The game was developed primarily by Namco employee Toru Iwatani
over 18 months. The original title was pronounced pakku-man and was inspired by
the Japanese onomatopoeic phrase paku-paku taberu where paku-paku describes (the
sound of) the mouth movement when widely opened and then closed in succession.
Although it is often cited that the character’s shape was inspired by a pizza
missing a slice, he admitted in a 1986 interview that it was a half-truth and
the character design also came from simplifying and rounding out the Japanese
character for mouth, kuchi as well as the basic concept of eating. Iwatani's
efforts to appeal to a wider audience — beyond the typical demographics of young
boys and teenagers — would eventually lead him to adding elements of a maze. The
result was a game he entitled Pac MAN. When first launched in Japan in 1979 by
Namco, the game received a lukewarm response, as Space Invadersand other
similar games were more popular at the time

Billy L. Mitchell, (born July 16, 1965) is a video game player who is best known for
recording high scores in classic video games from the Golden Age of
Arcade Games. David Ramsey, writing in Oxford
American, called Mitchell "probably the greatest
arcade-video-gameplayer of all time".[2] His achievements include the first
perfect score in
Pac-Man. He owns the Rickey's World Famous Restaurant
chain, based in Hollywood,
  Florida. He uses the same brand to sell a line of hot
sauces

references  How
  old is pax man  http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070808113403AAvJitL   +