Ghosts (Pac-Man)

* Blinky
* Pinky
* Inky
* Clyde
* Sue
* Tim

The Ghosts are the primary antagonists of the Pac-Man series.

## Biology

As a result of hardware limitations, the ghosts have a very simple design reminiscent of a stereotypical bedsheet ghost. According to head designer Toru Iwatani, the ghosts are cute and colorful to contrast the hyper-masculine war theme that most arcade games of that era shared.  When Pac-Man eats a Power Pellet, the ghosts turn blue and adopt a flustered expression. When eaten by Pac-Man, the ghosts are reduced to a pair of eyes until they get a new shroud from their spawn point.

## Behavior

While this is hard to pick up on in gameplay, the ghosts actually have unique individual patterns. Additionally, they alternate as a group through Scatter and Chase modes. The ghosts will scatter for 5-7 seconds, then chase for intervals that increase in length as the game's level increases.

In Scatter mode, they will each head toward a different corner of the screen. This is to give the player some time to react, instead of being pursued constantly. In Chase mode, each ghost has a more unique behavior, outlined below.

When Pac-Man eats a Power Pellet, the ghosts will instantly change direction and become briefly vulnerable to attack.

### Blinky ("Shadow")

Blinky is the only ghost to start each level outside of the spawnpoint, and immediately begins chasing Pac-Man. When in chase mode, he will always directly pursue Pac-Man. After a certain number of dots have been eaten, he changes behavior to become more difficult, entering a state coloquially known as "Cruise Elroy". The origin of this term is unclear. While in Cruise Elroy mode, in addition to becoming slightly faster, Blinky will also ignore the scatter phase and never stop chasing Pac-Man.

### Pinky ("Speedy")

Pinky (whose gender varies in official media) is always the first ghost to exit the spawnpoint. Despite the nickname "speedy", they do not move faster than the other ghosts. Instead, they try to head Pac-Man off by targeting the space four tiles in front of him. Due to a bug, when Pac-Man is facing upwards, Pinky will target four tiles of the left of where they should be targeting.

### Inky ("Bashful")

Inky does not leave the spawnpoint until 30 dots have been eaten. Contrary to what this image will tell you, his strange targeting behavior makes him the hardest ghost to predict. To calculate his target position, he first looks two tiles in front of Pac-Man (similar to Pinky), but then bounces this location off of Blinky in an effort to trap Pac-Man between himself and Blinky. This calculation also suffers from the same bug that affects Pinky's targeting while Pac-Man is facing upwards.

### Clyde ("Pokey")

Clyde does not leave the spawnpoint until 1/3 of the dots in the level have been eaten. He is the second most predictable ghost behind Blinky, with his chasing behavior being exactly the same as long as he's at least eight tiles away from Pac-Man; if he's closer than that, he will head towards the corner of the maze as he does in scatter mode. As such, it is unlikely that Clyde will actually reach Pac-Man unless the player is directly inside Clyde's corner of the maze.

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190304181633/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/iwatani-pac-man-was-made-for-women
2. ↑ https://gameinternals.com/understanding-pac-man-ghost-behavior
3. ↑ http://www.classicarcadegaming.com/forums/index.php?topic=3214.0