Namco Plug And Play

Namco started as Nakamura Manufacturing in 1955 based in Tokyo. Running childrens rides on the roof of a department store.

In 1958 the name of the company was changed to Nakamura Manufacturing Co.. Which later would become Namco.

Namco's first game was made in 1970. A coin-operated mechanical simulator, "Racer".

In 1974 Namco bought Atari-Japan, Atari's Tokyo subsidiary and began running video arcades featuring Atari Games.

In 1978 Namco opened its first branch in the U.S.A: Namco America and Licensed games to developers such as Atari and Midway (producers of "Mortal Kombat" and much more)

Namco was the first company to be licensed by Nintendo and for a short time were allowed to manufacture their own cartridges for use in Nintendo consoles.

In 2005, the companies Bandai and Namco merged to become Namco Bandai Holdings. The third largest video game company in Japan.

In 2006 Namco absorbed Bandai and became Namco Bandai Games and remains that to this day.

In 1979 "Galaxian" was released with revolutionary RGB (red green blue) graphics.

"Galaga", the follow up to "Galaxian", was released in 1981 and was a smash hit as a sequel.

"Dig Dug" and "Xevious" were released in 1982 and were pillars in Namco's franchise.

"Pole Position" was released in 1983. All these games helped bolster video games "Golden Years"

"Ms Pac Man" was an unauthorized sequel to "Pac Man" (a gaming staple) in 1981. Produced by Midway studios.

Due to "Ms Pac Man's" overwhelming success Namco (the licenser of "Pac Man", (the original) licensed "Ms Pac Man".

"Mappy" was released in 1983 as one of the earliest scrolling platformers. It was distributed by Bally/Midway.

JAKKS Pacific made a Plug and Play console (a stand alone joy-stick console that can be plugged into a television via audio-video cable) in 2003 with "Dig Dug" and "Galaxian".

In 2004 JAKKS Pacific produced a Plug and Play console featuring Namco's: "Ms Pac Man", "Pole Position", "Galaga", "Xevious", and "Mappy".

*All info except the last 9 facts were taken from Wikipedia.com. The last 9 are from what can be gathered from the 2 Plug and Play consoles.