PacManPlus

Ouch Thanks for the answers, guys. There goes that idea

Hi! I made a few small changes to Jr PacMan, and wanted to put it on a 16k cart (got the 16K version of the board from AA, and a 16K eprom)... But when I burned the eprom, it made all of the dots the 'large' version (as if the fruit had passed over every one). I tried different eproms and different boards... I even tried the original bin (without my changes) and each try did the same thing! I then did a test; in PCAEWIN there's a setting for the type of chip. I changed the '16K SuperChip' to a standard 16K setting, and the same thing happened in the emulator! It put it back and of course the bin was fine. Is there any way around this issue? I really would like to put my little hack on the cart... Thanks in advance. Bob

It looks like it was delayed - the 'Amazon' site now reads July 15

Hi: I recently spent a little time Searching through the 16K Pac Man rom for the 5200 with Hack-O-Matic (because I wanted to change the maze) and found some interesting memory locations: 1622-17ef: Pac Cartoon Graphics 3416-34af: Maze Permissions 3af0-3b95: In Game Characters 3c11: Blinky Color 3c12: Pinky Color 3c13: Inky Color 3c14: Clyde Color 3c15: Maze Color 3c18: Pac Color 3c27-3c39: Blue Time (for each board - starts w/ cherry) 3c3e-3c82: Score Characters 3d40-3d67: Pointer to Fruit Score Graphics 3e9c-3e9f: Direction Reversal? 3ec5-3edd: Fruit point value (for each board - starts w/ cherry) With the maze permissions, each byte is '0000RLDU' and the first bit is set if the monsters cannot go up (just above the starting point, and just above the monster pen) You are pretty limited with what mazes you can create, as there are only 10 bytes per line with 10 lines. The fruit points use 2 bytes, and they are divided by 100. (So the cherry value is 0000000000000001) I have not been able to find the fruit characters. I check an old post where Nukey mentioned how they are stored, but the values don't match what he posted They were also nowhere to be found within the rom. Maybe he has a different dump? Also, some possibilities (that I haven't figure out how they work yet): 3291-3298: Something about the dots and if they are edible 39fe: monster speed? 39de: Blue Speed? I'm still trying to find where the dots are displayed, and where the maze is displayed so I can change it. I have printed out the disassembly from DIS6502, and am sifting through it. I just thought some of you might have some fun with these memory locations

Yes, I know But this was the first time I actually did something like this (Or was going to)...

I just found out I have to work on March 20th. I can't go this year I gotta call the hotel up and cancel my reservations as well.... Oh well, maybe next year.

I absolutely would be

Aren't you coming too?

Longhorne - isn't that a steakhouse? That one sounds cool - Albert: does your response mean that you are going as well???

Hey - I have an idea... Any chance on a group of us AA members going to dinner after the expo on Saturday? Maybe to TGIF, Bennigans or someplace similar?

PM Sent

Hey Hepcat - What happened? I'm still curious to see your mspacman input file...

Sorry, man - I thought we had one but I was wrong

ok - I'm guessing it's done a different way than it was in Ms Pac-Man. I searched for what I thought would be the permission bytes for the first maze in Jr but came up empty. now I'm really confused... *edit*: This is why I'm asking:

Does anyone happen to know what address the maze 'permissions' start in Jr Pac-Man? I was able to find where the display mazes are, but I am having trouble with the area that tells how the sprites follow the maze... TIA

How much?

I may have one at work - let me check tomorrow and I'll post a reply then

@HepCat, NE146, Anyone else who's interested: Ok Here's my new high score in PacManPlus: 268,000! Things to look for: 1) On the 2nd level, I get sandwiched between two monsters and live through it! If you notice right after I get out of it, I stop, because I couldn't believe what just happened. 2) On the third board, I eat the fruit at the exact same time I run into a monster (didn't get any points for it - went right through him) ok - I'm resting for a while... pacplus.zip

@NE146: Thanks! Although the 'waiting' to group them together makes for a long game I'm working on PacMan Plus right now to beat a certain high score @HanglyMan: Yes, I have found out that a pattern is possible until you eat a fruit. I actually use one now, and it even works until the second fruit is eaten (as long as the 'fruit' blue time is longer than the 1st apple energizer equivalent)!

Hey Jason: 270K?!?!?!? Wow - I have to watch this one tonight... I'll try it as well, hopefully I'll be able to come close... It's funny, once you get to the point where the monsters don't turn blue any more, I'm *sure* a pattern is possible... (the whole point of Pac Man Plus was to eliminate the use of patters...) I really haven't played Jr. Pac-Man too much, but now that I have a new take on playing it (I find if I treat it as two boards side by side instead of one large board, I play better) We *have* to get a one-on-one match going at some point...

Hi NE146... You are *soooooooo* close: mame mspacman -playback mpm (don't include the '.inp'; MAME adds it automatically)

Jason: Thanks! That game actually is my high score now - it's good to have it saved With the 'tie' thing, I've just learned how to make the most of the energizer time. You must do that as well, no? I've learned most of the monster's AI (as I'm sure you have too) over the years and use it againt them That's why you'll see me sometimes go right up to Pinky and make him turn away. I'm very curious on how you group them together in the 3 to 5 levels... I look forward to seeing your .INP file I put that entry into MARP - 2nd place! I've also noticed that the 1st place holder for Pac-Man Plus has a score of 180,000 - I think I'll try for that next; my high is 160,000... Hey - Are you going to the Philly Classic this year? I was thinking of going - it would be cool to meet some of the people from here.

Galaga, Sinistar, Asteroids, Defender

Hey HepCat! Here is my .INP from tonight: 227K My new high score on standard speed! You will see quite a few screw ups as far as trying to get the monsters grouped together but all in all I'm happy with this one. My problem is once you get the board that's the equivalent of the ninth key in Pac-Man, I don't last too long. All monsters are faster than you without eating dots, so I have to figure out a better strategy than the one I currently use :-P Now, you will need DOS MAME .56 for this, not sure if the Windows version of .56 will work, but I do know that the newest version (.78) will not. Let me know if you need it, because it's 2.5Mb zipped, and I didn't want to waste the Al's bandwidth. mpm.zip