Toru Iwatani
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Toru Iwatani
is a Japanese video game designer who spent much of his career working for Namco. He is best known as the creator of the arcade game '' Pac-Man'' (1980). Early life Iwatani was born in the Meguro ward of Tokyo, Japan on January 25, 1955. While in kindergarten, he and his family moved to the Tōhoku region of Japan after his father got a job as an engineer for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. After becoming a junior high student, Iwatani returned to Tokyo and graduated from the Tokyo Metropolitan University High School, before graduating from the Tokai University Faculty of Engineering. Iwatani was self-taught in computers without any formal training in programming or graphical design. He often filled his school textbooks with scattered manga, which he claims had a major influence on the character designs of his games. Career At the age of 22 Iwatani joined the Japanese video game publisher Namco in 1977. Before he had joined, Namco had acquired the rights to the Japanese div ...
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Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutorials, lectures, and round Table, roundtables by industry professionals on game-related topics covering Video game programmer, programming, game design, design, audio, production, business and management, and visual arts. History Originally called the Computer Game Developers Conference, the first conference was organized in April 1988 by Chris Crawford (game designer), Chris Crawford in his San Jose, California-area living room. About twenty-seven designers attended, including Don Daglow, Brenda Laurel, Brian Moriarty, Gordon Walton, Tim Brengle, Cliff Johnson (game designer), Cliff Johnson, Dave Menconi, and Carol and Ivan Manley. The second conference, held that same year at a Holiday Inn at Milpitas, California, Milpitas, attracted abou ...
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Cutie Q
is a 1979 block breaker/video pinball hybrid arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan. The player controls a set of paddles with a rotary knob, the objective being to score as many points possible by deflecting a ball against blocks, ghosts, spinners and other objects on the playfield. It was designed by Shigeru Yokoyama, with spritework done by Toru Iwatani. It is the third and final game in the '' Gee Bee'' trilogy. ''Cutie Q'' is described as Namco's first "character game", thanks to its use of colorful and cute character designs, a choice that would be a major influence on Iwatani's next project, ''Pac-Man''. The title was derived from the band Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1968 cover of the song Susie Q, which Iwatani was a fan of. To lower manufacturing costs, it was only sold as a conversion kit for older ''Gee Bee'' and ''Bomb Bee'' arcade units. The game was ported to the PlayStation in 1996 as part of the Japanese release of '' Namco Museum Vol. 2'', w ...
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GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition to the information produced by ''GameSpot'' staff, the site also allows users to write their own reviews, blogs, and post on the site's forums. It has been owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. In 2004, ''GameSpot'' won "Best Gaming Website" as chosen by the viewers in Spike TV's second ''Video Game Award Show'', and has won Webby Awards several times. The domain ''gamespot.com'' attracted at least 60 million visitors annually by October 2008 according to a Compete.com study. History In January 1996, Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein quit their positions at IDG and founded SpotMedia Communications. SpotMedia then launched ''GameSpot'' on May 1, 1996. Originally, ''GameSpot'' focused solely on personal computer games, so a sis ...
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Tokyo Polytechnic University
is a private university in Honchō, Nakano, Tokyo. Its nickname is ''Shadai'' (写大). It was formerly known as Tokyo College of Photography (, ''Tōkyō Shashin Daigaku''). The university was founded as Konishi Professional School of Photography in Shibuya in 1923. The founder, Rokuemon Sugiura VII, was the president of Konishi Main Shop (later Konica) at that time and founded the school to fulfil the wish of Rokuemon Sugiura VI, the previous president. Since 2007, the university has offered courses in manga studies and animation studies. Tokyo Polytechnic is also notable for being one of the few universities in Japan to have a game design department, with its faculty including such notable practitioners as Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani and Xevious creator Masanobu Endō. The university also operates the Suginami Animation Museum, which focuses on the history and future of the animation industry in Japan. Alumni * Akitaro Daichi *Eikoh Hosoe (photographer) *Yoko Kamio *Takashi ...
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