Pac-Man is back and he's on the run around mean streets of Shropshire
Negotiating the narrow streets and tight corners of Oswestry can be difficult at the best of times, particularly if you are not familiar with the road layouts.
But, be assured, it is far more daunting when you are being chased down Leg Street by an evil monster with a hood covering his face – and another one of his friends approaching you in hot pursuit through Oswald Street. It really is just as well there is a power pellet along the way.
Pac-Man, the classic arcade game which kept a generation of teenagers hooked for hours on end in the 1980s, is back with a fresh twist. Instead of the straight grids lined with pac-dots, it is now possible to run the gauntlet of the evil goblins through Shropshire thanks to a new service on the internet provided through Google maps.
The new version, launched by Google this month, allows members of the public to choose a spot on a map and to pit their wits against the gruesome gremlins.
Computer games have come a long way since the Japanese Namco corporation first unveiled Pac-Man in1980. But while the graphics may seem tame to a generation raised on Call of Duty, there are hours of fun to be had giving the slip to Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde on the bridge over the River Severn or picking up fruit on the industrial estates of Stafford Park.
The new Pac-Man comes complete with 80s-style music and sound effects to bring perhaps the most famous character in video game history right into the 21st century.
So where is the best place for Pac-Man to hang out? The purpose-built dual carriageways of Telford are ideal for making a quick getaway, and there are plenty of places go give the bad guys the run around in Dawley, leading to a score of 3,310.
The pedestrian zones of Oswestry can make life tricky and it doesn't get any easier when the villains stand between you and your cherry. Still, at least you don't have to worry about the one-way signs.
