Google Pacman

Seems like I'm not the first person to post about this, still, it's worth a post. Today Namcos legendary Pacman game celebrates 30 years, and Google pops it up a notch with a real Pacman game in JavaScript on their main page.

Go to Google & press the button to play a game now! Or just wait a while, it will load automatically.

You probably know how to play the game already, but if you don't, it's easy. Just roll around the maze using the arrow keys, eat the round dots, avoid the ghosts, and once all dots are gone you move on to the next level. If you eat a large dot you get a power up, the ghosts turn blue, and you can eat them for a short while. Note that when they start blinking they are about to turn back, so stay back! Once in a while a fruit pops up below the center cage, which you can fetch for added points. The only goal of the game is to gain a high score, but it's pretty addicting! Every three levels you'll be awarded with a short comical animation.

Also, if you press the button again you Miss Pacman will pop up in the game!

She is controlled by the WADS keys, so you can play two people by the same computer. Pretty neat. :) I don't know how many levels there are, and Google hasn't revealed anything yet, but seeing as they've been careful to port over all the features from the original games (the original sounds, the original sprites & even some original bugs from the real game!) it's possible that the game features the same amount of levels too ... or it's just unlimited. You can read Googles blogpost about it right here.

Here's a bunch of screenshots from the game (Googles version), starting with the Pacman logo and sprite sheet (useful, maybe? I tried ripping the game, but Googles source code is too confusing, this is the only useful part of my failed attempt). I didn't get very far in the game, but far enough to note that all levels look the same, the ghosts get progressively faster, and, well, I've pretty much said everything else.

That's the logo.

Those are the sprites.

That's the end of my journey!

This is just a black screen, the transition between levels. Not so interesting.

The comical animation that pops up after level 3. :)

And finally, just a regular screen of the game in general.

I never played the real game, only a ton of flash clones over the past years, but I'm tempted to pick up the original just to see the resemblance. Hope to see more stuff like this in the future, Google!