Pac-Man and Purdue Pete appear for April Fools'

Greater Lafayette has been overrun by a giant yellow orb, eating anything in its path as four persistent ghosts follow.

April Fools'.

To celebrate the first day of April, Google Maps is allowing users to play the famous "Pac-Man" game on the streets of their favorite cities.

All you have to do is hover over a collection of streets — say, the Purdue University campus or downtown Lafayette — and press the special Pac-Man button at the bottom left of the screen, turning your computer and your hometown into the arcade game.

Complete with Pac-Man, four rival ghosts, and tons of apparently delicious dots, the Google Maps version has the look and feel of the original game.

The transition from the traditional up-down, right-left design, however, isn't always seamless. Diagonal streets make navigation difficult at times and some roads that extend off the screen don't have a corresponding "warp" point on the opposite side.

It's not the first time Google has incorporated the popular game into its website. During Pac-Man's 30th anniversary, the game was coupled with the search engine's home page, according to the Indianapolis Star.

In honor of the holiday, Purdue University decided to pull its own Web-based prank. At midnight, the digital marketing team replaced images of students and staff found on the homepage with photos of mascot Purdue Pete, with his unwavering, fixated stare.

And the Purdue University logo at the top of the screen seemed to be scratched out and replaced with "Pete's University" instead.

Martin Sickafoose, director of digital marketing, said the site was returned to normal about 7 a.m. after some students and staff expressed concern it had been hacked. Others simply joined the fun and posted screen captures to social media.

"We've had social media posts from our students," he said, "some calls from our professors liking the idea of it and enjoying the prank itself."