Comparing the Two Short-Lived Pac-Man Cartoons

Jamie pits two cartoons against one another.

- Jamie Davies

It’s the 40th birthday of one of gaming’s most iconic and beloved figures, Pac-Man. He’s been with us longer than most of you reading this have probably been alive, let alone able to wrap your stubby baby-fingers around an arcade joystick. While it can be easily forgotten among all the Fortnites, FIFAs and Farmvilles of today, gaming used to be a seriously niche hobby. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the arcades of the early 80s, which were as uninviting as crack dens—if much safer—to anyone but adolescent males. This all changed with the release of Pac-Man in 1980. Without the guns, violence or aggression that were (and to an extent, still are) synonymous with gaming, Pac-Man was able to appeal to a far wider audience than any game before it, drawing in diverse crowds on a scale that gaming had, until that point, simply never seen. It was the push gaming needed to secure a permanent place in global culture, and although the industry would fall upon hard times (the 1983 US videogame crash was just on the horizon, after all), Pac-Man never faded from the public consciousness.

He’s certainly a figure worth celebrating, and on his 40th birthday, it feels appropriate to celebrate at the guest of honour’s expense! That’s right, like a best man’s speech full of shameful tales of youthful, drunken nights out, we’re gonna dredge up a decidedly shameful part of Pac-Man’s history: his forays into the world of TV. You may not be aware, but PacMan has tried his hand at being an animated TV star not once, but twice—roughly three decades apart. How do you make multiple shows based on a game with less narrative than the back of a shampoo bottle, you ask? Well, you get a little—shall we say—creative with it….