How Pac-Man’s Ghosts Think & Hunt | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
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It's very likely that you've been chased by the ghosts of Pac-Man for as long as you can remember. Maneuvering through tight corners, ducking to the other side of the screen, dodging between walls... all to just avoid those singular baddies that never seem to give up. BUT HOW DO THEY WORK? Why do some of them seem to always know where you are? Why do others seem...dumb? Join Jamin in this week's Game/Show as he looks at the mechanics behind Pac-Man's ghosts!
Pacman Dossier
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Shaun Williams
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COMMENTS:
TheEmperorGulcasa
• The Value of Playing G...
Lucian Clark
• The Value of Playing G...
Zenyl
• The Value of Playing G...
tsuich00i
• The Value of Playing G...
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MUSIC:
"Oh Damn!" by CJVSO
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"Digital Sonar" by Brink
"Mindphuck" by Known To Be Lethal
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"After Hours"
"Lakes" by Chooga
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"Spectrum Subdiffusion Mix" by Foniqz
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"Good Way Song" by Electronic Rescue
"Alice y Bob" by Javier Rubio and Parsec
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"Sleet" by Kubbi
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"Toaster" by Kubbi
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"Patriotic Songs of America" by New York Military Band and the American Quartet
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"Lets Go Back To The Rock" by Outsider
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"Run" by Outsider
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"Fame" by Statue of Diveo
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"Freedom Weekends" by Statue of Diveo
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Hosted by Jamin Warren (@jaminwar)
See more on games and culture on his site: www.killscreend...
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And regarding my glasses:
• Has League of Legends ...
I always thought of Pac-Man as the original stealth game (some would call it original survival horror). Pattern recognition, twitch hiding gameplay, and avoiding line of sight of the guards - er ghosts.
Absolutely! Also, I didn't mention this, but Pac-Man can't hide well because he *can't stop moving." Think about crazy it'd be to play Dead Space or Resident Evil if you couldn't take a break and assess your surroundings.
PBS Game/Show That's actually a great idea for a horror game! You've got to hide from [Monster of the Day], but your character has to continually move or stay active because [reasons]. Get on it devs!
PBS Game/Show Yeah. Restless legs syndrome! (That would be an interesting mode ... ;)
But to be serious: I totally didn´t know how much effort went into the Ghost behaviour of Pacman. I find it especially interesting when you think about the fact that it is in the top ten of the first video games. Thank you for this video. I always love to hear about such details.
Truemas Restless Leg Simulator
I know right?, like a minimalist metal gear. Well better than metal gear because you have a more fluid movement.
This is exactly why every Pac-Man game that has deviated too much from the original formula over the years - from point-and-click adventure games to 3D platformers and even a cartoon or two - have always felt so odd. Pac-Man's brilliance isn't in it's story, it's in its revolutionary game design, and as much as I love the golden age of story in video games we're experiencing at the moment, there's no denying that what makes most games great is their gameplay, and it's certainly what made Pac-Man the enormous success and pop culture icon it is today.
Excellent point!
When you say "game play", do you mean mechanics? If so, I think the whole "walking simulator", or to it more flatteringly, the story telling genre of games flies in the face of your point. I've personally never played them so forgive me if I'm wrong, but it's my understanding that those games don't go much beyond point and click when it comes to mechanics, yet games like gone home has sparked a whole new genre.
To clarify, when I said what makes most great games great is gameplay, that's not to say that there aren't some great games out there that value story over gameplay. While I haven't gotten the chance to play Gone Home yet, I have played games like it. So-called "walking simulators", like Dear Esther and To The Moon, while usually having little to no gameplay outside of exploring the world around you, remain some of the best and most compelling games out there. What I meant is that if you're going to make a game like Pac-Man, everything about the game design - the levels, the AI, et cetera - matter more then penning a complex story, although it certainly helps.
So in other words, these Pac-man spinoffs (that deviated from the formula) fail to capture that true pacman experience and therefore end up being less engaging. I never realized (until now) that this is why I had always felt let down when playing one of those games even though they looked neat in the screenshots.
