The International Video Game Hall of Fame has announced that Namco founder Masaya Nakamura, will be inducted IVG Hall of Fame on Saturday August 7 at the Bridge View Center in Ottumwa, Iowa. In the same ceremonies, Pac-Man will be enshrined as the only game included in the Class of 2010.
Recognised by the IVGHF as an industry pioneer, Nakamura was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1925. Namco started life in Tokyo, Japan in 1955 as Nakamura Manufacturing producing mechanical rocking horses and similar children’s rides, which were installed in a number of department stores in Yokohama and Nihonbashi. The company continued this line of production through the 1960s and expanded with the addition of rides modeled after Walt Disney characters in 1966.
The company’s brand name was changed to Namco in 1971 and three years later it acquired the Japanese division of Atari, which brought Namco into the coin-op video game market. Namco Enterprises Asia was established in Hong Kong, soon followed by Namco America in California.
In 1993 Namco merged its US arcade operation Namco Operations with the newly acquired Aladdin’s Castle chain of arcades to form Namco Cybertainment.
In subsequent years Namco Cybertainment purchased several other arcade operators, further strengthening the company’s overall arcade operation. Namco Cybertainment now operates arcades under the names Time Out, CyberStation, Aladdin’s Castle, Diamond Jim’s, Space Port, and Pocket Change.
In 2005 Namco was acquired by Bandai, the leading Japanese toy maker, and the two companies were known as Namco Bandai Holdings, the third largest video game entity in Japan.
