A Playable PAC-MAN On Google Doodle

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A Playable PAC-MAN On Google Doodle

Posted by kdawson on Friday May 21, 2010 @04:25AM from the game-will-never-be-over-not-really dept.

Kilrah_il and several other readers made sure we noted Google's tribute to PAC-MAN on its 30th anniversary — a playable game implemented in JavaScript. "'To play the game, go to google.com during the next 48 hours (because it's too cool to keep for just one day) and either press the "Insert Coin" button or just wait for a few seconds.' There is also an Easter egg for those who want to recall one of the first multi-player games, but you'll have to RTFA to find it." This doodle may overshadow the Official PAC-MAN 30th Anniversary Destination.

21 of 286 comments (clear)

Meh by swanzilla · 2010-05-21 04:29 · Score: 5, Funny

I'm holding out for Q-Bert.

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0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
1. Re:Meh by TheKidWho · 2010-05-21 04:34 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Don't worry, in 7 years we'll be playing Crysis in the google doodle.
2. Re:Meh by Monkeedude1212 · 2010-05-21 04:38 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  And in 7 years, you still won't be able to get more than 24 FPS out of the cinematics.
3. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · 2010-05-21 05:41 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  The ghosts don't stay blue forever. They work just fine.
  Sure, they had to compromise on the map to make it spell "Google". Oh well.
  The ghost logic is supposedly the same as in the original game. It's possible that it doesn't work as well on this map, though.
  Excuse me? Are you too much of a not-hardcore classic gamer to have the mental capacity understand the GP's very simple statement? If it's not clock-cycle-perfectly-identical to the original arcade box, it's COMPLETELY AND WHOLLY WORTHLESS and a waste of our precious, precious time.
  Time which could be better spent tweaking MAME so that it renders Pac-Man down to the nearest billionth of a second in timing accuracy. Or time which could be better spent scouring the internet for more replacement parts for our pristine arcade Pac-Man games. Geez. Don't you understand ANYTHING about how pedantic classic gamers work?
Re:So... by sunderland56 · 2010-05-21 04:35 · Score: 5, Funny

It isn't a banner ad - it isn't advertising a thing.

I bet that most people will say this is the most awesome thing Google has done all year.
Re:Multiplayer Google Doodle by tempest69 · 2010-05-21 04:40 · Score: 2, Funny

This isnt too bad until you cross the two, then my brain gets all wonky. when left controls left, and right controls right I'm kinda capable not good.. but cross them and they start moving all spastic,, sure it's all in my head.
Re:Multiplayer Google Doodle by AntiDragon · 2010-05-21 04:46 · Score: 4, Funny

Don't cross the stre^H^H^H^H pacmen!

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"...So I hung back and lurked. For 18 months. Can't beat a good old-fashioned lurking."
This triggers too many "Alarm sound" helpdesks by MrJones · 2010-05-21 04:56 · Score: 3, Funny

Having an "alarm sound" in google home page is not that wise decision, I got reports about people calling helpdesk tech support in order to report an "alarm sound", "its a virus?", "hijacked google home page, please run anti-spyware", etc, etc
Is PacMan that important to the general public? I agree is /. material, but for non-tech people I dont think it matters...

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Get my e-mail after a captcha test in: http://tinymailt
Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-05-21 05:00 · Score: 5, Funny

This is the most awesome thing Google has done all year!
Re:So... by 2obvious4u · 2010-05-21 05:02 · Score: 3, Funny

Where are my mod points when I need them...
Re:Productive Friday? Not! by Anonymous Coward · 2010-05-21 05:03 · Score: 2, Funny

You can hear your staff playing video games while you post on Slashdot? But I thought 3DRealms folded?
Javascript is evil by bradbury · 2010-05-21 05:03 · Score: 5, Funny

And I want to run a game programmed in Javascript on my computer WHY? I helped write a simulator for a PDP-10 that ran on a PDP-11 (36 bit machine on a 16 bit machine) 30+ years ago. And there was a concrete corporate need for it (we were modifying the Bliss-11 compiler which was written in Bliss-10). And even though I like PacMan (lord knows how many quarters I plugged into it at the local video game parlors in the 80's) I would still pause before I open my machine(s) up to running Javascript games.
If only from the simple perspective that an interpreted, garbage collected language (such as Javascript) is inherently less efficient than a compiled language (C, Pascal, whatever) -- and it therefore is going to burn more CPU cycles than are required to perform the functionality the game provides. AND IT IS THEREFORE NOT GREEN!
The goal of programmers (world-wide) should not be on "how do I implement something clever and cool". It should instead be on how do I reduce the CO2 footprint of my program? It is a sad state when one is promoting programs which may increase wasteful expenditure of energy (via Javascript). If /. is a "good" forum, should they not be promoting good directions?
1. Re:Javascript is evil by guyminuslife · 2010-05-21 05:19 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I think that C is not green either, since it's really more efficient to code the game in assembly code that can be inlined in the web page.
  But assembly still consumes those excess cycles. You know what's really green? Not playing Pac-Man.
  Certainly, playing Pac-Man as it was originally---as an arcade game with a dedicated CRT monitor---is out of the question.
  Actually, I'm a little concerned with your comment up there, because it seems like there may have been some CPU cycles that were wasted in your comment. And why are you posting this on Slashdot? They use Perl to handle HTTP traffic! You really need to use a website developed in C. It's the green thing to do.
  
  --
  I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
Re:So... by DeadboltX · 2010-05-21 05:08 · Score: 4, Funny

I have already received a technical support call regarding this.
"Help my computer is making alarm sounds I think something broke! Here listen to this! *holds phone to computer speaker*"

*facepalm*
Sigh... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-05-21 05:41 · Score: 1, Funny

Thanks google. This just started an argument in my office. My boss and 7 other "engineers" laughed at me when I said it was done in JavaScript.
"You can't write games in JavaScript."
"But it's a .js file."
"You can't script games!."
"But..I can show you the code.. and 50 other games written in JavaScript."
"You're an idiot."
Sigh...
Headphones++ by Kozz · 2010-05-21 05:49 · Score: 2, Funny

No kidding. I have headphones plugged in always, even when I'm not using them. That way when I click on a troll link, I'm the only one that will hear, "Hey, everybody! I'm looking at gay porno!"

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I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
time for a new monitor by flahwho · 2010-05-21 05:57 · Score: 3, Funny

DAMN GOOGLE! now I have a quarter crammed into my LCD.
Re:So... by IICV · 2010-05-21 06:13 · Score: 4, Funny

If you can't be silly while posting to Slashdot from work, when can you be silly?
Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-05-21 06:55 · Score: 2, Funny

While playing pacman at work
Re:Multiplayer Google Doodle by fulldecent · 2010-05-21 08:08 · Score: 2, Funny

Aaah, I was wondering why the "," "a", ";", and "h" keys were causing her to move!

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-- I was raised on the command line, bitch
Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-05-21 09:51 · Score: 1, Funny

Insert coin twice to enable multiplayer.
One player is controlled via arrow keys, the other by wasd.
It's not multiplayer mode, it's two-handed mode, and it's awesome— although extremely confusing and difficult.