Pizza Hut Is Offering A Pac-Man AR Game On Their Boxes

Friends, having the benefit of being an employee at that Arkadia Retrocade in my neck of the woods, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that we keep our eyes and ears open for anything retro related. Shea Mathis, the owner and manager of the arcade has spent nearly nine years doing his best to make a visit feel like stepping into a living time capsule. Vintage posters ranging from The A-Team to Tiffany can be found on display as well as plenty of cherished toys from the ’70s and ’80s. That doesn’t mean that some exciting news doesn’t manage to slip under the radar, case in point the fact that Pizza Hut has begun to offer limited edition Pac-Man boxes as part of their ten dollar Tastemaker pizza deal. One that allows fans to play a special Pizza Hut themed Pac-Man game on their phone, right on the top of the pizza box by way of a QR code.

I certainly don’t mean to question Craig Robinson, as the actor, musician, and singer is far more accomplished and knowledgeable than I am on a great many things… but in that commercial it sounds like he first experienced Pac-Man two years after it was originally released to arcades. Perhaps he was saying that it was in 1982 when he became a master Pac-Man player? Or there is a very strong probability that I am just thinking about a humorous Pizza Hut commercial way, way too much.

At the Arkadia Retrocade we too are fans of the iconic character co-created by Toru Iwatani, in fact as I have mentioned on numerous Diary of An Arcade Employee podcasts, the Pac-Man family of arcade titles are prominently featured in the showcase row of games upon entering the arcade.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying that when closing the arcade down for the night this past Thursday, we made sure to order some Pizza Hut carry-out. Before digging into the pizzas though we took a few minutes to enjoy a couple of rounds of the “Pizza Hut Arcade” Pac-Man game.

I wouldn’t be too surprised if the top of this limited edition box doesn’t somehow manage to be displayed somewhere at the arcade.