system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If Pac-Man's maximum level is 255 because it's the highest decimal number you can store in 8-Bit binary, how come it can count the score up to millions in decimal even though it's still 8-Bit?
gpt
They only reserved 8 bits for the level, resulting in 255 being the maximum level. The maximum score for pacman is 3,333,360 points, but that limitation is determined by limited ways you can earn points to begin with. You need at least 21 bits to express 3,333,360, so it is likely that they reserved at least 24 bits (since bits usually come in multiples of 8) to store the score information.