TOGO, based on ten of the designer's pencil sketches from 1974. TOGO released it as Mogura Taiji to Japanese amusement arcades in 1975. It became a major commercial success in Japan, where it was the second highest-grossing electro-mechanical arcade game of 1976 and again in 1977, second only to Namco's popular arcade racing game in both years. Mogura Taiji was licensed to Bandai in 1977. Bandai (now part of Bandai Namco Holdings) introduced the game to the Japanese home market as a toy in 1977, called ; it was a major hit by 1978, selling over units. In the late 1970s, arcade centers in Japan were flooded with similar, derivative "mole buster" games. Mogura Taiji has since been commonly found at Japanese festivals. Mogura Taiji made its North American debut in November 1976 at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) show, where it drew attention for being the first mallet game of its type. Gerald Denton and Donny Anderson saw it and saw great potential for converting it into a carnival game by putting it in a trailer. Denton showed the game to Aaron Fechter and assigned him the task of building their own version of the game. Fechter coined the name "Whac-A-Mole" and added air cylinders "so that when air pushed up the moles, the air acted as a cushion." He developed the prototype in 1977, and Denton and Anderson presented it to the founder of Bob's Space Racers, Bob Cassata, that year. After Bob made further refinements, Bob's Space Racers began selling the game in 1977. In 1978 it debuted at a midway exhibition show, where it was the most popular game. The following year, it debuted at pinball parlours. In 1980, it was sold in the carnival, amusement park and coin-op arcade markets. Whac-A-Mole has since become a popular carnival game. Back in Japan, Namco, who were beginning to shift towards arcade video game production with hits like Galaxian (1979) and Pac-Man (1980), noticed arcade centers in Japan were flooded with "mole buster" games. To capitalize on their popularity, Namco began work on a similar game with a unique motif to help it stand out from similar games. Sweet Licks (1981) was originally designed by TOGO, who had originally named it Mole Attack. Namco purchased the rights to the game and gave it new artwork. Sweet Licks was designed by Yukio Ishikawa, a mechanical