Quick Fix: The Ecology of Pac Man

Ran into the Google Pac Man app by accident.  Was damn fun to play it again, especially with a different maze and in the context of "this is history", with all the sound effects in tact.  The system I played it on eventually started hitching up, to the point where I actually passed through a ghost at one point, prompting me to shut the thing down.
 
Still, the design is elegant.  Here's what I remember about the ecology of Pac Man:
 
Pac Man's speed is just slightly slower than the ghosts, but he's even slower when he's eating dots.  So if you're being pursued and want to get away, best take an empty alleyway.  
 
The power pellets have limited time and eating all four ghosts gives you one of the few ways to go up in score ahead of others, but in the later stages, the time decreases so much for the power pellets that it's actually best to just treat them like normal pellets.  While the duration of the power pellet varies, some stages have the duration down to a split second, making them all but useless in offense. 
 
The fruit that pops up in the middle near the ghosts' home base is another way to get points, but it's often a bit risky to try for it.  It's also worth noting that you will only get one extra life in the entire game of Pac Man, unless I'm mistaken.  That means points beyond that are just for competition or pride.  If you're interesting in surviving more than score, treat the power pellets as ways to shake off ghosts more than to eat them, because they recover quicker when you eat them and they return to their home base to regenerate, rather than if you leave them blue.
 
The ghosts are not omniscient, but they do have limited tracking capability.  Usually if they're close to you they have a chance of losing you, but this chance increases if you're farther away.  Also, if  you manage to avoid them long enough, they regroup at their home base for a short time, allowing you to mop up a bit.  Their intelligence also increases in later stages, making it harder to evade them.  They also may set up traps of a sort, taking different routes to cut off escape.
 
Finally, your best friend is probably the warp tunnel.  No matter how many times you use it, you can make the ghosts slow down dramatically if they happen to follow you through.  Just make sure that no ghosts are near the opposite end of the tunnel, lest you get squished.
 
Have a good weekend, all.