Amen. While i also enjoy when a game has a well written plot, i still treat it as a game first. And this means that, at least for me, the gameplay comes first. Something that AAA Devs have mostly forgotten. This is why i turned more to the indie scene.
Sometimes, I really admire your patience with commenters.
This is how horror games should work (more exactly, how great horror games do work) the playing with of control. It's super important
Totally!
Well designed enemies are just as important as well designed protagonists
When I was in highschool I designed my own pacman game as a learning experiance, It was super fun. But it taught me the value of a having opponents which the player could beat. It also taught me that the ghosts should not be able to change direction once they start moving down one corridor, otherwise it can look wonky.
"Lets see what you had to say" *Jamin grimaces for a split second*
You're right to point out that the experience of playing Pac-Man is tension-release-tension-release-etc., but far from being just an interesting comparison, I think that that elicited emotional response is completely key to Pac-Man. Pac-man perfectly utilizes an Aristotelian "action" plot (stealing this from Leon Katz): it has an initial situation (the beginning, when the screen is pristine with all the dots symmetrical and all the ghosts in the cage), an initial intrusion (Pac-man starts to eat, or, alternately, the ghosts start to hunt), a motive and subsequent plan of action (Pac-man must eat all the dots, it is the only way to completely escape the ghosts, and thus pac-man does eat all the dots; indeed, the player is nearly always moving), and a consequence (the player wins and escapes the ghosts, or is eaten and loses). The "emotional seduction" of the tension-release pattern is built into that plot sequence.
Leon Katz argues that any "action" plot--no matter what it is about--relies on a logical sequencing of events (certainly true in the calculated world of Pac-man), and that this "causative pattern underlying the plot" demonstrates "inevitability" and "providential design," and thus is existentially reassuring. Pac-man shows these conservative (I don't mean that in the contemporary day political sense) values particularly well: the player goes from the anxiety-inducing place of being hunted--a feeling of chaos, as the ghosts' movements are not initially easy to predict--to order: a clean playing board, an escape from being hunted, and the sense that the players actions and "hard work" led directly to those feelings of relief.
I'm amazed how much love and thought they put into a game that looks so simple at the first look. Good example for a "Easy to learn, Hard to master" game.
It is in the Museum of Modern Art in the design section, because its compelling and effective design is displayed. Paola Antonelli had a very good Ted Talk on the topic: www.ted.com/talks/paola_antonelli_why_i_brought_pacman_to_moma
That being said, read into it what you want to read into it :)
I worked with her on the collection. ;) Paola's the best.
Oh, that's pretty cool! Either way, it makes a bit of a weak example, just wanted to note that. Keep it up! :p This was definitely one of your better videos~
7 seconds, 20 seconds, 7 seconds, 20 seconds, 7 seconds, 20 seconds.....
You do realize that I'll now be counting out loud the next time I play- right?
I don't see myself counting seconds with the ghost chasing me.
OH MY GOD.
EVOLVE IS PAC-MAN.
A LONE PLAYER MUST CONSUME ENOUGH UNITS IN ORDER TO BECOME POWERFUL ENOUGH TO DEFEAT IT'S FOUR OPPONENTS.
Redditor here. Pac-Man (like all video games) is indeed an art. Hence, if I want to chose to spend my life playing video games people should be more respectful.
My parents don't understand that despite me being in the basement for 12 hours a day, I am in fact making art. Playing video games is no different than michelangelo creating a painting, it's just a different form of art.
[Tipping intensifies]
Yeah, I was right with him up until the "12 hours a day" bit. You could say that video games are art, but that doesn't justify spending 12 hours a day with them. It's not healthy to spend 12 hours a day at a painting gallery either.
Also, the people who make games make art. You are not making art by playing. You are simply experiencing it.
I'm working on my own version of Pacman right now. I literally stopped working, checked my RUclips feed, and your video was there. Oh, the coincidences....
It's fate!
can you also have a 2 player witha1 extra ghost and a green pacman version?
