Ms. Pac-Man[b] is a maze arcade video game developed by General Computer Corporation and published by Midway in 1982.

Controlling the title character, Pac-Man's wife, the player is tasked with eating all of the pellets in an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts.

However, due to previous legal action with Atari, Inc., GCC was forced to present the project to Midway, the North American distributor of Pac-Man.

While development had started without Namco's consent, company president Masaya Nakamura was brought in and provided feedback on the player character's design.

As the rounds progress, the speed increases, and energizers generally lessen the duration of the ghosts' vulnerability, eventually stopping altogether.

Part of the settlement terms barred GCC from selling conversion kits without consent from the original game manufacturer.

[6] Rather than scrapping Crazy Otto entirely, the programmers chose to present the finished game to Midway, Namco's American distributor of Pac-Man.

"[11] GCC co-founder Doug Macrae noted Masaya Nakamura, Namco's president at the time, gave him direct feedback on the Ms. Pac-Man character.

There were also versions for the VIC-20, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, IBM PC compatibles, Apple II and TI-99/4A released under the Atarisoft label.

The unit was shaped like a miniature arcade cabinet, was controlled with a small built-in joystick, and used a multicolor vacuum fluorescent display.

In 2001, Namco released an arcade board with both Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga in honor of the 20th anniversary of both games with the subtitle "20 Year Reunion / Class of 1981".

Ms. Pac-Man and four other games (Galaga, Mappy, Xevious, and Pole Position) are included in a self-contained joystick hand controller.

[18] Ms. Pac-Man has also been retroactively ported and adapted to various home and portable systems, which are detailed in the table below: Regarding legal issues in later years, the character's final official, playable appearance was in a Pac-Man crossover event for Sonic Dash in 2018, while her final official appearance whatsoever was as a minor cameo in the background of the Pac-Land stage in Super Smash Bros.

The GCC group agreed on October 29, 1981, to give the rights to Ms. Pac-Man to Midway in exchange for royalty payments for the game's sale.

At the time, Midway held the license from Namco for distribution of Pac-Man games, advertising, and merchandise in North America.

After the game became wildly successful, Midway and GCC undertook a legal battle concerning merchandise royalties before ultimately reaching a settlement in 1983.

[27] In August 2019, AtGames, a company that specializes in microconsoles featuring older arcade games, acquired the royalties owed to GCC.

The character had also been removed from the Arcade Archives release of Tinkle Pit in 2024, which saw Pac-Mom replace Ms. Pac-Man's appearances in the game.

Bandai Namco has not given an official reason for the change, but news outlets have assumed that it was done to avoid legal problems with AtGames.

[51] In STart, Clayton Walnum praised the Lynx version's new mazes and the added twist of the lightning power-ups, and found the game transferred well to the small screen.

[52] Julian Rignall reviewed the Atari Lynx port for CVG Magazine, writing that "it offers a fun and non-violent challenge which will appeal to anyone" giving a final score of 79 out of 100.

[54] Robert A. Jung of IGN gave the Lynx version a final score of eight out of ten, writing: "A decent adaptation overall, and a good game in its own right.

[57] The same year, Next Generation ranked the arcade version as number 12 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", saying that it has aged far better than the original Pac-Man due to its smarter monster AI, varied mazes, moving fruits and intermissions.