Jr. Pac-Man review for Intellivision

[Rev]

Jr Pac Man is not for sale any longer until any issue is resolved.

 

At a later date a voluntary exchange will happen at no cost to anyone but me. But not until issues are 100 percent resolved. Please be patient. Stay tuned to my newsletter if you are subscribed.

 

Thanks.

[wolfy62]

I hope you already shipped out the supposedly defective version of JR. Pacman to me before you pulled it off the block.

 

Great rare variant for C-Mart and others! Joking of course, Dale W.

[Rev]

I hope you already shipped out the supposedly defective version of JR. Pacman to me before you pulled it off the block.

 

Great rare variant for C-Mart and others! Joking of course, Dale W.

Creating a variant cart is not the intended goal. There will be changes to the revised cart. Uncertain at this point, but they will be listed in full when it’s time. Thanks all.

[Jinks]

Just was reading this.. The game looks great! Nice to see a guy standing behind his product 100%.

[wolfy62]

Creating a variant cart is not the intended goal. There will be changes to the revised cart. Uncertain at this point, but they will be listed in full when it’s time. Thanks all.

I was after all, ultimately joking, in all seriousness.

[+cmart604]

Wolfy62 stated: "When my games arrive, I will give a fair and thorough review! :thumbsup:"

 

 

The reviews thus far have not been fair?

 

 

Why is this game still being distributed in such a defective state, especially *after* feedback from non-testers have been provided? Because Intellivision community normalcy? Purchase a defective cartridge, then pay $10+ for a fixed ROM?

 

and $10+ in return shipping to have your defective cartridge reprogrammed? If you're lucky?

 

The above scenario is why I am no longer an early Intellivision homebrew adopter.

I may be forgetting something but what game did you have to pay $10+ for a fixed ROM and $10+ in return shipping? There have been a lot of Inty homebrews released over the years but I cant recall this happening. Apologies if I am forgetting which one it was.

[+cmart604]

I just think he is referring to some of the games. And really with how easy and how frequent the bugs occur in Jr Pac Man how could it get by testing. They may be getting tested but are the people being chosen relaying the proper feed back. Im sure there are people not posting on this thread just for fear of offending or once games arrive they put on shelf for decoration not to play.

 

Honesty and constructive criticisms all helps make things better. Not kissing ass like some do around here.

 

Cheers and sometimes the truth hurts...

I believe Mr Hornsby says in his song thats just the way it is, some things will never change. That implies to me that it is an ongoing and consistent thing. I would respectfully disagree with that sentiment.

 

Does anyone here actually believe that Rev is rushing shoddy games out the door out of greed as has been mentioned in the past? As someone who has helped finance many Inty homebrew releases and is familiar with the cost structure of these releases I can say with certainly that no one is getting rich off of putting out homebrews for the Inty but rather these releases happen as a labour of love and speak to a passion a number of programmers, artists, testers, and producers here on AA have for the Intellivision.

 

I genuinely wonder if we all understand the amount of time, effort, commitment and money involved in getting these cool fun little pieces of nostalgia into our hopefully appreciative hands. I sometimes feel that the narrative required to support our truth as we want to believe it, might not be based on all the facts but rather on supposition to fill in the blanks for the parts we are not witness to.

 

I take absolutely no issue with Grays review, and see no problem at all in constructive criticism and honesty. In fact Rev and I met him and his wife at PRGE and had a great chat with another Inty enthusiast. To me thats the best part of going to these events, nerding out with other Inty nuts, discussing arcane facts about the Inty and its games and ridiculously specific details about crazy variants that only a tiny portion of the population even cares about. ?

 

As to JR Pac, as has been mentioned already by a few people in this thread, this is a weird unexpected bug in a game that was thoroughly tested and wasnt even encountered in two full days of play by a couple hundred people at PRGE. While it is unfortunate, lets face it, sometimes shit happens. ? All I would ask is that while we dont all have to kiss ass, maybe if there is an issue we dont assume the worst. Finally, as Rev has already posted, he will ensure everyone is taken care of, as I knew he would. ???

[mr_me]

Wolfy62, just to let you know all games I played were on fast mode in Arcade Mode and Atari Mode on a Intellivion II .

