TOKYO -- This year, the Spirit of Christmas Future is personified by a jovial, imaginative entrepreneur named Masaya Nakamura.
Nakamura, 56, is a father of Pac-Man, the video game phenomenon that gobbled up a lion's share of the arcade trade and now is munching its way into living rooms across America. A home video version is expected to be among this year's hottest Christmas items.
The hardware and market for home video are largely American, the software still comes mostly from Japan.
Nakamura is widely credited with masterminding the video game craze. He founded Namco Ltd. and says he is '200 percent' astounded by the young industry's success.
Pac-Man has swallowed over $1 billion in quarters since hitting the arcades less than two years ago.
The home version of Pac-Man is made by the Atari division of Warner Communications Inc., whose sophisticated new 5200 home video system is expected to entice many to buy what financial analysts say is the most lucrative innovation in family entertainment since television.
The advanced system offers graphics, color and controls similar to its arcade cousins. It takes a broad array of game cassettes, including the popular Space Invaders, new games like Super Breakout and Centipede, more traditional games like soccer and football and, of course, Pac-Man.
Other toy makers like Coleco, Mattel and Midway Manufacturing are close behind. But analysts predict Atari's edge on the market, combined with arcade sales, will net the company about $2 billion this year.
Pac-Man -- Puckman in Japan -- gets its name from the Japanese 'paku paku' -- roughly 'gobble gobble.' It was the brainchild of Namco's Toru Iwatani, who says he was inspired by a case of mid-afternoon munchies.
Its arcade family has grown with the addition of Ms. Pac-Man and Super Pac-Man. Nakamura hopes they'll be available in home cassette versions by Christmas 1983.
Also in the future is a home version of Namco's new total environment auto racing simulator, Pole Position.
For economic reasons, the Japanese are less enamored of home video, although video arcades are popping up all over Asia.
More popular among Japanese youngsters are hand-held, liquid crystal electronic games first introduced last year by Nintendo Co. of Kyoto. The comparatively inexpensive ($20-$30) games are also available in the United States, but aren't expected to offer much competition to the advanced home video systems.
More traditional action toys and models of popular, animated heroes such as Gundam dominate the Japanese market. Gundam battles supervillains on Japanese TV.
A new generation of sophisticated, computer-controlled robots is also appearing -- diminutive cousins of the factory robots that have given such a boost to Japanese industry.
One new toy, Armatron, is gaining popularity among adults as well as children. An arm with 140 gears linked to an electric motor transports light cargo at the touch of two remote levers.
Nakamura thinks smart robot toys he calls 'mechatronics' might create as big a splash as home video in years to come.
Perhaps the first to hit the market will be an endearing little fellow named Mappy, a mouse in a policeman's uniform that pursues balloon villians in a maze.
Mappy starts with a cry of 'Ikimasu' -- 'Let's go' -- and finds his way through sensors at his feet. Having worked his way around the maze, Mappy pops the balloon with a cry of, 'Yatta-ze' -- 'I caught it.'
Other Namco prototype robots unveiled at a recent Tokyo trade show are more sophisticated. One named Atoma can answer simple questions posed verbally, tell horoscopes and pick up objects on command.
The company also displayed an entire Robot Circus with mechanical acrobats and entertainers capable of juggling, riding unicE:les, playing musical instruments, lifting weights -- even cE:ling across a high-wire.
