Turn Google Maps into Pac-Man stages for April Fools

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Google’s made all the world a Pac-Man stage for April Fool’s Day 2015, and now we’re all merely its players. Head over to Google Maps (opens in new tab), find some streets you’d like to populate with dots, fruit, and angry ghosts, and click the little Pac-Man button in the lower left to try for yourself.

You’ll have the purest Pac-Man experience if you pick an area with regular north-south traffic grids and minimal curves (the only thing roundabout Pac-Man is his circular body) but the game works surprisingly well anywhere. You can even share your level online and see how your friends do – here’s the source (opens in new tab) for the image above, Detroit’s Grand Circus Park.

For April Fool’s 2014, Google seeded its Maps app with 150 Pokemon, and it even sent out little prize packages to folks who caught ’em all. Google also celebrated Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary in 2010 with a Playable Google Doodle (opens in new tab).

If any Google Maps engineers are reading this, 2016 will be the 30th anniversary of Rampage. Just sayin’.