Classic video game 'Pac-Man' turns 35

As if David Letterman's retirement wasn't enough to make us Gen Xers feel old, we get another wake-up call to our own mortality today: Had he been "born" here in the U.S. instead of Japan, Pac-Man is now old enough to run for president.

Developed by Namco, "Pac-Man" made its debut in Japanese arcades on May 22, 1980, though we in the U.S. would have to wait until later that year to contract Pac-Man Fever. It ended up becoming the biggest-selling arcade machine of all time with more than 400,000 shipped. It also became the highest-grossing arcade game, pulling in nearly $7.7 billion if you adjust for inflation, according to estimates by USgamer.net's Jaz Rignall.

If you don't know what "Pac-Man" is/was/forever shall be, its premise is incredibly simple: your yellow pizza-with-a-piece-missing avatar tries to eat all the dots in a maze while avoiding four ghosts. Four special dots on each level give Pac brief periods of invincibility when he can chase and (temporarily) eliminate the ghosts.

The big difference between "Pac-Man" and its contemporaries? The lack of the verb "shoot" in the game description. Unlike Atari's "Asteroids" and Taito's "Space Invaders," your offensive weapons were limited to just those four special dots. The rest of the time, the game was stealth and memorization.

As Wired's Chris Kohler points out in his appreciation of the game, "Pac-Man" is also the earliest arcade game that still qualifies as "fun" to play. "Asteroids" is enjoyable for its nostalgia, but it doesn't have that "just one more try" appeal. Stumbling across a "Pac-Man" or "Ms. Pac-Man" machine, though, will have me searching for change.

Through no fault of his own, Pac-Man also has a negative tie to the video game industry thanks to the abysmal Atari VCS port. A game so hyped, Atari made more copies than there were VCS systems in use. A game so bad, it helped bring about the Video Game Crash of 1983.

Though he isn't as big as he used to be, Pac-Man has stayed in the public eye over the years. Besides starring in his own games — from "Pac-Mania" to "Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures" — he also had a featured role in last year's Nintendo mega-hit "Super Smash Bros." on the Wii U and 3DS. He will also be seen in this summer's "Pixels," starring Adam Sandler, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad and Kevin James.

If it helps you deal with your advancing age and thoughts of impending decrepitude, keep in mind that the best game in the series is only five years old.

For the record, the rankings go:

4. "Pac-Man"

3. "Super Pac-Man" (1982)

2. "Ms. Pac-Man" (1981)

1. "Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX" (2010)

Call Star online editor Channing King at (317) 444-8073. Follow him @ChanningKing