It might be possible that it behaves differently on an Intellivision II due to the modified exec creating "timing issues". Intellivision 2609, Sylvania, Sears, Tandy, and most INTV systems should all behave similarly.

 

Edit:

Do you have your ECS plugged in?

Edited December 21, 2017 by mr_me

[+save2600]

I may be forgetting something but what game did you have to pay $10+ for a fixed ROM and $10+ in return shipping? There have been a lot of Inty homebrews released over the years but I cant recall this happening. Apologies if I am forgetting which one it was.

The 3rd Ghost/400 Point bug in Ms. Pac-Man... had to send that one in for reprogramming at my expense to and fro, which was about $10.

 

Shortly after or during that time, the fixed ROM was available for purchase. Then about a year later, Carl made it available for free.

[m-crew]

It might be possible that it behaves differently on an Intellivision II due to the modified exec creating "timing issues". Intellivision 2609, Sylvania, Sears, Tandy, and most INTV systems should all behave similarly.

 

Edit:

Do you have your ECS plugged in?

No ECS plugged in ..

[+DZ-Jay]

I think many people played it at PRGE without trouble or we would have know before. It must be some problem in manufacturing.

 

Just my 2 cents. Also waiting for my copy.

 

At this point, it's starting to sound like if the final burned ROM is not the last build played by the testers. Could it be that the wrong build went to manufacturing? It may explain the difference between the apparently obvious and easily triggered bugs and the testers' experience.

 

That or they only tested in emulation...

[+DZ-Jay]

Wolfy62 stated: "When my games arrive, I will give a fair and thorough review! :thumbsup:"

 

 

The reviews thus far have not been fair?

 

 

Why is this game still being distributed in such a defective state, especially *after* feedback from non-testers have been provided? Because Intellivision community normalcy? Purchase a defective cartridge, then pay $10+ for a fixed ROM?

 

…and $10+ in return shipping to have your defective cartridge reprogrammed? If you're lucky?

 

The above scenario is why I am no longer an early Intellivision homebrew adopter.

 

This is a bit unfair. There are many problems with this community, but as far as I know most (if not all) publishers have been very forthcoming in replacing defective cartridges.

 

I know that Christmas Carol was released with at least two critical bugs (one triggered in NTSC consoles and another one in PAL), not to mention other less noticeable bugs, but bugs nonetheless. In our case, we went out of our way to advertise a recall, contact purchasers and offer a replacement cartridge -- no questions asked. We even asked for the original back but did not require (we only receive a single one in each recall case); we shipped dozens of replacements at our cost.

 

There have been some specific instances in which buggy software has been made to be a "feature," but this is far from the norm.

 

No. The most likely problem is that our community is very small and the pool of testers is even smaller. Play-testing and beta-testing are skills. They require discipline, time, and effort. It is not enough to just plug in a cartridge and start playing and see what happens (although, of course, that's part of it). You have to actively try various scenarios, examine multiple paths, and try to imagine how other players would react in different circumstances. You have to be observant, attentive, and take lots of notes. And that's not even counting how good you need to be with the game mechanics themselves in order to effectively progress through the game and test every single part.

 

I suspect that Intellivision home-brew testing is less rigorous than that. That's not intended to be a slight and it shouldn't be surprising -- there may not be many people available who are able or willing to put in the effort, or perhaps those who do, just lack the discipline or skills for exhausting multiple scenarios or documenting their progress. Plus, they are all volunteers, helping you out, so you take what you can get and it is always better than nothing at all.

 

I think Rev is doing the right thing here: Once a couple of reports turned into many, he halted sales and proceeded to investigate. I expect this to be resolved soon, but I'm sure they need yours and everyone's help: don't just report you found a bug -- try to identify the conditions that lead to it, and document the exact steps to reproduce it. That, along with the hardware configuration and any other detail you think may be important, is invaluable to the developer in finding and resolving the issues.

 

-dZ.

[+DZ-Jay]

Creating a variant cart is not the intended goal. There will be changes to the revised cart. Uncertain at this point, but they will be listed in full when it’s time. Thanks all.

