34 replies to this topic

[PacManPlus]

Hi again:

Here's a quick thing I threw together, now that I have the maze creation down pat.  I figured there wasn't any home version of Miss Pac Attack, so now there is.  I did not change the title screen (as far as I know it wasn't changed in the arcade either...  I may be wrong about that - my memory isn't what it used to be.  But I just played it in MAME, and the title screen was the same).

ZylonBane (or anyone), if you see this, let me know what you think of the monsters; I took your advice.

Here are some screenshots as well.  Please ignore the colors; that happened when I converted the .PNG graphic to .JPG for some reason. :-/

Enjoy!

Attached Thumbnails

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Attached Files

•  MSPACATK.ZIP   21.11K   336 downloads

Edited by PacManPlus, Fri May 27, 2005 6:58 AM.

[Brad2600]

Very nice hack! I'm not sure what the difference between Ms.Pac Man and Ms.Pac Attack is but it looks pretty good so far and the maze is quite challenging.

[PacManPlus]

Thanks!

Actually it pretty much is just the maze that's different

Edited by PacManPlus, Fri May 27, 2005 7:56 AM.

[jwierer]

PacManPlus, on Fri May 27, 2005 7:50 AM, said:

Hi again:

Here's a quick thing I threw together, now that I have the maze creation down pat.  I figured there wasn't any home version of Miss Pac Attack, so now there is.  I did not change the title screen (as far as I know it wasn't changed in the arcade either...  I may be wrong about that - my memory isn't what it used to be.  But I just played it in MAME, and the title screen was the same).

ZylonBane (or anyone), if you see this, let me know what you think of the monsters; I took your advice.

Here are some screenshots as well.  Please ignore the colors; that happened when I converted the .PNG graphic to .JPG for some reason. :-/

Enjoy!

Miss Pac Attack was also known as Ms. Pacman Plus (http://www.klov.com/...=M&game_id=8783).  I have this running on my ms pac machine at home.  I love the maze changes, but I've always wished they had included the innovative elements of Pacman Plus (ghosts that don't change, disappearing mazes, fruits that act as power pellets).   A "real" Ms. Pacman Plus would be awesome.  Now if there was just somebody who could create this for the 7800

Thanks for another awesome addition to my 7800 collection!

-Jeff

[ZylonBane]

Mazes look great!

Ghost eyes look kind of creepy.

[Bryan]

ZylonBane, on Fri May 27, 2005 10:38 AM, said:

Mazes look great!

Ghost eyes look kind of creepy.

I have to agree that the thicker eyes you did in the mockup look better (as do the more rounded ghosts).

    -Bry

[PacManPlus]

ZylonBane, on Fri May 27, 2005 10:38 AM, said:

Mazes look great!

Ghost eyes look kind of creepy.

    

ok - I'll fix

[PacManPlus]

Hope this is better - it's hard to make things even when you only have 7 pixels across to work with...

Let me know

NOTE - I also just rounded their heads a little more than what shows in the thumbnail...

Attached Thumbnails

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Attached Files

•  MSPACATK.ZIP   21.11K   265 downloads

Edited by PacManPlus, Fri May 27, 2005 9:09 AM.

[Danno]

What program are you using to hack the graphics on this, Bob?

[PacManPlus]

It's something called 'Tile Molester' - its the only one I found that can let you have three-color graphics like how they are stored.
The only thing is that you have to display it 1 column (8 bits) wide and 4 rows deep - any wider and it's a little off :-/  By deafult I think it shows up 16 rows by 16 columns.  This game (and the 5200 games) you have to set the codec to use '2bpp linear'.  Also, a 1600x zoom is good.

I wish Hack-O-Matic II would do this   (hint, hint)

Edited by PacManPlus, Fri May 27, 2005 11:40 AM.

[Trebor]

PacManPlus, on Fri May 27, 2005 3:02 PM, said:

Hope this is better - it's hard to make things even when you only have 7 pixels across to work with...

Let me know

NOTE - I also just rounded their heads a little more than what shows in the thumbnail...

Excellent! Ghost Monsters look *much* better.   Any chance these Ghost Monsters changes making it into Pac-Man?

