Download Google Pac-Man to play offline

Update 10/12/20: There are now 2 different Pac-Men on this post. The one seen right below is an updated version. The original Google Pac-Man as it was released in 2010 still [mostly] works, but it no longer has sound, as it used Adobe Flash for it which is a technology that has been deprecated. However, in the decade that has passed since this doodle came out, Google has continued updating it and has ended up rewriting it using modern technologies.

I’ve extracted this new Pac-Man myself from Google’s website and you can see it here (this one does have sound, click on it to activate it):

To download it and play it offline, visit its GitHub repository and read the instructions.

What follows is the original version of this article that was posted in 2010, including that first and now broken Pac-Man (which hadn’t been cloned by me but by another developer who later abandoned the project).

The classic Pac-Man has caused hype once again on its 30th anniversary, and all because of Google. The interactive doodle that the search engine placed on their home page has been so successful that some declared that they’ll suffer when Google removes it and others created a page where the records achieved in the game can be shared .

Even I, who many times have said that I don’t like video games, fell into the temptation to enter a couple of times (or a couple dozen, it’s the same), and decided that I had to download it even if it was just to have it as a souvenir, which was more difficult that in it seemed because it’s not a regular Flash game, but it’s a very nifty example of what can be done with CSS and JavaScript.

Fortunately, Skizo from UndeRealM had the same idea and created a near-exact copy that is available to download and play offline. If you want to see how it looks, you have it right here:

The download link is at the end of this article, but before clicking there are a few things you might be interested in knowing:

1. Google was updating the game with the passing of the hours, and the latest version it released has a small “Mute” button as you can see in the lower left corner of the following image:

   

   The version downloaded by Skizo is older than that one and it doesn’t have the button. I tried to add it myself but I couldn’t.

2. Although the game works perfectly without having to be connected to the Internet, you’ll notice that the sounds and music can’t be heard. To solve this you must follow the following steps:

   1. Go to Adobe Flash Player’s Settings Manager
   2. Click on “Edit locations…”
   3. Choose “Add locations…”
   4. Click on “Browse for folder…”
   5. Select the folder “GooglePacman”

3. In the original article it’s mentioned that the Google Pac-Man works on Internet Explorer and Firefox but not on Opera, but I tested with Opera 10.54 and didn’t detect any flaws. In any case, take it into account if you use a different version of that browser and notice that something’s wrong.

4. Skizo and a few other people took the latest version of the game (the one with the “Mute” button) and detached it from the Google page. This in my opinion took away the whole point, but if you’re interested in it you can visit the project page where you’ll find links to play a demo or download it.

Now, without further ado, here’s the link I talked about above:

Download Google Pac-Man

To play you just have to unzip the folder and double click the file called “index”.

See also: Google celebrates Herbert George Wells

Update 05/24/10: As I read this morning on the Official Google Blog, due to the great reception of the Pac-Man doodle, Google chose to make it permanent and can now be found at google.com/pacman.

I’ll still leave the download link for whoever would like to have the game on their computer, and if I find a way to update it I will.