Pac-Man patterning

[pacmanfevr76]

There are six boards on Pac-Man where the time alloted to eat the ghosts is one second. (first galaxian, second bell, first key, third key, fourth key, and sixth key) To my knowledge, there are only four people that actually possess or share full continuous forward motion patterns which complete these boards perfectly. They are all very secretive and will not share their patterns.

 

The question is: Are there any other folks out there that can do this?

 

I have a couple of different ways to pattern through three energizers, but, as of yet, have no way of stretching any of them to four.

[ulij20]

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Edited July 26, 2005 by ulij20

[ulij20]

On the "fast" Pac Man machine (where they cut out three boards where the monsters are blue for a long period of time, along with two boards before the ninth key), the one-second boards are the second apple, first galaxian, second galaxian, second bell, first key and third key.

 

The "fast" Pac Man games started in early 1982 (that's when I first started seeing them, anyway) to make things more challenging for players (and to cut down the score for a perfect game). In the fast game, the speed and blue time on the cherry board was equivelant to the strawberry board in the original "slow" Pac Man.

 

Here is a comparison between the fast and slow games:

 

Fast Game/Slow Game/Blue Time

 

Cherry/Strawberry/7 seconds

Strawberry/2nd Orange/4 seconds

1st Orange/1st Apple/2.5 seconds

2nd Orange/1st Grape/2.5 seconds

1st Apple/2nd Grape/2 seconds

2nd Apple/1st Galaxian/1 second

1st Grape/2nd Galaxian/7 seconds

2nd Grape/1st Bell/2.5 seconds

1st Galaxian/2nd Bell/1 second

2nd Galaxian/1st Key/1 second

1st Bell/2nd Key/4 seconds

2nd Bell/3rd Key/1 second

1st Key/4th Key/1 second

2nd Key/5th Key/0 seconds

3rd Key/6th Key/1 second

4th Key/9th Key/0 seconds and Pac Man slows down while monsters maintain fast speed

 

So, essentially, they cut out the equivelences of the Cherry, 1st Orange, and 2nd Apple in the slow game, since the monsters are blue for the longest on those (well, except for the Strawberry Board, on which the monsters are blue longer than on the 1st Orange board, but I guess they decided to give the players a break). Also, they cut the equivelences to the 7th and 8th Keys in the slow game, so that the monsters would be faster than Pac Man right away, after the monsters no longer turned blue.

[pacmanfevr76]

My holding pattern is not quite refined enough yet to nail all four monsters for the fourth energizer every single time. Occassionally, I squeeze out perfect one-second boards, (one time I had three,) but going six for six is a different story.

 

At this point, my "best" stats are as follows:

 

Highest, still perfect: 201,920 (board 12)

Highest, single life: 933,610 (board 67)

 

Highest, through eighth key: 355,600 (10,000 from perfect)

Highest, through kill screen: 3,296,110 (37,250 from perfect)

 

There's obviously still a long way to go in there.

[Cap5750]

My best score is only about 46,000. I only know of patterns up to the apple screen (haven't bothered to go any further).

 

The only problem is these patterns are designed to stay alive, not get max points.

[pacmanfevr76]

Actually, that's a decent score for just winging it through the apple board.

 

If you get three monsters on every single energizer through the end of the apple board and don't miss any fruit, you only score 45,200. 46,000 is okie-dokie.

 

I have found that most people seem to be able to get to the apple board and then crap out from there. The blue time is down to two seconds and the ghosts have increased in speed at that point. If you can get through the first apple, you'll find the second apple is a piece of cake as the blue time gets longer again. However, it goes back down to two seconds on the next board.

[ulij20]

Another thread says that Pac Man turned 25 this month. I just celebrated his 25th birthday by getting my highest score ever on the game. I got 1,212,190 on a game at the Porter County Fair (in northwest Indiana, just east of Gary). It was on a Ms. Pac Man/Galaga game and I found Pac Man using the joystick pattern (when the game let out the ring that sounds when you get an extra man, I knew I had done it right!). I didn't really feel like sticking around trying to get a perfect score, but decided to stop pumping quarters into the machine once I hit a million. My high score on original Pac Man, where you don't get to keep continuing is something like 293,000, which I achieved about twelve years ago. That game I got eleven keys. On the game I played today, I'm not quite sure how many keys I got, since I lost count (they really should have put a counter by the keys at the bottom of the screen), but it was about 84 keys, which was the 96th board. I had a perfect game up until the first orange. But that was OK, since I wasn't going for a perfect game.

[pacmanfevr76]

Just how many quarters did you continue to pump in there?

 

If the game lets you continue, I am going to guess that it was also at turbo speed.

 

On the original Pac-Man at regular speed, a score of 293,000 is extremely good. That game ended about where I imagined it would have. Once you hit the ninth key, you either know a pattern or you are dead. Here's how much difference that pattern makes:

 

I got my machine and got about 270,000 before I started reaching the ninth key.

 

Then I hit the ninth key, and got a little past it. My score progressed as such:

 

October 7: 389,750 (board 27)

October 7: 757,350 (board 56) (the very next game)

October 9: 1,000,230 (board 75)

October 12: 1,070,120 (board 80)

November 1: 1,219,910 (board 92)

 

Then I started experimenting with a faster pattern:

 

November 9: 1,284,060 (board 98)

November 15: 1,568,760 (board 122)

December 5: 2,792,450 (board 217)

 

Finally, December 23 brought me to the kill screen at 3,296,110.

 

Once you learn a ninth key pattern, you fall into a zen-like trance and go with it.

Edited July 28, 2005 by pacmanfevr76

[ulij20]

Just how many quarters did you continue to pump in there?