-Trebot

[Danno]

OK, I have to say that Tile Molester is just about the coolest thing I've ever played with.

Here's my take on the fixed up ghosts and Pac-Man for Bob's Pac-Man and the Original Ms. Pac-Man for the 7800.

So Bob - what do you use to edit the mazes? and how do you know what modes to set in Tile Molester? I've tried opening a few other games but haven't been able to figure out what mode to view them in to get discernable graphics.

Attached Files

•  pacghostfix.zip   20.38K   235 downloads

Edited by Danno, Fri May 27, 2005 5:04 PM.

[PacManPlus]

Danno, on Fri May 27, 2005 4:47 PM, said:

OK, I have to say that Tile Molester is just about the coolest thing I've ever played with.

Here's my take on the fixed up ghosts and Pac-Man for Bob's Pac-Man and the Original Ms. Pac-Man for the 7800.

So Bob - what do you use to edit the mazes? and how do you know what modes to set in Tile Molester? I've tried opening a few other games but haven't been able to figure out what mode to view them in to get discernable graphics.

I actually edit the mazes by hand.  I have pretty much memorized how the program interprets data for maze generation.  The cool thing about this version is the maze itself dictates where the players are allowed to go (meaning there aren't separate data tables for the display of the maze and the 'maze permissions' like in 5200/2600 pac-man/ms pac-man)

I tried every tile mode in that program until I found the one that works.  The sprite data is held differently in 7800 Ms. Pac-Man than in any other 7800 game (that I know of).  The sprite data is held more like the 5200 games. (lucky for me)

Bob

Thanks again for the compliments... I may put the new monsters in my 7800 Pac-Hack, but I'd like to think of that one as being done...
I kind of wish I was as familiar with other games as the Pac series...  I'd like to try my hand at other hacks as well  

BTW - I'll try out your monster hack when I get home...  Looking forward to it!

Edited by PacManPlus, Fri May 27, 2005 7:04 PM.

[Trebor]

Danno, on Fri May 27, 2005 8:47 PM, said:

Here's my take on the fixed up ghosts and Pac-Man for Bob's Pac-Man and the Original Ms. Pac-Man for the 7800.

Hi Danno,

Could you please provide *.a78 files as well?  MESS will not load 7800 images unless they have the header(s).

Thanks,
Trebor

Edited by Trebor, Sat May 28, 2005 4:26 AM.

[ZylonBane]

PacManPlus, on Fri May 27, 2005 10:02 AM, said:

Hope this is better - it's hard to make things even when you only have 7 pixels across to work with...

Left/right looks good, but up/down is back to the robotic slit-eyes. I realize the asymmetric design I mocked up might take some getting used to, but IMHO it does a better job of capturing the spirit of the original design (gotta love those big saucer-shaped eyes). I'm curious what other people think about this.

Attached Thumbnails

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[Bakasama]

Your right the eyes don't look right.  They do look "blocky".

Here's my take on the eyes, hopefully it conforms to the 7800's design limitations.

At least, the pupils should be indigo.

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by Bakasama, Sat May 28, 2005 10:57 AM.

[Danno]

There just aren't enough pixels to make the eyes look "right". That's why they are square in the original 7800 Ms.Pac-Man. That's also why the dots are so big. They are 4 pixels. if you reduce it to one pixel, they will be too small and they will be offset, and look like they need to be moved over one.

Zylon - previous mock-up looks great - but I think the 7800 would need a whole new Pac-Man engine written to make that version display correctly. This is just a hack. There is only so much you can do.

[PacManPlus]

ZylonBane, on Sat May 28, 2005 11:48 AM, said:

PacManPlus, on Fri May 27, 2005 10:02 AM, said:

Hope this is better - it's hard to make things even when you only have 7 pixels across to work with...

Left/right looks good, but up/down is back to the robotic slit-eyes. I realize the asymmetric design I mocked up might take some getting used to, but IMHO it does a better job of capturing the spirit of the original design (gotta love those big saucer-shaped eyes). I'm curious what other people think about this.

Hi!

ZylonBane -
The only thing that bugs me about that mockup is that it looks like the monsters are looking to their left when they are going up or down...  I know, the sprirt of the eyes... It's a great idea, but I just think we are too limited with sprite size to make the eyes do what we all want them to.

