Wie die meisten bemerkt haben, kann man auf der Google-Startseite anlässlich des 30-jährigen Jubiläums momentan Pacman spielen – was ich mit dem Nachwuchs auch gleich getan habe. Nach einer Weile wollte er wissen, wie das gemacht ist. Zum Glück habe ich einen erklärenden Thread bei reddit gefunden:
"Google has a warehouse full of network connected pac man machines, that they have been slowly accumulating from ebay over the years. It's estimated that, at this point, they have acquired between 75% and 90% of all the pac man machines ever built. They are currently in talks with Toru Iwatani - pacman's creator, to discuss the production of more units, to meet global demand. However, you are probable asking how the made the front screen - that actual game that you see. Well, thanks to HTML5's new canvas function, the google front page opens a web worker that launches on the load-balanced pac man arcade cluster, giving you actual direct access to the hardware needed to run the game. Reports are still fuzzy on how the game was reconfigured to spell google, but since they have managed to reprogram the pac man systems to function well beyond their original specifications, a simple redesigned map is clearly well within their capabilities." How was the google game made?
