Toru Iwatani

Toru Iwatani (岩谷 徹, Iwatani Tōru, born January 25, 1955) is a former Japanese video game designer. He is best known as the creator of the arcade games Pac-Man (1980) and Pole Position (1982).

Life and career

Iwatani was born in the Meguro ward of Tokyo, Japan. He joined the computer software company Namco in 1977. This is where he started his career in the video game business. There, he came up with the idea for a game called "Pakku-Man" and in 1980, he, along with programmer Shigeo Funaki (舟木 茂雄), a hardware engineer, a cabinet designer and Toshio Kai (甲斐 敏夫) for sound and music, finished the game. It was released to the Japanese public on May 22 of that year, where it became a huge success. It caught the attention of arcade-game manufacturer Midway, who bought the United States rights for the game and released the game in the U.S. as Pac-Man. Due to its innovative concept and continuing international popularity, it is regarded as one of the all-time classic video games. Iwatani returned to his Pac-Man roots in 2007 when he developed Pac-Man Championship Edition for the Xbox 360, which he states is the final game he will develop.