Google's Homepage Includes Playable Homage To Pac-Mac

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Those who may have a fondness for Pac-Man may want to take my warning and NOT visit Google.com today. It seems as if Google has taken a twist on their themed logos by adding a playable Pac-Man themed graphic.

It would also seem as if I need to stop playing and start working, yup, I should have taken my own advice as I have now spent the past twenty minutes playing Pac-Man instead of typing up this post. But hey, its Friday.

Anyway, as you can see from the above image, the Pac-Man that Google has displayed is not your basic board, but instead has the Google name spelt out. Still, it has the same fun as the standard board complete with power pellets and pathway on each side. Of course, who could forget the ghosts, and maybe its just me but they seem a little faster.

Interestingly enough, Google has also swapped out the usual “I’m feeling lucky” button for a more appropriate “Insert Coin” button, which as you may have guessed is how you can start and/or reset a game.

The controls are simple enough, you can either use the WASD combo or the up/down/left/right arrows. And as an added bonus, they have a one and two player mode. The good news in that is you can at least waste your workday with a partner, that way you will not get in trouble for goofing off by yourself.

In addition, the game seems to work on other devices aside from your regular desktop or notebook. For example it seems playable (at least it moves) on the iPad, though having only looked at it very briefly and not wanting to get sucked in yet again I was not able to figure out how to play and not end up typing the WASD letters in the search box.

Bottom line, this was done due to Pac-Mac turning 30, which you can read all about on the Pac-Man 30th Anniversary page. I also could not find how long this will remain on the Google homepage. But hey, I suppose it may be a good thing for my productivity if it leaves at the end of today.