Pac-Man

A game born in Japan, made by Toru Iwatani at Namco. Eating instead of shooting. He has repeatedly said the design intent was to bring women into arcades that were otherwise filled with grim screens of fending off invaders. In North America, this game became the biggest phenomenon of the golden age. What follows is the interesting part. A company of young engineers in Massachusetts (GCC) built an unauthorized modification kit called Crazy Otto and brought it to Midway. Midway said, let's make this a sequel rather than a mod, and it became Ms. Pac-Man. GCC won the royalty lawsuit that followed, and what began as an unsanctioned modification ended up as an official series with royalties paid. Iwatani himself has spoken favorably in later years about the sister game's success. Players tinkering on their own with what they're given — this thread continues thirteen years later, in the mod culture of DOOM.

The myth, corrected

~~Pac-Man was born from the shape of a pizza with a slice eaten out of it~~

Iwatani himself has called it "half true." At a 2016 talk, he further said that the famous photo illustrating the anecdote was actually taken by a journalist. A rival account — that the shape came from rounding off the Japanese character for "mouth" — is also widely told, but it comes mainly from articles, not confirmed as his own words. Origin stories may simply sharpen their outlines the more they get retold.