Lemmings and Pac-Man Shown Off on MacBook Pro's Touch Bar

[MacRumors]

Since the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar was released, developers have been finding increasingly clever, if impractical, things to do with the tiny LCD screen built into the MacBook Pro's keyboard.

It's been turned into a piano and used to run Doom, and now two new games have been shown off on the Touch Bar -- Pac-Man and Lemmings.

Pac-Bar, a version of Namco's popular Pac-Man game, was designed for the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar by 15-year-old developer Henry Franks. The game, written in Swift and available on Github, features Pac-Man gameplay on a horizontal line using the arrow keys for controls. Mashable's Raymond Wong has a video of Pac-Bar in action:

Over the weekend, Developer Erik Olsson wrote a Lemmings game for the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar, which can be seen running in a video he posted on Twitter.

Lemmings for Touch Bar, based on 1991 puzzle-platform game Lemmings, features lemmings walking back and forth on the display and reacting to touch. Olsson shared the source code for Lemmings on Github.

This may be the best app I've ever built pic.twitter.com/Z9WJi7e74G - Erik Olsson (@valross2) December 11, 2016

Apple does not approve of games running on the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar, based on its strict Developer Guidelines. According to Apple, the Touch Bar should be used as an extension of the keyboard and trackpad, delivering contextual controls for apps, instead of as a display.

Article Link: Lemmings and Pac-Man Shown Off on MacBook Pro's Touch Bar

 

[555gallardo]

I remember the days when a MacBook Pro was targeted at Pros.

 

[garirry]

That's probably the easiest version of Pac-Man I've ever seen.

You gotta admit though, while it's pointless, it looks pretty cool.

 

[Spectrum]

I love the lemmings demo. Showing my age maybe...

 

[dannyyankou]

Looking forward to the sarcastic comments that take a fun little game by some random developer too seriously

 

[sahnjuro]

Someone will figure out to display porn or pornographic images on the touch bar

So may be touch bar won't be completely bloody useless

 

[doelcm82]

I remember the days when a MacBook Pro was targeted at Pros.

Yep. And pros hate fun.

 

[jayducharme]

That is pretty cool. But can you imagine how much more awesome it would be if Apple had made the trackpad an interactive screen? I'm not sure PacMan would be any more useful on that surface, but it certainly would be more playable.

The piano keyboard on the keyboard is a great idea for musicians, though. Apple should have that option for Logic and Garage Band.

 

[Gorms]

Lemmings was just funny, but the prize goes to that 15 year old who had a clever idea with how to actually make a functional Pacman game from the space available. Good work!

 

[MallardDuck]

Apple does not approve of games running on the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar, based on its strict Developer Guidelines. According to Apple, the Touch Bar should be used as an extension of the keyboard and trackpad, delivering contextual controls for apps, instead of as a display.

Article Link: Lemmings and Pac-Man Shown Off on MacBook Pro's Touch Bar

And now we have confirmation. it's a toy and a gimmick.

I hope the 2x4 actually made contact with the cupterino egos and we actually get a usable machine early next year (especially now that Intel is releasing Kaby lake CPU's).

 

[Westside guy]

That's probably the easiest version of Pac-Man I've ever seen.

I dunno... it might be the hardest.

 

[miknos]

I have the impression that those apps are not the "killer apps" people were expecting to convince people to buy the tMBP.

 

[Sylvan]

I feel like the touch bar would be better utilized if it displayed the dock. That would free up a lot of screen real estate.

 

[mw360]

It is extremely unfair to blame Apple for what 3rd party devs are doing with this thing, but on the other hand, I'm happy to let logic slide and just watch Apple burn.

The Touch Bar could be a cute and handy addition to the standard keyboard, if only they had marketed like that. Instead they embarrassed themselves and their professional fans by blowing years of anticipation on that awful never-ending dirge of a presentation, trying to con us into thinking this would somehow revolutionise professional workflows. That is the reason this thing is a bad joke, because it's the only thing Apple has given to professional users in over three years and they expected us to lap it up like drooling morons.

As a 'one more thing,' it probably would have gone down a treat, but as the showpiece of their professional strategy for the next few years? Yeah, it deserves coverage like this.

 

[Slix]

This is kinda neat. Not gonna make anyone want to buy a new MacBook Pro any more or less, probably, but still cool to see what the Touch Bar is capable of.

Just because this is a gimmick does not mean everyone using the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro is using it as a gimmick. Get over yourselves, guys.

 

[amirite]

I'm just here for the comments.

HOW IS THIS A PRO MACHINE? AND THOSE GAMES DON'T EVEN LOOK LIKE THEY WORK PROPERLY. HOW CAN YOU PLAY PACMAN ON ONE LINE? APPLE IS DOOMED
[doublepost=1481576203][/doublepost]

I feel like the touch bar would be better utilized if it displayed the dock. That would free up a lot of screen real estate.

^ lmao this is why I come to MacRumors when I need a laugh.

A separate screen for displaying the dock.

 

[Applebot1]

Telling you the touch bar will soon have its own App Store

 

[mainstreetmark]

I remember the days when a MacBook Pro was targeted at Pros.

Every thread someone has to say stuff like this?

 

[rhoydotp]

I remember the days when a MacBook Pro was targeted at Pros.

Just to be clear, some programmers/developers are also "Pros" ... they are also getting paid to program/develop.

Ok, now move along ...

 

[Zirel]

I remember the days when a MacBook Pro was targeted at Pros.

Because having games means "non-pro".

Double standards...

 

[keysofanxiety]

I remember the days when a MacBook Pro was targeted at Pros.

Yes, because Pac-Man running on the Touchbar was built, designed, and marketed by Apple as being one of the main features. It wasn't, say, just a little bit of fun created by a 15 year old developer.

 

[pat500000]

PAC man is a hungry mf who requires 3k dollars to get extra lives to finish a linear game.

 

[bjet767]

I feel like the touch bar would be better utilized if it displayed the dock. That would free up a lot of screen real estate.

I hide the app dock and it only comes into view when the cursor is down st bottom of screen. Selected this dock feature with my first OSX mac about ten years ago. It's probably been available longer than that.

 

[MichaelSStevens]

I was just at a casino this weekend and realized that just about every single slot machine had a touch bar advertising something. Many were interactive.

 

[Manderby]

but still cool to see what the Touch Bar is capable of.

While I do enjoy seeing such demos, I have to say, there is nothing impressive in seeing a 1085 x 30 pixel screen being controlled by a laptop which is capable in driving three 4K displays.

Call me impressed when the 64k demos arrive. Then we're talking.