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posted by martyb on Saturday May 23 2015, @01:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the ghosts-of-years-gone-by dept.

Amazon is featuring an animated game of Pac-man on their front page to honor the 35th anniversary of the classic video game, and Google has also revived their interactive Pac-Man doodle from five years ago, making it their top result for searches on "Pacman". A free Android version of the game is available in both the Google and Amazon app stores, and Amazon is also discounting newer versions like "Championship Edition" and "Pac-Man Museum" games. The original Pac-Man game was created by 24-year-old programmer Toru Iwatani in 1979, and today CBS News marked the anniversary by joking that now "Pac-Man is 35. And he's still hungry."

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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 23 2015, @01:38PM

    by kaszz (4211) on Saturday May 23 2015, @01:38PM (#186857) Journal

    All these ignorant adults that said that it would make the young people wandering in a maze eating magic pills while trying to avoid the polizei. Oh... wait! *censored* ;-)

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Open4D on Saturday May 23 2015, @02:57PM

    by Open4D (371) on Saturday May 23 2015, @02:57PM (#186877) Journal

    Play the game using the layout of real streets!

    I'm not sure if this:
      - is actually still available
      - has already been covered on SN

    But here you go anyway: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-maps-pacman-company-offers-chance-to-play-classic-arcade-game-on-real-streets-10146813.html [independent.co.uk]

     
    The best way to encounter it was by accident. I hadn't heard of it. I was using Google Maps to see the location of a pub, and I noticed the button in the bottom left. I clicked it, and the site analyzed the street layout on my screen at the time, to see how the game could be fitted in.

    Within seconds you're playing Pacman on the street layout that, moments earlier, you had been looking at for some real life practical reason. Brilliant!

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by yankprintster on Saturday May 23 2015, @08:15PM

    by yankprintster (4225) on Saturday May 23 2015, @08:15PM (#186952) Homepage

    Atari 2600 Pac-Man ROM was 4 kilobytes. The free version mentioned in the summary available on Google Play for Android is 52.42 megabytes, or over 13,000 times larger. Sure it contains some bonus levels and bonus items and other things, but it just makes me smile that so much fun could be packed into such small programs back in the late 70's and 80's.