If your youth was misspent dodging “ghosts” in the video game – in which the player controls a munching blob around a grid – you may be bemused to learn that a computer program has learned to play just as well, but using different tactics.
In the popular 80s arcade game, the unofficial sequel to Pac-Man, the blob avoids killer ghosts while earning points for eating dots and fruit. If the blob has eaten a special “power” dot, it can eat the ghosts for more points.
András Lõrincz and István Szita at Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary, started by giving…