I'll try and implement that but right now I'm still working on just programming the ghosts personality. But that's a great idea. I'm sure there's a 2 player Pac-Man game out there already though!
started to write a pacman clone game when i was in my teens and and that i have turned 50 am am going back to rewrite and finish it. have been looking for guidance on the ghosts so this is brilliant, thank you.
Super secret easter egg to PacMan: the rate at which Pac-Man eats his pellets, is the same rate at which Jamin moves his head and hands while talking. Just joshing you, great topic this week!
Ive just always liked the minimalistic and yet iconic look of the entire game, especially of the ghosts. I think its worth noting too that many times when you see representations of pacman, I feel like more often than not its the ghosts rather than the actual pacman representing the game.
Haha that's marketing! :)
PBS Game/Show Haha fair enough
Pac-Man can also be taken as a metaphor of life: Chase, or be chased, happens to all of us (I think). If your chasing is effective enough, you move on with life, but even if you reach a certain "goal" (255th level), you have to continue struggling until the moment you die.
Oh and we have 3 lives apparently, so that's good.
Just to call out into the comments, specifically referring to assumptions of characters being heterosexual or homosexual, Rhianna Pratchett writer of the Tomb Raider reboot and it's forthcoming sequel has openly discussed the possibility of Lara being gay.
I actually got into a heated argument with some heterosexual women about that, because they felt by making her gay, they where some how losing some form of representation. I thought it was interesting, because they where parroting the same sort of arguments I hear coming from so many male players about making female characters.
personally I just think retcons shouldn't do that ever. Expand on the character. Admitedly I don't play Tomb Raider, but I'm fairly sure she was straight in the first series I know at minimum in the movie she was :P. To put it simply it'd be jsut as insulting to make a gay character straight.
Well, to my knowledge here sexuality has never been addressed one way or another in the original series.
As for why it would be insulting to make a gay char straight, it's because there are almost no gay chars, they really would be losing something.
You should read the interview we did with her for Kill Screen for more details on her thinking behind it: killscreendaily.com/articles/interviews/tomb-raider-writer-rhianna-pratchett-why-every-kill-cant-be-first-and-why-she-wanted-make-lara-croft-gay/
PBS Game/Show I think it mostly comes down to supporting more original characters than anything. I just like the idea that we have infinite possibilities for new ones why change up old ones. If its decided (with consent of the original creator) then go ahead and thats cannon until the end of time.
You know what PBS Game/Show that is the interview I was referring to. I just couldn't remember where I read it.
wolflordjsww I think that's kind of pedantic. I'm a big comic book reader and I remember all the controversy over Ultimate Spider-Man becoming a biracial boy, or Thor being a woman, or Captain America being black. But these characters carry with them a certain iconography. There's no way Miles Morales or Kamala Khan would be half as relevant as they are if it weren't for the Ms Marvel/Spider-Man labels they carry. The same is true of gay characters. That's not to say there isn't room for new gay characters, there's always rooms for more characters, but more that of the icons that already exist in the public consciousness, there's always room to flesh them out. That includes examinations of there sexuality.
I'm going to be honest. I just want more honest examinations of sexuality in games period, I don't care if they are homosexial, heterosexual, pansexual or what ever. Games are human stories and sexuality is a big part of what it means to be human, an I think it's time we explore that. Cause right now, all we got is Cathrine, and while I love me some Cathrine, there's so much more work to be done.
In the mean time, I would be totally keen on playing Lara Croft as a lesbian or bisexual woman. Hell, it's to late now, but I would have loved the remake to have made her Hispanic or Asian. (I'm Métis, and I would kill for a Native American character who isn't a giant stereotype. Assassins Creed 3 gets a lot of points from me for just trying, even if they failed.)
That said, one concrete I do have to grant the woman I argued with over whether Lara should or should not be gay. If we get to the point where every tough woman character is a lesbian and there's no room in that archetype for straight women... then yeah... I get it. We have a problem. But right now, we have so few well portrayed women in games, gay or straight, I'll take what ever I can get.
Clyde is me
Hunger and the promise of NOM NOMing pacman instills them with super intellect.
