Toru Iwatani

Japan · Born 1955 · Namco · Game Designer

The Namco designer who created Pac-Man — a game deliberately aimed at women, and the arcade machine with the most units ever installed.

Toru Iwatani was born in Meguro, Tokyo, on 25 January 1955, and taught himself computing without formal training in programming or graphic design. He joined Namco in 1977 at the age of 22 hoping to make pinball machines; when patent issues ruled that out, he made the video game Gee Bee (1978) instead, followed by Bomb Bee and Cutie Q (1979). His next design changed the industry. Pac-Man (1980) was deliberately aimed at women, with cute, colourful characters and easy gameplay. Built by a team of nine and test-marketed on 22 May 1980, it was only a moderate success in Japan, where Namco's Galaxian outperformed it, but in North America it sold more than 100,000 arcade units. Iwatani received no bonus for it, though he has said the story that he left Namco in anger is untrue. He was promoted instead, designed Libble Rabble (1983), which he calls his favourite of his games, and produced titles including Rally-X, Galaga, Pole Position, Ridge Racer and Time Crisis. In 2007 he left Namco to lecture full-time at Tokyo Polytechnic University, after developing Pac-Man Championship Edition, which he said would be his last game.