Tech

One man spent months re-creating 'Pac-Man' inside the world of 'Minecraft'

Ben Gilbert

2015-10-05T17:28:11Z

One man is on a quest to re-create video game classics. The 23-year-old who goes by "MrSquishy" is currently working on "Pokémon Red," and he's already re-created the original "Pac-Man."

And he's doing it all within "Minecraft," the Lego-like game that's beloved by millions of players the world over. What?

Really! And that's not just a visual re-creation, but a functional arcade cabinet built within the world of "Minecraft."

This is the story of how he did it.

Here's what it's like turning on the 'Pac-Man' arcade machine within 'Minecraft':

Since 'Minecraft' is a first-person game, the arcade cabinet needs to be built as if it were real life. And thus:

Pretty close to the real thing!

The project began over a year ago. The first version looked pretty rough:

It was basically just a floating image in the world of "Minecraft." This GIF was released on the creator's Reddit account to the hungry masses of /r/Minecraft to mild fanfare.

Around seven months ago, the game within a game really started taking shape:

The turning point was the release of 'Minecraft' version 1.8 in September 2014, which added lots of new functions to the game:

As "MrSquishy" put it on Reddit:

I set myself the challenge of creating a technically accurate version of "Pac-Man" using the original ghost AI over a year ago. I wasn't very happy with the initial attempt — it was big and clunky and horrendously inefficient — so I set it on a back burner. Every few months I've come back and worked on it for a few days or a week, using the new 1.8+ commands, the new resource pack functionality, etc.

Between all the updates in version 1.8 and what came afterward, "MrSquishy" was able to implement a shocking level of detail. From how the ghosts behave:

To what happens should you 'eat' a ghost (after gobbling a power pellet):

To the movable joystick, which approximates the 'wobbly' feeling of arcade machine joysticks:

To the sound effects, which are replicated from the original game:

There's only one level, but it's incredibly impressive nonetheless. Keep in mind this was all created WITHIN ANOTHER GAME:

We're incredibly excited to see what 'MrSquishy' dreams up next.

You can download this working modification of "Minecraft" right here.

Gaming Reddit