espire8

Been playing the latest bin quite a bit tonight. Fantastic progress here since I last checked in. Three questions - The first I feel affects game play. 1) Can you adjust that short "pause" when pac-man eats a ghost to at least a 1 sec duration while the pts amount is displayed before the action resumes? The pause seem too short the way it's set now at a half sec and became an issue for me during the faster rounds. I remember in the arcade version that 1 sec pause was key at allowing me to quickly scan the playfield to see where the other ghosts were positioned and for my mind to catch a breather. But in your game, the pause is so short I've no time to even read what the pts were much less plan my next move. It resumes too fast and it don't feel right. 2) Is it possible on the 2nd repeated grapefruit, apple, lime, flagship, bell and key if you can display two of the same icons for those stages to indicate to the player that it's the repeat stage before the next higher point bonus? I'm requesting this because since there's no intermissions, it's harder to anticipate those levels where the blue time is extended again. I find I often forget whether i'm on the 2nd apple or flagship stage and must eat a power pill to know if it's the extended blue stage or not. It would really help, if it were at all possible, to show two grapefruit icons on stage 4, two apple icons on the 2nd apple stage (stage 6) and so on so forth up to the maximum of three key icons (stage 15+). 3) This one is not very important but remember in the arcade when you would race pac-man to clear the last set of dots right when a ghost is about to reach it before you do and with both characters slightly overlapped and for that 2 sec moment of suspense you waited to see if either the ghosts would vanish and the maze flashes as you cleared the level (Yesss!) or died because of that one last dot remaining (duho!). That happens often and made the game a blast to play because of it. I was wondering if this could be reproduced in your game? Currently the ghosts disappear immediately as the maze flashes with only pac-man in sight. Can you have all the characters freeze in place for 2 sec before the maze flash begins when the level is cleared --just as it does when pac-man gets caught before he withers away? Just sharing my thoughts. I don't know if what I'm asking is much or impossible for lack of space but figure I mention it anyway.

There is a total of 7 ROM bytes left. Not enough room to even do a decent beep The color cycling of the score should dictate the attract mode. The darker color of the maze makes it a bit hard to see on my TV. The blue for the monsters is already a bit dark for my TV even though these colors look fine on the emulator. If you've played it on a real tube then I'll have to take your word, a mock-up was all I had. I tinkered with the mock-up some more and did some nice improvements. And so I tried to hack it as close as possible. The latest I've got is doable if there's a way to unshare the far left & right maze edges. One idea is if the fruits were switched from multi to single-color sprites, you can free up 81 bytes. That should be enough to use to increase the resolution of the maze edges. You'll lose the multi-colored fruit but for the most arcade-accurate looking maze possible, -that's a pretty good trade off to me. I was reading eveyone's remarks about all the ghosts and seeing the votes practically neck to neck (almost feel like a contest) I had no idea the ghost's details would get so much attention, so I revised the model sheet with 5200 ghosts combined with the larger type ruffles of my first try. It looks great while in play considering all the other designs. I think it has to do with having more "pixel coverage". Heh. I didn't vote yet -but this version I did is starting to grow on me. I think my vote is going for the 5200 but with the larger ruffles - it looks more arcadie. I've since got it to 10 free bytes I said I would stop months ago but I can't help myself. I'll have to try reducing the animation and see how it looks. I can't change the score font. It's that way to match the arcade. I looked at the ghosts graphic table and I see a way to eliminate 2 of the ghosts images while keeping the animation rate at 4 frames. Presently there's 8 images where you only really need 6: 2 facing UP, 2 facing DOWN, 2 facing LEFT and 2 facing RIGHT You can eliminate the 2 Right frames and simply "flip" the 2 Left images to use as "Right facing" frames. I can see you included the right frames to avoid the "shifting" of the image by one pixel when flipped which happens to all 7 pixel wide sprites. I simulated the shifting affect by placing the Right facing images to the far right of the sprite grid. During play, the shifting was not noticeable at all. In fact, I noticed whenever two of the ghosts are running the same direction single file, I can now see the slight "stepping" behavior in their movement that was present in the arcade version! Talk about a happy accident! Anyhow -this eliminates the need for those two extra images and to reclaim 22 bytes. Here's the hack with the simulated mirroring affect and with the new 5200 ghosts in place: pacman4K_newMaze_hack.bin Looks like it could happen! Okay- Debro says he currently has: 10 free bytes + 81 if swapping out the fruit colors + 22 for eliminating the 2 extra ghosts = 123 Hmm.. easy as 1-2-3 (hopefully) Could there be enough for the music and a really great looking 5200 styled maze? This could be really, really cool.

Heh. Thanks, I didn't mean for it to come across like that. I do try to improve what I see possible as an artist; an expert? I'm a 2d animator. So, yeah, I do have quite an advantage there. There's nothing wrong with your maze though. I just wanted to see how I can make it look a little closer to the real thing and you were normally trying to save space. I just didn't have the guts to ask your help since making code changes can be a hassle, so I tried hacking it myself and when I were almost there I was disappointed my efforts prevailed not. I should mention the reason I was sad because it took a long time to figure out the maze but came up short for my alteration. Not sure if you like how it could have looked or if you could implement the rest of it. I'm pretty much stuck. Anyway, it would be nice to see some of my simpler changes make it's way to the final release like the ghost's eyes and pts font and bouns fruit colors. As for the ghosts, if not my own - I'd go for Clay's. Thanks.

