Pac-Man!

Key to text symbols:

*	=	a berry
@@@	=	a goblin
<, >, ^, or v	=	pac-man, depending on which direction he is facing

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This is a simplified version of the popular Pac-Man game.

Here are the rules:

At the beginning of the game, all of the board's spaces (but one) are filled with berries. The space in the lower left corner holds the PacMan. The game's Player moves the PacMan, one space at a time, to ``eat'' the berries. (The PacMan moves by clicking on the square the user wants to move to.) Each time the PacMan eats a berry, the Player scores one point, and the berry disappears forever.

Every 8 moves of the PacMan, three goblins appear at randomly selected spaces on the board. Now, when the PacMan moves one space, each goblin moves one space, also. The goblins move towards the PacMan and try to ``eat'' it. All the goblins disappear from the board after 8 moves. Thus, for 8 moves, the PacMan is free to roam the board and eat berries, and then for 8 moves, goblins try to eat the PacMan, and then for 8 moves, the PacMan is free to roam the board and eat berries, etc.

If a goblin eats PacMan, then the game is over, and the Player's score is reduced by 5 points. If the PacMan eats all the berries, the game is over. When the game ends, a box pops up telling the user the final score. Clicking OK will reset the board and the player can start playing again.

You can click on the "New" button to start a new game. The score is shown in the lower-right corner as you play.

In my original version, I had nice little icons on the buttons instead of text characters. When I put it on the web, I was forced to remove the icons for compatibility. I have a version that requires a plug-in, and it does use the icons. It requires a 5 1/2 MB file to be downloaded, but it works nicely once you get it installed. You can see it here.

Pac-Man is trademarked by somebody.