PAC-MAN · CHALLENGE OF 2026-09-19

HOW THE DAY WENT

Saturday, September 19 brought PAC-MAN, at level 2, and 22 people played.

ADRIAN won by a street with 10,040 points, 3,910 more than ELVIS TECK in second. ZERO PUMA rounds out the podium with 2,300.

Among the top 10, the average was 2,879 points.

THE SCREEN

It started on screen 1 of the 3 that PAC-MAN has; clearing it leads on to the rest, in an order that depends on the day. It was played at level 2, with the same seed for everyone: the same enemies and the same pieces in the same order.

THE MUSIC

En la gruta del rey de la montaña (Peer Gynt), Edvard Grieg, 1875.

Peer Gynt sneaks into the troll king's hall, and the tune repeats louder and faster as the trolls close in.

It is in the public domain, transcribed to chiptune with square and triangle waves, the way it would sound on an Atari 2600.

ABOUT TODAY'S GAME

A 20x22 maze with up to four ghosts, side tunnels and power pellets. Ghosts use no randomness: they chase with fixed rules, so the same maze can be learned by heart.

Eating a power pellet frightens them; the fright lasts less as the level goes up, from 8 seconds at the start to barely 3 at high levels.

· The ghost chain is where the points are: four in a row on a single pellet is 3000, as much as 300 dots. Do not eat a pellet until two or three ghosts are close.

HOW TO PLAY PAC-MAN →