Namco: Pac-Man, Tekken and the Arcade Golden Age

Namco made the game that made gaming. In 1980 it released Pac-Man, and the little yellow dot-muncher became the first true video game icon, a character as recognisable as Mickey Mouse and the star of a craze that pulled games into the mainstream. From that arcade beginning Namco just kept inventing: the swarming Galaga, the 3D fighting of Tekken and Soulcalibur, the drift-happy Ridge Racer, and the gloriously strange Katamari Damacy. Few studios have this deep a bench of classics, or this much playful imagination.

This is the studio's run: the arcade golden age, the fighting games, the racers, and the wonderfully eclectic rest. Here is the map.

From the arcade to the fighting game

Namco was there at the birth of the arcade and never left. In the golden age it made the maze chase of Pac-Man, the formation-flying of Galaga and the pseudo-3D racing of Pole Position. Then, as technology advanced, it reinvented itself for the polygon era, building the Tekken and Soulcalibur fighting series and the Ridge Racer racers that became PlayStation showcases. Through it all ran a streak of pure playfulness, the willingness to make something as delightfully odd as Katamari Damacy.