218 replies to this topic

[tep392]

This may belong in the 7800 Hacks forum, but I thought it deserved a little more visibility, so I'm posting it here. I've always been impressed with Bob's work on Pac-man Collection, with it's excellent game play, but I've haven't been quite satisfied with the sound. I think Bob got everything he could out of the TIA chip, but I kept thinking it could sound better if it used POKEY. So I decided it would be a fun little project to change the sound to work with the POKEY chip.

This is the result. I'm still tinkering with it a little but I'm pretty satisfied with it. I copied the Ms. Pac-man sounds note for note from the 8-bit computer version. The Pac-man sounds are also based on the 8-bit version but I made improvements were I could. Most of the change was to the Introduction and intermission tunes. The music still doesn't have that sound of the arcade machines, which used wavetable sound synthesis, but I think it's pretty good. I might work on it a little more in the future, but for now, I'll use my little free time to just play it.

Bob has actually been helping me out by providing feedback and play testing. Thanks Bob! I've tested this with the ProSystem Emulator as well as in hardware with a modified Ballblazer cart. Unfortunately, my Ballblazer cart is acting flaky so I've only been able to do limited hardware testing. Hopefully any you with CC2's or other POKEY carts can test it out for me and let me know if you find any bugs. I also welcome any feedback that would help me improve the authenticity of the sounds.

Regards,
Perry

Attached Files

•  paccol_pokey.zip   34.45K   331 downloads

[128bytes]

tep392, on Mon May 3, 2010 11:09 AM, said:

This may belong in the 7800 Hacks forum, but I thought it deserved a little more visibility, so I'm posting it here. I've always been impressed with Bob's work on Pac-man Collection, with it's excellent game play, but I've haven't been quite satisfied with the sound. I think Bob got everything he could out of the TIA chip, but I kept thinking it could sound better if it used POKEY. So I decided it would be a fun little project to change the sound to work with the POKEY chip.

This is the result. I'm still tinkering with it a little but I'm pretty satisfied with it. I copied the Ms. Pac-man sounds note for note from the 8-bit computer version. The Pac-man sounds are also based on the 8-bit version but I made improvements were I could. Most of the change was to the Introduction and intermission tunes. The music still doesn't have that sound of the arcade machines, which used wavetable sound synthesis, but I think it's pretty good. I might work on it a little more in the future, but for now, I'll use my little free time to just play it.

Bob has actually been helping me out by providing feedback and play testing. Thanks Bob! I've tested this with the ProSystem Emulator as well as in hardware with a modified Ballblazer cart. Unfortunately, my Ballblazer cart is acting flaky so I've only been able to do limited hardware testing. Hopefully any you with CC2's or other POKEY carts can test it out for me and let me know if you find any bugs. I also welcome any feedback that would help me improve the authenticity of the sounds.

Regards,
Perry

Wow! I'm loading this on my CC2 when I get some free cycles. What should I use for the CC2 settings file?

[Underball]

Very Cool!! It sounds great.

(Wanna do this for Donkey Kong too? hint.. hint..)

One bug though, in ProSystem 1.3 or PSP7800 1.4 - the game will only run if you disable the 7800 BIOS. With it enabled, you just get a blank screen.

[tep392]

128bytes, on Mon May 3, 2010 11:19 AM, said:

tep392, on Mon May 3, 2010 11:09 AM, said:

This may belong in the 7800 Hacks forum, but I thought it deserved a little more visibility, so I'm posting it here. I've always been impressed with Bob's work on Pac-man Collection, with it's excellent game play, but I've haven't been quite satisfied with the sound. I think Bob got everything he could out of the TIA chip, but I kept thinking it could sound better if it used POKEY. So I decided it would be a fun little project to change the sound to work with the POKEY chip.

This is the result. I'm still tinkering with it a little but I'm pretty satisfied with it. I copied the Ms. Pac-man sounds note for note from the 8-bit computer version. The Pac-man sounds are also based on the 8-bit version but I made improvements were I could. Most of the change was to the Introduction and intermission tunes. The music still doesn't have that sound of the arcade machines, which used wavetable sound synthesis, but I think it's pretty good. I might work on it a little more in the future, but for now, I'll use my little free time to just play it.

