Search engine giant Google celebrated the 30th anniversary of the iconic Pac Man by altering its icon that graces the front of its search page with an online "Google" version of the game.
People across the globe went crazy playing their favourite game once again. "Reporting from South Africa," writes Monitor reader Thuto. "Office productivity down by 60%, bandwidth usage down by 80%, only page visited, www.google.com."
But not everyone were excited to see Pac Man on Google's homepage. Some Google users did not like Pac Man on Google's homepage. "How do I stop it? The noise in the background follows me through every website! I don't wanna play it anymore!!," asks Hiba. "Grrr - my 84 year old husband screwed up his computer trying to get rid of this mess," writes Yamahamama4.
Explaining the reason behind putting the world's most famous video game on Google's home page, Marcin Wichary, programmer and senior designer at Google’s corporate blog wrote, “Pac-Man makes a good match with the Google home page. Both are deceptively simple and carefully hide the complexity hidden under the surface."
The game was launched by Japanese company called Namco in 1980. The arcade classic Pac-Man became a rage across the globe in the 1980s and helped open new markets for videogames. The game was released in May of 1980 and it was originally titled Puck Man because the character does look more like a hockey puck. The name was changed to Pac Man when Namco decided to launch the game in the US that year itself.
According to Guinness World Records Gamer Edition the game is now the most recognizable videogame character. Around 94% of American consumers know the Pac Man. It defeated Mario of Super Mario Bros., which has 93% recognition. ”
