Shortly before release, Stan Jarocki of Midway stated that Ms.

Pac-Man was conce

ived in response to the original Pac-Man being "the first commercial videogame t
o involve large numbers of women as players" and that it is "our way of thanking
all those lady arcaders who have played and enjoyed Pac-Man." The game was late
r awarded the Certificate of Merit as runner-up for Coin-Op Game of the Year at
the 1982 Arcade Awards held in January 1983.
The game went through several name changes. The original name was going to be Pa
c-Woman. That name was eventually dropped and then Miss Pac-Man was chosen, but
because of the family imagery in the third intermission, protests were feared ab
out the Pac-couple having a Pac-baby out of wedlock. The name was changed to Mrs
. Pac-Man, and then finally to Ms. Pac-Man, which rolled off the tongue easier.
These later changes (Miss, Mrs., and Ms.) all occurred within 72 hours of actual
production.
After the game became wildly popular, Midway and GCC undertook a brief legal bat
tle concerning royalties. The Killer List of Videogames notes that the game was
accomplished without Namco's consent, causing both companies to eventually turn
over the rights to Namco. Ms. Pac-Man was reportedly the first in a series of un
authorized sequels that eventually led to the termination of the licensing agree
ment between Namco and Midway.[4] GCC co-founder Doug Macrae has disputed storie
s that the game was manufactured without Namco's blessing, claiming that then-Na
mco president Masaya Nakamura had even provided feedback over character artwork
during the game's development.
Ms. Pac-Man was later released on the third Namco Museum game; however, there is
no mention of it in Namco's official archives (including the archives on all of
the Namco Museum releases).
In 2001, Namco released an arcade board featuring both Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga in
honor of the 20th anniversary of both games with the subtitle "20 Year Reunion
/ Class of 1981". It also features Pac-Man as a hidden bonus game. The later 25t
h Anniversary Edition allows all three games to be selected at the main menu.[ci
tation needed]