A damaged arcade game board for Pac-Man was discovered, with attempts to repair it coming with some psychological and physiological costs to several technicians who worked on it. With the ROM uploaded to the internet, most of these effects seem to be less dangerous to deal with... allegedly.
Pacm̬̦̩̹̌͢a̪͓̮̼͍̗͑̿ͫn̛̥͈ͅ (also called Pac-Man.exe for distinction from the original) is a haunted game Creepypasta based on the classic early 80's arcade game Pac-Man, where the game itself focuses on a horror-themed take on the Pac-Man formula, with Pac-Man having a limited field of view and the ghost having more "unique" behaviour from usual.
The game can be played or downloaded here.
Tropes:
- The Blank: Slendy takes after their inspiration by having almost no face to speak of.
- Controllable Helplessness: After getting ambushed by the ghostly Pac-Man, the player is thrown into a first person perspective view, forced to navigate the maze and avoid Pac-Man from eating themnote . There's no other way to possibly survive Pac-Man, as they'll inevitably catch them and force the ROM to close.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The INSERT COIN text that shows at the start will occasionally change the last word to "SOUL" for a split-second. The ghosts introduced in each level also have their names revealed in this manner with the level number.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Upon clearing the sixth level, you are initially greeted with no other entity in the level, until another, larger and ghostlier Pac-Man takes the field to copy the player's movement and speeds up gradually to eventually catch the player's Pac-Man, after which the perspective shifts to first person; the player wandering the maze until Pac-Man catches them, ending the ROM.
- Ghastly Ghost: Moreso than the original. Whereas the official ghosts are cartoon-ish in design, these ghosts are more nightmarish in design. From the general Nightmare Faces of most of them, to the creepy long tentacles of the Old One.
- Jumpscare: On occasion when losing a life to a ghost, their respective sprite takes up the whole screen.
- Meaningful Name: Most of the ghosts featured have names that tie into their behaviour.
- Blindy randomly wanders the field likes he's got no eyesight, unable to perceive Pac-Man.
- Screamy does exactly that, shrieking and rushing Pac-Man once they're in line of sight.
- Slendy takes after Slender Man, as he's prone to teleporting into Pac-Man's line of sight and gets more aggressive in their teleportation the more in view they're in.
- Old One is the Odd Name Out, being more closer to a tentacle monster out of a Cosmic Horror Story than a ghost. In terms of behaviour, she's also an odd one out - not being confined to the grid like the others.
- Odd Name Out: Old One, in contrast to names like Blindy, Screamy and Slendy.
