Started by Sol Herrera (@speedrun_sol) ·
every Pac-Man ghost has its own targeting rule
Blinky aims at your tile. Pinky aims four tiles ahead of you. Inky's target uses both your position and Blinky's. Clyde chases until he gets close, then wanders off to his corner. Four tiny rules and it feels like they're coordinating.
5 sources · 43 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- “pac man ghost ai behavior explained”
- Ended at
- Integer overflow
The Trail
- “pac man ghost ai behavior explained” (google.com)
- Pac-Man (en.wikipedia.org)
- Tōru Iwatani (en.wikipedia.org)
- “pac-man dossier ghost targeting” (google.com)
the dossier is the bible for this
- Integer overflow (en.wikipedia.org)
level 256 breaks because the routine that draws the fruit overflows the level counter
Keep going
- SMB1 world records move in 21-frame chunks · Sol Herrera · 5 sources
- people finally 'beat' NES Tetris by crashing it · Sol Herrera · 5 sources
- Flash stopped on January 12, 2021, and people saved 160,000 games · Ayodele Bankole · 7 sources
- the four color theorem was the first big proof nobody could check by hand · Henrik Larsen · 5 sources