TOKYO – Masaya Nakamura, the "Father of Pac-Man" who founded the Japanese video game company behind the hit creature-gobbling game, has died. Nakamura, who died on Jan. 22, founded Namco, part of Bandai Namco, in 1955. It started out as just two mechanical horse rides on a department store rooftop but went on to pioneer game arcades and amusement parks. Bandai Namco, formed in 2005 from a merger of two game companies, confirmed Monday that Nakamura had died. Pac-Man, designed by Namco engineer and video game maker Toru Iwatani, went on sale in 1980, at a time when there were few rival games, such as Space Invaders.

FILE - In this Aug. 12, 2015, file photo, a woman walks past a three-meter (nine-foot)-tall Pac-Man made of Lego bricks, in Tokyo's Shinjuku area. Masaya Nakamura, the "Father of Pac-Man" who founded the Japanese video game company behind the hit creature-gobbling game, has died on Jan. 22, 2017, at age 91, the company Bandai Namco said.