Ms. Pac-Man may well be the most successful video game sequel ever, and not just because it had the privelege of following Pac-Man. After demonstrating the seemingly impossible feat of adding to perfection and creating even more perfection, Ms. Pac-Man outlasted even its predescesor, remaining an essential (and profitable!) arcade game for decades after its release. Only Galaga has a comparable legacy, and so it may seem appropriate that both Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga are products of legendary arcade game manufacturer Namco. Yet the surprising truth is, Namco had absolutely nothing to do with the creation of Ms. Pac-Man!
As 1982 began, American game company Midway had concern that their prized import, the two-year-old Pac-Man, was showing its age. A sequel would help revitalize Pac-Mania and keep the profits rolling. Namco assured Midway they were indeed working on a sequel, but could not offer a solid delivery date. Meanwhile, a company by the name of General Computer Corporation, specializing in hacks and modifications of existing arcade games, was at the end of a lawsuit with Atari over a conversion kit GCC made for Atari's Missile Command. As part of the settlement, GCC promised not to sell any more conversion kits unless they had permission from the game's original manufacturer. It just so happened they had a new kit ready to go, which would turn Pac-Man into a game called Crazy Otto. Crazy Otto kept a lot of Pac-Man's mechanics, with a hero named Otto responsible for clearing a maze of dots while being chased by four enemies. But the new game also differed from Pac-Man in significant ways. The maze changed every few levels. Bonus items moved through the maze instead of staying in one place. And the enemies had randomness in their artifical intelligence, eliminating the famous "patterns" of Pac-Man. GCC showed Crazy Otto to Midway, hoping for permission to sell the new kit. Midway saw exactly the Pac-Man sequel they were hoping for, and instead made arrangements to buy the code from GCC outright. Believing their deal with Namco allowed them to introduce new products with the Pac-Man name, Midway transformed Crazy Otto into a "proper" Pac-Man sequel, and introduced a new character in the process, the now-famous Ms. Pac-Man.
Ms. Pac-Man was an instant smash hit. Unfortunately, like they often do when something makes a lot of money in a short amount of time, threats of lawsuits began circulating. GCC felt they were owed a cut of Ms. Pac-Man's royalties. Midway disagreed, believing they had paid GCC for complete ownership of the new code. The arguments didn't get very far, however, before a revelation stopped them cold: Namco had not granted Midway permission to modify Pac-Man, or use its characters or code in any other game! By this point, Midway had actually created a number of other Pac-Man sequels without Namco's involvement, including Pac-Man Plus, Baby Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man. Namco cancelled their contract with Midway over these unauthorized sequels, and threatened further legal retaliation. The disagreement between them now moot, Midway and GCC both offered to sign ownership of Ms. Pac-Man over to Namco. Namco accepted without additional legal action, and so Ms. Pac-Man was added to Namco's roster of legendary video games.
Ironically enough, GCC would get to work with Ms. Pac-Man again, thanks to their relationship with Atari. Once the Missile Command dispute was settled, Atari actually hired GCC to help them develop new arcade and home video games. Among many other works, GCC eventually ported Ms. Pac-Man to all three of Atari's original video game consoles, the Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and Atari 7800. The Atari 2600 version in particular was praised for its surprisingly excellent capture of the arcade game, especially when compared to the 2600's take of the original Pac-Man. Ms. Pac-Man also appeared on many home computers as part of AtariSoft's catalog. Further revivals by Tengen and then by Namco themselves helped establish Ms. Pac-Man's presence on just about every home and portable game console to this day. And all of this from a game no one had permission to make!