192 replies to this topic

[PacManPlus]

Hacking 7800 Ms. Pac-Man into Pac-Man

No released bins yet...

If this one gets too hard, I reserve the right to abandon

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by PacManPlus, Sat May 21, 2005 9:10 AM.

[Breakpack]

PacManPlus, on Tue May 3, 2005 3:54 PM, said:

Hacking 7800 Ms. Pac-Man into Pac-Man

No released bins yet...

If this one gets too hard, I reserve the right to abandon

OMG!!This is AWESOME!!!!!!!!

[Brad2600]

Looking forward to it.

Ms.Pac Man is one of my favorite 7800 games. Actually, it's also my favorite on the 5200, along with regular Pac Man.

[Lord Helmet]

If this is anything like your other hacks...it's gonna kick ass!

[sku_u]

I think you're the first person to attempt a hack for the 7800! I'm looking forward to checking this one out if/when you have enough done to release a beta ROM.

Between you doing a 7800 hack and Kenfused poised to release a couple of 7800 homebrews, this looks like a good year for the 7800.

[PacManPlus]

Thanks guys - I'll see how far I can get with this...

[PacManPlus]

Just a quick update...

- Got the maze/dots changed (as you saw earlier)
- Got the maze color changed
- Made the first maze the only maze (doesn't change mazes after each intermission)
- Blinky and Pinky no longer move randomly at the beginning of the board; they go to their respective corners
- Made the fruit stationary under the monster pen

The problem I am having currently is I can't get the fruit to disappear after a certain amount of time. I have no experience with timers and I'm trying to figure out how to implement it. If anyone has any pointers please let me know. Thanks!

Bob

[jetset]

Looks sweet man!

[Bakasama]

Oh that sooo cool! Are you going to rework the intermissions too?

[PacManPlus]

Thanks for the kind words - it's giving me great motivation!

As far as the intermissions, I'm certainly going to try

Edited by PacManPlus, Fri May 6, 2005 10:51 AM.

[PacManPlus]

Figured out the fruit timer issue

One thing I must do is make Blinky actually 'Red', instead of Hot Pink

Things left:

1) Add all fruit
2) Change sprite definitions to be Pac instead of Ms. Pac.
3) Prevent monsters from going up above pen and above pac's starting point.
4) Re-introduce 'disperse mode'
5) Sounds
6) Intermissions
7) Death Animation
Change menu / select screen to reflect correct wording (names of monsters, etc).

Attached Thumbnails

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[Schmutzpuppe]

PacManPlus, on Sat May 7, 2005 7:19 AM, said:

Figured out the fruit timer issue

One thing I must do is make Blinky actually 'Red', instead of Hot Pink 

Things left:

1) Add all fruit
2) Change sprite definitions to be Pac instead of Ms. Pac.
3) Prevent monsters from going up above pen and above pac's starting point.
4) Re-introduce 'disperse mode'
5) Sounds
6) Intermissions
7) Death Animation
Change menu / select screen to reflect correct wording (names of monsters, etc).

Good work, Ms. Pac Man stores the gfx in a very uncommon way (for a 7800 game) so this is not an easy task.
Keep it up.

[PacManPlus]

Yes, It seems to store them in 4-color Antic mode.

If anyone has a program that can view and edit antic-4 sprites on the screen, that would speed up this process a bit

Thanks
Bob

[Schmutzpuppe]

PacManPlus, on Sat May 7, 2005 5:36 PM, said:

Yes, It seems to store them in 4-color Antic mode.

If anyone has a program that can view and edit antic-4 sprites on the screen, that would speed up this process a bit

Thanks
Bob

Right, it's similar to Antic mode 4 but only 4x6 instead of 4x8.
At least for font and wall.
Unfortunately I don't know how the other gfx. are stored (the main thing is that you know it )

[PacManPlus]

Got the graphics - scratch that off the list Added the rest of the fruit as well and adjusted the point values accordingly.

On the other hand, I ran into a problem I didn't think I would have... Displaying the fruit below the board :-/ I can't get it to show correctly.

Still going...

[DEBRO]

Schmutzpuppe, on Sat May 7, 2005 6:51 PM, said:

Right, it's similar to Antic mode 4 but only 4x6 instead of 4x8.
At least for font and wall.
Unfortunately I don't know how the other gfx. are stored (the main thing is that you know it  )

I wonder if the same person that did Ms. Pac-man for the 5200/A8 also did it for the 7800 The graphics are very similar.

[PacManPlus]

This Fruit Display issue is kicking my butt. (for the past few days)... It's only 'broken' for the bottom of the screen (it shows correctly under the monster pen).

I get either garbage or blanks after the 1st Melon (Which is where the Banana would have been so I'm sure that has something to do with it)...

It's using display lists to show the lives and the level - not sure how that works (boy am I getting an education with this hack) :-P
Any help is appreciated...

Once I can get this going I will post a WIP bin.

Edited by PacManPlus, Mon May 9, 2005 6:29 AM.

[Bakasama]

It's looking good so far. I know it's not easy but think about it, you're pretty far into making a Pac-Man plus for the 7800 if you choose to do it that game.

It seems you're going to keep the teddy bear maze.

[PacManPlus]

OK

Here is my first WIP bin - please note the following 'known issues':

1) Please ignore the intermissions (for now), they are all messed up.
2) The color of the later fruit on the bottom of the screen (from the Galaxian forward...) is wrong. There's a chance it might have to stay that way... In the display lists, you are only allowed 7 colors (and all 7 are being used for the first bunch of fruits).
3) Sound has not been changed yet
4) Death Animation has not been changed yet - I can use the 'Pac-Man' bitmaps (seen in the intermissions) for them.
5) Monsters can still go up above the monster pen and Pac starting point - another tough one


If you try this under a CC2, you must use the 78QUICK mode... For some reason, even though I downloaded the 78SIGN program from Dan Boris' site (makes a correct signature key) it still doesn't work on the real thing (unless you use the 78QUICK mode).

