GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers. There were video games and arcade hits before Pac-Man, but Namco's ghost-gobbling hero quickly became a pop-culture icon after his debut in May 1980.

Exactly 45 years ago, a little yellow chomping circle that gets tormented by colourful ghosts was displayed on an arcade machine in Japan for the very first time. The rest, as they say, is history.

As someone who was brought up on Pac-Man the computer game, I jumped at the chance to experience a live version ahead of its official opening this Friday in Manchester. Did you know with a Digital ...