3 ms·
"This is the heart of the game. I wanted each ghostly enemy to have a specific character and its own particular movements, so they weren't all just chasing afte
by Lammy 4y ago
"This is the heart of the game. I wanted each ghostly enemy to have a specific character and its own particular movements, so they weren't all just chasing after Pac Man in single file, which would have been tiresome and flat."
— Toru Iwatani, Pac-Man creator
https://gameinternals.com/understanding-pac-man-ghost-behavior https://gameinternals.com/understanding-pac-man-ghost-behavi...
- nsxwolf 4y agoThe ghost behavior is the real genius behind the game. Even if you don't realize it, your subconscious learns how each ghost operates and longer you play the more you learn how to exploit it.
- antiterra 4y agoAtari 2600 Pac Man is an entirely different game than Pac Man in the Arcade. It was incredibly unpleasant, even at the time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_(Atari_2600) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_(Atari_2600)
- theonething 4y agoAgreed, yet I remember my parents signing up on a waitlist to get the game for me because it was sold out everywhere.
- JohnBooty 4y agoIn Pac-Man, each ghost has a distinct movement algorithm that is entirely deterministic. In Ms. Pac-Man, initially an aftermarket hack of Pac-Man, each ghost has its own distinct movement algorithm but there is some randomness. Interview w/ the creators of Ms. Pac-Man: https://www.fastcompany.com/3067296/the-mit-dropouts-who-created-ms-pac-man-a-35th-anniversary-oral-history https://www.fastcompany.com/3067296/the-mit-dropouts-who-cre... I'm not sure how they achieved the (pseudo-)randomness, but I don't think the Ms Pac-Man conversion added new hardware other than new ROMs? Not sure about that assertion.
- yencabulator 4y agoEven something as simple as seeding a PRNG with current uptime goes a long way, when there's human input available. I challenge you to insert coin on the 1 millionth clock oscillation multiple times. Hardware entropy sources are more necessary for servers, or early boot-up.