A Playable PAC-MAN On Google Doodle 286
Kilrah_il and several other readers made sure we noted Google's tribute to PAC-MAN on its 30th anniversary — a playable game implemented in JavaScript. "'To play the game, go to google.com during the next 48 hours (because it's too cool to keep for just one day) and either press the "Insert Coin" button or just wait for a few seconds.' There is also an Easter egg for those who want to recall one of the first multi-player games, but you'll have to RTFA to find it." This doodle may overshadow the Official PAC-MAN 30th Anniversary Destination.
Productivity (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How is this impressive in any way? (Score:5, Insightful)
The point is the celebration of a load bearing pillar in gaming history, not the fact that JavaScript was used to do it.
Re:So... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:How is this impressive in any way? (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly. How many people knew Pacman was 30 years old today? Probably not a lot. How many people know about Pacman? Quite a few. It's a fun gesture to educate people how much things have changed, bringing back the nostalgic feeling of playing the game while showing how far we've come, with web searches and the internet in general. I think it spurs some reflection on the subject matter, but thats just my experience.
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, I thought that at first - I had a frantic co-worker at my desk asking "why is my computer making pac-man noises!" this morning (it had loaded up and started playing in the background).
Then I went over to her desk, looked around for a little bit, figured out it was the Google banner, ate a couple of ghosts, and it was fine.
Seriously, we all need to learn to laugh a bit more. You can't be all srs bizness all the time, a silly little temporary Google banner will not kill you.
Re:So... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
+1 Anal Retentive.
In all seriousness, you have the sound enabled on your PC in a professional environment?
Re:So... (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't know what it's advertising. I don't know what the punch-the-monkey ads were advertising either!
It's part of Google's core values not to poinlessly annoy people on the web. The strength of their business was that they never did this. Google text ads were revolutionary - no flashing lights, no noise, no games. This goes against everything I like about Google. But, yay PacMan?
Re:So... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pac Man Advisory: +1, Elevated (Score:1, Insightful)
Pac-Man CE is awesome, but try pressing Insert Coin a second time and use WASD along with the arrows. You are now dual-wielding Pac-Man.
Re:This triggers too many "Alarm sound" helpdesks (Score:2, Insightful)
no one gives a fuck about people who are that stupid.
Seriously, watch them abandon google
oh wait, they won't.
Google should do this more often.
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
I simply can't believe we've come this far and we STILL don't have a mute button as a standard item on web browsers. By Lucifer's beard!
Re:How is this impressive in any way? (Score:1, Insightful)
It's impressive for the same reason that building a trebuchet out of popsicle sticks and rubber bands or making music with Tesla coils is impressive, even though the trebuchet could never knock down a castle and the song could never win a Grammy. Had you ever written so much as a Hello World, you would realize that.
And no, you weren't just trolling to get a rise out of the Slasdotters. You really were trying to make yourself feel better by shitting on an accomplishment that for all its technical modesty is far beyond your potential. And it isn't working.
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
It is the 30th anniversary of a game that was huge during the most formative years of the average google employee (and most likely the average /. users). I think we can all let it slide for 2 days.
This is awesome! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:How is this impressive in any way? (Score:0, Insightful)
Way back in the 1980s, well before you mother shit you out of her rotten womb, I developed games for the Atari and the NES. I personally worked with and know quite well many of the people who pioneered the gaming industry.
Although almost all of us have been retired for some time, we still keep tabs on how game development is done today. Whenever we have a few beers together, we always laugh at how pathetic JavaScript "developers" are, especially when they try to create games.
Their language makes the shitty assembly languages we dealt with look enjoyable. Their convoluted web "platform" makes shitty 8-bit CPUs look simple. But the funniest thing is that they still can't even do what we did 30 years ago. They're still struggling to recreate the games we created way back then. And they can't do it! Their games run so slowly on modern computers. It's hilarious!
How long before somebody bundles it in a download? (Score:3, Insightful)
Save Complete Page in Firefox doesn't get even close to all the pieces. This must be preserved, to be played every year on May 21st. Is there a save Addon that can get it all automatically or do I have to spelunk in my cache?
...And yet it's still cooler (Score:5, Insightful)
...And yet it's still very likely cooler than anything you've ever accomplished.
Seriously, I'm sure that the engineers at Google had about 2,741,288 more productive things they could have been doing than this, but they did it anyway because it was fun. It was probably some guy that that churned it out in his spare time. It sure is easy to cast stones at other people's endeavors from your comfortable armchair, isn't it? Tell you what, get off your butt and do something you think is neat in your spare time, let us pick it apart for being "meh" compared to professionally developed products, and then we'll see if you are so quick to criticize again.
Re:So... (Score:1, Insightful)
You and the GP need to lighten the fuck up and get laid.