By Wailin Wong | Procrastination among cubicle workers of a certain generation is likely
to skyrocket today, thanks to a bit of nostalgic fun on Google’s home
page.
The Google doodle, which often gets small makeovers in honor of historic
events and anniversaries, has been transformed into a playable Pac-Man
game to commemorate the game’s thirtieth birthday. According to a post
on the official Google Blog, the Pac-Man tribute is the first-ever
playable Google “doodle.” To relive your childhood arcade memories,
simply wait a few seconds for the game to begin or click the “Insert
Coin” button, which appears under the search box.
In the blog post, developer Marcin Wichary said that he and Google doodler Ryan Germick “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.” Inserting another coin also causes Ms. Pac-Man to appear so that two people can play at once, with one person on the arrow keys and the other using the W, A, S and D keys.
The game will be active for the next 48 hours, Wichary said.
Pac-Man was developed by Japanese corporation Namco and distributed in the U.S. by Chicago-based Midway Games. Midway filed for bankruptcy last year and sold most of its assets to a unit of Warner Bros.
I played – am still playing – oh I mean I’m working really hard to finish that report by end of business – please don’t anyone call me – I am glued to my computer for the rest of the day ……..Google – congrats for a great doodle
Thanks, Google, for the trip down memory lane! I’m just wishing I had a joystick instead of my arrow buttons on my laptop!
Bad move Google. Most annoying. I have changed my search page to Bing.