269 replies to this topic

[Nathan Strum]

Press Reset (F2) to start.

[Fangorn81]

Ha! duh!

I forgot that on these new mac keyboards, you have to hold the Fn key to use the function keys!!! It just keeps adjusting the brightness on my monitor otherwise.

Man I feel stupid.

Thanks though!

Edited by Fangorn81, Sun Mar 8, 2009 9:11 PM.

[Yart]

A little late I suppose but I absolutely have to comment on this.

Fantastic job! This is how Pac-Man SHOULD have been for the Atari 2600. After comparing the two, I concluded that there is no fair comparison. Yours is fun, and the old Atari one isn't.

When you finish this, I'd definitely buy a copy if you release it on cartridge! Maybe even two!

Keep up the excellent work!

[rmaerz]

Question - why does every 2600 version of Pac-Man use dashes instead of dots in the maze?

[Lord Helmet]

rmaerz, on Wed Jun 3, 2009 8:23 AM, said:

Question - why does every 2600 version of Pac-Man use dashes instead of dots in the maze?

I believe it's because they use playfield graphics, which are low resolution.

[Nathan Strum]

Correct. The only way (I'm aware of) to use dots would be the way Cat Trax does it, which means some of the dots have to be offset vertically from each other, and take on the color of other onscreen objects.

The playfield graphics are limited to 40 pixels across the entire screen, so they end up looking like dashes.

I suppose it might be possible to use dots with something like the SuperCharger, but I don't know for certain.

[NinjaWarrior]

I tryed the pac man4knew..

where's the music at the begening of the game..

Why is it flickering all the time

[Devin]

NinjaWarrior, on Thu Jul 2, 2009 11:05 AM, said:

Why is it flickering all the time

The Atari is very limited in what it can draw on the same line - actually only two 8-bit objects (player 0 and player 1). Atari games are line based - each scanline the television draws is independent of the last.

Anyway, the solution, which you see in a ton of games, is to draw the sprites every other frame. This is also the solution to the original Pac-Man. Pac-Man is drawn every time while only one ghost is one the screen at a time. This gives the ghosts the blinking effect.

This new version also blinks Pac-man. The developer could alternatively cycle the four ghosts (like the original) and make Pac-Man not blink (unless the fruit is onscreen).

[sandmountainslim]

This game is HARD!!
I cannot even manage to get to ten thousand points on it.
Is the difficulty ramped up on purpose?
Great lookin game.
Wp

[Nukey Shay]

It's not "ramped up" at all. The objects are basically following the rules that the arcade game dictates (except for Clyde...not enough space to implement his behavior in the posted version).


@NinjaWarrior
Not enough space to add the startup tune in the posted version. I mentioned to Dennis that enough free space is had by using the lower 5 bits of the GFX tables that draw the edges of the screen (audio frequencies only use 5 bits)...and I believe that he adopted that suggestion. In addition, sprite flicker was used in the posted version because too much resources were consumed by the sprite multiplex routine to be able to add in everything else that he wanted to feature (so he used each of the sprite registers to do 3 of the 6 objects instead). Following additional program optimizations done since that version was posted, it might be possible to feature the multiplexing routine now (while keeping all of the program's existing features intact). AFAIK, he was in the middle of that decision when real life demanded more of his attention.

If the program were altered to use 8k banking, none of these would be an issue at all. But the goal was originally to see how faithful a 4k game could be to the arcade game (the last I'd seen of it, the flicker version was -really- close...aside from screen resolution, of course).

[sandmountainslim]

Nukey Shay, on Sun Aug 16, 2009 5:40 PM, said:

It's not "ramped up" at all. The objects are basically following the rules that the arcade game dictates (except for Clyde...not enough space to implement his behavior in the posted version).

The blue time just seems shorter than what I am used to in Pac-Man.
That was what I meant by difficulty, also the monsters seem a bitter faster to me.
Wp

[sandmountainslim]

Ok I am now playing two different roms of this game.
The one I thought was difficult is the latest one in this thread located at
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=1668514
I found this version online at another site
http://www.pdroms.de/files/526/
I don't know how old this build is but it seems less difficult and for some reason pac moves a bit more smoothly than in the one I have been playing.
Wp

Edited by sandmountainslim, Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:47 AM.

[sandmountainslim]

Since this game uses sprite movements found in the Arcade would the "Pac Man Patterns" work on this game if one knew them?
Wp

[Pacfan97]

I Saw Pictures Of Ms. Pacman 4k!! You Need Too Make It Quickly!! Oh And Plus, Make Jr.Pacman 4k Too!!

[Pacfan97]

Ms. Pac-Man 4k?

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Edited by Pacfan97, Thu Dec 3, 2009 8:44 PM.

[Corby]

Pacfan97, on Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:29 PM, said:

DO IT OR ELSE!!!!

You know Pacfan97, you keep up with these demands, and will lose these talented programmers. They'll just pack up and say f--k it! It don't matter if your joking or not, we have some guys here who will chew up and spit you out my friend!!!!

Edited by corbysatarigame, Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:43 PM.

[Pacfan97]

(Comment Removed)

Edited by Pacfan97, Sat Dec 5, 2009 1:10 PM.

[jwierer]

[Lord Helmet]

Pacfan97, on Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:53 AM, said:

Oh Gosh What A Dick!!!

Given your comment, I'd say you're looking in the mirror. Try using a little tact next time. It will get you a lot farther on these boards.

[KevinMos3]

I've not been a big fan of Pac-Man, but with this project and the 7800 Pac-Man collection, I've been playing it quite a bit. I have to say that this version is very good, although I totally suck at it. Congrats on crunching this into 4k and thank you for making it available.

Devin, on Fri Jul 3, 2009 8:31 AM, said:

This new version also blinks Pac-man. The developer could alternatively cycle the four ghosts (like the original) and make Pac-Man not blink (unless the fruit is onscreen).

I never minded the blinking ghosts in the original and thought it made them more like ghosts anyway since they look transparent. Personally, I'd prefer a solid Pac-Man and blinking ghosts, but I'm not being picky about it. This is great and fun to play.

Is the author still working on either the 4k or 8k version?

Edited by KevinMos3, Thu Dec 3, 2009 8:13 PM.