" In a study by Macht (1999), female and male participants were asked to report how their eating patterns changed with emotions of anger, fear, sadness, and joy. When experiencing anger and joy, participants experienced increased hunger as compared to feelings of fear and sadness. Anger increased comfort and impulsive eating, and joy increased eating for pleasure" dujs.dartmouth.edu/fall-2010/you-are-what-you-eat-how-food-affects-your-mood#.VNFaJ2TF938
THIS IS WHY PACMAN IS ONE OF THE BEST GAMES EVER,it shows how game can be a simple bunch of dots and circles to be deep,whithout Next Gen graphics and overly long cutscences(though i still love those,but doesnt mean they should be in every game)
I find it interesting that there's a silent poetry to some of these older arcade games. The illusion of control as you brought up here with Pac-Man, The journey ins Super Mario Bros., the value of courage in the face of death in Missile Command. I wonder if games like Pac-Man CE:DX+ highten or lessen those metaphors in people's minds. I'll be thinking on this one for awhile. Far and away my favorite episode of Game/Show yet.
Awesome episode. I had no idea the different ghosts worked like this, so cool! :)
Firstly, I would like to give you major props for this show, Jamin - the work you do here is outstanding, and fills a void in games criticism in a way few others do, and it's a body of work that I hope continues to grow. I have been thinking about classic games lately, and their value in a modern context. For example, I am 20 years old, so System Shock 2 was a little before my time, but I played through it after it was re-released on steam and loved it. With Deus Ex Classic on deep discount over the weekend, I've been thinking about playing it as well, but I find myself taking pause at the idea - everything that I've seen Deus Ex do, it's (distant) successor Human Revolution seems to do just as well (even setting graphics aside), if not better, so I've been thinking about two big questions because of this:
Are games considered classics inherently worth your time? Setting aside playing through for no other reason than to experience a piece of history, much like any student of the theatre will read Everyman at one time or another, if everything the game does has been improved upon, why go back?
Which breeds my second question: In what ways do games age differently than other mediums? We can still read Shakespeare to this day and adore it for it's universal themes and timeless characters, but games have so much more to them than words to a page. Mechanics advance, and what was once revolutionary now feels clunky and frustrating. Universally adored classics like Grim Fandango contain ludicrous puzzles that act as a product of their time. Past that, how exactly can we achieve preservation? Games on PC can last damn near forever, and if the OS outstrips the game, people make emulators - but what of consoles? I want my children to experience Journey, but I doubt my PS3 will make it that long - how many HD remakes will Sony deem profitable? Will these games have a constant string of ports to future consoles, or are they doomed to disappear, becoming little more than collectors items?
Wow, I really enjoyed this episode. Games are beautiful, inside and out.
Also, it's only now that I noticed that the eye chart has the Konami Code. Clearly I haven't been paying attention.
Very interesting episode. I think I always knew the ghosts _acted differently_, because why else would they go through all the trouble of giving them different *colours* and different *names*.
Of course, I never figured out who was the "slow" one or the "aggressive" one. Guess I wasn't a very perceptive gamer.
Blinky & Pinky were the most aggressive. Inky used to follow me periodically but Clyde just didn't give a crap. XD
Never got to do this before... First! Now my life is complete....
P. S. Awesome episode, as usual. Pacman for me is so simple in its mechanics and that's what makes it so amazing and, surprisingly, hard to master.
Bro Clyde is pretty chill. Blinky leads, and Inky and pinky are the fastest
Dragon Age: Inquisition has definitely made the most strides with presenting realistic relationships, mostly because the time-table on which they occur is more or less divorced from the overall plot of the game. Moreover, while it's possible to flirt almost endlessly with many different characters, they will only start taking you seriously on it if you do it continuously or do something special for them. Obviously, it's still not as complicated as real life, but then when is anything in a game? I'm just glad they've come as far as they have, and hope that they continue to make strides.
a hero is as formidable as it's villains and that applies even to games
Well, like they say, the bad guys are the ones who set everything in motion. I always thought that the most complicated algorithm in pacman was in the ghosts, and that their programming was not something to take slightly, and yes I also think that this video unveils the secret behind the success of the game.
