Pacman turns 30 and Google lets everyone know...

I was 9 years  when “Pakkuman”  was first released in Japan on May 22, 1980 by Namco.

To this day I still can’t resist it when you come across an “old school” table top with Pac-man on it. You just gotta slip the dollar in (use to be 20 cents) and with nothing but the joystick gobble those little dots to the sound of whucka-whucka-whucka-whucka…

The name was changed for the North American market because the original name proposed – Puck Man – was thought to be a target for vandals who would be inlclined to change the P to an F.

Pac-Man was famous - often credited with being a landmark in video game history. It is among the most famous arcade games of all time and one of only three video games that are on display at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., (along with Pong and Dragon’s Lair).

And let’s not forget Billy Mitchell of Hollywood, Florida, who after 6 hours of game play was the first person to achieve the maximum possible score of 3,333,360 points which requires a player to complete the first 255 levels without losing a single life then scoring as many points as possible in the last level.

Google celebrates 30 years of Pac-man

So why not see if you can lose six hours of your life and celebrate this landmark by heading over to the google.com home page, click on the altered logo featuring the Google name embedded in the maze – and enjoy a fully playable version of the game using your cursor keys.

And say hi to Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde for me.