Pac Man, launched in 1981 has been voted the greatest video game character of all time, according to a poll of UK customers of PC and console games. The classic 80s arcade game beat characters like Super Mario, Lara Croft and even Sonic The Hedgehog in a survey of people buying games equipment at branches of Dixons.
Pac Man was chosen by 39% of the sample - more than twice the number who opted for Sonic The Hedgehog (17%). Super Mario trailed with 12%.
Video game top 10
1. Pac Man (39%)
2. Sonic The Hedgehog (17%)
3. Super Mario (12%)
4. Lara Croft (10%)
5. Donkey Kong (8%)
6. Pokemon (6%)
7. Yoshi (4%)
8. Harry Potter (2%)
9. Ray Man (1%)
10. Max Payne (1%)
A surprise entry in the top 10 was Harry Potter, who came in at number eight, weeks before the official Harry Potter game for PlayStation, Game Boy and PC is launched. The combined score for all the Pokemon characters was just 6%.
Launched in 1981, Pac Man is the best-selling coin-operated game in history. In the game's debut year more than 100,000 Pac-Man machines were made and sold around the world.
Pac Man was created by designer Tohru Iwatani who is said to have had the idea at a dinner party when he saw a pizza with a slice missing.
Pac Man manufacturer Namco has estimated that the original Pac Man arcade game has now been played more than 10 billion times - and says that its total Pac Man revenues have reached $100m. In July 1999, Florida resident Billy Mitchell achieved the first known perfect score in Pac Man (3,333,360) after playing for six hours continuously.
Source:
BBC News.
