Heres How ArcadeUp Makes PacMan Home Arcade Cabinets

There are few more iconic video game characters than Pac-Man. One of the earliest and most recognizable video game mascots, Pac-Man was a massive and ongoing success, as cabinets remained mainstays in arcades and restaurants for decades after its original release. Bandai Namco is celebrating the anniversary of the game on May 22, 2025--a full 45 years after its first release in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Since then, the simple character has gone through several redesigns and revisions, from 3D platformers to pinball and even a kart racer. Bandai Namco has made the character broad and flexible, with oddball experiments like 2005's Pac Pix living alongside respectful homages like the breakout hit Pac-Man Championship Edition, which played very much like the original with new mechanics and mazes to test the skills of even the most dedicated Pac enthusiasts. But the original Pac-Man, along with Ms. Pac-Man that followed, is still the purest distillation of the idea, a game that has been ported countless times and been played throughout the years.

To mark the occasion, GameSpot spoke with Cyrus Rosenberg, SVP of licensing and business development at Arcade1Up, which has made a point of producing nostalgic, arcade-accurate scale cabinets of some of the most beloved classic arcade games around, including Pac-Man. The company has produced multiple cabinets based on Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, so we spoke with Rosenberg about working with the Bandai Namco license to create cabinets that replicate the feeling of plunking a quarter into an arcade machine in the corner of a pizza parlor.