Used to play this all the time as a kid. I never picked up on the ghost behaviour and maybe made it to level 5-7?
I didn't know until I did this episode!
Pac Man's AI is super cool.
You asked what do I think. I think this video is brilliant!
Good episode. I never knew that stuff about the movements of the ghosts. I guess I always had a curiosity concerning why they chase they way the do and why they don't all do it the same way but never really fleshed it out into a fully formed thought. That said, though, I feel this episode set up a lofty goal and fell short of achieving it. Telling us about the motions of the ghosts and then saying they the quintessential reason why Pack-Man and thus games in general enter the public conscious the way they did is weak at best. I don't see the connection as being as obvious as you all perhaps do. Sure, their movements help spur on some dramatic tension, but so do so many things in the game industry and things outside of the game industry. In just the game itself, the design of the maze and the limited resources that give you a brief taste of freedom from the dread spur on that same dramatic tension and are arguably independent of the ghosts - although obviously if there was no threat there would be no tension but said threat could be a timer or other non-packman-ghost threat.
How do the ghosts grant us that dramatic tension in ways that other games of that era couldn't? Why is it that games started to appeal to the wider audience who most certainly had access to other sources of dramatic tension / other entertainment? What was so special about it as to have Packman reach cult status? And perhaps more basic than all of that, why is it we seek out dramatic tension and is that truly the key to generating appeal be it in life, media, or games in specific? These are crucial questions I think you set yourself up to answer but fell short of actually touching on, much less answering. I look forward to the next comment sections segment since I hope you all will be able to clarify this issue a bit more then.
Characters like Gorden Freemen, Master Chief, Samus are all player cyphers. They don't really have much of an identity beyond what the player themselves fill in. Hell "Master Chief" doesn't even have a name. You might as well just call him "The Halo Guy".
Master chief is named John. There is more to it than what is shown in the games and Samus actually has a personality that is shown in other m. Gordon Freeman...uhh...well you got me there.
I just had idea for a multiplayer pac-man. I'm a ame developer but probably won't use it so you can steal it: one person control pac man and four the others ghosts. Of course basic mechanics are still the same, so if pac man eats yellow pellet ghost players are screwed. I think it's a good idea.
As for win condition is standard for pacman (eating all the dots) or killing pacman 3 times for the ghosts. Randomized maps could be added as well.
The music helps. Catchy music.
While pacman's level of design is astonishing, I cannot help but think that the cultural context contributed at least the same amount to its success
I wish "Ready Player One" had been researched to this level. Cool video.
I haven't read that yet! Should I?
PBS Game/Show YES.
PBS Game/Show Listen to the audio book. :D Wil Wheaton reads it :D
Yeah, it's a neat story with a ton of nostalgia. The audio book was the route I took too, Will did a good job.
it always amazes me to think one of the first games to use AI still has one of the most sophisticated
What are the ghost's behaviors when the super/power pellet comes into play?
From that awesome Pac-Man Dossier: "
Whenever Pac-Man eats one of the four energizer dots located near the corners of the board, the ghosts reverse direction and, on earlier levels, go into frightened mode for a short period of time. When frightened, the ghosts all turn the same shade of dark blue and move more slowly than normal. They wander aimlessly through the maze and flash white briefly as a warning before returning to their previous mode of behavior. Ghosts use a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) to pick a way to turn at each intersection when frightened. The PRNG generates an pseudo-random memory address to read the last few bits from. These bits are translated into the direction a frightened ghost must first try. If the selected direction is not blocked by a wall or opposite the ghost's current direction of travel, it is accepted. Otherwise, the code proceeds in a clockwise fashion to the next possible direction and tries again, repeating this test until an acceptable direction is found. The PRNG gets reset with the same intial seed value at the start of each new level and whenever a life is lost. This results in frightened ghosts always choosing the same paths when executing patterns during play. As the levels progress, the time ghosts spend in frightened mode grows shorter until eventually they no longer turn blue at all (they still reverse direction, however). Refer to Table A.1 in the appendices for the frightened time in seconds and number of flashes, per level."
home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html#CH2_Frightening_Behavior
I remember it was a brutal gameshow
The ghosts hitted up him With A Stick on a pacman arena in live-action
I love how he disagrees with his fans when they don't like his opinion.
