Namco Networks America Inc. and mobile media provider Handmark have launched "Pac-Man Fever" for BlackBerry.

Research In Motion's BlackBerry users can now enjoy the soothing "waca-waca" of Pac-Man and other old-school games from their smartphones. The games are available for download via Handmark online and on-device stores.

"Namco Networks' goal is to deliver fun, high-quality titles across as many wireless platforms as possible and reach the widest audience of consumer mobile users," said Scott Rubin, vice president of sales and marketing at Namco.

"We have had great success with games available on RIM BlackBerrys for over a year, so we knew that Pac-Man Fever site would be an effective way to bring higher visibility to the Namco Networks games we have available to BlackBerry users," he said.

The link to the Pac-Man Fever category is on RIM's mobile portal, giving the outlet high visibility to BlackBerry users.

The Pac-Man Fever games category include such classics as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Mac, Galaga, Dig Dug and Super Pac-Man.

When BlackBerry users access the RIM portal, a link to Pac-Man Fever appears as one of the featured links. By clicking there, BlackBerry users are led to an area where they can select any of the Namco games currently available in this category.

This initiative follows on the heels of a similar effort for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, which added the Namco games to Apple's on-device application store and iTunes, available for download at $9.99 each. The games have been upgraded to take full advantage of the iPhone's capabilities, such as controlling the game with an accelerometer.

Similarly, on June 3 Pac-Man gobbled its way onto the Alltel Wireless network. The carrier celebrated its Pac-Man Fever by giving away a limited-edition Pac-Man arcade machine and other prizes to customers subscribed to mobile games for Namco.

Founded in 2006, Namco, a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings USA Inc., is a publisher and developer of mobile games and content.

Since the 2002 launch of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, Namco has delivered such classic arcade games as Galaga, Dig Dug and Pole Position II to mobile phones, and introduced new titles such as Pool Pro Online and Pac-Man Pinball.

Namco claims that its family of Pac-Man games remains in the top 10 of all mobile games sold nationwide. The company also claims that it is the sole distributor of video game ringtones.

Headquartered in Kansas City, MO, Handmark develops and distributes mobile media for a variety of mobile devices, including BlackBerry, Palm Treo, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile. Handmark also has offices in London, San Francisco, Atlanta and Dallas.

"Namco Networks strives to provide entertaining, fun, high quality games to the mass-market consumer," Mr. Rubin said.

Of the 1 billion total mobile phones sold each year, 118 million are smartphones, Mr. Rubin said. He cited a Gartner report in May that said he smartphone market is set to grow 20 percent in the next two years. The BlackBerry currently has the largest market share of any smartphone.

"By having the Pac-Man Fever featured on RIM's homepage and expanding the number of games we offer to BlackBerry users, Namco Networks has access to another great channel to reach a greater number of consumers with our entertaining casual titles," he said.