Best Ms. Pac-Man Fan Art (Which We Drew)

Ms. Pac-Man, one of the first playable female characters in video games, first appeared on the scene in 1982, wearing a fur stole and heavy stage makeup in a cover artwork describing her as “the new fatal woman in the gaming world. ” She was yellow. She was spherical. And she was unforgettable.

Pac-Man’s playable wife had actually been created as a reward for all the female players who had powered the original. Pac-man at great heights. Stan Jarocki, Midway Games spokesperson put it this way to Electronic games in 1982: “Pac-man it was the first commercial video game to involve large numbers of women as gamers. It expanded our customer base and made Pac-man a hit. Now we are producing this new game Ms. Pac-Man, as our way of thanking all those arcade ladies who have played and enjoyed Pac-man. “

Did those “lady arcaders” appreciate that one of the earliest representations of a playable woman in a game involved lipstick, a bow tie, and interstitial scenes depicting the romance and eventual progeny of Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man? I know I wouldn’t have! Of course, Midway only had a limited number of pixels with which to communicate the idea of ​​femininity, so the results were simplistic and stereotyped, but the game played very well, sold well, and received critical acclaim for its improvements with compared to the original. Pac-man.

And so in 2021, we look back on Ms. Pac-Man’s legacy, and we celebrate her through the power of our artistic talents. Without looking for any of the original artwork depicting it, the Polygon staff went out of their way to remember what it looked like, drawing it based on those memories, and some of us even tried to give it a new look for a new era.

MATT PATCHES

Image: Matt Patches

“I reimagined Ms. Pac-Man as a combination of Christine Baranski from Oh mama and Christine Baranski from The good fight. “

MIKE MAHARDY

Image: Mike Mahardy

“In retrospect, the teeth were a bad idea. The Timbs, however, were not. “

JULIA LEE

Image: Julia Lee

“So I was going to do a sultry booba Ms. Pac-Man as a tongue-in-cheek joke, but then I got worried that people wouldn’t be able to tell it’s a joke and I’d look like a weird pervert. Here we are. Waka Waka. “

CARPENTER NICOLE

Image: Nicole Carpenter

“Untitled, 2021 (water-soluble wax pastels on paper)”

PETRANA RADULOVIC

Image: Petrana Radulovic

“I wanted to capture Ms. Pac-Man always yearning for what is out of her reach, while fighting society’s expectations and the constant reminder that she will always be in the shadow of Pac-Man, without an identity of her own.”

ANA DIAZ

“The title of this piece is’ Mrs. Pac-Woman ‘, because I don’t know why he took Mr. Pac-Man’s last name. This piece, when viewed alongside Petrana Radulovic’s, illustrates the duality that comes with being a woman in games. In it, we see Ms. Pac-Man eating a fruit enhancer and then breaking the glass ceiling.

I made this piece with the first web-based drawing app that came up after a Google search. I added the flowers because it was a pre-loaded shape in Sketch.io, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think of Ari Aster’s Midsummer when drawing it “.

PATRICK GILL

Image: Patrick Gill

“I feel like this speaks for itself.”

RYAN GILLIAM

Image: Ryan Gilliam

“On this Polygon Draws, I went for something simpler, but dare I say refined? – Ms. Pac-Man. I tried to combine some of the more detailed 3D versions of the character with the sprite that people know and love. And I think I have succeeded here.

But then I screwed up. I worked really hard to get those polka dots in there, only to find that she always wears solid pink or red boots with a matching bow. And now we only have Ms. Pac-Man through damn Minnie Mouse. I am sorry about the mistake. But I won’t fix it. “

WELL

Image: Owen Good

“I drew a lot of Ms. Pac-Man in third grade (1981-1982, if you must know), picking up her features from a series of trading cards and stickers that I pasted all over the inside of my school desk. So after trying a more anthropomorphic Ms. Pac-Man, which didn’t turn out well at all, I went back to what I knew, throwing a pretty bad joke about boxed wine. “

– Owen, Mrs. Miles’s class, Elkin Elementary School

JAMES BAREHAM

Image: James Bareham

“All I can remember about Ms. Pac-Man is that she was yellow, round, had a red bow, and her eyes were drawn in a retro 1930s style. However, I completely forgot that she also had hands and Red boots. Basically, this is my excuse as to why my drawing of Ms. Pac-Man is bad. “

CHRIS PLANTE

Image: Chris Plante

“I wondered, ‘What if Ms. Pac-Man began a path to human evolution, like the first sea creatures to gasp for air on land?’ From there, the pen took over. “

CASS MARSHALL

Image: Cass Marshall

“This is a strong Ms. Pac-Man who is saving Pac-Man with the power of the gun and empathy. A Ms. Pac-Man doing well in the action movie market. “

SADIE GENNIS

Image: Sadie Gennis

“Imagine what Ms. Pac-Man would look like in a sexy CW adaptation from the creator of Riverdale. You don’t have to, because this is all here. “

NICOLE CLARK

Image: Nicole Clark

“They kissed.”