Pacman4K

[Vic George 2K3]

And while we're at it...

[Bakasama]

And while we're at it...

 

I did make all four Ms. Pac-man mazes but I only posted the pink maze. The other three weren't that hard to make once one figures out the "core" elements. I know it's very much possible to make an fairly accurate Hangly Man maze with this port.

Edited December 16, 2008 by Bakasama

[Vic George 2K3]

And some more screens...

Edited December 17, 2008 by Vic George 2K3

[Breakpack]

I still agree with the 5200 ghosts. As much as putting more details likens it more to the original's form, there just aren't enough pixels and colors available to finish the deed. No discredit to those who were involved in trying to make this part emulate the arcade (i think it was zylonbane), but these little guys end up looking more like raccoons than ghosts.

 

I have to respectfully disagree. The 5200 ghosts in this port, looks like...well...the ghosts ripped from the 5200 port of Pac-Man and place into this one - It gives it more of a "hacked" look to me.

 

I think the 'non-5200' ghosts in this port look great and are a part of this 2600 port's personality and style.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

-Trebor

I like the 5200 ghosts because it's got that "2600 is as powerful as the 5200" feel to it.Nice Ms.Pac-Man screens!!I changed it into a Super Pac-Man maze once,but I couldn't figure how to get Pac- to go in the maze.He and the ghost went thru the walls,lol.

 

 

DEBRO's got a really tight game here

Edited December 17, 2008 by Breakpack

[Thorsten Günther]

Hello!

 

I just tried the most current version and am astonished.

 

But of course, even I have one more wish: reduced flicker (Ms. Pac-Man/Lock'n'Chase style) would be much easier on the eyes.

 

Other than that, this game is going to be perfect.

 

 

Thorsten

[Lendorien]

Gotta Say that this version of pac-man blows the top off the original 2600 pac-man cart. WAY closer to the arcade version and far more polished.

 

Way to go! Fantastic job!

 

I'd buy this cart.

Edited December 31, 2008 by Lendorien

[+Cafeman]

I played the most recent version, Dennis. Awesome job! At first on the emulator, I had to get used to constant mild flickering of everything. then I loaded the original 2600 Pac-Man to compare .. no comparison! Good choice to flicker everything (at 30hz?) instead of a solid Pac-Man and ghosts flickered so much (I assume the original used 1/4 of a second or 20Hz flickering for each -ugh!) that you can't even see what they are.

 

I appreciated how the ghosts don't kill you by a just grazing them with Yes/no sprite collision. Just like with the coin-op, in this version you can be semi-covered by a ghost and escape! I also noticed how you programmed the safe zone above the ghost den. No ghost ever goes up to those 2 paths, they only travel down from the top those 2 ways. That has always been a strategy I exploit. I can't remember if the 5200 version also holds true to that safe zone.

 

Ghosts with colors, arcade-true maze, great sounds and playable, and we even get on-screen points! Good job.

 

(_)3

[Artlover]

And while we're at it...

I did make all four Ms. Pac-man mazes but I only posted the pink maze. The other three weren't that hard to make once one figures out the "core" elements.

And some more screens...

YES! Someone absolutly needs to do this.

[Retrofan]

I want to make some edges a little bit smoother but I have problems with it. When I set some pixels, other ones appears, too. Is this a bug or a feature?

 

That is what I want:

 

This is what I get:

Edited January 3, 2009 by Retrofan

[DEBRO]

Hi there,

 

I want to make some edges a little bit smoother but I have problems with it. When I set some pixels, other ones appears, too. Is this a bug or a feature?

Some of the maze data is shared to conserve on ROM space. I wouldn't be able to answer fully without seeing your changes in code though.

 

I'd be curious to know if those Ms. Pac-man maze hacks were actual hacks or mock-ups. They do look good.

 

Good choice to flicker everything (at 30hz?) instead of a solid Pac-Man and ghosts flickered so much (I assume the original used 1/4 of a second or 20Hz flickering for each -ugh!) that you can't even see what they are.

This game flickers every thing at 20Hz (i.e. 6 objects and 2 player sprites alternating frames). The original 2600 Pac-man used 15Hz flicker (i.e. 4 objects and 1 player alternating frames).

 

I'm glad you like it. Doing this project completed a childhood dream I had since I bought Pac-man for the 2600 when it was released.

