Description
How to Play Pacman?
Pacman is one of the oldest games around, but how is it played?
The object of the game
The maze-based game sees the player controlling Pac-Man through a series of corridors while trying to avoid four colourful ghosts; Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. The object of the game is to clear all of the dots on an arcade screen while avoiding the ghosts. To do this, you’ll need to be quick and cunning!
Gameplay & Rules
You start the game with a set number of lives and every time you eat a dot (or an energizer) your character grows larger. This is good as it makes you harder to chase, but bad because if a ghost manages to trap you then they can use their superior speed to give you a real scare!
Dotted throughout each maze are bigger ‘energiser’ dots which, when scoffed, make Pac-Man invincible for a limited amount of time and allow him to destroy any ghosts that may get in his way – a very useful ‘power-up’ during the higher levels where difficulty and intensity increases.
- Pacman only has one life, get caught and GAME OVER.
- There are 240 dots all together and you gain 10 points for each dot.
- Energizer dots are worth more at 50 points, but there are only 4 of those in each corner! These allows you to eat the ghosts in your path.
- When Pac-Man eats a ghost, they change colour, direction and move more slowly, before flashing white as they become a threat again.
- There are 14,600 points to gain on each level.
- Look out for bonus points opportunities by eating up fruits such as Melon, Cherry, Strawberry, Orange or Apple. There are also a few ‘non-fruit- bonus They appear around the center of the maze.
Pacman Game Glossary
- Energizer Dots – BIG flashing dots worth extra points!
- Ghosts – The set of ghouls you must try and avoid to win the game.
- Power Pellet –
- Pac-Dots – Standard dots you must try to collect as you move round the maze.
The history of Pacman
Namco’s beloved creation, Pac-Man, hit the arcades in the US in 1980 thanks to Midway and quickly became a hit with gamers across the world. You may be wondering who came up with this genius game idea, so let’s take a look…
The legend behind Pacman
Pac-Man was actually created by renowned game designer Toru Iwatani, who has since gone on to create several other arcade classics including Pole Position (1982) and the highly successful Dig Dug (1982). What’s interesting about Iwatani is that he doesn’t see Pac-Man as an instant success, and it actually took quite a while to take the limelight. it was initially entitled ‘Puck Man’, which is where the name comes from. Rumour has it that Puck-Man was rejected by Namco’s US subsidiary over concerns surrounding its similarity to the North American slang.
The game was then developed by Bally Midway and released in arcades. The original machine was housed in a standard upright arcade cabinet similar to (and compatible with) the one used for Sega’s Zaxxon, but newer machines consisted of a twin cockpit “cocktail” design that stood 66 centimeters high and required two operators.
