Google has launched its first ever interactive doodle worldwide, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of one of the most recognized gaming icons in history, Pac-Man. With this doodle, users will be able to play the game straight from the doodle which will be broadcasted on Google homepages across the world, including Singapore.

How to play the game.

The interactive doodle will allow users to play the all-time favorite game by clicking on the “insert coin” button or when the game automatically starts after 10 seconds of waiting. To pay the homage that Pac-Man deserves as a ground-breaking innovation in the gaming world, Google equipped the doodle with many unique characteristics from the original Pac-Man game.  From preserving the distinct personalities of the ghosts Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde (yes they have unique traits) to re-creating programming bugs from the original game, Sr. User Experience designer at Google, Marcin Wichary, along with Google doodler, Ryan Germick, remained as faithful to the spirit of Pac-Man as possible.

Users have 48 hours to challenge themselves to reach the 255th level until the doodle goes down at 12 midnight, Monday (24 May).

Here are the top ten reasons why Google thinks that Pacman is awesome.

Top Ten Reasons why Pac-Man is awesome

1. Pac-Man was the first game to produce video game related character goods
2. The name came from the eating sound for “chomp” in Japanese, “paku-paku”
3. In 2005, Pac-Man received the Guinness World Records award for being the “Most Successful Coin-Operated Game”
4. In 2010, Guinness World Records: Gaming Edition, Pac-Man was proclaimed to be the best known Video Game Character, beating both the Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog
5. Each of the 4 ghosts has its Japanese and English names. In Japan they started as Fickle, Chaser, Ambusher and Stupid. Their English names are known as Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde
6. Pac-Man was the first “cute” game produced and was created around the idea of women, men and couples playing video games.  Before Pac-Man, games were primarily space shooters and/or alien games.  The color of the ghosts were intentional as Iwatani-san thought that colorful enemies would be harder to dislike
7. The arcade version of Pac-Man first launched in Tokyo, Japan on May 22, 1980; it launched in the U.S. October 1980
8. The game was originally called PUCK MAN but was not accepted in the U.S. because if part of the “P” chipped off it would turn into an “F”
9. The game’s popularity in North America is especially notable as the arcade machine sold more than 100,000 units in its first year of production
10. Pac-Man became an economic term. When a company that is about to be acquired instead takes over the hostile company that was attempting to acquire it, it’s called the “Pac-Man” defense. The name was coined after the role reversal that occurs when Pac-Man eats power cookies

Just to let you know we are serious about having fun

• All 255 levels of the original Pac-Man is available, include the garbled level 256 also known as the “kill screen”
• All original sounds, visuals and colours are used within the doodle
• There is a bug in the original Pac-Man game that results in Pac-Man sometimes going through a ghost unharmed. This is recreated in our game too
• Ms. Pac-Man even gets her own sounds and death sequence

Marcin Wichary, senior UX designer and developer who is the creator of the doodle shares his childhood memories and passion for the iconic game. Read more about his personal experiences about the all-time favorite game here.

BTW, most of the text are cut and paste from Google rep’s mail to me. I think more importantly is to play the game immediately, right? 🙂

http://www.google.com

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