Idea for homebrew title that 7800-homebrew dev. may consider to produce: Pac Land 1984

[Giles N]

So there is the famous and highly acclaimed PacMan collection made.

 

What about Pac Land (1984 arcade)?

 

Would that become the growing 7800 homebrew hi-quality games out-put?

 

Would it give a good addition to the homebrew library?

 

 

[Shawn]

FYI, Non-programmers peddling game ideas has a long standing reputation of being highly frowned upon here on AtariAge. Everyone has a dream title. You want it programmed? Learn to code is the best way to see your dream come true. That or get ready to pay A LOT of money for someone else to code your dream into reality for you. Over the years, this sort of thing has been beat to death many times over. 

[Giles N]

1 hour ago, Shawn said:

FYI, Non-programmers peddling game ideas has a long standing reputation of being highly frowned upon here on AtariAge. Everyone has a dream title. You want it programmed? Learn to code is the best way to see your dream come true. That or get ready to pay A LOT of money for someone else to code your dream into reality for you. Over the years, this sort of thing has been beat to death many times over. 

Ok, thanks, I’m relatively new here, so I’m not sure whats the usual «etiquette».

 

Someone else liked my idea of someone completing M.I.A.

 

You know, I don’t know how this ‘lands’ with people.

 

I don’t know they will be like ‘wow, great idea man’, or ‘oh my, more programming’.

 

I just don’t know.

 

I just thought Pac Land looked like a ‘fitting’ title to the 7800 library.

 

 

[+SmittyB]

It's been the same across other communities I've been in where there's a creative element. It's not that it's a bad idea, Pac-Land could work very well, but to take an idea and see if through requires a lot of passion.

If it's not already in development then either nobody's quite passionate enough to do so, or they're more passionate about other projects currently, and trying to develop something without that level of engagement is a recipe for bad feelings all 'round.

 

There's no harm done in discussing the possibility of a port, that's how original concepts bubble to the surface.

I think some people see these sorts of threads as neglecting to appreciate new and existing efforts to create new content; I'm sure we've all heard somebody lament at one time or another that a good meal takes hours to prepare and minutes to eat, this is much the same.

 

That being said I would certainly like to encourage you and anyone reading this thread to have a go at programming if you haven't already. 7800BASIC is a great way to learn; you can always ask for help on these forums with anything you need, and you might just find a new creative hobby. In time you could turn the idea into a reality.

[Jinks]

Btw OP you are always welcome in 7800 land.  

There are many "little rules" to learn. No big deal..

[Giles N]

19 hours ago, SmittyB said:

 

I think some people see these sorts of threads as neglecting to appreciate new and existing efforts to create new content; I'm sure we've all heard somebody lament at one time or another that a good meal takes hours to prepare and minutes to eat, this is much the same.

 

Ok, see that one...

 

I think homebrews and ports are important, and the ones already out there are appreciated.

 

They keep the library expanding.

 

I totally understand its an enormous work.

 

I think I’ve seen YouTube videos displaying up to 100 A7800 titles.

 

The number of releases while the system was in continuance from Atari was only 58/59.

 

That means the library has been expanded by hard labour from independent developers by an almost-doubling.

 

Of course thats important for retro-gaming.(not just atari, but retro-gaming in the general).

 

And its 40 more reasons for any retro-gamer to obtain a 7800 console-unit.

 

I’m also appreciative of the 7800, - what do you call them? - hacks, improved versions of officially/originally released titles...

Edited September 20, 2019 by Giles N

[Giles N]

Cont. from above:

 

I mean PacMan Collection and Bentley Bear looks at least as good or better than many of the originally released games (1986-1991).

 

I think they really, really are a very important contribution to retro-gaming.

[+SmittyB]

I hope I didn't come across as accusing you of being ungrateful, that wasn't my intention.

There's just too much to make, too little time, and sometimes it can feel like a burden.

[Synthpopalooza]

 

Nes version.  I know 7800 can blow this one away if it were done.  Been thinking of having a crack at that music.  It would only need 2 16-bit POKEY channels, and TIA for six, and sound very close to the Namco WSG chip.

[Giles N]

On 9/20/2019 at 11:07 AM, SmittyB said:

I hope I didn't come across as accusing you of being ungrateful, that wasn't my intention.

There's just too much to make, too little time, and sometimes it can feel like a burden.

No sweat buddy ?

 

I don’t think burdening oneself with such things are good.

 

I’m into this much to have an engaging hobby.

 

How programming feels to the individual programmer or developer is difficult to know beforehand.

 

Of course, programming must be the really hard bit in all this.

 

I’ve tried my hand at grfx sometimes, but programming seems really, really tough, like learning a new language and math(!) in one go.

