Pac-Man

Pac-Man is thought by most to be the most popular game of all time. It was an instant hit when it was initially released in 1980 and is often seen as an icon in the video game world. It has been reported that the Pac-Man character is the most recognizable video game character of all time with approximately 94 percent of people knowing who he is.

The game has a fairly simple concept. The player has to eat all of the pellets of the maze on each level to proceed to the next stage. Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde are the villains of the game and do not make passing each stage so easy. They are ghost and each have their own special characteristics and strategy plan to catch Pac-Man. As a player is roaming around the maze, the ghosts will be chasing Pac-Man. If they do so happen to make contact, the player will lose one of their lives. The arcade version of Pac-Man is played with a joystick. A player can move left, right, up and down to navigate around the maze. A player will start the game off with three lives. An extra man can be earned when a player gets 10,000 points. 

The Ghosts Characteristics

Blinky is the red ghost in the game and is the most aggressive. He is a constant chaser who will always be right after Pac-Man. Pinky is the pink ghost and has ambush style tactics to get Pac-Man. Inky is the blue ghost who will often try to position himself in front of Pac-Man's mouth to get him. Clyde, often though of as the stupid one, is a chaser like Blinky, but he is not as smart and will make some dumb moves sometimes.

Power Pellets

The ghosts can become irritating during the game, and a player may want to get them off of their back for awhile. To do this, they will have to eat one of the four power pallets that are each on the four corners of the maze. Some people call these power pallets energizers. When Pac-Man eats one of these, the four ghosts will turn a flashing blue color and will start moving in a slower backwards type motion. While the ghosts are in this state, Pac-Man can eat them, and only their eyes will be seen. Their eyes will make their way back to the middle of the maze where they will have to start from again. The ghosts will stay blue for awhile and if Pac-Man does not eat a certain one, they will just turn normal again after a certain amount of seconds. As a player advances farther in the game, they will stay vulnerable for a lesser amount of time. Eventually, for advanced players who get really far, they will not change at all and the power pellet will almost become useless. We said almost, a good player will take advantage of the fact that the ghosts will still move backwards in these later stages when a power pallet is eaten. When a player is able to eat all four ghosts after eating a power pallet, they will earn 1600 point. If three are eaten, 800 points are earned. Two ghosts will give someone 400 points and one will give them 200 points. For a player who is playing for big points, eating as many ghosts as possible is the key.

Fruits

Another way to earn a large amount of points is to eat the fruit that appears sometimes in the center of the maze. Every single level is represented by a fruit.When a player eats the fruit, they are awarded with a certain amount of points that we have noted below.

Stage 1 - Strawberry - 100 points
Stage 2 - Cherry - 200 points
Stage 3 - Orange - 500 points
Stage 4 -Orange - 500 points
Stage 5 - Apple - 700 points
Stage 6 - Apple - 700 points
Stage 7 - Melon - 1000 points
Stage 8 -Melon - 1000 points
Stage 9 - Galaxian - 2000 points
Stage 10 - Galaxan - 2000 points
Stage 11 - Bell - 3000 points
Stage 12 - Bell - 3000 points
Stage 13 - Key - 5000 points

The Intermission Cartoons

When a player passes certain levels, a short cartoon will be played. These cartoons are little skits of Pac-Man and the ghosts doing battle with each other. The cartoons are played after a player completes stage two, stage five, stage nine and every four stages after that. These cartoons made the game more fun and gave a player a little rest from their risk getting tired while playing.

Using Patterns as a strategy to Pass Pac-Man Stages 

Pac-Man was designed so that a player can come up with their own patterns to pass the various stages. I remember back when the game was out, there were even books published that showed people patterns to use to pass various stages. When a player had their patterns mastered, they could easily pass the different stages. If they messed up one time during a stage, their pattern would get messed up, and they would have to pass the stage by freely playing the level. The best strategy at getting far when playing Pac-Man is to just come up with your own patterns. This of course will take hours, maybe hundreds of hours of game play.

Pac-Man spinoffs

The success of Pac-Man led to spinoffs that were also popular video games. Ms. Pac-Man came out in 1981 and was followed in 1982 with Baby Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man and Pac and Pal. 1983 saw the releases of Junior Pac-Man and Professor Pac-Man. Pac Land came out in 1984 and finally the 3D game Pacmania in 1988.

My personal experience playing Pac-Man

I was never a master at Pac-Man, but I was a player who had full control of the game and got pretty far. I often got to the key level on a consistent basis.  Honestly, I played Ms. Pac-Man more than I did Pac-Man. Nevertheless, I'm sure that I spent thousands of dollars in quarters alone on the original Pac-Man. I never took anyone's patterns and made my own patterns in the game. On some levels, I would have my own pattern for only a fraction of the beginning of the stage and then freestyle fro there. Something that I remember happening at times was when you thought that you were dead and for some reason Pac-Man would go right through the ghost and still be alive. Your disappointment was suddenly joy as you continued to play. This didn't happen very often and I don't know why it would happen, but it did happen more than just a couple of occasions.

Play Pac-Man online right now

Retro video games are always more difficult to play online when a person is using their computer's keyboard. Pac-Man is not as hard as some of the other games though as only the arrows will need to be used. It is not as good as having a controller joystick in your hands, but playing Pac-Man online can still be fun.

Play Pac-Man now!