 

If the game lets you continue, I am going to guess that it was also at turbo speed.

In all, I believe I used about six quarters. And, yes, the game was at turbo speed.

 

On the original Pac-Man at regular speed, a score of 293,000 is extremely good.  That game  ended about where I imagined it would have.  Once you hit the ninth key, you either know a pattern or you are dead.  Here's how much difference that pattern makes:

Actually, that game was also a turbo-speed game. Hence, the difficulty of the ninth key does not materialize, which is good, since I never mastered the ninth key pattern.

I'm not sure how far I've gotten on the regular speed game. I think it might have been the third key or so, but I can't be sure.

I did learn sort of a pattern. The thing to do is to eat the key right after it appears on the board and not eat all the dots right away because, whenever I did that, sometimes the second key would not appear, hence I lost 5,000 points.

[NE146]

Speaking of 9th key patterns. Ever see this one? It's one of my favorite "stunt" ones snagged out of an old Joystik mag. It makes you pass through 2 ghosts and has several close calls all the way up to the end where you end up kissing Blinky

 

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/userid947/pac9th.avi

 

(I don't remember what codec was used for it.. so if you have problems, I dunno. Works here though )

[Lord Helmet]

Hmmm. I got an error downloading the codec...I wonder what they used.

[pacmanfevr76]

There is a pattern somewhere out there which passes through three ghosts and lasts around 38 seconds. I know of he who has it, but not how to pry it out of him.

[NE146]

Hmmm. I got an error downloading the codec...I wonder what they used.

900801[/snapback]

 

That person is me! I used Mame32's "record movie" function.. I did it so long ago though... I wonder if that function is still in there?

 

Anyway, I checked it out using GSpot, and it's just an old DIVX 3 codec. So divx should work just fine.

[Lord Helmet]

Hmmm. I got an error downloading the codec...I wonder what they used.

900801[/snapback]

 

That person is me! I used Mame32's "record movie" function.. I did it so long ago though... I wonder if that function is still in there?

 

Anyway, I checked it out using GSpot, and it's just an old DIVX 3 codec. So divx should work just fine.

900879[/snapback]

Got it...works!

 

thats a great pattern. I assume it works from the 9th key on. I'm gonna have to memorize that one!

[pacmanfevr76]

I don't know where the "booeys" happen in that pattern, but if one of them happens late in the pattern, then you better make sure you are PERFECT all the way through. You can make a completely undetectable hesitation and end up getting killed. (I'm talking maybe two-hundredths of a second delay.) I have had several runs where that miniscule hesitation meant a great game down the toilet.

[FireTiger]

through ghoast... but but.... didn't turn blue either... through... wow.

[NE146]

thats a great pattern. I assume it works from the 9th key on. I'm gonna have to memorize that one!

901010[/snapback]

 

Actually as pacmanfevr76 mentioned and I can vouch for, it's a VERY hard patten to pull off and there's lots of points where it could fail It is definitely a "Stunt" pattern and probably not one to use in a regular game.

 

Put it this way, in Mame playing 9th+ key stages over and over (and getting there using the rack skip), I can pull it off maybe once every 2 or 3 attempts. Usually what goes wrong is I fail to pass through the 2nd ghost, or I get caught going up the long tunnel on the right. It needs to be PERFECT.

 

But it's great to show off with if you manage to pull it off.

 

p.s. I remember a couple years ago at Digitpress, someone msg'd me saying he knew the guy who made that pattern. Forgot who though

[Lord Helmet]

Is there a site out there deticated to pac-man patterns? I have looked before and come up with very little. You'd think there would be one out there considering the popularity of the game and the fact that there were so many books out there with patterns in them.

[pacmanfevr76]

Do you want patterns for getting a good score or ones for getting near perfect?

[Lord Helmet]

Good scores are fine. I just figured there would be more patterns out there considreing how many were published back in the 80's

[pacmanfevr76]

Pac-Man Patterns

 

The patterns shown there will get you within 18,000 points. The remaining points are up to the player to earn by grouping the ghosts for the fourth energizer on the one-second boards.

 

I now seem to have the ability to do this almost every time.

[pacmanfevr76]

.....grumble.....Donald Hayes.....groan.....

 

I knew I would end up trying for the sixth perfect instead of the fifth.

[NE146]

I have some patterns from some old magazines.. I'll scan em for ya later

[pacmanfevr76]

At this point, I do not require patterns. I can get all of the ghosts without them. I will be using them to save time however. You won't find patterns that are more reliable than what I posted up above. Those are on Neil Chapman's website. (He has the perfect game at MARP.)

 

There is one huge thing that it does not alert you to, however, if you are playing on an actual machine. On the two-second pattern, on the final turn up toward the third energizer, you have to wait until almost the very last moment to push the joystick up. If you push up early, the blue form of Blinky goes a different direction after you eat the energizer. (I thought I was losing my mind before I figured that out.)

 

There is a faster and much easier finish to the second key. After the last trip through the tunnel, go up and take the second available right turn so that you hit the wall just below the energizer. If you wait there, the ghosts align and you don't need any patterning beyond that. (He may have changed it to include this.)

 

Also, the kill screen pattern isn't necessary unless you are playing for fastest time. It's a very dangerous and exacting pattern. Find the sit spot.

Edited August 29, 2005 by pacmanfevr76

[NE146]

You won't find patterns that are more reliable than what I posted up above.  Those are on Neil Chapman's website.  (He has the perfect game at MARP.)

 

Wow didn't see that link. I'll have to try them out sometime.

 

Just for the sake of completeness though... here's the scan of that Joystik mags article "the last word on the 9th key" that I got that stunt pattern from.