Google’s celebrates the 30th Anniversary Pac-Man Arcade Games with its first interactive Doogle-allowing up to 2 users to play an actual Pac Man game through 256 levels, within the Google browser. You've got 48 hours, with your best friend, to play Pac Man on Google cuz it's coming down May 22.
The search-engine giant usually creates special Doogles — a custom Google logo — for various holidays and observances. May 22 marks the 30th anniversary of the classic arcade game Pac-Man the release, and Google's converted its logo into a Pac-Man theme complete with arcade sounds. And, yes it is actually an interactive Pac-Man game that can be played using keyboard arrow keys! Linger more than 10 seconds on Google’s home page today, and you’ll see the game — which has Google logo right in the center of the board — begins automatically. You can either use the arrows on the bottom right corner of your keyboard or use your mouse to navigate through the game--navigating through the game using arrow keys keeps the rhythm of the game like Pac Man was intended to be, while using a mouse does slow things down a bit.
To begin the game, you can also either click on the logo or click on the “Insert Coin” button below the game. The Google version includes the Pac Man's game original opening theme and ‘wocka wocka’ sounds. Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and many other classic arcade games followed-while there was Pong before Pac-Man’s release, Pac-Man was the game that began 80's gaming addictions.
C-Net says the Pac-Man Doogle is Google’s “first-ever truly interactive and playable home page logo.” While traditional Pac Man has 255 levels, but Google's “re-created authentic sounds and graphics”; unlike other daily Doogle’s-which are removed from the Google home page after one day-the Pac Man Doogle will remain for 48 hours and through close of the May 22 Pac Man Anniversary.
"Google doodler Ryan Germick and I made sure to include Pac-Man's original game logic, graphics and sounds, bring back ghosts' individual personalities, and even recreate original bugs from this 1980's masterpiece," said Marcin Wichary, senior user experience designer at Google and co-creator of the Pac-Man 'doodle'."Pac-Man seems like a natural fit for the Google homepage. They're both deceptively straightforward, carefully hiding their complexity under the hood. There's a light-hearted, human touch to both of them."
A few months ago, the Google team discovered that May 22 would be the 30th anniversary of the release of Pac-Man in Japan, and began its foray into developing the them. Originally termed 'Puck Man' back in the 80's, that name was rejected in the United States because of the propensity of the “P” to chip and look like an “F”–the resulting issue obvious. So 'Pac' it is. Originally called Puck Man, Pac-Man launched in the U.S. in October 1980 and went on to sell more than 100,000 units in its first year of production. The name of the Pac Man arcade game comes from the sound of eating, says the official Pac-Man website. "Paku" is the Japanese sound for "chomp."
The game is listed by Guiness World Records as the world's most successful coin-operated game. With props to pop culture mainstay, at 11 a.m. ET today (midnight in Japan), Google turned its homepage over to the Pac-Man game on its browser page that can be played for the next 48 hours. Developers for the Google Pac Man version have gone to painstaking lengths, to make the game as authentic to the original as possible and even including a two-player game option. Click the “Insert Coin” button twice and it will bring up a second player-- in the form of Ms. Pac-Man-- so two people can play the same game simultaneously. (use the W-A-S-D keys to control the second player.)
GAME OVER? Lose your Pac Man Google game, and your Google page will automatically be forwarded to search results related to 'PAC-MAN 30th Anniversary'--that's the only glitch, would have been funnier had Google directed users to tips and tricks for Pac Man.