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.

Google's Pac-Mac home page

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.

Pac-Man screen
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]

level 256
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.