You clearly ignored the comment where I apologized for getting something wrong. ruclips.net/video/xMEjovSlyqs/видео.htmlm23s
I really liked this episode. Nice work.
I want to see a 2 player game with a green pacman and one extra ghost
GAH! I made the same Gordan Freeman comment(not word for word but still basically the same) except I accidentally said Morgan Freeman. I was *this* close to making the video, but no! I had to mix the two up. Jeez. (jk)
:)
No matter how hard I try, I can never seem to catch Pacman :P
Really awesome video would love to see more game design stuff.
The ghosts make the game compelling to play. With out the ghosts or any enemies at all the game would be collect the pellets as fast as possible. The different behaviors of the ghosts make the game challenging, but not to challenging. If the ghosts had random movements some times the game would be to easy, and other times it would be to hard. And if the ghosts chased Pacman all the time at some point you can get them to follow you in the same pattern so they will always be behind you making the game to easy.
I wonder if FNAF terrors works similar like Pacman's ghosts? Especially the first game.
Time to bring out the Poltergust 5000.
I've rewatched the end part of this episode (@ 6:33 - 7:54) several times, to make sure I understand what what you are trying to get across.
First off:
The comment says, "Players don't need protagonists that they can relate to"
You say, "EmperorGulcasa says there is not a need for gay representation"
These two statements carry different messages.
You continue on and kinda ignore parts of what the comment was saying. You subconsciously changed it from, "Here are these empty details of a character, I can put whatever detail I want there," into, "we live through these characters."
By default, many people begin by subconsciously identifying each character, as straight, and that isn't changed unless otherwise specified.
Its not an issue of "[XYZ] needs more representation in video games," its an issue where people are DEMANDING information that has no impact on the story.
In life, you don't need to tell everyone you meet, what sexual orientation you have, because it's not always needed, and the same thing can be applied to games.
Continuing past this, you go on to say;
******
"I would ask you to take it one step backwards, while we may disagree philosophically, I think the reality is that games are part of the life that we live in, and in that light as a part that social system. There are people who don't have full equality in their law, and in the United States, for example, gay people cannot get married in every single state. So that is something that is going to the supreme court, hopefully they rule on the side of equality.
Nonetheless the reason why it's important to have gay representation in games, is because that symbol that means something, it means something to us, it means something to the world of video games.
I understand your desire to want to sort of parse this in philosophical terms, but you can't divorce that from
the social reality that we live in, which doesn't treat gays as equally as people who are straight.
******
Again, you are basically demanding game devs to shoehorn sexual orientation, which isn't always important to the story.
A good example of when a story calls for a sexual orientation, would be the 1986 text game, Moonmist, where one of the possible plots focus on the main criminal begins acting through jealousy, because her girlfriend got married to a man.
Good video! Missed a button on your shirt.
I...feel like playing pac-man now
Surprised you didn't use any footage from Scott Pilgrim at the beginning there.
Only so much time!
PBS Game/Show haha fair. Glad you at least thought of it.
If one of the ghosts heads straight for you, then how does the safe spot exist?
yes
What was that game showed at 1:55... It looked more hd than the original pacman... Can someone give me a link?
damn, this was a good video
beautifully spoken!!
Wait the orange ghost is Clyde? Pac-man world 2 lied to me
of course they are.
I definitely heard the puck man trivia from Scott Pilgrim first
Pacman is deep ... man.
Clyde is best ghost
It would be super cool if the ghost AI changed as levels went on
Hey another fellow fan of Clyde =D
What do they mean when they say that Inky is on twitter?
mind blown
how do the ghost know to turn left then right, and not right right left ?
+MBoost in blinky's case, he finds the path that takes the shortest amount of time to reach you. In the event of a tie, it randomly decides. I think.
