before.  It would seem strange to me that it would take so long to be released there considering how popular it was, but I know little about EU games and even less about the arcade scene.  Even if it didn't make it over in arcade form until Pac-Mania I'd imagine there were some home ports or clones released before then.

[sin2beta]

Now I wouldn't classify myself as a retro gamer, but I do have a great appreciation for the retro scene and the huge strives in game design which were made during the time.  PAC-MAN is a solid example.  Now here's my issue:



PAC-MAN hit arcades in the US & Japan in 1980.  That's the US & Japan... what happened with the EU.  The date of Pac-Man's debut in EU is almost intentionally avoided on the wikipedia entries.  The earliest arcade release in Europe I can uncover is Pac-Mania in 1987?  Does anybody have another source, it couldn't of taken 7 years for Pac-Man to make the scene in Europe, could it?!

It's not too surprising to me that it was released in the EU much later. Taking arcades out of your country is difficult. Shipping is probably the biggest thing. I might be wrong on this, but I believe Nolan Bushnell commented that taking his arcades to Japan was on of his biggest regrets. Marketing and placement is a whole other thing too. You almost need a distributor.

[fazerco]

The problem may be that here there weren't many arcade halls.