As an ode to the 80’s arcade game, Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary is a way to pay tribute to the iconic Google Doodle game “Pac-Man,” which inspired a whole generation of Video game lovers. Since its original release in 1980, people of each age group would spend hours trying Pac-Man’s tiny pizza-shaped minion to eat all the pellets and avoid ghosts. 2010 was the year when on Pac-Man 30th Anniversary, the game was re-designed and became the first playable Google Doodle.
What is Pac-Man?
Pac-Man is the most popular and iconic arcade game. It consists of a pizza-shaped character with one slice missing who moves around a maze trying to eat small dots. In doing so, he must avoid four ghosts trying to haunt it. Pac-Man continued to gain momentum since the day it was created due to endless versions and limitations. Its innovative design leads the way for several other popular video games.
In the same year, it was released in the U.K, almost 250 million games were being played on 100,000 coin-up arcade machines each week.
When was it Invented
Pac-Man was created by the Japanese Game Developer Company “Namco Limited” in 1980. A year later, it was released in the United States on every video game platform. The lead designer of Pac-Man was Iwatani Tohru, whose main goal was to create simple and easy-to-play games rather than violent theme games such as Space Invaders, Galaxian and Tail Gunner, which were popular at that time. The name Pac-Man is derived from the word “puck-puck,” a Japanese term used to describe munching. Instead of hurting someone like in other popular games, its character eats its way toward success.
Celebrations of Pac-Man’s 30th Anniversary
To celebrate the 30th birthday of the world’s most classic arcade game, an event is organized with several Pac-Man-themed activities and games. Visitors can play fun games and win several prizes by participating in such activities. The most exciting feature of this event is a life-sized duplicate model of a Pac-Man maze.
Remaking of the Game
The new Pac-Man championship edition 2, released in honour of its 30th Anniversary, has an even better game layout, graphics and sound effects. It does include a HUD, but its mazes are developed for 16:9 screens. But as a playable Google Doodle game, the game developers created a perfect pixel version of the original game and made it full-screen. Now with plenty of new features, the game has been translated into more than a hundred languages. Apart from playing it directly from Google’s home page, it is also available for play on many other video game platforms, including Xbox, play station, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android devices.
Now the mobile version of the game is available on the play store.
How to Play Pac-Man Google Doodle Game on Your Google Browser
Google’s easter egg is a free Pac-Man play feature for its users. To play it, you simply have to open your Google browser and type Pac-Man in the search bar. Google Doodle page will open, click on play, and the beginner level of the game will load. This beginner level was not present in the game’s original version, as it was explicitly designed when Google wanted to create its Doodle.
How to Play Pac-Man on your Mobile
The steps are similar; you just have your Google browser and type Pac-Man. Select “Pac-Man doodle” from your search results and enjoy. Moreover, you can download the mobile version of Pac-Man from the play store.
How does the Game work?
You can play Pac-Man with either keyboard arrows or a joystick. The player will have to move Pac-Man in a maze where its goal is to eat the line of 240 dots, and in doing so, it has to avoid collision with four villains known as ghosts. In case of a crash, the player loses a life.
The four ghosts are Inkey, Blinky, Clyde and Pinky, and they all have different attacking methods. If Pac-Man eats power pallets in four corners of the screen, the ghosts will turn dark blue, and Pac-Man will be able to eat them. To earn additional points, the Pac-Man has to eat bonus objects scattered in the maze.
The highest score on the latest version of Pac-Man to this date is 3,333,360 points.