Bakasama -
Those eyes look good, but the monsters would have to retain their original size for that (like you have in the thumbnail).  I tried those eyes with the thinner monsters, and they looked cross-eyed...   You shaped the heads a little rounder as well - good call.  Hopefully that's a good compromise on what was originally in the program and what ZylonBane was getting at...

I wonder if GCC went through this when they created Ms Pac-Man for the 7800?

Edited by PacManPlus, Sat May 28, 2005 4:32 PM.

[ZylonBane]

PacManPlus, on Sat May 28, 2005 5:11 PM, said:

ZylonBane -
The only thing that bugs me about that mockup is that it looks like the monsters are looking to their left when they are going up or down...

Actually, left when they're going up, right when they're going down. But yeah, it's impossible to get centered pixels with the available resolution. All solutions are imperfect, so it comes down to trying to determine which imperfect solution looks best overall. "Best", of course, being subjective. Might be fun to start a poll.  

PS-- Danno, please, stop talking. Everything you say is wrong.

Edited by ZylonBane, Sat May 28, 2005 8:49 PM.

[Bakasama]

Yeah, I knew the "cross eyes" wouldn't work.  It's hard working with rectangle pixels.  Still, it might look different if the sprites were moving.

[Danno]

ZylonBane, on Sat May 28, 2005 10:46 PM, said:

PacManPlus, on Sat May 28, 2005 5:11 PM, said:

ZylonBane -
The only thing that bugs me about that mockup is that it looks like the monsters are looking to their left when they are going up or down...

Actually, left when they're going up, right when they're going down. But yeah, it's impossible to get centered pixels with the available resolution. All solutions are imperfect, so it comes down to trying to determine which imperfect solution looks best overall. "Best", of course, being subjective. Might be fun to start a poll.  

PS-- Danno, please, stop talking. Everything you say is wrong.

Zylon - fuck off. In case you hadn't noticed because you're too busy running your yap, I submitted an actual hack here that's pretty decent - you submitted a "mock up" jpg that's physically impossible to do with the pixel count in this game.

You said EXACTLY the same thing I said. The eyes can't be "perfect" with the pixel count in this game.

I suggest you stop ordering people around and learn to hack the games yourself before you run your uninformed mouth again, asshole.

Edited by Danno, Sat May 28, 2005 10:15 PM.

[Danno]

ZylonBane, on Sat May 28, 2005 11:48 AM, said:

PacManPlus, on Fri May 27, 2005 10:02 AM, said:

Hope this is better - it's hard to make things even when you only have 7 pixels across to work with...

Left/right looks good, but up/down is back to the robotic slit-eyes. I realize the asymmetric design I mocked up might take some getting used to, but IMHO it does a better job of capturing the spirit of the original design (gotta love those big saucer-shaped eyes). I'm curious what other people think about this.

Why don't you download my version of this hack?

Oh right - mine looks just like that. Except, it's not a "mock-up". it's an actual hack.

[Danno]

Bob, I apologize for interrupting your thread with Zylon's petty forum troll bullshit. It seems he can't post in a thread without trying to correct someone to make himself feel better. In fact - after looking at a collection of his posts, it appears that all he's capable of is wise-assed comments and being a spelling/grammar Nazi.

The sad thing is, he's a troll on an Atari messageboard. I guess he couldn't handle the flame wars of some of the more highly-populated "regular people" messageboards out there, so he comes here to pump up his ego and pick on Atari geeks. It is funny though, as he usually get's owned by everyone who posts after him, because he's usually wrong.

At any rate, I'm done with him. I put trolls like him on ignore. He's not contributing anything productive to the thread, or the board for that matter, other than whining and acting like a attention-deprived bitch.

Edited by Danno, Sat May 28, 2005 11:04 PM.

[Brad2600]

You have ruined the tone of this thread.

Zylonbane is well...Zylonbane. He is here, like it or not.

[ZylonBane]

It's funny when Danno says things like, "the 7800 would need a whole new Pac-Man engine written to make that version display correctly", when I in fact conformed to the exact same pixel matrix the original ghosts use.

Sigh, oh well. For the good of the thread I'll just bow out at this point.