You Only Get One Face

A strange little side quest

The rules may be simple on screen, but the backstory around You Only Get One Face is anything but tiny. Pong was field-tested in California bars in 1972 and helped launch the modern arcade-game era. The broader history adds one more wrinkle. Pac-Man went on sale in 1980, and its creator Toru Iwatani famously linked the character's shape to a pizza with a slice missing. That gives You Only Get One Face a little more company than it first appears to have.