Death of Founder of Namco

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scotland
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Death of Founder of Namco

Postby scotland » January 31st, 2017, 7:06 am

Masaya Nakamura, founder of Namco, has died at age 91.

Like Sega, Namco is a 1950s coin-op company that predates video gaming. It originally made mechanical amusements like the horses little kids ride on. The media calls him 'The father of Pac Man", but Toru Iwatani created Pac Man for Namco, and it seems like Mr. Iwatani should have that title. Founding Namco and having the foresight to start hiring talented people like Mr. Iwatani, no matter their educational level, is credit enough. No one had any idea Pac Man would be the mega-hit it was of course. Nakamura also was influential in Namco's long history with Atari.

I am a big Bosconian (and Splatterhouse every Halloween - shhhh) fan myself, so thank you Mr Nakamura for all the Namco goodness.

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Mario500
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Re: Death of Founder of Namco

Postby Mario500 » January 31st, 2017, 11:56 am

scotland wrote:The media


Who?

Robotrek
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Re: Death of Founder of Namco

Postby Robotrek » January 31st, 2017, 5:09 pm

scotland wrote:I am a big Bosconian (and Splatterhouse every Halloween - shhhh) fan myself, so thank you Mr Nakamura for all the Namco goodness.


I will challenge you to a Bosconian score challenge any day! Best classic Namco game!

Luigi & Peach
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Re: Death of Founder of Namco

Postby Luigi & Peach » January 31st, 2017, 6:52 pm

Mario500 wrote:
scotland wrote:The media


Who?


The headline on Ars Technica yesterday read "Father of Pac-Man dies." The article went on to explain that he was not so much the creator as responsible for it being so widespread, but the article headline was kind of misleading.

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scotland
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Re: Death of Founder of Namco

Postby scotland » February 1st, 2017, 5:35 am

Luigi & Peach wrote:
Mario500 wrote:
scotland wrote:The media


Who?


The headline on Ars Technica yesterday read "Father of Pac-Man dies." The article went on to explain that he was not so much the creator as responsible for it being so widespread, but the article headline was kind of misleading.


Not to take anything away from the founder of Namco, but yeah, to me the guy who *created* Pac Man should get the credit as "Father of Pac Man" and not his corporate boss, even if that boss was a kindly benefactor who helped promote the game. Maybe he gets "Grandfather of Pac Man" or "Godfather of Pac Man" of "Father of Pac Man's Boss". The whole journalistic thing about a writer writes the article but the editor writes the headline (which the author can then disavow) seems like its designed to mislead.

Robotrek wrote:
scotland wrote:I am a big Bosconian (and Splatterhouse every Halloween - shhhh) fan myself, so thank you Mr Nakamura for all the Namco goodness.


I will challenge you to a Bosconian score challenge any day! Best classic Namco game!


My brother! Bosconian is a fantastic arcade game.

Classic Namco has a half a dozen or so really classic games, and Bosconian often gets left off the list. If anyone has never tried it, maybe Robotrek can suggest the best port of the arcade game. I believe the arcade original has an eight way (not four way) joystick, and you will want that diagonal.

Robotrek
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Re: Death of Founder of Namco

Postby Robotrek » February 2nd, 2017, 12:28 am

For Bosconian, I'd recommend the Blue Ms. Pacman plug n' play with the black gamekey. Or even the purple pac man plug in play. 4 way isn't as horrible as you'd think.

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scotland
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Re: Death of Founder of Namco

Postby scotland » March 19th, 2017, 2:38 pm

This topic flowed into a conversation on Bosconian.

Saw this today - Bosconian for the Colecovision at AtariAge

https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1071


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