Pac Man was born in a pizza box. The Japanese programmer Toru Iwatani based the character on a pizza he was eating.

The four games created by students at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, last week were inspired by the sound of a heartbeat - the assigned theme for this year's Global Game Jam, an annual hacker marathon - and by a ticking clock: The teams had just 48 hours to create, code and upload their games, which anyone can now play.

The time limit kept the games simple. "When you know you only have two days, you think small," said Matthew White, lecturer in game development. "You don't dream up a space opera."