Pac-Man
ใใใฏใใณ
- Year
- 1980
- Developer
- Namco
- Publisher
- Namco (JP) / Midway (US)
- Platform
- Arcade
- Hardware
- Namco arcade hardware
- Genre
- Maze Chase
- Players
- 1-2 players (alternating)
- Controls
- 4-way joystick
- Series
- Pac-Man series
Gameplay Screenshots
About This Game
Pac-Man is the most recognisable video game ever made. Guide the yellow pellet-muncher around a maze of 240 dots and 4 power pellets while four ghosts โ Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde โ hunt you with genuinely different AI personalities: direct chaser, ambusher, flanker and wanderer.
Power pellets turn the tables, letting you eat ghosts for escalating scores, while fruit bonuses appear twice per round. Its depth is legendary: ghost behaviour is deterministic, meaning expert players memorise safe routes โ 'patterns' โ that clear entire boards on autopilot. The famous level-256 kill screen, where the right half of the maze corrupts, is the practical end of a perfect run and one of gaming's most-cited bugs.
- Four ghosts with distinct, deterministic AI personalities
- Power pellets and ghost-eating score chains
- Fruit bonus spawns and intermission cartoons
- The level-256 kill screen โ the game's practical end
Version History
- Pac-Man (Namco, Japan)1980-05
The original Japanese release as Puck Man.
- Pac-Man (Midway, North America)1980-10
The US release; this page's screenshots come from the Midway set.
- Ms. Pac-Man1982
Midway's follow-up with moving fruit and new mazes.
Cheats & Secrets
Service menu (F2 in MAME)Free Play, difficulty, lives per credit and other cabinet settingsArcade boards carry operator DIP switches โ set Free Play and adjust ghost speed on your own cabinet or emulator.
Reaching Level 256The kill screenA documented bug in the original ROM: at level 256 the right half of the maze renders as garbage, making the level unfinishable. It is the ceiling of any perfect game.
Tips & Strategy
Learn the scatter phases
The ghosts alternate between chasing and retreating to their home corners on a fixed timer. Playing during scatter phases โ when they leave you alone โ is how safe routes stay safe.
Clear the dangerous lanes first
The bottom-left and top-right corridors are the classic trap zones where Pinky and Inky box you in. Eat those dots early while all four ghosts are still in scatter mode.
Eat ghosts in order, 200-400-800-1600
Each ghost eaten during one power pellet is worth double the previous. Bait all four into a trail behind you before turning โ a single power pellet can be worth over 3000 points.
Clyde is your escape key
Clyde's AI makes him wander away when close. Lingering near his corner keeps him passive, effectively playing three ghosts instead of four โ a trick every pattern route exploits.
Download Resources
Resource packs for this game are provided through the button below.
โฌ Coming soon