Pac-Man

Pac-Man is a 1982 Atari 2600 game from Atari, Inc., originally released in arcades in 1980, catalogued here for 4 defining game mechanics.

Atari 26001982Originally Arcade 1980Complexity 18/1002D TopdownPopular

Pac-Man is a 1982 maze video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600 as a port of Namco's 1980 arcade game. (via Wikipedia)

The genre Pac-Man helped define

Maze chase. a non-violent maze of pursuit and evasion, with power pellets briefly flipping predator and prey.

Free 2D MovementTraversalPlayer moves freely in 2D space with no forced scroll; camera follows player position.
Contact DamageCombatTouching an enemy or environmental hazard deals damage to the player without any explicit attack trigger from either party.
Lives SystemResourcePlayer has a finite number of attempts; losing all lives resets progress to a defined point or ends the game.
Wave SpawningSimulationEnemies appear in scripted or procedural groups at intervals; surviving each wave is the primary challenge loop.

Each mechanic links to how to build it in Godot, with the retro games that share it.