7800: Two-Player Simultanious Pac-Man :)

[PacManPlus]

Ok - I had to do one more

 

This one is called 'Dual Pac-Man'

 

Player 1 controls Pac-Man (as normal) but this time Player 2 controls Blinky! (In a two player game the controls switch and Player 1 controls Blinky while Player 2 is playing)

 

Now I believe I thought this through, and to give the Pac-Man player a fair chance (I expect it to be MUCH harder playing against a human opponent) the following applies:

 

1) The 7800 takes over control of blinky while in 'disperse' mode (going to their corners), and while Blinky is blue.

2) The player controlling Blinky cannot reverse direction except at the normal times (like the other monsters).

 

I hope you guys have fun with this, I'm dying to try it with someone else...

 

Enjoy!

Bob

 

PS - This is a 32K game, like Ultra Pac-Man so use similar settings in your CC2

DUALPAC.ZIP

Edited August 18, 2005 by PacManPlus

[PacManPlus]

BTW, I must give credit where credit is due, I got the idea from Dave Widel's website where he had started work on the same thing, but for the arcade version... Did you ever finish that Dave?

[uosipa llamxew]

BTW, I must give credit where credit is due, I got the idea from Dave Widel's website where he had started work on the same thing, but for the arcade version...  Did you ever finish that Dave?

913975[/snapback]

 

This is cool... it kind of reminds me of the option to control the duck on NES Duck Hunt.

 

Another idea might be to have two different Pac-Men (or Pac and MsPac) racing to gather more dots than the other. Perhaps if one player eats a power pellot, the other is vulnerable to his bite at the same time as the ghosts. After each level, bonus could be racked up for the player who ate the most dots, ghosts, other player, etc. Players would naturally have the option to battle each round through or play cooperatively to finish the rounds.

 

Just dreaming out loud again.

[Lord Helmet]

BTW, I must give credit where credit is due, I got the idea from Dave Widel's website where he had started work on the same thing, but for the arcade version...  Did you ever finish that Dave?

913975[/snapback]

 

This is cool... it kind of reminds me of the option to control the duck on NES Duck Hunt.

 

Another idea might be to have two different Pac-Men (or Pac and MsPac) racing to gather more dots than the other. Perhaps if one player eats a power pellot, the other is vulnerable to his bite at the same time as the ghosts. After each level, bonus could be racked up for the player who ate the most dots, ghosts, other player, etc. Players would naturally have the option to battle each round through or play cooperatively to finish the rounds.

 

Just dreaming out loud again.

914000[/snapback]

 

Competitive Pac-Man! sounds like a cool idea!

 

 

 

Regarding this hack:

I can't wait to get home and check this latest Pac-Iteration out

PMP, I kneel before your 7800 greatness

[sku_u]

Just finished testing this one out on real hardware. Thanks go out once again to PMP for adding yet another creative spin to the 7800.

[PacManPlus]

Thanks guys

 

I have my personal wish list to try and attempt Super Pac-Man, Arkanoid, Countermeasure, and Space Invaders (Part II) to this platform ...(I know - *REAL* ambitious) :-P

 

I also wish there was some kind of Defender clone for the 7800 so I could try and hack it into Defender (another staple that is missing from the 7800)

 

I would love to work together with somebody and we could pull some of these off...

[SteveW]

I'd like to see something along the lines of Lock N' Chase, where the main player can close doors behind himself, and has the possibility of 'locking' up his pursuer.

 

How about Bomber-Pac-Man? The first player can play as Pac-Man, and he can drop bombs behind himself? Of course, player two controlling Blinky could do the same. Imagine what kind of on screen chaos that would be!

[uosipa llamxew]

I'd like to see something along the lines of Lock N' Chase, where the main player can close doors behind himself, and has the possibility of 'locking' up his pursuer.

 

How about Bomber-Pac-Man? The first player can play as Pac-Man, and he can drop bombs behind himself? Of course, player two controlling Blinky could do the same. Imagine what kind of on screen chaos that would be! 

914253[/snapback]

 

Whoah! Pac-Man with bombs?@! I cannot even comprehend such a thing... but then I'm way far past drunk and wishing for death about now. Bomberman and Pac-man are two of my favorites... I would be way way way mucho gracias thrilled if something halfway coherent and tangible were pulled off combining the two. I guess I'm just way too drunk now to even imagine how the two could be brought together. I hope to understand tomorrow though - if I wake up. MWAHAHAHAH!

