ASIA / PACIFIC
February 6, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Japanese arcade pioneer and
“Father of Pac-Man” has died
By Yuri Kageyama
AP Business Writer
OKYO — Masaya
Nakamura,
the
“Father of Pac-
Man” who founded the
Japanese
video-game
company behind the hit
creature-gobbling game,
has died. He was 91 years
old.
Nakamura, who died on
January
22,
founded
Namco, part of Bandai
Namco, in 1955. It started
out as just two mechanical
horse rides on a depart-
ment store rooftop but
went on to pioneer game
arcades and amusement
parks.
Bandai Namco, formed
in 2005 from a merger of
two
game
companies,
confirmed Nakamura had
died.
Pac-Man, designed by
Namco engineer and video-
game maker Toru Iwatani,
went on sale in 1980, at a
time when there were few
rival games, such as Space
Invaders.
The
plucky
yellow circle with the huge
mouth was a big hit.
It’s estimated to have
been played more than 10
billion times: Guinness
World Record named it the
world’s most successful
coin-operated arcade game.
The game was non-
violent but just challenging
enough to hook players into
steering the Pac-Man for
hours through its mazes on
the hunt for ghostly tidbits.
T
DASHUHUA. Performers at Great Wall Iron Sparks hit molten iron tossed by their fellow performers to create
sparks in Yanqing county on the outskirts of Beijing, China. The ancient craft can be traced back several hundred
years and is a vestige of northeast China’s steel-producing regions and a source of pride for generations of min-
ers and their families. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Molten iron creates bursts of
light at Chinese New Year show
More than 50 spectators attended the
Lunar New Year show on a very cold
January night.
As the audience started to arrive,
56-year-old Li Qingfa put on a cow-skin
helmet, cow-skin shoes, and a sleeveless
goat-skin jacket over thick cotton clothes.
He and the other performers covered every
part of their bodies.
“The performers may easily get hurt or
scalded,” Li said. “So good protection is a
must.”
The group practices and cleans the
machinery required to produce the molten
fireworks every day. Half an hour before,
they turned on a large forge and placed
several pieces of scrap iron inside. Molten
iron began to slowly drip out.
Their show had five parts, interspersed
with songs and dances. One part featured
molten iron falling from the branches of a
tree. The finale featured the four
performers lighting up a wall.
“I have fallen in love with it,” Li said.
By Helene Franchineau
The Associated Press
EIJING — Inside a dark
amphitheater near China’s Great
Wall, four performers carry long,
wooden spoons filled with molten iron.
Each performer throws the iron against a
giant wall. The iron lights up the night in
an array of orange showers and sparkles.
As the rolling booms of fireworks and
firecrackers echoed across much of China
for the Lunar New Year, the group of
performers staged a celebration with the
centuries-old custom of dashuhua, or
molten iron fireworks.
The tradition is a vestige of northeast
China’s steel-producing regions and a
source of pride for generations of miners
and their families.
Several groups in Beijing’s countryside
offer multiple performances each week,
and the shows get even more popular
around China’s Lunar New Year holiday.
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FATHER OF PAC-MAN. A woman walks past a nine-foot-tall
Pac-Man made of LEGO bricks in Tokyo’s Shinjuku area, in this file photo.
Masaya Nakamura, the “Father of Pac-Man” who founded the Japanese
video game company behind the hit creature-gobbling game, died on
January 22, 2017, at age 91, the company, Bandai Namco, said. (AP
Photo/Ken Aragaki, File)
The game started out as
The iconic Pac-Man
adorns t-shirts and other an arcade item and then
merchandise and inspired was at first played on the
animation
shows,
a Nintendo Family Com-
breakfast cereal, and even puter home console. It
the nickname for Filipino since has been adapted for
cellphones,
PlayStation,
boxer Manny Pacquiao.
The idea for Pac-Man’s and Xbox formats.
Other hits from Namco
design came from the
image of a pizza with a slice include driving simulation
carved out. Nakamura games such as “Ridge Rac-
reportedly chose the word er” and a drumming game.
Nakamura was a key
“Pac,”
or
pakku
in
Japanese, to represent the player in Bandai Namco’s
sound of the Pac-Man global growth. His pet
saying was that his
munching its prey.
“Pac-Man is a gamer- company delivered varied
friendly game with tons of and total entertainment.
cute characters and that’s He took pride in having fun
why it was loved for such a and games for his job.
The company reported
long time,” Iwatani said in
2015 at a New York red- Nakamura’s death but
carpet premiere of Pixels, would not comment on the
which included Pac-Man cause or other personal
creatures and featured him details, citing his family’s
wishes.
in a cameo role.
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