ASCII Pacman
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Version: 0.9.1
License: GPL2
Rating: 
Back in the ’80s, the arcade game Pac-Man was phenomenally popular. So popular, in fact, that it’s become an icon of that decade, and a symbol of video-gaming in general. The game was ported to just about every major micro-computer system, and unofficial ports and copies continue down to the present day — yes, there’s even a version for Linux!
But what if some sort of error has occurred, and you can’t get your X display working? What if you’ve just spent hours sprinting back and forth between your un-GUIed computer and a functional one, asking for help on support forums and typing in commands, and still can’t get the thing working, and you’re on the verge of beating your head against the keyboard, and you feel that if you can’t take a break and do something relaxing like playing a game of Pac-Man for a while, you’re going to go insane?
. . . That, my friend, is where ASCII Pacman comes in!
A fellow by the name of Steven Goodwin wrote this game back in 2002, and inadvertently saved the lives of X11-deprived Pac-addicts the world over. (It was first released on FreshMeat just a week ago, though, so I think it’s new enough to warrant a review.) It’s pretty simple, but I think you’ll find it rather fun.
It’s so simple, in fact, that it doesn’t even require running a ./configure script before installation! All you have to do is run make from the directory the source code is in. Before that, though, you’ll have to fulfill the dependencies — but happily, there’s only one of them. ASCII Pacman depends on the ncurses library for text-based animation and color, so you’ll have to install that, first (in Debian-based systems, it’s the package libncurses5-dev). And then, it’s time to run./pacman!
You’ll see that ASCII Pacman is a fairly accurate recreation of the original arcade game. Due to clever text animation, Pac-Man opens and closes his mouth as he moves along, and when he melts under the acidic contact of the ghosts (or monsters — they’re shown as letter ‘M’s), he dissolves just like he does in the graphical game. The ghosts change color realistically when you run over power pellets, and the map flashes when you advance to the next level. It even has a high-score system like the original!
It has one other feature, too, that is not found in the original game — a marquee at the bottom scrolls past while you play, displaying the game’s source code!
However, there are a few drawbacks, as well. There is no documentation, in-game or out, so the only way to figure out what keys you have to press to move around the maze is to press every key on your keyboard at random until you come upon it, or read the source — or, you can just keep reading this review, and I will tell you: the ‘k’ and ‘m’ keys, respectively, move Pac-Man up and down, and ‘z’ and ‘x’ move left and right. And the high-scores are not preserved between games, as far as I can tell from reading the source. I haven’t been able to test it, because so far, I haven’t been able to get a score over 9710 (the preset high-score). This could just be because I’m pitiful at arcade games, though it could also be because the ASCII version runs at nearly twice the speed of the original, making it rather difficult to turn into side tunnels — another drawback. And the colors of the ghosts aren’t all the same as in the graphical Pac-Man; but, happily, their individual AIs seem to be!
All in all, this game makes for a nice little text-based diversion from your everyday routine. However, if you can’t get your X display working — it just might save your life!