I don't know what to vote for. I had already hacked my own version some time ago. Might as well post it here while I'm checking in. pacman4K_new_gfx_hack.bin It look similar to Clay's version except that I inverted the eyes somewhat. The pics below documents all my touch-ups in this hack. I re-did the death animation too. And the pts icon, and the ghost's eyes, and the key and flagship. Added more colors to the fruits too. I still have yet to locate the maze and dot colors. The hex color $82 for the maze and $FC for the dots would be spot-on like the arcade - it has a wonderful contrast that make the ghosts and pac-man stand out better. The darker blue also helps hide the black lines on the walls where the dots are placed -- at least in the mock-up. I even tried to smooth out the corners of the maze to make it less blocky by deleteing some of the lines to give it that hollowed out vector look the coin-op has. I came soooo close to my mock-up except for the extreme left and right edges. Some lines are shared and can't be altered. Felt really sad about it.

I see you had another way in mind for the cockpit but if that way prove impossible or not worth the effort, why not alternatively have the ship sprite redesigned to accomodate similar results as in the sample below? It's probably not up to your standards but I feel it works better than what you now have in place. Chris, -I remember you commented to me earlier that you think the ship's front look too separated in the new design. I don't think it look bad. It certainly do look alot closer to it's arcade counter-part. Why don't you give it a try in your next build and get the play tester's input on this? Or at least ask the community openly about the new version? It don't surprize me that Nathan won't comment on this, but if this is about making his work exclusive just because he put in alot of effort don't make sense. I'll say Nathan did a great job on the enemies, but honestly, his player ship don't even capture the colors of the arcade version. If Nathan can't pull it off and someone else has, he should be gratful for the game's sake and not of himself. Nathan does great work, but nobody (including you and myself) have all the solutions to everything. Remember: Nathan couldn't do a snowmobile sprite to save his life. I'm not trying to be cynical, I'm just backing my point in stating a fact. @ Nathan, as you once told me long ago, I think you should welcome any help, graphicwise, that can be extended to making this game look and play as close as possible to the real thing if it can be helped at all. It's all about contributing to the hobby.

It's better, --but now the BLUE horizon got cut out in the process. Good changes all around, I think. Revisiting an earlier discussion - is it possible to add in the end-of-round timer/fuel bonus? 1. Continue mode via diff sw is awesome! thanks for that addition! 2. Not bad, but the thicker fuel line still seem to resemble the grid in the red waves. Why not try color scrolling the fuel line as you have with the flashing text? ..and speaking of flash, I think you should reconcider flashing the cockpit, being that the ship is the main protagonist, it bothers me alot that the enemy ships (which I don't see all the time) are more arcade accurate, -while the player ship (that I see all the time) is not acurate . Again, thanks Chris for the extra efforts, and I agree with r_type concerning the death/next life sequence, it do need a few seconds. And 2 mini request from me: 1) The blue horizon is very key to signaling to the player that he just died, especialy in a fast paced game as this. You need to restore that blue between lives -not just at the game over screen. And can you please have the blue horizon color be triggered at the same moment the ship blows up, as the arcade does? I find it a nice effect to accompany that blue color along with the ship's explosion animation and explosion sound. Even little details like that adds much to the arcade experiance. 2) If possible, can the landers (red and green) that come to the middle of the grid be animated like the blue sausers presently are? I try not to let enemies get past my ship to quickly and I most often like to pick off my enemies when they are mid-sized in the middle of the grid at a safe distance. I sometimes can't tell apart the static red and green landers in the middle of the grid from other static enemies at the same level as I can with the blue and pink 300pts sausers with the animated red tenicals. These two animated enemies help me to tell them appart from the other harder static enemies later in the game. But the landers don't animate in the middle of the grid and it does often get me confussed further in the game. It's nothing more than an annoyance but animating those landers with rotaing heads would prove as helpful as the animated tenicals. And finally as Nathan requested, the end of round bonus would be nice too. Here's to hoping for the realization of the suggestions posted here by your faithful game testing audience. Keep up the awesome work!

Thanks John and Nukey. I have 30+ mazes to hack in there now for this summer! All That's needed is the voice and arcade title to be complete!

Thanks for putting this together, but I think that it makes the front of the ship look too disconnected, and it doesn't add anything to the game. I'm going to stick with Nathan's original sprite designs as he put a lot of effort into them and I completely happy with the results. Chris Your welcome. I wish you would still include the arcade color and cockpit flash as Nathan's version don't capture that. I'm not knock'n this work, arcade realism is what i'm after. I want to see the ship as close to the arcade as the vcs can produce.Juno_First_cockpit_flash_BETA7_NTSC.bin I know it don't add to the game but it add to the "arcade look" that make a difference I think any stranger will appriciate. No mos6507! No! You're not helping my request! it's not about side movement! it's the color! and the cockpit!! flashing cockpit not gonna happen with remark like that. I'm I alone with wanting this?? Chris, really, I'm for whatever you want to do with your game, -your the boss. Do as you please, BUT-- I betcha if I hack my own version w/ flashing cockpit and make a compare poll outside AA community, more will favor the cockpit version. I know it will. You disagree? I'm not trying to say I'm better than others but why do you think some people hack vcs arcade games in the first place? To make the graphics look more arcade like. Sorry for sounding persistant. I'll leave it alone.

