Ms. Pac-man Fruit Glitch?

[StanJr]

Ok, so something weird happened playing Ms. Pac-man tonight. About 3 seconds before I grabbed a power pellet, a strawberry came bouncing onto the screen, but once I grabbed the pellet, the fruit vanished right off the screen! Is this a known occurrence? It robbed me of a perfect second screen by 200 points! Nothing else odd occurred, but I'd like my 200 points!!!!

 

Anybody have an idea?

[Dr Galaga]

I have had a few times when I have played Ms. Pac that a fruit seems to come out "prematurely." It pops out for a second, disappears, and then a little bit later it really comes out!

[StanJr]

I had something like that happen once as well, the fruit started out the tunnel and then before it made the first bounce, was gone! What is up with the fruit in this game?

[Cassidy Nolen]

STAN! Hey man, great to see you!

 

I would suggest reseating each of the chips on the board. Usually the ROMS can get loose in the socket and cause some odd display glitches. There was a repair page that Mowerman did (search pac man repair mowerman) that described what chip caused what glitch. Came in handy, don't have a link right now.

 

HTH, give them all a good push into their sockets and see if it fixes it.

 

CN

[StanJr]

Hey, Cassidy! Great to hear from you again!

 

I'm going to be working on the Ms. Pac this weekend, I'll give those babies a push!

[Nukey Shay]

AFAIK, this happens regardless...usually when the second fruit's "cue" has been slightly missed due to clearing too many dots while the first (or it's point value) are still onscreen. IMO it's probably that the two subroutines don't exactly jive...so one places it on the screen, and the other removes it when it bounces.

 

Give her a break...she's only a hack (of a hack)

[StanJr]

See, that is what I was thinking. I miss a lot of fruit in Pac-man as well because I clear too many dots too fast (my pattern is too good for its own good, apparently).

 

Thanks for the confirm Nukey!

 

Oh, and playing Ms. Pac-man has completely wrecked my ability to play Pac-man. (I am having trouble keeping the two sets of patterns differentiated in my head. How did Ken Uston do it?)

[pacmanfevr76]

(I am having trouble keeping the two sets of patterns differentiated in my head. How did Ken Uston do it?)

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

[ericwierson]

(I am having trouble keeping the two sets of patterns differentiated in my head. How did Ken Uston do it?)

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

I did not know that you can't use patterns in Ms. PacMan.

[retrorussell]

(I am having trouble keeping the two sets of patterns differentiated in my head. How did Ken Uston do it?)

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

I did not know that you can't use patterns in Ms. PacMan.

I used a couple patterns for a few levels in Ms. Pac-Man. I forgot them though. But you sure can't use patterns in Pac-Man Plus!

[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!

Edited November 24, 2009 by pacmanfevr76