NEW YORK (CBS) Some people have favorite dishes while others have favorite chefs; but you'd be hard pressed to know any famous eaters (well any that you would immediately think of). Thanks to Google's homepage shenanigans this morning, that may very well change. One of the most internationally well-known "chompers" turns 30 today.
Happy birthday to you, Pac-Man.
While Nintendo's Mario has much more face time, Pac-Man remains one of the oldest franchises in video gaming history.
Even with the age (and all that eating), that yellow skin never wrinkles.
And whether you are 5 or 95, you understand the objective within seconds of playing -- quite a long way from the mandatory tutorial levels and 96-button controllers we have today.
I kid about the 96 buttons on current controllers, but they have more than what Pac-Man had. There's one button to start a single player game and another to start a two-person game.
All you needed then, and now, is a joystick (or arrow keys if you go to Google's home page today).
It's one of the most elaborate and amazing Google Doodles I have seen in quite some time. Cleverly, Google provides a button labeled "Insert Coin" (an homage to the good ol' arcade machine of the '80s) that allows you to pay to play the game.
Not much is present in terms of controls needed, it's almost intuitive: you simply use the arrow keys to move your favorite yellow "chomper" around. As an added bonus if you're feeling lonely you can click on that same "Insert Coin" button twice and, behold, Ms. Pac-Man makes an appearance.
Using a combination of both the arrow and W, A, S and D keys, you can operate both Mr. and Ms. Pac-Man. Now if you're up for a challenge, see if you can operate them both alone. I've tried this and it's tough. However, playing with someone else scores big in my book.
Overall, it's good to see that after 30 years of eating, Pac-Man still runs with the best of them.
