Pac-Man has a new theme song, which Bandai Namco commissioned for the franchise’s 42nd birthday. But it’s gonna have to sell about 1.2 million copies, make Billboard’s Top 10, and go on American ...

In the beginning, Namco created “Pac-Man,” a cute exercise in 8-bit graphics that features an incomplete yellow circle navigating a dot-filled maze while avoiding colorful ghosts. An instant hit, the ...

The distinction was the first attempt at extracting narrative heft from a property that was little more than a fun maze game, but it would not be the last. Just two years after the original “Pac-Man” ...