[jwierer]

BTW, I must give credit where credit is due, I got the idea from Dave Widel's website where he had started work on the same thing, but for the arcade version...  Did you ever finish that Dave?

913975[/snapback]

 

Dave did actually finish that and it is included as an Easter Egg in his 96in1 MultiPac daughter card. Here is the text from the installation guide in case you want to use the same rules Dave did.

 

"Ms Pac 2 Player Simultaneous (Easter Egg)

No it's not what you think, there's still only 1 Ms Pacman. The second player controls the red ghost, Blinky. To prevent "goaltending" the last dot, control of Blinky is returned to the computer when you have less than ~20 dots left. In order to make this also a 1-player game, if you don't move around, Blinky will go on autopilot. For the first ~6 seconds Blinky follows a random pattern just like in the original, this will hopefully keep things interesting since you don't know where you're going to start at. He doesn't check for input as often as Ms Pacman so you have to lead it just a little. Another interesting feature is that when Blinky turns blue he reverts to computer control making him easier to catch, which should tip the scales back to Ms Pacman's side a little. Obviously you can't play this on a standard Pac cabinet. Primarily it is for cocktail tables but if you have a Jamma adapter you could play it in a 2-player Jamma cab. Also something I bet you

didn't know, there are 3 "slides" on the Ms Pacman board. Once you get on a slide you can't change direction until you come out the other side. "

 

There is also a mutliplayer Mr. & Mrs Pacman

 

“The Marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Pacman” For the first time in arcade history, Pac and Ms Pac are finally together in one maze. It’s fitting that the first release of Mr. & Mrs. Pacman on the Multi-Pac would occur around Valentine’s Day. It’s also likely that Mr. & Mrs. Pacman will end up being the run-away favorite game on Multi-Pac. Two player, collaborative play is now possible with 2 Pac’s in the maze working together (one is Ms Pac so you can tell them apart). Mr. & Mrs. Pacman is included as a bonus game in Multi-Pac."

 

and the latest multipac has a super pacman, Pacrabbit which has 5 ghosts and this rolling ball that goes around the screen and a awesome "Homercide" which is a Simpons hack of Pacman where you have to eat dots 3 times for them to disappear, has limited teleport and other bonuses..

 

-Jeff

[sku_u]

I also wish there was some kind of Defender clone for the 7800 so I could try and hack it into Defender (another staple that is missing from the 7800)

 

 

If you're going to spend the time, work on Defender II. That would really showcase the 7800s abilities. I'd love to see that one on the 5200 as well.

[Clint Thompson]

Congrats man... that sounds awesome!!!!

[Shawn]

I would love to see Arkanoid for the 7800. I'd pay out for that on a cart!!

[Lord Helmet]

I also wish there was some kind of Defender clone for the 7800 so I could try and hack it into Defender (another staple that is missing from the 7800)

 

 

If you're going to spend the time, work on Defender II. That would really showcase the 7800s abilities. I'd love to see that one on the 5200 as well.

914380[/snapback]

 

 

 

I'm sure you already know that there is a prototype of Stargate/Defender 2 already available on the 5200.

[PacManPlus]

Yuck

 

Finally got to play test this today with a friend of mine. Found 4 issues:

 

1) I need to make Blinky remain red when in 'scared' mode (same scared face, just red). This way the person controlling it still know which one is him/her. Also, I was thinking of making the control of blinky remain with the player when in 'scared' mode.

 

2) The energizers are missing for the third (or forth... can't remember which at the moment) board! Need to fix that.

 

3) There was an instance (when switching turns) where Pac-Man started in a seemingly random spot instead of his normal starting position. Need to try and figure out how that can happen...

 

4) During that same board, there was a dot which became a 'character' from the wall. That board therefore could not be cleared. Need to figure that one out

 

 

Oh well, back to the drawing board... I'm really nervous about #3 and #4... Those are going to be difficult to figure out. I think they are related, though...

 

Bob

[PacManPlus]

Ok I've made the following modifications:

 

1) Blinky now remains red when scared. You still have the scared face, but the color is red so the person controlling Blinks knows who they are. The player also keeps control of blinky when scared.

 

2) Fixed the energizers on the 4th board.

