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Baby Pac-Man


PacManPlus

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I'd have a suggestion concerning the steering of the vid part... regarding diagonals. I know the player can't really go diagonally, but you could make it so that a diagonal means that both directions should be considered, such as... if you steer up and right, and Baby faces right, it will continue to go right as long as the path is free, but if the path is blocked it will turn upward.

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Hi Bob, been following the thread with great interest. I understand your desire to implement the pinball controls based on Video Pinball, but please allow me to provide some arguments for at least giving players another option.

 

One problem with the Video Pinball setup is that it makes it rather difficult to flip one flipper, and then another start the other flipper going up before the first flipper finishes going down, and that becomes integral to some pinball strategies. To do this with the Video Pinball controls, you have to quickly rock the joystick from one direction to the other. It's possible, but it doesn't feel nearly as natural as tapping one button, and quickly tapping the other button in rapid succession. One reason Video Pinball has the controls that it has is because the Atari 2600 only had one button. The 7800 has two. It would be unfortunate not to leverage that fact.

 

Additionally, some players like to play with a Genesis controller, or they emulate the 7800 where a traditional gamepad is an option. That gives you the possibility of using the NES Pinball control scheme, where any direction on the d-pad flips the left flipper, and any button flips the right flipper. This scheme also allows for easier "multi-flipping" where both flippers are going, but slightly off-timed from one another.

 

I'm not saying I couldn't play the game with the Video Pinball scheme. I would just enjoy it much more if I had the option to use either 7800 button, or something akin to the NES Pinball controls. Ultimately, either way, I will be grateful for your efforts. Thanks for listening.

Edited by procyon
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Thanks for the well wishes and the compliments, guys.

 

Here is a small update. I wrote all of the routines to update the 'lights' and drop targets, and I'm just incrementing the values just to test them all... It almost looks like the 'attract mode' on the real thing.

No flipper movement yet, that's next on my list.

 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to working on the physics, as I've never done anything like that before. I hope I can do it. If anyone has any pointers who has done this, I am all ears. I did download the source that Trebor and SpiceWare pointed to, so I'll have a look at that when I'm done with the flippers.

Speaking of the flippers, this is my plan:

- Autodetect the type of controller (CX-40 or ProLine)

- For the CX-40, implement the same controls as Video Pinball for the 2600: Joystick left is the left flipper, joystick right is the right flipper, up is both. Pulling down will launch the ball. Holding the button while moving the joystick 'bumps' the table.

- For the ProLine, the 'Left' and 'Right' buttons will be the flippers. Moving the joystick in any direction 'bumps' the table in that direction, except for down, which also launches the ball.

 

Once in 'Pinball' mode, you will need to reset or select to get out of it (for now).

BabyPac.A78

BabyPac.BIN

Edited by PacManPlus
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Thanks for the well wishes and the compliments, guys.

 

Here is a small update. I wrote all of the routines to update the 'lights' and drop targets, and I'm just incrementing the values just to test them all... It almost looks like the 'attract mode' on the real thing.

No flipper movement yet, that's next on my list.

 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to working on the physics, as I've never done anything like that before. I hope I can do it. If anyone has any pointers who has done this, I am all ears. I did download the source that Trebor and SpiceWare pointed to, so I'll have a look at that when I'm done with the flippers.

Speaking of the flippers, this is my plan:

- Autodetect the type of controller (CX-40 or ProLine)

- For the CX-40, implement the same controls as Video Pinball for the 2600: Joystick left is the left flipper, joystick right is the right flipper, up is both. Pulling down will launch the ball. Holding the button while moving the joystick 'bumps' the table.

- For the ProLine, the 'Left' and 'Right' buttons will be the flippers. Moving the joystick in any direction 'bumps' the table in that direction, except for down, which also launches the ball.

 

Once in 'Pinball' mode, you will need to reset or select to get out of it (for now).

 

This looks amazing, Bob! The sound effects are surprisingly accurate! I only played Baby Pac-Man one time at Level 257 a couple of years ago. When I played your game, I was caught off guard at first because I forgot how relentless the ghosts were!

 

This game makes all the other Pac-Man arcade games look downright easy!

 

Also, congrats on your employment.

Edited by Atari PAC-MAN Fan
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