Google Honors PAC-MAN’s 30th Birthday
I opened my browser today and went to www.Google.com for some searching just as usual, but what I found there on Google’s homepage was not usual at all…
I am familiar with Google’s tradition of creating short-term logos or “doodles” for various events and holidays, so at first I didn’t pay much thought to why Google’s logo was now displayed as a PAC-MAN game board. That is, until I heard the game’s iconic 80’s arcade style theme music start to play and the “Ghosts” on it started moving!
A click or two on the logo proved that there was an actual functioning game of PAC-MAN going on inside of Google’s logo (arrow keys also work too). Simply press the “Insert Coin” button or just wait for a few seconds after the page loads to start playing!
After some peaking under the hood, I found out what the occasion was. Written in the pages source code was the term “PAC-MAN’s 30th Birthday! Doodle with PAC-MAN™ & ©1980 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc”.
I think this may be the first playable Google logo that I have ever seen. And according to the official Google blog, this game will continue for the next 48 hours…
We also added a little easter egg: if you throw in another coin, Ms. PAC-MAN joins the party and you can play together with someone else (PAC-MAN is controlled with arrow keys or by clicking on the maze, Ms. PAC-MAN using the WASD keys).
