Pacman

Pac-Man is the 1980 arcade game by Toru Iwatani at Namco — the single most-recognizable video game character ever made, and the game that pulled arcades out of the male-dominated space-shooter era and into mass-market success. The premise is iconic: navigate a yellow disc through a maze of 240 pellets, eat all of them while avoiding four ghosts (Blinky, Pinky, Inky, Clyde). Eat a power pellet and you can briefly turn the tables and eat the ghosts. Over 7 million original arcade cabinets sold; the character became a global icon within a year.

How to play

• Arrow keys (or WASD) — change Pac-Man’s direction.
• Eat all 240 small pellets to clear the level.
• Eating one of the 4 power pellets (corner dots) makes ghosts “frightened” (blue) for ~10 seconds — touch them to eat them for big bonus points.
• Touching a non-frightened ghost loses a life. 3 lives total.
• Bonus fruit appears periodically in the centre. Eating it gives extra points (cherry = 100, strawberry = 300, etc.).
• Two tunnels (left/right of the maze) wrap around — exit one side, enter the other.

The ghosts and their personalities

Iwatani designed each ghost with a distinct AI personality — one of the first examples of differentiated NPC behavior in video games:

• Blinky (red, “Shadow”): direct pursuer. Always targets Pac-Man’s current position. The most aggressive ghost. After eating enough pellets, Blinky enters “Cruise Elroy” mode and moves faster than Pac-Man — the source of late-game pressure.
• Pinky (pink, “Speedy”): ambusher. Targets the cell 4 tiles AHEAD of Pac-Man’s current direction. Tries to cut you off, not chase you.
• Inky (cyan, “Bashful”): unpredictable. His target is calculated from Blinky’s position and Pac-Man’s heading — so his behavior depends on Blinky’s. Often the deadliest ghost in narrow corridors.
• Clyde (orange, “Pokey”): shy. When far from Pac-Man, he chases. When within 8 tiles, he flees to his corner. This makes Clyde the least threatening ghost — but he can corner you accidentally.

Beginner strategy

• Don’t go for power pellets too early. Power pellets are valuable. Save them for when 2+ ghosts are bunched together so you can eat multiple in one frightened phase (each successive ghost in one phase doubles in points: 200, 400, 800, 1600).
• Learn the safe pellets first. The central section of the maze is most dangerous. Clear the outer ring and bottom rows first while ghosts are still spreading.
• Use the tunnels for escape. The wraparound tunnels reset ghost pathfinding briefly. When Blinky’s on your tail, dive into the tunnel.
• Don’t stop moving. Pac-Man’s only speed advantage over ghosts is that ghosts slow down when reversing. Keep moving forward; ghosts can’t u-turn without help from you stopping.
• Watch for the fruit timing. Fruit appears at 70 pellets eaten and 170 pellets eaten. Be near the centre when it spawns.

Intermediate strategy

• Memorize the “scatter” intervals. Ghosts alternate between chase mode and scatter mode (where they retreat to their assigned corner). Scatter intervals: 7s, 7s, 5s, 5s on level 1; shorter at higher levels. Knowing when scatter starts gives you ~5 seconds of relative safety.
• The 4-ghost combo. Eating all 4 ghosts during a single power pellet = 3,000 bonus points. Set this up by waiting near a power pellet until ghosts cluster, then strike.
• Cruise Elroy timing. Blinky speeds up at fixed pellet thresholds. On level 1, when 20 pellets remain Blinky speeds up; at 10 remaining he speeds up again. Plan power pellets around these thresholds.
• Ghosts can’t enter the centre box from outside. The ghost respawn pen is a one-way door. Don’t waste time trying to box ghosts in there.
• Pac-Man kill screen at level 256. Due to an 8-bit counter overflow, level 256 displays a corrupted right half. Speedrunners have reached and survived this point.

Advanced strategy and patterns

• Predetermined patterns. Because the ghost AI is deterministic given identical inputs, expert players use exact movement patterns (“patterns”) that guarantee a perfect maze clear. The most famous pattern (originally published in 1981) clears the first 21 boards without losing a life if executed precisely.
• 3,333,360 perfect score. The theoretical maximum score (eating every pellet, every ghost, every fruit on every board through level 255) is 3,333,360. First achieved by Billy Mitchell in 1999.
• Inky exploitation. Because Inky’s targeting depends on Blinky, you can manipulate Inky by manipulating Blinky’s position — useful for clearing tight corridors.
• “Cornering” trick. Pressing the direction key slightly BEFORE reaching a corner makes Pac-Man cut the corner more tightly than ghosts, gaining a small lead.

Pac-Man history

• 1980 — Pac-Man (Japan): Originally “Puck-Man” but renamed for Western markets to avoid vandalism. Designed by Toru Iwatani, who wanted a game that appealed to women — the dominant arcade market at the time was Space Invaders / Galaxian / Asteroids, all male-coded space shooters.
• 1981 — Worldwide release: 100,000 cabinets sold in the first year. The character appeared on lunchboxes, t-shirts, breakfast cereal.
• 1982 — Ms. Pac-Man: faster, with randomized ghost behavior. Initially an unauthorized hack by General Computer Corporation, later officially licensed. Considered a refinement on the original.
• 1999 — Billy Mitchell perfect score: 3,333,360. Confirmed by Twin Galaxies. Pac-Man’s reputation as the “perfect game” was solidified.
• 2010 — Pac-Man Google Doodle: playable interactive Doodle. Estimated 4.8 million hours played on launch day — making it instantly the most-played version of Pac-Man ever.

Common mistakes

• Eating power pellets too early. A power pellet eaten when no ghost is near is wasted.
• Stopping in intersections. Pac-Man slowing or stopping lets ghosts catch up. Always commit to a direction.
• Trying to outrun Blinky in late game. When Cruise Elroy is active, Blinky is FASTER than you. Run perpendicular instead.
• Ignoring the fruit. Bonus fruit (cherry → strawberry → orange → apple → …) scales upward through the levels. The Galaxian flagship at level 9+ is worth 2,000-3,000 points.

Variants

• Ms. Pac-Man (1982) — randomized ghost AI prevents pattern-clearing. Many consider it superior to the original.
• Pac-Man Championship Edition (2007) — modernized version with timer-based scoring. Won several “best of decade” awards.
• Pac-Man 256 — endless mode based on the kill-screen glitch. Continuous level scrolling.
• Pac-Man World (1999, PlayStation) — 3D platformer with Pac-Man as protagonist.

FAQ

• Q: How many pellets are in the maze? A: 244 — 240 small pellets and 4 power pellets.
• Q: Can you complete all levels? A: Levels 1-255 are playable. Level 256 is a kill screen with the right half of the maze corrupted due to an integer overflow — beyond level 256 is unreachable in the original ROM.
• Q: Are the ghost movements random? A: No — ghost AI is deterministic in the original arcade. This is what enables pattern-based perfect runs.
• Q: What’s the perfect score? A: 3,333,360 — eating every pellet, every ghost (4 per power pellet × 4 power pellets), every fruit, on all 255 playable levels.

For other arcade classics, try Snake, Space Invaders, Galaga, or Centipede.