Edited January 3, 2009 by DEBRO

[Bakasama]

I'd be curious to know if those Ms. Pac-man maze hacks were actual hacks or mock-ups. They do look good.

 

I know the pink maze I put up is a mock-up. I think the other three mazes are mock-ups too.

[Retrofan]

I wouldn't be able to answer fully without seeing your changes in code though.

 

Here it is: pacman4K_PAL_NDtest.bin

[DEBRO]

I wouldn't be able to answer fully without seeing your changes in code though.

 

Here it is: pacman4K_PAL_NDtest.bin

It's what I expected.

 

That data is being shared with the lower maze data to conserve on ROM space. If you change this then the maze data would cross a page boundary and could potentially affect kernel timing.

[DEBRO]

2. There seems to be a slight difference in speed when moving side-to-side as compared to up-and-down. This tends to take away from the controllability. It becomes more difficult to judge your movement in relationship to the ghosts.

Yes, the 2600 vertical resolution is better than the horizontal. Here is a new version where I increased the vertical speed the best I can in 4K. It kind of reminds me of the A8/5200 version where it doubles the vertical speed. Is this better or would you prefer the other version?

pacman4K_new.zip

[Corby]

thats much better

 

keep up the good work!!!!

[+Cafeman]

ooh.. that last tweak introduced a BAD glitch ...

Edited January 27, 2009 by Cafeman

[Albert]

ooh.. that last tweak introduced a BAD glitch ...

LOL, evil.

 

..Al

[lapetino]

This is amazing with what you're doing with 4K. Will the 4K version be the end of the road, or are there any plans to do a beefed up version with intros and other additions? (which I'm assuming would take you way beyond that.)

[DEBRO]

ooh.. that last tweak introduced a BAD glitch ...

Oh...you're going to get it Ron. I was reading your post on my phone and just saw your post. My heart skipped a beat and then I saw the picture.

[+atari2600land]

It seems like the orange ghost has a set path for the first part of its journey. It likes to go around the bottom left thing a few times before going up. Intentional?

[DEBRO]

It seems like the orange ghost has a set path for the first part of its journey. It likes to go around the bottom left thing a few times before going up. Intentional?

Yes, Clyde goes to his home corner first as does all monsters. After the first scatter mode then they go into their algorithm to find Pac-man. They will go to their home corners again when the do another reversal. This is similar to the arcade version.

[Godzilla]

would it be possible to use this to make something like the new pacman champion edition, where the maze changes in halves (the other half of the screen is usually blacked out so that might help with the playfield,) and I bet you could do some cool stuff with making the maze itself cycle colors in gradients.

 

I didn't have time to redraw the maze to be CE correct, but the attached pix gives an idea. i know changing color on a scanline is like asking the 2600 to scroll horizontally, but even if you could manage an occasional 2 or 3 color shift (especially if you did it intelligently as a part of drawing new maze elements, you could devote everything to just that and freeze everything during the fade/shift,) you could at least approximate the effect that CE uses when it shifts things from one side of the maze to the other.

 

having the gradient itself move up and down as pac man moves would pretty cool too

 

possibly at some points you could even have some gradients as the bg color instead of black to help enhance the psychaedelicia.

 

Even without any of that, some subtle vertical color shifts through the maze in the 4k pac would definitely make it look even better. a sample pic of that, too.

[MrFish]

2. There seems to be a slight difference in speed when moving side-to-side as compared to up-and-down. This tends to take away from the controllability. It becomes more difficult to judge your movement in relationship to the ghosts.

Yes, the 2600 vertical resolution is better than the horizontal. Here is a new version where I increased the vertical speed the best I can in 4K. It kind of reminds me of the A8/5200 version where it doubles the vertical speed. Is this better or would you prefer the other version?

Yes, that is much better. I agree, very similar to A8/5200 version. Has good feel when the game-speed increases in later levels.

[Retrofan]

Now my graphics are in Debro's PAL code from the 8th of december:

 

 

Download binary: pacman4K_20081208_PAL_ND.bin

[NE146]

If I have only one observation it's regarding little gameplay tweaks such as the "blue time" in the first stage. It just seems a little shorter than it should be. Aside from that this thing is friggin amazing and getting better all the time