Japan, no. Silicon Valley, no. Massachusetts, yes!
It's a little known fact that Ms. Pac-Man was created in Wayland, Massachusetts back in 1981. That year, the most successful video game in the history of North America was designed by Doug Macrae, Kevin Curran, Steve Golson, Mike Horowitz, Chris Rode, and John Tylko who had started up General Computer earlier that year. The game went on to be licensed for production to Bally / Midway and later to Namco.
A very successful Atari 2600 version of the game was designed by Doug Macrae, Josh Littlefield, Glenn Parker, and Mark Ackerman. That was shortly followed by the 5200 version designed by Allen Wells and Steve Syzmanski and the 7800 version by Allen Wells and Bruce Burns.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.
