Google fuels flash debate with Pac-Man doodle
May 22, 2010 in News Roundup
Google’s first ever interactive doodle, marking the 30th anniversary of the legendary Pac-Man game, is written entirely in HTML, CSS and Javascript, the Guardian reports.
The search giant’s home page was turned into a fully playable game on Friday with the pizza-shaped Pac-Man making its way around a maze spelling out ‘Google’.
The doodle was also playable on iPhones which meant no Flash was used in its writing. However, as Guardian’s technology blogger Charles Arthur noted, the iPhone users played the game without sound as Flash was still used to include that.
Marcin Wichary, a programmer and designer at Google, said the nostalgic game was a natural fit for the home page of the search giant as they are both “deceptively straightforward, carefully hiding their complexity under the hood”.
Google-doodles have a long history of marking significant events and anniversaries. Famous for their mysterious nature, they are sometimes beyond cryptic, like the series of dots that marked the birthday of Samuel Morse.
The Telegraph has put together a nice doodle quiz.
Sources: The Guardian, The Telegraph