 

3) I believe I fixed the unexplained starting position for Pac-Man. I'll keep my eye on it.

 

Hopefully this is the final version

DUALPAC.ZIP

[PacManPlus]

Just thought of something....

 

Being that the player controlling Blinky can 'Stop' when hitting a wall, this creates an issue when the last dot (or group of dots) is around the wall there the player stops (possibly leaving the last dot 'under' Blinky). This makes it impossible for the player controling Pac-Man to clear the board without dying.

 

I have to think of a way around this... Maybe if the player controlling Blinky doesn't decide on a direction when hitting a wall, have the 7800 change Blinky to a random direction... or something like that.... hmmm...

Edited September 2, 2005 by PacManPlus

[keilbaca]

Just thought of something....

 

Being that the player controlling Blinky can 'Stop' when hitting a wall, this creates an issue when the last dot (or group of dots) is around the wall there the player stops (possibly leaving the last dot 'under' Blinky).  This makes it impossible for the player controling Pac-Man to clear the board without dying.

 

I have to think of a way around this...  Maybe if the player controlling Blinky doesn't decide on a direction when hitting a wall, have the 7800 change Blinky to a random direction...  or something like that.... hmmm... 

923823[/snapback]

 

Make it that if the ghost stops, it keeps going.

[PacManPlus]

OK:

 

Here is what happens now:

The routine keeps Blinky moving if no input is given by the player (it will use the original routine to calculate Blinky's direction). NOTE: This only happens when Blinky hits a wall, not at each intersection. The result of this is Blinky (if left alone) is nowhere near as 'smart' as the original game. This is fine with me as the only intention of doing this was to keep him moving so as to not 'cover' the last remaining dots.

 

BTW, the same thing happens when Blinky is in 'scared mode'.

 

Hope you enjoy

 

Version .3 attached.

DUALPAC.ZIP

Edited September 2, 2005 by PacManPlus

[FireTiger]

So in two player does the left controller run Blinky?

 

(I'm not sure the person running 1st player (left controller) "gets" how to move blinky yet)

 

Cant get caught by blinky when I am pac-man but in two player mode it would be AWESOME if the Blinky player got points added to thier score when pac dies (idealy if Blinky caught them, but realisticly if anyof the goast catch him)

 

Also Blinky should be worth more points if possible.

 

 

*runs for cover*

[PacManPlus]

Yes, the opposite player always controls blinky (i.e. when player 1 controls pac-man, player 2 controls blinky. when player 2 controls pac-man player 1 controls blinky)

 

That's an interesting idea, make the player controlling blinky get points when catching pac-man... I'll have to look into that. Maybe award the same point bonus amount as the current boards' fruit...

 

I have to post an update anyway; I found two more bugs that I have fixed since my last post.

 

Bob

[FireTiger]

OK, control of blinky ...seems sopratic, also its diffrent between left and right amount of control (or that I'm always llucky as left player blinky and I suck as right controller blinky.... that might be too)

 

Can the delay for player control be cut and collision detection of blinky to pac not be on for 6 sec?

 

OR

 

can Blinky or something on the board change color when Blinky is player controled vs computer controled?

 

Oh... the intermission still has blinky blue when scared.

 

Awesome game tho.

[PacManPlus]

Thanks

 

Actually I just tried it, and it seems to be ok for me.

 

One thing you should know - whne the monsters are in 'disperse mode' (meaning when they are returning to their respective corners), you lose control of blinky and he returns to his corner. Note that this happens at the very beginning of each board as well. Once they reverse direction and start chasing Pac-Man, that is when you can control Blinky. I though it would be too hard for the player as pac-man if it was constant.

 

Another thing is that you cannot stop when you are controlling Blinky. if you do not choose a direction when you hit a wall, a direction is chosen for you.

 

Hope this helps!

Bob

[sukotsu9]

Yeah, it takes a little practice. When you play as Blinky, lead the move you want to make. It's a little challenging, but it keeps you from running down Pac-Man, too, so it works. Before you come to a junction, choose the direction and you'll turn (excepting start & regeneration, when you run for the top right corner).

 

Only I can work Blinky in my house (not a problem...), but this is a fun spin on the game. Somebody had mentioned a 2 player competitive Pac-Man; how possible is that? Can you imagine if your competitor ate all the energizers? Tough.