Scatter — Pac-Man with the ghost AI made visible

About Scatter — Pac-Man with the ghost AI made visible

Scatter — Pac-Man with the ghost AI made visible is a free online Arcade game that runs right in your browser. There is nothing to download and no account to create: press Play and you are in. It works on desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile.

The 1980 maze chase, rebuilt with the ghost logic intact. The maze is the original one — 240 pellets and four energizers — and the ghosts are not four copies of "walk toward Pac-Man": Blinky targets your tile, Pinky aims four ahead to cut you off (with the original's overflow bug when you face up), Inky doubles a vector through Blinky, and Clyde loses his nerve inside eight tiles. Scatter and chase waves, the dot counters that release each ghost, cornering, tunnel slowdown and Blinky's endgame speed-up are all in. A strip under the board counts down to the next scatter — the window the arcade never showed you — and flipping on the target overlay makes every ghost draw a line to the tile it has chosen, so you can watch the most-studied AI in games decide. A practice mode slows the ghosts if you want to learn the maze first.

How to play

Press the Play button to load the game. Most games are played with the mouse or by tapping the screen; keyboard games use the arrow keys, WASD or the space bar. Read the in-game instructions for the exact controls, and use the fullscreen button for the best experience.

Frequently asked questions