Pac-Man

Pac-Man was released by Namco in 1980, designed by Toru Iwatani to pull in players who were tired of space shooters — legend has it the character was inspired by a pizza with a slice missing. It went on to become one of the highest-grossing arcade games ever made, and its maze-chase formula still holds up nearly half a century later.

This browser version rebuilds the arcade experience faithfully: the classic maze with side tunnels, power pellets, bonus fruit, three lives and a saved high score. Crucially, the four ghosts use the authentic arcade targeting logic — Blinky (red) chases your exact tile, Pinky (pink) aims four tiles ahead of you to cut you off, Inky (cyan) computes a flanking vector off Blinky's position, and Clyde (orange) pursues you only until he gets close, then shies away to his corner. The ghosts alternate between scatter and chase phases, and the scatter windows shrink as you climb levels, so the pressure keeps building.

A few strategy basics go a long way. Save power pellets until ghosts are actually near you, then chain them for the 200 → 400 → 800 → 1,600 point combo. Use the side tunnels to shake pursuers — ghosts slow down inside them in the arcade tradition. And clear the awkward corners early, while the ghosts are still settling into their patterns, rather than leaving stray dots for the endgame.