Technologies

Halloween Pac-Man Google Doodle Dares You to Go for the Ghosts

Jump online and guide Pac-Man, dressed in a variety of Halloween costumes, through eight levels of a haunted house.

My fellow 1980s children, our old pal Pac-Man is back. And how in the world is he 45 years old already? The new Halloween Google Doodle is here to challenge us with a spooky version of the classic arcade game on our computers and other devices, with some fun twists.

Pac-Man himself shows up dressed in various Halloween costumes, and the power pellets he chows down are bloodshot eyeballs. The reanimated version of the game celebrates Pac-Man’s 45th anniversary, which cannot be true, because that would mean I am no longer 12 years old, but… uh, forget I said anything.

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When I first played Google’s Halloween 2025 doodle game, Pac-Man was dressed as a mummy, but when I played again later, he was in a frog costume and later still showed up wearing a strawberry hat. Keep refreshing — you might see additional Halloween costumes. He’s probably getting them all at Spirit Halloween.

Read more: Best Games of 2025 So Far

Back in the day, I plunked plenty of quarters into the arcade at Minnesota’s Maplewood Mall, but I never excelled at Pac-Man, much as I loved it. I’m not much better at the Google Doodle version. It is a real challenge on desktop, where you have to use the arrow keys to keep Pac-Man on the move.

My CNET colleague Jon Skillings was relieved to find an easier way to play.

«On a phone or iPad, the Pac-Man doodle just needs you to move your finger on the touchscreen,» he said. «Much better!»

Eight levels? I didn’t even finish one!

The Pac-Man Google Doodle features eight levels, four of which are unique haunted-house mazes. I didn’t even get through one, but your mileage may vary.

«Pay close attention inside each house, as its design directly reflects the personality of the iconic ghost haunting it,» Google says on its Doodle page.

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the Google Doodle trend in 1998 when they went to Burning Man. They redesigned the Google search engine logo with a simple stick-figure drawing behind the second «o» in the word Google, meaning it as an out-of-office message.

Since then, Google Doodles have become more elaborate, honoring everything from space missions to the invention of the bar code, and often including games and interactive elements. Pac-Man has wokka-wokkaed his way into the Google Doodle before, beginning in 2010 for the game’s 30th anniversary.

Arcade machines may come and go, but the ghosts of games past live on forever.

Google Doodles Through the Years: See 53 of Our Favorites

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Nov. 1

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Nov. 1.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s the big Saturday version, so it could take some time. Read on for the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Ethically sourced, as some egg
Answer: CAGEFREE

9A clue: Residents of Tehran
Answer: IRANIANS

10A clue: Air sign?
Answer: SKYWRITE

11A clue: ___ Faire (medieval-themed festival, informally)
Answer: REN

12A clue: Athlete from Cleveland or the University of Virginia
Answer: CAVALIER

17A clue: Kind of bathing suit
Answer: ONEPIECE

18A clue: Musical whizzes
Answer: MAESTROS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Certain gender identity
Answer: CIS

2D clue: Holy object sought in the first «Indiana Jones» movie
Answer: ARK

3D clue: ___ pride
Answer: GAY

4D clue: Completely surrounds
Answer: ENWRAPS

5D clue: Like a cozy campsite on a cool autumn night, say
Answer: FIRELIT

6D clue: Washington’s Mount ___, the highest peak in the Cascades
Answer: RAINIER

7D clue: Sinus-treating doctor, for short
Answer: ENT

8D clue: Opposite of WNW
Answer: ESE

12D clue: _ _ _mon URL ending
Answer: COM

13D clue: De Armas who starred in 2025’s «Ballerina»
Answer: ANA

14D clue: Shape of flying geese
Answer: VEE

15D clue: Prefix with friendly
Answer: ECO

16D clue: Restaurant booking, informally
Answer: RES

Technologies

Kim Kardashian Denies the Moon Landing and NASA Corrects Her Publicly

It’s one reality TV actor versus another, as Real World alum and acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy tells Kardashian she’s wrong.

NASA says we’ve been to the moon six times. Kim Kardashian says the first time was faked. On a recent episode of The Kardashians, the reality-show star was chatting with actress Sarah Paulson about astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon. That’s when Kardashian revealed she doesn’t believe the 1969 moon landing is real.

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In an interview, Aldrin was asked about the scariest moment of the Apollo 11 mission. Kardashian quotes his reply, «There was no scary moment because it didn’t happen. It could’ve been scary, but it wasn’t because it didn’t happen.»

It’s unclear which interview this was, or what exactly Aldrin was referring to, although it seems like he’s saying a certain frightening moment didn’t come to pass. But Kardashian took the quote to mean the entire moon landing was a hoax that Aldrin chose to reveal via that one quote.

«So I think (the moon landing) didn’t happen,» she said.

NASA acting administrator (and former participant on reality show The Real World) Sean Duffy took exception to the sentiment, replying on X «Yes, Kim Kardashian, we’ve been to the moon before…6 times!»

Yes, @KimKardashian, we’ve been to the Moon before… 6 times!
And even better: @NASAArtemis is going back under the leadership of @POTUS.
We won the last space race and we will win this one too 🇺🇸🚀
🎥: Hulu pic.twitter.com/CkexEEPFSv

— NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy (@SecDuffyNASA) October 30, 2025

The US did in fact land on the moon on July 20, 1969, with Aldrin and fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong both walking on the lunar surface. Armstrong died in 2012. Aldrin is now 95.

In 2002, Aldrin, then 72, punched a conspiracy theorist who tried to get him to swear the moon landings was faked.

«We won the last space race and we will win this one too!» Duffy told Kardashian on X. He later invited her to an upcoming launch at Kennedy Space Center, though she did not immediately accept.

Kardashian did not respond to a request for comment.