Computer programming started off as a hobby for me. Then it became classwork and eventually a job. What this means is that I rarely program anything just for fun anymore. This is sorta good and sorta bad. The good thing is that I know when to stop sitting in front of the computer. Since I do that most of the day at work, little desire is left to do so at the end of the day, which means I get more important (and usually more fun) things done. The bad thing is that I don’t really get to use my programming skills to just do something for fun, like write a game. Well, over Christmas break I had some free time so I decided I’d use some of it to work on a Pac-Man game. “Why don’t you make up your own game, Michael?” Well, that requires a lot more thought and effort, and all I had was a week or so. =)
So that’s what I did, I wrote a Pac-Man game. But like most of my just-for-fun projects, it isn’t really finished yet. It is playable, though. (Which is perhaps part of the reason I haven’t finished it — I spend more time playing it than working on it) There are currently three levels, unlimited lives, and no score. Here are some screenshots…
I’ve had quite a few requests to make this an internet multi-player game. While I agree that would be very awesome, I make no promises. I first need to at least finish it up for single player use. Then, if the desire strikes me, I may move on to making it playable over the internet. That is no trivial task. Furthermore, I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to programming. That’s often a hindrance because I spend more time trying to think of a better design when I should just code it up with whatever design I come up with first.
If you’re on Windows, you can actually play the game by simply clicking the link below. You must have Java installed. This link uses Java Web Start to automatically download and run the game on your machine. Unfortunately there seems to be some sorta performance issue when running the game with Java Web Start, so if the game seems really sluggish, that’s why. It runs fine when downloaded and run normally, but that requires more work for you, the user. If you decide to try it anyway, select Open-With, not Save-As when you click the link. Play Pac-Man (1.3MB)