 

Too bad, that'll happen. Unless you require people to submit the original, which is (in my opinion) a bit onerous. I know that there are plenty of broken Christmas Carol running around, although I don't imagine many people treat it as a variant... yet. Maybe in 30 years. hehehe.

 

-dZ.

[+save2600]

 

This is a bit unfair. There are many problems with this community, but as far as I know most (if not all) publishers have been very forthcoming in replacing defective cartridges.

 

When and where did that happen with Ms. Pac-Man? I may have missed it somewhere along the line, so if it exists, would you please point to it?

[+DZ-Jay]

 

When and where did that happen with Ms. Pac-Man? I may have missed it somewhere along the line, so if it exists, would you please point to it?

 

Did you note the part where I said "most (if not all)"? Did you also miss the part where I said that there have been some examples of this, but that it's hardly a trend?

 

I stand by that. You had a bad experience, I get it -- take it with that publisher. It's unfair to paint all with the same broad brush.

 

-dZ.

[+save2600]

 

Did you note the part where I said "most (if not all)"? Did you also miss the part where I said that there have been some examples of this, but that it's hardly a trend?

 

I stand by that. You had a bad experience, I get it -- take it with that publisher. It's unfair to paint all with the same broad brush.

 

-dZ.

Didn't miss a thing, and didn't have a problem with your statement outside of the "if not all" part of it. "If not all" suggests doubt 'still and after' I've shown that this has happened at least once. Maybe you just threw it in as a figure of speech, I don't know. Anyway, not trying to be a dick, but really don't feel like going into this any further.

 

Rev's already offered to rectify the Jr. Pac situation and I'm more than good with that.

[+cmart604]

The 3rd Ghost/400 Point bug in Ms. Pac-Man... had to send that one in for reprogramming at my expense to and fro, which was about $10.

 

Shortly after or during that time, the fixed ROM was available for purchase. Then about a year later, Carl made it available for free.

Ah, yes, now I recall. I never sent mine in but I did buy the ROM from Carl.

[+intvsteve]

Testing in jzintv and on LTO Flash! never exposed the "pink blob" bug. The exact ROM on the cart played using those does not exhibit that bug either. I can't try on CC3 or Intellicart at this time. I reproduced on Intellivision II and other systems with the physical cart. I'm sure the root cause will be rooted out and fixed. The game uses additional RAM so that may be something to look into. Not sure if the RAM on the CC3 / Intellicart matches what the game needs.

[+DZ-Jay]

Testing in jzintv and on LTO Flash! never exposed the "pink blob" bug. The exact ROM on the cart played using those does not exhibit that bug either. I can't try on CC3 or Intellicart at this time. I reproduced on Intellivision II and other systems with the physical cart. I'm sure the root cause will be rooted out and fixed. The game uses additional RAM so that may be something to look into. Not sure if the RAM on the CC3 / Intellicart matches what the game needs.

 

My understanding is that Cartridge RAM on JLP was modelled after the CC3 and Intellicart.

[+intvsteve]

 

My understanding is that Cartridge RAM on JLP was modelled after the CC3 and Intellicart.

Jr. Pac-Man doesn't use a JLP cart. You're right that JLP supports both Intellicart and CC3, but I think it may have additional capabilities as well. Been quite awhile since I've looked at the specs, and there are a couple of versions of the board to boot.

[GenetixJ]

Mine just arrived! Cant wait to play it in Christmas Day. Thanks Rev!

[mr_intv]

Jr Pac Man is not for sale any longer until any issue is resolved.

 

At a later date a voluntary exchange will happen at no cost to anyone but me. But not until issues are 100 percent resolved. Please be patient. Stay tuned to my newsletter if you are subscribed.

 

Thanks.

Are there any updates? A couple buddies and myself are looking at holding a mini swap meet locally and Id love to show this game off. Who am I kidding? Ill show it off regardless, its still a great game.

[Rev]

Are there any updates? A couple buddies and myself are looking at holding a mini swap meet locally and Id love to show this game off. Who am I kidding? Ill show it off regardless, its still a great game.

Should be in next few months.

[mr_intv]

Thanks for the update.