- Because they where were FIRST!
YES!!! Brilliant. I've found in game design that games are more fun if each opponent has a slightly different AI.
great video
this guy doesn't have lenses in his glasses... is he really just wearing frames?
do you actually have lenses in your glasses?
I thought namco was Pacman
I like blinky
I like Clyde
Cool vid
If you've seen or even heard of the Pac-Man Ghostly Adventures, you'd see that the ghosts aren't smart at all... or Pac-man... or any of the story... Who the fuck thought that Pac-Man would be a good idea for a TV show???
the fact pac man was made with woman in mind is something i find funny all the time. I use this to defend female video gamers. with out them one of video gamings best icons might not exist.
I think that the 'false control' interpretation of Pac-Man is overreaching; following that logic, the NES Mario are a race of the present to the future, forgetting one's own past (because of the no-backtracking thing). That said, I wanted to make clear that I'm not arguing that games are a new form of art (And they are), but the idea of everything having interpretation of this sort without any clear evidence on the game itself is more forcing other artforms's interpretations and critics to games; which, in fact, works with some games, but games that have an actual content and are not pure, raw gameplay mechanics, like Pac-Man, the first Mario games, or Bomberman, for example (To not mention the obvious Tetris, or Puzzle Bubble)
They are art because of their refined gameplay, showcasing high or near perfect craftsmanship with the tools available at the moment: Just like an impressionist painting doesn't an intepretation to be art, it needs the plays with the colours, the highlights and the tone of the whole picture; which, in this case, are the ghost's AI, Pac-Man constant movement syndrome and the way the maze works).
I believe it's more valid highlighting the sensorial aspect of this kind of games; that's what makes them unique, addictive and, as it seems, timeless. That's why I agree with you about the sense of terror and panic of racing towards a Power Pellet, avoiding all the ghosts, or, even worst, trying to complete a level after you have devoured all the Power Pellets! That makes the one maze always an exciting challenge, but I don't believe in any point you truly believe that are in control of anything: the powerup is temporary, the ghosts' death too and you're in their maze, trapped forever, but always on the run. Poor Pac-Man! No wonder about him having no eyes, he is just closing them in agony! lol
What did mentioning the lack of female arcade players back then have to do with anything?
Guy or gal? It's Pac-Man. Not Pac-Person or Pac-Noun.
Iwatani was trying to attract new audiences: "All the computer games available at the time were of the violent type - war games and space invader types. There were no games that everyone could enjoy, and especially none for women. I wanted to come up with a “comical” game women could enjoy.”
Iwatani's words are _bit_ patronizing, but his intention was good nonetheless. gameinternals.com/post/2072558330/understanding-pac-man-ghost-behavior
***** Ms, Pac-man is also the most popular video game mod of all time by a long shot. Essentially these guys from MIT wanted to make pac-man better and added more maps and such. Eventually they shopped it back to namco and it was a big hit.
Nice vid with pacman. Showing it is art is awesome. Regarding those gay video game character comments, you just can't win with some people so all I say is make it your damn self. We have the democratization by tools. I have made rpgs and a ccg on my own with nice software, so why can't these people do it themselves unless they lack the drive/talent?
Another thing is that the more ground you give someone, the more they will take and they will never placate you. Further reading: feminism. You can bet your ass that a man will be made homeless faster than a woman. But you are entitled to live your life to kowtow to people who want a mile for every inch you give. I am ashamed I didn't see this from the liberal bias college gives since it will only challenge the beliefs of conservatives. Fulfilling relationships are hard to create because it is difficult enough to make 2 charismatic people who are interdependent. Lots like harley Quinn, but she depends upon the joker or poison ivy to be enjoyable. I prefer poison ivy myself but am not gonna rant about how they're not paired as more than heterosexual life partners
lol are those fake 3d glasses
waka waka waka waka waka waka. SCRORK diw diw diw diw diw diw
"This guy, or gal."
Well seeing that there is, in fact a Ms. PacMan, that would be a guy. Stop being an SJew