This game involves hundreds of players in a huge Pacman maze. Rather than being chased by ghosts, the players can eat each other. Any player can eat any other player from the side or from behind, but in a head on collision, the player with the highest score (ie. who has eaten more pips) will prevail. As other players' scores are not known to you, you have to decide whether to tackle another player head-on based on how good you think your own score is. Powerup pills provide a speed increase, handy for chasing down other players from behind.
-- simonj, Jul 28 2004

Pacman is turning 30! http://pacman.com/en/
[simonj, Feb 24 2010]

here's the massive maze http://www.geekolog...s-down-play-the.php
don't know about the multiplayer part though [jaksplat, Apr 15 2011]

(?) World's Biggest Pacman worldsbiggestpacman.com
[simonj, Jun 26 2011]

I would have thought that any multi-player game having concurrent moves would suffer from latency issues.
-- angel, Jul 28 2004


I thought we were playing this live, in person. No latency issues, but there's the canablism issue...
-- gardnertoo, Jul 28 2004


Well it says "computer: game: internet" up there--^
-- angel, Jul 28 2004


Angel, have you ever played a first-person shooter?
-- Freefall, Jul 28 2004


If you chase down someone, they can turn around to make it head on. Also, why get rid of all the ghosts? Also, is this 2D? Also, how much of the maze can you see at once? Also, is there still fruit to eat?
Cause that's what really matters here.
-- yabba do yabba dabba, Jul 28 2004


[Freefall]: Not to my knowledge. Would you care to elaborate?
-- angel, Jul 28 2004


There could be some Ms. Pac-men in there for the ladies -- in fact this could be a nice interactive way to meet people... of course, the only words you could transmit to each other would be "waka, waka."
-- phundug, Jul 28 2004


When you're not eating pills, you go "wee ooo wee ooo."
-- yabba do yabba dabba, Jul 28 2004


Great idea, but given yabba's concerns could we say that you only get to eat other pacmen when in the flashing invincible state? Also, what is the goal? To eat all the pips or to eat all of the other pacmen? What are the legal requirements for making a game based on another?
-- pdg37, Jul 28 2004


Just for fun, there should be a Donkey Kong gorilla in one corridor. Aaaaa!
-- phundug, Jul 29 2004


[Yabba] & [pdg] I don't see why that would be a problem...eating each other is the name of the game.
-- simonj, Jul 29 2004


[angel], I interject off-topic for only a moment here. Latency is always a potential problem, but given the wide availability of cable/dsl, and the wise programming of the developers, latency is relegated to near the bottom of the list. Significant chunks of data can be (and are regularly) sent and received by many dozens of clients simultaneously. This game would likely require only very small datagrams, relatively speaking, so latency would very likely not be an issue.

<$.08> Keep the ghosts. PvE and PvP together. Definitely 2D. Keep the fruit too. </$.08>
-- absterge, Jul 29 2004


At the very least, if you are flashing, you should not be edible.

Maybe players could also choose to control the ghosts?
-- pdg37, Jul 30 2004


//"wee ooo wee ooo"// [yabba] i am wiping tears from my eyes after seeing that again today...

Could the game have both a 2D and 3D element? While zipping around the 2D map the view could flip to 3D if in the vicinity of another player or ghost. The 2D or 3D views could be viewed simultaneously (one in the corner of the other).

re [absterge]'s 8c, agree, gotta have fruit
-- Lacus Trasumenus, Jul 30 2004


Ok OK you can have the bloody fruit!
-- simonj, Jul 30 2004


If this were made avaiable for free, nobody could complain about it. It's not copyright infringement if you're not making money, is it? Call it "Pacmen" or something. Or "Pacmatch."
-- Eugene, Dec 24 2004


Sadly [Eugene], profit or lack therof has no effect on copyright law. While it is true that lack of profit may result in being overlooked byt he copyright holder, they still have every right to shut you down no matter what form your infringement takes (except parody, which is tricky legal ground for stuff like this).
-- 5th Earth, Dec 25 2004


We could easily substitute the familiar, two-thirds of a pizza shaped lead character with a character of our own conception, to avoid copyright infringement. May I suggest ‘Croissant Guy’, the croissant with attitude?
-- spiritualized, Dec 25 2004


Anyone want to build this for me?
-- simonj, Dec 02 2007


I've played so many Pacman clones though. 1/2Bakeman it is.
-- Eugene, Dec 02 2007


what they could do is when a pac-man/woman/bun eats a power pellet they gain the ability to eat other pac-things. They should keep the ghosts, making them edible when a power pellet is consumed.

Or, to handle the fact that somebody could just turn around in order to make a head-on collision, they could make it first-person (but with low enough walls that you can see what's going on in front of you)
-- keithbrunkala, Dec 03 2007


Don't eat the fishbones!
-- BunsenHoneydew, Sep 18 2008


Make it so you can't turn around instantly. You should follow the same rules as the ghosts in the video game follow: they never just reverse*; they have to go around something in order to change directions.

* (ok, they reverse twice per board but it's programmed into them, not as a strategy to get you)
-- phundug, Sep 18 2008


Nice idea, and I second the motion to keep things 2D - the original pacman feel is so great.
-- django, Sep 18 2008


Is it? I thought the original Alone in the Dark feel was great, until I revisited it.
-- mylodon, Sep 19 2008


Have there been any other attempts at revisiting 8-bit classics with mmo technology? I'm thinking frogger, asteroids, space invaders, galaxian, defender, scramble, donkey kong, pong etc.
-- zen_tom, Sep 19 2008


this is a classic big fish eats all type of setup which almost always fails in a MMG. A slight lead at the beginning means that you are always ahead and thus always safe from the other players. You need something to clip off the strongest players and keep the game lively.
-- WcW, Sep 19 2008


I am a big fan of that inflating nozzle that Dig Dug had. This would help sort out the "turn to meet head on dilemna".

Keeping it pure, with no Dig Dug genes, I would point out that Pac Man had to eat a power pill to make the ghosts palatable. The same should apply here. You can eat your opposition only after fortifying yourself with a powerpill.
-- bungston, Sep 19 2008


You could controversially allow the weaker player to win a head-on collision. Bigger players should be skilled enough to go around corners and kill others that way.
-- phundug, Sep 19 2008


wow 30 years already? [link]
-- simonj, Feb 24 2010


//You need something to clip off the strongest players and keep the game lively.//

Who the ghosts target could be based on two things: 1) Distance 2) Score

Therefore if you are the fattest person on the server score wise, you'll also have the majority of the ghosts after you too... and instead of lives just give a score loss on death.
-- xxobot, Feb 25 2010


still looking for coders to build this for me....anyone?
-- simonj, Feb 25 2010


//You need something to clip off the strongest players and keep the game lively.//

Umm, you eat another and you're sluggish for a bit. Size increases means you slow down for smaller passageways.
-- FlyingToaster, Apr 15 2011



random, halfbakery