Bob has actually been helping me out by providing feedback and play testing. Thanks Bob! I've tested this with the ProSystem Emulator as well as in hardware with a modified Ballblazer cart. Unfortunately, my Ballblazer cart is acting flaky so I've only been able to do limited hardware testing. Hopefully any you with CC2's or other POKEY carts can test it out for me and let me know if you find any bugs. I also welcome any feedback that would help me improve the authenticity of the sounds.

Regards,
Perry

Wow! I'm loading this on my CC2 when I get some free cycles. What should I use for the CC2 settings file?

I don't have a CC2, but my guess is you would use the same settings as Ballblazer. It is a 32k rom.

[tep392]

Underball, on Mon May 3, 2010 11:57 AM, said:

Very Cool!! It sounds great.

(Wanna do this for Donkey Kong too? hint.. hint..)

One bug though, in ProSystem 1.3 or PSP7800 1.4 - the game will only run if you disable the 7800 BIOS. With it enabled, you just get a blank screen.

That's interesting. I've never tried it with the BIOS enabled. Just ran it with ProSystem defaults. This is my first attemp at 7800 programming so I don't know much about the BIOS and emulators. I'm open to suggestions if anyone can point me in the right direction. Thanks.

[Underball]

Hopefully Groovybee will have a suggestion. He's been working on Prosystem a lot as of late.

[tep392]

I figured out what I did. This one should work with the BIOS. I made a last minute change and wasn't able to check in hardware because of flaky Ballblazer cart. Let me know if there are any problems.

Attached Files

•  paccol_pokey.zip   34.45K   177 downloads

[Underball]

tep392, on Mon May 3, 2010 2:18 PM, said:

I figured out what I did. This one should work with the BIOS. I made a last minute change and wasn't able to check in hardware because of flaky Ballblazer cart. Let me know if there are any problems.

Bingo! fixed.

[Mitch]

It probably just needs the encryption to be resigned.

Mitch

[mimo]

I guess this is NTSC, would it be possibe to do a pal version?
Great work btw

[PacManPlus]

Hi Guys:

Perry did a *great* job on this, and I just wanted to add things that are additional in this version of the game:
1) Added 11 more mazes (for the Random Maze variations), based on the NES Tengen Ms. Pac-Man mazes. There are now 32 total mazes to choose from.
2) Improved Pac-Man shape, and some overall colors
3) More arcade-accurate Monster AI (the 'hiding spot' works! - although you have to be careful with Clyde, but once you get him in his 'zone' you can stay there!)
4) Used 'tiles' instead of sprite positioning (to be more like the arcade) - this means you have a small chance of passing 'through' the monster unharmed - just like the arcade
5) HSC uses the 'Pac-Man Collection' logo instead of just all text.

Enjoy!
Bob

[Underball]

So When can we get this version on Cart?

[tep392]

PacManPlus, on Mon May 3, 2010 2:34 PM, said:

Hi Guys:

Perry did a *great* job on this, and I just wanted to add things that are additional in this version of the game:
1) Added 11 more mazes (for the Random Maze variations), based on the NES Tengen Ms. Pac-Man mazes. There are now 32 total mazes to choose from.
2) Improved Pac-Man shape, and some overall colors
3) More arcade-accurate Monster AI (the 'hiding spot' works! - although you have to be careful with Clyde, but once you get him in his 'zone' you can stay there!)
4) Used 'tiles' instead of sprite positioning (to be more like the arcade) - this means you have a small chance of passing 'through' the monster unharmed - just like the arcade
5) HSC uses the 'Pac-Man Collection' logo instead of just all text.

Enjoy!
Bob

Thanks for the compliment Bob. I do remember running through a monster once and thinking "Wow! Just like the arcade!". Didn't realize it was a new feature. Very cool!

