
Pac-Man Fever Takes Over the 1980s
From Everything 80s by Jamie Logie | 1980s Pop Culture & Nostalgia
April 29, 2026 · 50 min
About this episode
The episode discusses how Pac-Man revolutionized the video game industry and became a pop culture phenomenon in the 1980s.
Pac-Man was a solution to a major problem. That problem? The video game industry mainly attracted teenage males; no one else was really setting foot in arcades. Game designer Toru Iwatani believed he had created the right idea to change all that. Not only did he change the world of video games, but his creation ended up creating an absolute pop culture phenomenon. Pac-Man was such a hit when it first hit arcades in late 1980 that it turned the entire entertainment industry on its head. The Everything 80s Movie Review Podcast: Patreon.com
People in this episode
Host: Jamie Logie
Topics covered
- video games
- 1980s culture
- arcades
- pop culture
- entertainment industry
Keywords
- Pac-Man
- Toru Iwatani
- 1980s
- video games
- arcades
- pop culture
- entertainment
Mentioned in this episode
Products: Pac-Man
More episodes of Everything 80s
- Hulk Hogan and the Rise of Hulkamania in the 80s · April 22, 2026 · 1h 2m
- WrestleMania 3: The Biggest Event in Wrestling History (or Was It...?) · April 15, 2026 · 57 min
- ET: The Movie That Stayed at Number One for 11 Years · April 8, 2026 · 52 min
- 10 Pranks & Hoaxes That Fooled the Entire 1980s · April 1, 2026 · 44 min
- Exxon Valdez: The Neverending Damage · March 25, 2026 · 44 min
- 29 Things You Missed in Back to the Future 2 · March 18, 2026 · 41 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Everything 80s podcast page.