pacmanfevr76

I'm not sure how many different openings there are, but in Ms. Pac-Man, Blinky and Pinky do not leave the ghost house the same way each time, meaning at minimum, you would have to have a different pattern for every opening. In addition, even the world record holders on this title aren't sure if the door the fruits enter through or the paths the fruit travels are random or not. I believe the same holds true for Jr. Pac-Man as well. In Pac-Man Plus, you can fully pattern the "fruit energizers" as long as there is no attempt to get one of the regular energizers. So, that's a partial pattern anyway and is good enough to clear 3.3 million. One can create a pattern that will work for the entire board, but it will only work if the credit was entered and the start button was hit at the exact same time it was when the pattern was made. If not, you could see the ghosts do different things when you hit an energizer even though the exact same pattern was being run. (You can, of course, use a pattern from the 21st board to the kill screen.) One can pattern Pac-Man, although grouping techniques aren't terribly difficult to master. Even if one has fully patterned every board, don't think that makes perfection easy. I had two perfect runs come to an end at boards 236 and 246 and my perfect game very nearly came to an end on board 244. Four hours ruined is NOT fun!

How did you is the question. You can't use patterns in Ms. Pac-Man.

I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'll sell you.

Rule 34? I don't know what that is. I got a perfect game.

I finally did it.

I asked Dwayne Richard how much he wanted for his Nibbler machine. He used it late last year to score over 883 million, which is the second highest score ever.

It's quite the opposite. If you know the ghosts, then you control them.

The personalities or behaviors of the ghosts is the same in the whole series. The ghosts move dependent on your current position and direction. In both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, the ghosts each have their designated quardant to run to during "scatter mode." In Pac-Man, the ghosts follow a specific pattern as they exit the middle at the beginning of each board. If you follow EXACTLY the same pattern, the ghosts will too. However, in Ms. Pac-Man, the opening movements of Blinky and Pinky are "random." That is, they conform to a mechanism which generates their direction at each beginning. (I would imagine it is has to be similar to the timing mechanism which assigns the fruits after board seven.) If it were truly random, you could never get a MAME playback to work correctly.

The true test of playing on the fly in Pac-Man is the ninth key. Screw up a pattern early there and try to finish. You really have to take advantage of the tunnels, the S-channels, and lots of times you have to take advantage of the personalities of the ghosts. Even an absolute expert has a tough time doing this. For all the rest of the Pac-titles, there is a certain threshhold where you are in trouble unless you know that game inside and out. For Ms. Pac-Man, it happens at the 21st board, just like regular Pac-Man. She goes normal speed and the ghosts are going fast. I'm not too familiar with Jr. Pac-Man, but the threshhold I always hear repeated is "slow choo-choo" boards. In Super Pac-Man, if, by some incredible chance, you get as far as board 32, you better be Les Martin or you are DEAD. The ghosts are absolutely flying by level 24 in that game. Rick Fothergill, perfect Pac-Man player, former record holder on Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, and the current ersatz Super Pac-Man champion, took 8-1/2 hours to play only 88 boards. I'd have to imagine that all he was doing after board 32 was scrambling...for eight hours!!!

NE146's assertions that anyone good enough to make patterns is good enough to play on the fly could not be farther from the truth. ANYONE can make patterns that will guarantee survival all the way through the game's conclusion. With a little dedication, you can come up with patterns to get perfect scores for the long blue time boards. Those with boatloads of time on their hands could come up with patterns to score a complete perfect game. Playing the game on the fly is a totally different thing. Playing to survive, yes, that can be done on the fly. Learning a few key areas in the game and a few timing points will get you to the end of the game. Playing to be perfect is a very, very different thing. My own attestation to the difficulty of that is written into my signature. I have not played a full game in a long while, and if I did, I would most likely be able to finish with at least 3,320,000. I have never been able to complete all six one-second boards without missing a ghost. I have also only been able to play ONE one-second board perfect without any trace of a pattern. The closest I have ever been to perfection is 362,400 after twenty boards, (with 365,600 being perfect.) Since my goal is to be perfect, I now shut the game off as soon as I miss. Having read something written by a fellow who has a perfect game via patterns, it occurred to me that there was the chance that there are major nuances of the game that he does not understand. Yet, he has a perfect score.

As I am a devoted fan of the series, I'd have to say that, in comparison to its predecessors, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 is absolutely horrendous. The game is chock full of blatantly obvious programming errors.

Actually, a new National Video Game Team has been selected in New England by David Nelson. Check out TwinGalaxies for details.

While I would say that the 2600 joystick is easy to use, it doesn't exactly have the best ergonomic design for marathon performances in my opinion. I get a sore thumb after about 90 minutes while the left edge of the base jabs into the joint where the thumb meets the hand. The more firing necessary, the worse it gets. I had a controller back when I was younger that was a trigger with the joystick mounted on top. I think I used that the most. I don't think the NES Advantage is bad at all. However, I do prefer the original controller when higher precision moves are necessary. I personally don't care for the GameCube controllers with the buttons all over the place. I really don't use one much, so I am not really accustomed to it. I am surprised that no one mentioned the Power Glove.

There is no randomness to ghost movement in Pac-Man at all. The only ghostly randomness in Ms. Pac-Man is the paths that Blinky and Pinky take at the beginning of each maze. This does eliminate the possibility of playing with patterns. However, once they reverse the first time, their movement is controlled by the player. (Obviously, the types of fruit after maze seven and their paths throughout are also random.)

I don't recall what game they are playing, but Robin Maxwell and the Visitor Youth leader Brian are clearly playing an Atari 2600 at the beginning of the "V" miniseries.