Steer with ← ↑ → ↓ or W A S D. P pauses. On a phone, swipe on the maze or use the pad.
Google Pac-Man, Then and Now
On May 21, 2010, Google swapped its home page logo for a maze you could play. The doodle marked 30 years of the arcade game.
The game above is a fan-made remake. It keeps the chase and the points but swaps every character for a new design.
| Feature | Google doodle, 2010 | This remake |
|---|---|---|
| Maze | Laid out in the shape of the Google letters | A 19 by 21 grid with a side tunnel |
| Hero | The yellow arcade character | Moss, a green block with a leaf |
| Chasers | Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde | Four black shapes: triangle, diamond, hexagon, pentagon |
| Players | A second coin adds Ms. Pac-Man | One player |
| Controls | Arrow keys; W, A, S, D for player two | Arrows, W, A, S, D, swipe or the pad |
| Sound | The arcade sounds | Short synth beeps you can mute |
Rules and Scoring in This Google Pac-Man Remake
You steer Moss through the maze. Clear every dot to finish a level. Touch a chaser and you lose one of three lives.
Points for each item
| Item | Points |
|---|---|
| Small dot | 10 |
| Power ring | 50 |
| Chasers eaten in one run | 200, 400, 800, 1,600 |
These match the 1980 arcade values for dots, power pellets and ghosts.
Power rings and white chasers
Each green ring turns the chasers white for a few seconds. In that window you can eat them. They flash just before the effect wears off.
A caught chaser turns into a pair of eyes and races home to the pen. It rejoins the hunt a moment later.
Levels and speed
Clear the board and a new level starts. Both sides move faster, and the white window gets shorter each time.
Strategy for a Bigger Google Pac-Man Score
- Save the power rings. Eat one when two or more chasers are near, so the chain pays out in full.
- Use the tunnel. The middle row wraps from one edge to the other and shakes off a tail.
- Press your turn early. Moss holds the input and takes the corner as soon as it opens.
- Clear far corners first. Long empty runs late in a level leave you with no cover.
- Watch the pen. A chaser that leaves it heads up and out, so stay clear of the gate.
How each chaser hunts
The triangle heads straight for your tile. The diamond aims four tiles in front of you, so it cuts you off.
Next comes the hexagon. It works off the triangle’s spot and tends to flank. The pentagon chases from far away but drops back to its corner up close.
All four break off now and then to circle their home corners. That pause is the time to clear a crowded lane.
Where the 2010 Google Pac-Man Doodle Lives Now
The doodle ran on the home page for a weekend. On May 23, 2010, Google gave it a permanent page at google.com/pacman.
It kept the arcade logic, art and sounds. Google said it even copied some bugs from the 1980 code.
People type the name in many ways, from pacman to pac man. Reports from late 2023 show either search still brings up the doodle with a Play button.
For more arcade-style play here, try Google Snake, Atari Breakout or Space Invaders.
FAQs
Can you still play Pac-Man on Google?
Reports from late 2023 say yes. A search for pac man brings up the 2010 doodle with a Play button at the top of the results. Google also gave the game its own page at google.com/pacman in May 2010.
How do you play 2 player Pac-Man on Google?
Click Insert Coin a second time once the game has started. That adds Ms. Pac-Man as player two. Player one steers with the arrow keys, and player two uses the W, A, S and D keys.
When did Google Pac-Man come out?
Google put the game on its home page on May 21, 2010. It marked 30 years of the arcade game, which Namco released in Japan in May 1980. The doodle stayed up for that weekend.
How many points is a ghost worth in Pac-Man?
The first ghost you eat after a power pellet is worth 200 points. Each next ghost in the same run doubles that, to 400, 800 and then 1,600. The remake on this page uses the same values.
