Happy Birthday, Pac-Man!
Puck-Man was the original name for Pac-Man
May 22, 1980
Namco’s upcoming video game “Puck-Man” is location tested in a movie theater complex in Japan. After favorable initial testing, the game difficulty is slightly tweaked along with renaming the game to “Pac-Man”. Midway, Namco’s U.S. distributor, thought that vandals would alter the letter “P” to an “F”. While the game was not officially released in Japan until July of that year (October 10th in the US), the creators of the game consider May 22 to be Pac-Man’s birthday because it was the first time the game was shown to the general public.
One of the little known facts about Pac-Man is that it was specifically developed to be popular with women. Most video games of that time had a war or sports theme to them and women were generally not interested in those games. Pac-Mac would be the first game popular with both men and women and was the first video game to become a social phenomenon. Pac-Mac generated over $2.5 billion by the 1990’s, becoming one of the highest grossing video games of all time. I’m not sure how many of you remember “Pac-Mac Fever”, but Pac-Mac was the first video game to break into the mainstream, forever changing our culture and society.
The Wright Patent
May 22, 1906
Orville and Wilbur Wright are granted the first airplane patent in the U.S. for their “new and useful improvements in Flying Machines.” (US No. 821,393)
Apple Passes $500 Billion Valuation
February 29, 2012
The stock value of Apple, Inc. surpasses $500 billion, setting a new record for the company which was already the world’s most valuable company at the time. This day marks a milestone on the historic run for the company from near-bankruptcy in the 1990’s to one of the most, if not the most, dominant technology company in recent history. Apple would later become the first company in history to surpass $700 billion in value in February 2015.
Tokyo Skytree Completed
February 29, 2012
Construction of the Tokyo Skytree broadcast tower, delayed two months due to the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, is completed on leap day – February 29th, 2012. The Tokyo Skytree is the tallest structure in Japan and the world’s tallest tower.