[Bakasama]

I have a suggestion. Can you put that bump sound when the ghost monsters bump into each other in the first intermission of Ms. Pac-man?

So when are Super Pac-man and Jr. Pac-Man are going to pokey sound?

[tep392]

Bakasama, on Mon May 3, 2010 3:29 PM, said:

I have a suggestion. Can you put that bump sound when the ghost monsters bump into each other in the first intermission of Ms. Pac-man?

So when are Super Pac-man and Jr. Pac-Man are going to pokey sound?

Great idea for the bump sound. Should be able to insert it fairly easily if I can figure out how to replicate the sound. Don't know about the other Pac-man's. Maybe some day.

[TrekMD]

Very nice. I know it was asked already, but when do we get the Special Edition POKEY Cart?

[Corby]

my wallet is open if and when this goes on a cart!

[Lendorien]

Pretty darn cool if you ask me! Maybe if Curt actually does the potential expansion module for the 7800, this would be a great game to use the pokey support that he's got planned.

[HammR25]

CC2 setting is:

78HSCPOK HSC

The sound on this one is much better. Great work.

[Underball]

If I ship a donor BallBlazer to someone with an eprom burner here, can I get hooked up with this on cart?

Jaybird?

Edited by Underball, Mon May 3, 2010 9:26 PM.

[jaybird3rd]

Underball, on Mon May 3, 2010 9:25 PM, said:

If I ship a donor BallBlazer to someone with an eprom burner here, can I get hooked up with this on cart?

Jaybird?

I've got plenty of Ballblazer cartridges on hand, and I can certainly put this on one of my cartridges or on a cartridge someone sends to me, but I don't want to hurt anyone's sales in the process. PacManPlus/tep392, do you have any plans to do an "official" release of this version of the Pac-Man Collection on cartridge? If either of you are thinking about it and are looking for Ballblazer donors, let me know and I'd be happy to supply you with some (or even to help with manufacturing the cartridges, if needed). If not, I'd be happy to make individual cartridges for anyone who's interested as long as the two of you are okay with this idea.

[PacManPlus]

I hadn't thought about it actually. Perry, how do you want to handle this? I have a handful of Pokey carts (already with the ROM desoldered).

Jaybird - how many Pokey carts do you have?

Thanks,
Bob

[tep392]

jaybird3rd, on Mon May 3, 2010 10:19 PM, said:

Underball, on Mon May 3, 2010 9:25 PM, said:

If I ship a donor BallBlazer to someone with an eprom burner here, can I get hooked up with this on cart?

Jaybird?

I've got plenty of Ballblazer cartridges on hand, and I can certainly put this on one of my cartridges or on a cartridge someone sends to me, but I don't want to hurt anyone's sales in the process. PacManPlus/tep392, do you have any plans to do an "official" release of this version of the Pac-Man Collection on cartridge? If either of you are thinking about it and are looking for Ballblazer donors, let me know and I'd be happy to supply you with some (or even to help with manufacturing the cartridges, if needed). If not, I'd be happy to make individual cartridges for anyone who's interested as long as the two of you are okay with this idea.

I hadn't planned on producing them for sale. I still consider it to be Bob's program so I would say it's his call. It does seem that Atariage could lose some sales of the original cart though, so maybe some kind of arrangement were the buyer of the cart donates a small ammount to support this site, unless they have already bought the original. Or maybe it could be sold through the store as a new version. Just some thoughts.

Also, if you have a spare cart, I would like to buy one. Seems the pokey chip on mine has bit the dust.

Perry

[Albert]

I think it would be great to offer these in the AtariAge Store as an enhanced version of the game. We can update the label and manual appropriately. The main downside is it's more time consuming to produce the cartridges since you have to modify existing circuit boards. I'd be glad to help orchestrate everything to help get this in everyone's hands..

..Al

[Underball]

I don't mind paying, but I do already own the original Pac-Man Collection cart. Maybe some kind of trade in policy for those who already bought the original could be drawn up?

Edited by Underball, Tue May 4, 2010 6:58 AM.