Happy Birthday to the game and franchise of Pac-Man, which turns 30 years old. [the actual birthday is tomorrow, if you go with the date it was introduced in Japan on May 22, 1980]
Today’s Google home page pays homage to the classic video game – complete with a fully playable game. [which I have already played several games this morning] I’m hoping this game will be available after today. I will be sure to check the Doodles page sometime later next week after it’s updated. For now, this Cnet page has recorded a sample game play.
Pac-Man Fever
Back in my junior year of high school, I was a video game addict. I played tons and tons of arcade games – both in dedicated arcades and in just about every convenience, grocery and liquor store.
The original game screen
I have played this game so many times. I used to know the pattern of how to play all 256 screens – including the infamous final screen, which is a split screen with the right side being scrambled due to the coding of the game. [geeks like me will know why this happens]
The final level of the game – screen #256
So go find an arcade with this classic game and relive the golden age of video games in celebration of this milestone anniversary. I know I plan to this weekend.
The Retro: Happy 30th Birthday Pac-Man by Banal Leakage, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Isn’t that just the coolest? With my car in the shop and being stuck at home, I may or may not have played way too much PacMan today! It was my favorite as a kid.
We all played this at the office this morning. So much fun.
One of my all time fave arcade games was the sit down vector graphics Star Wars game. Loved that to death. I’d totally own one if I got the chance.
We all played this in our office today too! I loved PacMan when I was a kid – it was the first real game I played and damn I was good. Reflexes maybe not so sharp these days – can’t imagine why!
Happy days!
Pac-Man!
I just played it for a few minutes. Fun times.
Oh, Pac Man.
I spent so much money and time on him.
I regret none of it.
hilly – I had a ton of fun on Friday. It was cool to play one of my favorite videos games.
kevin – I loved that vector Star Wars game. I played that a lot, too.
penelope – According to reports, a lot of offices worldwide played Pacman. This maze being different was more difficult, but I got the hang of it after 30 or so games.
sarah – Fun times indeed.
sybil law – No money needed this time. And it’s gone permanent – http://www.google.com/pacman – so you can play anytime now