With Pac-Man, Google inadvertently proves web apps are not the future

CRITICALLY IMPORTANT QUESTION: Were you or were you not using Internet Explorer 6?

Not thinking they were looking to set precedent, sir. Just to provide us with a smile. Sometimes a pac man game is just a pac man game.

Okay, there was NO NEED to put all that crap about the whole pac-man thing...yeah i know its your opinion and all, but i mean seriously! pac-man is AWESOME!! it will NEVER die out!! And Google was only trying to have a fun, new, creative sign that was woth seeing. I didn't expect to b able to play the game...and was happy even when i did. And guess what...i SUCK at pac-man, but i love it anyway...if i knew you, i would hate you, because you just might be one of the BIGGEST buz kills in the world!!

there is anoing little girl and her name is johoona and shes anoing

You're a retard. That's all I have to say. Just because they didn't implement the pause feature or whatever, you accused google for not making the full blown app of the game. It was only a demonstration of what could be done on the web, and what it could lead to. Your brain must be as small as a pea thinking that Flash is the future. So much for your support on "Apple's App Store", which you may know that Jobs is not supporting Flash at all. You must get your facts straight you narrow-minded blogger.

My only problem with the logo Pac-Man was that the AI was a bit off. The ghosts lacked their usual personalities, but I didn't have any problems with freezing or the fact that it was in a browser. I also have a hard time believing that a cute little logo someone made in a few hours not being as good as some application which was made to be sold ($4 for Pac-Man? it better be good) is proof that web apps are a lost cause. By that logic, Apple should pack it up because arcade machines provide a better game experience and have a more intuitive interface.Also, does the thought of controlling Pac-Man on a touch screen sound like a nightmare to anyone else?

Funny, I had no problems with it and made it through 3 levels without dying. :P

Are you serious? Google only created the little web app to celebrate Pac-Man's 30th anniversary. It was a cool thing for the day and you need to stop worrying about the half second delay. It was a neat logo for Google and I think they did a decent job.

the article is sense-less to insanely critical. Google did a good job in providing a good enough gameplay for what was a plain logo. open and free web is the future, not the closed app store. you just wasted 4 dollars for a game u hardly like and even mediocre at it. its pitiful.

it was a free google game on the home page... it was hardly every gunna have volume controls and other more indepth features

Wow, is Bill Palmer sour grapes much? Is he even for real? Google's PacMan was an easter egg, not an app. Reviewing an easter egg is silly enough; saying that it actually *means* something is just dumb.Also, is this "Bill Palmer" guy actually the Editor in Chief of Beatweek? That sounds like a pretty high-falutin position for someon who can say, with a straight face, "Google [is] the only major technology company that thinks browser-based apps are the future" just weeks after Microsoft cut open its cash-cow, MS Office, and made it available via web browsers..This "Bill Palmer" guy, if he exists and is not just the latest incarnation of the Mac Talking Moose, needs to get outside of his bubble. Apple is a wonderful company in many ways (I'm proud to be typing this using their hardware, albeit with GNU/Linux), but Apple is not the one true way.Ben in Seattle

The game wasn't meant to be a game. It was more of a novelty, (A well produced novelty) that google created to commend an iconic game. Your simplistic and consumeristic analasis of this "web app" is very primative.This wasn't to prove a point about web based applications, it was a kinder-egg suprise. But I can see how a person such as your self, could get that confused.I enjoyed it. It was well made for a logo, but you've obviously failed to see that. I look forward to the neat things google will offer in the future, and I hope you can learn that a novelty on a search engine isn't a game developed over the course of five years, it's just a novelty on a search engine.

okay google pac-man was awesome and you know it.pac-man is cool no matter what you think! it was free to play. also who cares if it froze up for half a second. it makes you a better player if you can handel a little defult! plus if someone thought it was so bad go and play wii insead of badmouthing google's pac-man aniersery.

Wow dude, you sound like a breath of fresh air. Your "analysis" that web apps are no good because of the playful freebie doodle is like someone saying cars will never work because you saw a toy car and you can not see how this is better then a horse..Do you scowl and roll your eyes 1001x a day and generally annoy all colleagues around you who have the misfortune of being in your vicinity? Lighten up and peruse Craig's List -- it sounds like you need a "date"

you just proved how much of an idiot you are with this post...it wasn't even meant for anything but to remember the 30th anniversary of Pacman.Web Apps are more than just games and entertainment, in fact, games and entertainment is a fraction of what Web Apps were firstly designed for

iDiot!!!

me wuzz here boreedeeddd

HI . . . . . if you go to apple.com and scroll to the very bottom for the cap words FLASH. You know why FLASH will not work with Apple products. Click on FLASH at the bottom of that page.

this izz very dumb

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news flash it's a little game in honor of pac mans "x" aniversarry it's not supposed to be a chart topper- it was creative more than anything AND it had two player which was awesome - I was playing with my bros on my bucket computer at the time and it didn't freeze up once - don't blame Google that u suck at Pacman

who ever wrote is a dumbass pac-man is the boom!!!!!!!!!!:D

iyhrfvk,

I, like most people here, think the article was weird, over-critical, and wrong. Better luck next review dude.

