Google Pac-Man doodle vs the arcade original: what changed
For 48 hours in May 2010 the most visited page on the internet was a Pac-Man machine. The doodle is probably the most-played version ever made, and it is more faithful than most people realise.
The doodle in brief
To mark the game's 30th anniversary, Google replaced its homepage logo on 21 May 2010 with a fully playable Pac-Man built in JavaScript, the first interactive doodle. Engineers Marcin Wichary and Ryan Germick worked with Namco's blessing and the original sound effects. It stayed on the homepage for 48 hours, and because of public demand Google gave it a permanent home in the doodle archive, where it is still playable. The anniversary date itself is explained in pacman original release year.
Side by side
Arcade (1980)
- 28 by 31 symmetric maze
- Four-way joystick
- Single player per credit
- 255 boards plus the kill screen
- Original Namco sound board
- Coin to start
Google doodle (2010)
- Maze shaped to spell the Google logo, asymmetric
- Arrow keys, or click and swipe on touch screens
- Insert coin twice to add Ms. Pac-Man as player two (WASD)
- A limited set of boards that loops
- Original sounds reproduced
- Press Insert Coin, or wait ten seconds and it starts itself
What the doodle kept faithfully
- Ghost personalities. Wichary studied the original targeting rules and implemented Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde with their scatter corners and chase targets as described in pacman ghost ai explained, including the overflow quirk.
- Speed tables and frightened timers follow the arcade values per level from pacman power pellets.
- Scoring: 10 per dot, 50 per pellet, 200 to 1,600 ghost chain and the fruit sequence from pacman fruits by level.
- Cornering and pre-turns work as in the cabinet.
What changed
- The maze is wider and asymmetric because it spells six letters; the tunnels and pellet positions were rearranged to fit.
- Two-player simultaneous play, with Ms. Pac-Man controlled on WASD, something the arcade original never offered.
- No 256th board: the doodle does not reproduce the overflow glitch.
- The attract mode and intermissions were omitted.
The productivity legend
A time-tracking company, RescueTime, estimated that users spent an extra 36 seconds on Google's homepage on average during the doodle, extrapolating to roughly 4.8 million hours "lost" worldwide. The number is an estimate rather than a measurement, but it became the headline and remains the most repeated fact about the doodle, alongside its place in the cultural history told in pacman fever song and cartoon.
Playing it today
Search for the doodle archive or the phrase "Google Pac-Man" and the 2010 game loads in any modern browser; it still works on mobile. It sits alongside Google's other hidden browser games, the best known being Snake, which you can play Google snake online on our companion site. If you want a free browser maze game with original characters rather than a reproduction, the games on the free mr pacman arcade games are an alternative, and free pacman style maze games lists all three modes.
More from the guides
- how power pellets work — How Pac-Man power pellets (energizers) work: 50 points, where the four are, frightened tim…
- pacman faq page — Twenty quick answers about Pac-Man: release year, creator, ghost names, points, perfect sc…
- pacman strategy tips — Pac-Man strategy for higher scores: cornering, ghost grouping before power pellets, patter…
Frequently asked questions
When was the Google Pac-Man doodle?
21 May 2010, for the 30th anniversary, live for 48 hours before moving to the archive.
How do you play two players on Google Pac-Man?
Click Insert Coin twice; Ms. Pac-Man joins and is controlled with WASD.
Is the Google Pac-Man doodle accurate?
Largely yes: ghost AI, speeds, timers and scoring follow the arcade, but the maze is logo-shaped and there is no level 256.
Can I still play Google Pac-Man?
Yes, in Google's doodle archive.
How many hours did the doodle cost?
RescueTime estimated about 4.8 million hours, an extrapolation rather than a measurement.