 

As to method here, I would assume that learning from each other, sharing methodology, and studying how other people have done things (the codes from past games if available) is a good way.

 

When I try my hand at grfx, I certainly try to study how graphic-artists which I think did a good job,have done their stuff - analyzing it for just exactly what made it look nice.

 

Moreover I had heard the 7800 lacked a number of sudescrolling platformers, while noticing how strongly PacMan is present on the system: ms pacman, pacman collection, super pacman and also I think jr.pacman, so I just thought it would ‘fit’ the system to have a sidescrolling platformer featuring PacMan.

 

As to developement, as many are enthusiasts; they have the time and energy they have, I’m not into ‘pushing’ people.

 

I just thought it would be a title ‘fitting’ with

1) the needs for more scrolling platformers (Scrapyard Dog and Bentley Bears Crystal Quest being the ones available today, or have I forgotten some title?) 

2) the strong pacman-presence already on the system

Edited September 27, 2019 by Giles N

[PacManPlus]

Judging by the video above, we're more than half-way there with the Crystal Quest engine...  Most of the things done in that video can already be done with that engine.

[Synthpopalooza]

I was just thinking that too

 

The music is gonna be more detailed tho.  It'll need your sound routine retooled for POKEY+TIA.

[gambler172]

28 minutes ago, PacManPlus said:

Judging by the video above, we're more than half-way there with the Crystal Quest engine...  Most of the things done in that video can already be done with that engine.

Hi Bob

 

yes,it is doable,but needs a lot of time to change the graphics....

or how about a Pac Man Land with our own new levels?

[Synthpopalooza]

All the sprites and the backgrounds can be made 160A.  The arcade sprites use only 3 colors plus transparency anyway.

[Synthpopalooza]

 

 

Arcade version for comparison.  I think this can be done.

[+save2600]

Never cared for this game or its control scheme, but if you guys build it, I will surely buy and try to play it!

[Synthpopalooza]

When I can get time I will work up some music ... part of my POKEY emulator testing project in another thread. 

[Jinks]

Pretty unfair game... looks like no fun tbh. That flashlight part looks like a controller smasher. 

[Giles N]

4 hours ago, Synthpopalooza said:

 

 

Arcade version for comparison.  I think this can be done.

I think it looks like a colour-feast-for-the-eyes, has tons of charm, that cartoony feeling that can match Mario, many environments, parallaxing trees in the foreground in the forests, platform-action, many types of enemies... everything that would make up for a very good addition to the 7800 library.

[Giles N]

1 hour ago, Jinks said:

Pretty unfair game... looks like no fun tbh. That flashlight part looks like a controller smasher. 

I played super mario deluxe switch yesterday at my brothers’, and certain levels there has the thing where you see inside rooms you don’t know are there before crossing a wall.

 

I tried to find out how it plays, but the retrogames.cc version didn’t work.

I’ll probably get a mame-v. just to try it out.

But it looks and sounds great on videos!

[Tidus79001]

Watching that video of the NES version of Pac-Land makes me appreciate just how good and arcade faithful the Lynx version is in comparison.

[Giles N]

10 minutes ago, Tidus79001 said:

Watching that video of the NES version of Pac-Land makes me appreciate just how good and arcade faithful the Lynx version is in comparison.

On Crystal Quest videos (I haven’t received it in my mail yet), I see parallax-effects in the background.

 

A pokey or similar chip could perhaps generate the arcedey-sound (reminiscent of the sound of say Wonderboy in Monsterland or Dragon Buster), and the 7800 can display a ton of sprites on screen.

 

I just felt the forest and castles areas looked so arcade-adventurous and colourful and bright and all that.

 

And since the 7800 begins to feature PacMan heavily, I just thought it would fit.

Edited September 28, 2019 by Giles N

[Synthpopalooza]

2 hours ago, Giles N said:

 

A pokey or similar chip could perhaps generate the arcedey-sound (reminiscent of the sound of say Wonderboy in Monsterland or Dragon Buster), and the 7800 can display a ton of sprites on screen.

 

The POKEY is very capable.  Lots of functions have not been explored yet.  I have a few tricks for getting those namco WSG sounds. 

[Giles N]

17 hours ago, Synthpopalooza said:

The POKEY is very capable.  Lots of functions have not been explored yet.  I have a few tricks for getting those namco WSG sounds. 

Thats awesome!

 

What about those other chips?

 

Can they do the job?

 

Could two or three of them

be inserted in a 7800 cart, and programmed to perform in sync.?

[Synthpopalooza]

The AY chip could do it.  Three standard square waves and 1 noise.  The game would sound close to the NES version.

 

Putting multiple sound chips on a card wouldn't be feasible.  I don't think we'd need double POKEY for this anyway.