Namco, another Japanese company, had set its sights on winning over girls and women. “Back then,” said Namco designer Toru Iwatani, the arcade “was a playground for boys. It was dirty and smelly. So we wanted to include female players, so it would become cleaner and brighter.” Iwatani, then twenty-five, was the creator of Gee Bee and its two sequels, Bomb Bee and Cutie Q; he was tasked with producing something suitable. As he describes it, “My aim was to come up with a game that had an endearing charm, was easy to play, involved lots of light-hearted fun, and that women and couples could enjoy.”

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 687