Let me know what you think!

Attached Files

•  PAC7800.ZIP   19.68K   508 downloads

Edited by PacManPlus, Wed May 11, 2005 5:14 AM.

[Vic George 2K3]

Not bad so far as a WIP.

[Trebor]

PacManPlus, on Wed May 11, 2005 3:02 AM, said:

OK

Here is my first WIP bin - please note the following 'known issues':

1) Please ignore the intermissions (for now), they are all messed up. 
2) The color of the later fruit on the bottom of the screen (from the Galaxian forward...) is wrong.  There's a chance it might have to stay that way... In the display lists, you are only allowed 7 colors (and all 7 are being used for the first bunch of fruits).
3) Sound has not been changed yet
4) Death Animation has not been changed yet - I can use the 'Pac-Man' bitmaps (seen in the intermissions) for them.
5) Monsters can still go up above the monster pen and Pac starting point - another tough one


If you try this under a CC2, you must use the 78QUICK mode... For some reason, even though I downloaded the 78SIGN program from Dan Boris' site (makes a correct signature key)  it still doesn't work on the real thing (unless you use the 78QUICK mode).

Let me know what you think!

Excellent! I love it. Even with the above issues. It is so *cool* to have Pac-Man on the 7800. Maze looks great, and I like the look of Pac-Man himself. Keep up the great work PacMan Plus!

Just a few suggestions/inquiries:

-The outline of "Pac-Man" during the Intro, possibly a dark blue instead of the typical Ms. Pac-Man pink.

-Is there anyway of changing the colors on the ghost monsters? Pinky's 'pink' always seems a bit to bright as does Inky's Green. Is it possible to "dull" those colors slightly? Inky also appears more like a Sea-Green in the 7800 version as compared to the Arcade's more Tourquiose (sp?) look. IMHO, he should be a little more 'blue'.

-Another 'minor' issue I have with the Ghost is how 'tiny' their 'feet' are made. The ghost always appear to block/blob-ish IMHO. Can their 'bottoms' have more definition? (Boy does that *not* sound right...lol)

-Is it possible to adjust the number of lives you start with as well? I believe GCC was a bit to generous with the number of lives at the start of the game. I would cut the lives back by two.

-Finally is there anyway of changing the font with the score(s)? Can the score(s) be made "taller"/"longer"?

Again, just inquiring/suggesting - minor stuff (Yeah, riiighht). I know you still have your list of major things to address. :-)

Nonetheless, great work PacManPlus! I appreciate your generosity.

-Trebor

[8bitclassics]

Dude, that kicks. Guess I will have to make up a label for it

Corey

[PacManPlus]

Trebor, on Wed May 11, 2005 10:42 AM, said:

Excellent!  I love it. Even with the above issues.  It is so *cool* to have Pac-Man on the 7800.  Maze looks great, and I like the look of Pac-Man himself.  Keep up the great work PacMan Plus!

Just a few suggestions/inquiries:

-The outline of "Pac-Man" during the Intro, possibly a dark blue instead of the typical Ms. Pac-Man pink.

I was already thinking of that - just haven't done it yet

Trebor, on Wed May 11, 2005 10:42 AM, said:

-Is there anyway of changing the colors on the ghost monsters?  Pinky's 'pink' always seems a bit to bright as does Inky's Green.  Is it possible to "dull" those colors slightly?  Inky also appears more like a Sea-Green in the 7800 version as compared to the Arcade's more Tourquiose (sp?) look.  IMHO, he should be a little more 'blue'.

I noticed that too on a regular television. Will see if I can change.

Trebor, on Wed May 11, 2005 10:42 AM, said:

-Another 'minor' issue I have with the Ghost is how 'tiny' their 'feet' are made.  The ghost always appear to block/blob-ish IMHO.  Can their 'bottoms' have more definition? (Boy does that *not* sound right...lol)

Not so sure about this one... A little limited with the shapes... I'll see what I can do.

Trebor, on Wed May 11, 2005 10:42 AM, said:

-Is it possible to adjust the number of lives you start with as well?  I believe GCC was a bit to generous with the number of lives at the start of the game.  I would cut the lives back by two.

I was thinking of making this a Left difficulty switch setting; 'A' = 3 Lives, 'B' = 5 Lives.

Trebor, on Wed May 11, 2005 10:42 AM, said:

-Finally is there anyway of changing the font with the score(s)?  Can the score(s) be made "taller"/"longer"?

Again, not much I can do here The characters are only 6 pixels high instead of 8.

Trebor, on Wed May 11, 2005 10:42 AM, said:

Again, just inquiring/suggesting - minor stuff (Yeah, riiighht).  I know you still have your list of major things to address. :-)

Nonetheless, great work PacManPlus!  I appreciate your generosity.

-Trebor

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Still Going...

[Breakpack]

I love you

[DEBRO]

PacManPlus, on Tue May 10, 2005 11:02 PM, said:

Let me know what you think!

It plays well. A couple of things I've noticed.

It seems the fruit appears too soon so I did a little analysis.

The arcade Pac-man has 244 dots and your version has 238 dots (if I counted right). This makes the scale 119/122.

Arcade 1st fruit appears after eating 70 dots. So to make it closer to the arcade you need to eat ~68 dots for the first fruit to appear. The arcade second fruit appears after eating 170 dots. So to make it closer to the arcade you need to eat ~166 dots for the second fruit to appear.

Also the scoring of the strawberry is incorrect. You should get 300 points for the strawberry in Pac-man.

Edited by DEBRO, Wed May 11, 2005 9:52 PM.