Intel's retro platformer to celebrate its CEO's first year is surprisingly fun

(Image credit: Intel)

Pat Gelsinger, Intel's CEO, has been at the helm for a year now, and to celebrate, Intel has created an 8-bit platformer that you can play in your browser called Pixel Pat. It's a cute little game with shades of Mario and Jetpack Joyride that serves as a fun little distraction.

The controls are pretty basic. Almost as basic as things get, with a mouse click or hot of the space bar making the pixelated Gelsinger leap into the air. You can also double jump to reach new heights. There's not too much more to it, other than avoiding the nasties, picking up invulnerable bunny suits, and seeing how far you can. That's pretty much it.

There are three things to collect: normal wafers, gold wafers, and light bulbs, with the latter being home to little tidbits of information about Pat's rise to the top. Things like Pat Gelsinger took over the top job in February 2021 and that he was part of the i386 designed team way back in 1981.

So it's not only a fun little game, but it might teach you a thing or two along the way too. As all the best games do, right?

This is actually part of Intel's Processor Pioneers mini-site, which is also home to a management game that sees you travelling back in time to the creation of Intel's first chip manufacturing plant in Oregon. It's not as immediate as PixelPat, but fun all the same, and has a similar pixel art vibe.

Alan has been writing about PC tech since before 3D graphics cards existed, and still vividly recalls having to fight with MS-DOS just to get games to load. He fondly remembers the killer combo of a Matrox Millenium and 3dfx Voodoo, and seeing Lara Croft in 3D for the first time. He's very glad hardware has advanced as much as it has though, and is particularly happy when putting the latest M.2 NVMe SSDs, AMD processors, and laptops through their paces. He has a long-lasting Magic: The Gathering obsession but limits this to MTG Arena these days.