The original Pac-Man arcade cabinet uses a joystick controller for movement.
Players guide Pac-Man through the maze with a four-directional joystick, moving up, down, left, or right. The control scheme is deliberately simple: Pac-Man automatically travels along corridors, and the player chooses the next direction at junctions while avoiding ghosts and collecting dots.
Unlike many arcade games of the period, Pac-Man does not require a fire button, jump button, or steering wheel. The central challenge comes from timing turns and planning routes, not from combining multiple controls. The cabinet does include coin and player-start buttons, but those are not the gameplay controller used to steer Pac-Man.
The joystick also supports one of Pac-Man's most important techniques: turning slightly before reaching a corner. Because the game buffers directional input, an early press can make Pac-Man turn immediately when he reaches the next available passage. This makes the humble joystick central to both beginner play and high-level pattern strategies.