Wow, you really lost me at "Apple’s App Store is the future". Seriously? It's a closed environment, where Apple decides who gets in, who gets "featured", and who is against their fuzzy terms and conditions. It's full of double standards and bias. To make matters worse, you need a Mac to develop an app. It's not a democracy, not a republic, it is the totalitarianism of Apple.Also, the volume and pause button issues were by design; Google could have easily included them. I never experienced the half-second freezes on the several computers I played the game on, but they were all Windows in various browsers. Though IE7 wasn't able to play the game smoothly at all; but I expected that. Try playing it in Chrome/Chromium or Firefox, and if it still freezes, it's probably something that you're running in the background.

This is a silly review. Google's Pacman is just a clever little exercise with its logo and not meant to be taken as more than that. As for the "limitations" of the game play, it worked just fine for me.

I have to disagree with you there. Good way to recreate the logo in my opinion, it's only a logo, it was fun to play a few times, very creative idea I have to admit.

This was a little bit steep. For starters, I don't even think it was a web app to begin with. It's a logo made for a special occasion only, so it's not exactly going to be perfect.Also the need to pause is a little redundant, because the game only lasts until you finish the level, or if you run out of lives. That's all there is to it. Honestly, when I stumbled across it for the first time all I wanted to do was drop everything and play. I know that might not be the reaction everyone had, but it was tailored to the fans so what do you expect?I'm no good at Pac Man either but I still find it fun. The fact that it crashed was probably down to your computer, as well. Mine was absolutely fine.

beatweak

Why is the author deleting any comments that disagree with what hes saying? If you want to splur crap in the public domain then be prepared to take the comments back.Just proves hat an ill informed f wit the author is!

Wierdo. The fact that you could do that using extermely limited HTML and Javascript and make it compatiable with even the shittiest computer and even smart phones is impressive. You can't expect the mona lisa on the google page. unless its da vincis b-day.

Mr. Palmer, I guess their failure at impressing you resulted in you supporting one of their advertisers. I'm sure you are not the only one who was inspired by this gimmick to make a PacMan related purchase. Your criticism of web-apps is accurate, of course. I'm sure that Google feels criticized all the way to the bank.

Try using Chrome. No issues.

Did these instructions, including pause, not work?Instructions: Use the arrow keys to guide Pac-Man. ***P - Pause/unpause game***Q - Quit game M - Mute/unmute sound L - Low quality on/of

funny since this was the first time i and a lot of my friends actually spent 2 hours + on google's home page. Plus Addictinggames.com, kongregate.com, and Miniclip.com (and their millions of users) all prove your opinion dead wrong.

thanks for demostrating silly people wasting time and wasting money on worthless apps such as a 30 year old out date game. as if life wasnt fast enough, waste time catching colored ghosts with a blinking dot.

With poorly executed editorial, Bill Palmer inadvertently proves he is a douche

Respectfully disagree. Google's Pacman may not be as good as the original nor as good as a Pacman iPhone app. But that doesn't prove your point.

u mad?

There's a difference between wanting the browser-based Pac-Man to suck and it actually sucking. Who accidentally hits a "combination of keys" when the game is solely controlled by the arrow keys. Apple Fanboy, stop hatin'.

someone is butt hurt hahahasomeone hands you something for free and you still complain. it was meant to be a celebration, not a contest and declaration.

The game is fantastic. It was just a fast and cute little widget, I think you have blown its purpose WAY out of its realistic goal of just being a cool banner gimmick. Good grief, slow tech news day?

I had lots of fun with Google's interactive logo, and am hard pressed to believe that it represents the future of web apps. I did not experience any freezes or trouble. Sure you may have to get used to the keyboard mappings in applications, but as with any new application (web based or installed) there may be a slight learning curve which make take longer for some people to get used to. I grew up playing Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, but even my hard-to-impress, computer saavy teenagers and their friends found Google's simple yet creative logo cool and entertaining.

your really stupid, the original pac-man didn't have a pause button or a mute... and the original game pauses for half a second when you; 1) turn the ghosts blue 2) eat a ghost 3) eat a fruit.The game worked great for me! even multi-player with Mrs. Pac-Man!

Bit harsh aint it? It was only a bit of fun on their part and I thought well executed. The keyboard shortcuts and actions you describe are highly unlikely to be performed by your average user. Sounds like you were trying to break it to prove your own theory!

No problem playing the game here,I can't understand why you're acting like it was a major release of a product, not one day replacement logo for their search engine. It was fantastic as a logo, it was fun as a game, it was meant to replace a static picture for one day and your complaints about lack of features are just moronic in this respect. It was a single day's diversion to be given away, not a business application being heavily marketed. Your complaints are akin to getting a free t-shirt and complaining it's not thick enough material and 100% cotton.This had nothing to do with the worth of web apps as opposed to Apple apps, but since you brought it up, I'm pretty sure in number of uses Google just topped every single App sold for the iPhone/iPad/iTouch in one day with their logo game. They reached an audience far wider than the app store ever will even in Apple's wildest dreams, and it was a huge success with everyone I know.