Pac-Man 4-Player

● connecting

Connecting…

Controls

←→↑↓ or WASD — joystick
Space Z X or Ctrl — fire (hold it for a speed boost)
Enter — START · 2 — SELECT (players / VS mode; every game starts as a normal 4-player game) · O — OPTION (difficulty) — between games
Gamepads work too: stick or d-pad, A/B fire, Start, Back = SELECT, X = OPTION. On a phone or tablet, use the on-screen stick.
Watching? Press fire to get in line — or to take your seat when it's offered.

The game

Atari's 1982 Pac-Man cartridge, rebuilt for four Pac-Men in the same maze at the same time. Dots, energizers and fruit go to whoever gets there first, and the ghosts chase the nearest Pac-Man. Hold the button for a two-second speed boost (it recharges in four; a dot and a SHIINK say it's back). Caught while others are still playing? You come back a second later if you have a Pac-Man in reserve. SELECT between games also offers VS mode: an energizer lets you eat the other Pac-Men too (5,000, 10,000, 20,000 points), and they race home as pac-ghosts. Out of Pac-Men while others play on? "FIRE" blinks where your reserve icons were: press fire to jump back in with three (your score starts again at 0; your best run counts).

How the arcade works

Everyone here sees the same game. The arcade runs a real Atari 800, and your browser runs an identical copy in step with it — so there's no video stream, just the four joysticks. The first four people in get the seats; everyone else watches and can get in line. When a seat opens, the next in line gets 10 seconds to take it. Every game is a 4-player game: an empty seat's player is in it too, and whoever takes the seat takes that player over on the spot.