Thirty Years Later, There’s Still No Cure For Pac-Man Fever

 

As visitors to the Google homepage undoubtedly know by now, today marks the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, the arcade game turned pop-culture phenomenon that inspired sequels, an animated series, countless merchandise and even numerous songs.

I’m, unfortunately, old enough to remember getting in trouble in elementary school for loudly singing “I’ve got Pac-Man fever (Pac-Man fever); I’m going out of my mind” with my friends, playing the game on the Atari 2600 until my hand cramped up, and waking up on Saturday mornings to watch that bizarre Hanna-Barbera cartoon (quite possibly while eating Pac-Man cereal). Pac-Man fever was real, man!

To celebrate three decades of eating dots and running from ghosts, Google has debuted its first interactive doodle, a customized Pac-Man game that will remain on the homepage for your enjoyment through Sunday. I took a crack at it, only to discover that I’m very, very rusty. After all these years Pinky is still my nemesis.