Masaya Nakamura, the man who founded Namco and was known as the "Father of Pac-Man," has died. He was 91 years old.

Nakamura founded Namco as Nakamura Manufacturing in 1955. Originally a provider of mechanical kids’ rides for department stores, the enterprise expanded to arcade games in the 1970s. In 1980, Namco released designer Toru Iwatani’s Pac-Man—the colorful ghost-chase classic that has been a pop culture mainstay ever since.

Thanks to Namco, which became an incredibly successful videogame developer and publisher that eventually merged with Bandai in 2005, Nakamura was one of the people credited with launching the Japanese videogame industry. In addition to Pac-Man, Namco also released other arcade classics like Galaga, Pole Position, and, of course, Ms. Pac-Man.

Nakamura passed away on January 22 but his death was only announced today by Bandai Namco, which did not note the cause.