Pac-Man (TOMY Board Game) Japanese box art. Developer Tomy Publisher Tomy Series N/A Release date(s) JP: 1976

US: Mid-to-late 1970s Number of players 1-4 players

Pac-Man (パックマンゲーム Pakkuman Geimu) was a board game by Tomy released in 1976, predating the video game. Up to four players use multicolored "hands" to fling chips into Pac-Man's mouth, which rotates while opening and closing his mouth. It was later released in the US as Mr. Mouth.

Variants

Pac-Man / Mr. Mouth - The original 1976 version.

- The original 1976 version. The Original Pac-Man Game (元祖パックマンゲーム Ganso Pakkuman Geimu ) - Reissued version released as a tie-in with the video game. The chips are replaced with Ghost Monster game pieces, and Pac-Man's face was changed.

(元祖パックマンゲーム ) - Reissued version released as a tie-in with the video game. The chips are replaced with Ghost Monster game pieces, and Pac-Man's face was changed. Kirby Board Game - Released in 1993, seemingly after the Famicom release of Kirby's Adventure . The center Pac-Man is now Kirby, and the chips are egg-shaped.

- Released in 1993, seemingly after the Famicom release of . The center Pac-Man is now Kirby, and the chips are egg-shaped. Mr. Mouth (frog) - Released at an unknown date (likely mid-90s). Replaces Pac-Man with a googly-eyed frog. This model is still sold to this day.

Trivia

While this is technically the first Pac-Man game ever released, the first appearance of the character was the Pac-Man Bank from two years prior, also made by Tomy.

During the Midway Manufacturing v. Bandai-America case, the defense (Bandai) used the existence of this game in an unsuccessful attempt to show that Midway/Namco did not come up with the original idea for Pac-Man. [1]

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