Today's Birthdays

one click shows all of today's celebrity birthdays

Browse All Birthdays

43,625    Actors
27,931    Actresses
4,867    Composers
7,058    Directors
842    Footballers
221    Racing drivers
925    Singers
9,111    Writers

Get FamousLikeMe on your website
One line of code gets FamousLikeMe on your website. Find out more.

Subscribe to Daily updates


Add to Google

privacy policy



Famous Like Me > Writer > I > Toru Iwatani

Profile of Toru Iwatani on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Toru Iwatani  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 25th January 1955
   
Place of Birth: Meguro, Tokyo, Japan
   
Profession: Writer
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Toru Iwatani

Toru Iwatani (born January 25, 1955) was a video game designer in the 1980s, and created one of the most popular arcade games of all time, Pac-Man.

Iwatani was born in the Meguro ward of Tokyo, Japan. He joined a computer software company called Namco in 1977, where he started his career in the video game business. There, he came up with the idea for a game called 'Puck-Man' and in 1979, he, along with programmer Hideyuki Mokajima and three other Namco employees, finished the game. It was released to the Japanese public on October 10 of that year, where it became a huge success. It caught the attention of arcade-game manufacturer Bally/Midway Games, who bought the United States rights for the game and released the game in the U.S. as 'Pac-Man', fearing that kids may deface a Puck Man cabinet by changing the 'P' to an 'F'. Its success in North America, and later around the world, solidified its place in the history of video games.

Iwatani went on to create a few other other video games, including Libble Rabble, but none of them reached the amount of success that Pac-Man did. He was promoted within the ranks of Namco, and still works there today overseeing the administration of the company.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Toru Iwatani