Been playing your game alot. Very hard game, like the challenge though. Suggestion: I got tired of reaching for the select sw to cont' where I left off. Is it too late to possibly include a cont' feature so players don't constantly have to reach for the select sw? If the difficulty switches are still free, maybe you can have them function like DIP switches on the arcade board to set it up as you like. The settings here is what I recommend for a difficult game as this, but you can ramp it up or down as you see fit. L diff = starting wave; (A) wave 5, (B) wave 9. R diff = bonus life; (A) first at 20,000 & every 50,000 after, (B) first at 15,000 & every 30,000 after. B/W sw = (color) use current DIP sw (L&R diff)setting; (b&w) disable DIP sw setting and use default setting regardless of L&R positions --> starting wave 1, bonus life at 10,000 and every 25,000 after.

I were planning on just producing a few of my own berzerk carts for myself when I started this thread awhile back. Sadly, I would have loved Debro's diagnol shots and John Payton's sealed-off side exits in the same bin, but I don't have the coding skill to add them and I really don't want to bother them if it's not in their interest. Not as a money making thing -but maybe if enough people were interested, I'd concider a small run of no more than a dozen copies with:1) Mike Mika's voice enhancement. 2) Four new arcade maze designs and smaller man/robot sprites. 3) Arcade style title screen. Will maybe do that later this summer.

Wow! They actually used a full blown big screen projector for MM! --brings tears to my eyes. I'd love to get one of those projectors. Would have been a nice atari commercial spot for the movie theaters 25 years ago. it's nice to know this game is being enjoyed overseas as it is here. Having fun is more important than #1. congrats again Darrell!

Juno_First_BETA7_cockpitflash_NTSC.bin

I'm only advocating to cut the scrolling AA logo. Perhaps voice without cutting the music? I'd keep the music if it had to be one or the other.

I agree mos6507. The inital AA scroll last for only a second. It has nothing to do with the game anyway. Maybe that space can be better utilized to improve something in the game itself, so it look's and plays more admiredly closer to the arcade. I don't remember any voice in the original but I'm all for the addition of atarivox speech if it can be done for this one.

You're right. I didn't notice that until I looked at the link. It's been so long since I last remembered the arcade. Maybe that's what it needed. I knew there was something missing - the color flash do give it some animation. One more vain attempt - same ship (Nathan's design) w/ color flashing cocpit. Only problem is this does require 3 frame color table and there's only 2 right now. I don't know if there's possibly any room left for this or if it's worth it at all to other players. It's a minor detail and may be alot of trouble to include now, but it would be sweet to have. I'm willing to wait as long as it's definately being released (this year ) with all the polish it deserves!

Juno_hack_BETA4_NTSC.bin Here you go Chris, guess I'll just hear from you later if you like what you see, and your target audience approves, and Nathan gives the okay (since it's his gfx work).

Get your own bag? At last! do tell!

Interesting idea, though I'm not sure I have enough space left to fit in the extra frames. Feel free to post your hack here as I would like to see what you have done (and get opinions from others). Chris Thanks Chris. I'll post it for you later; btw- it's just a few slight graphic and color alterations. You won't need to add extra frames, it's already there. 2 forward thrusting frames, 2 backward thrust frames and a single still frame. All the frames were using the same ship image, so I modified the frames to simulate very slight movements of the ship leaning forward and pulling back whenever the ship moves in that direction. I kept Nathan's ship design but I moved a few pixles around so it can animate more smoothly. The sprites are based on the arcade game, which doesn't change when moving left-right. but I'm not suggesting left/right animation, only the up/down (forward-reverse). I'll post the bin shortly tonight and you'll see what I mean. I do understand your aim is to make it look exactly as the arcade, but the ship is also flat and static there too. Besides, as gameplay goes, this translation is already missing some stuff from the original, and I see nothing wrong with sprucing up other aspects that are'nt found in the original, to at least balance out any trade offs - cosmeticaly even. Ah, so do I, but I would still like to have the player ship be a little more than just a moving single static frame if that were allowed. JMO. Still a great game even as it is.

Nice work on this game so far. Plays really well and alot of fun. I'd like to suggest polishing up the ship though. It looks very flat and static during play. Since the playfield is an over-head 3/4 view, I think the ship's sprite should have some fore-shortening when moving forward and backward for some improved realism. Chris, I know that you may want to keep the ship as is since nobody else has mentioned this. If you like, I have a hack of the graphics in the game as an example of what I'm talking about that I can post here since it's alot easier and faster for me to do than to make a GIF version. that ok with ya?

Good point. I haven't thought of that. I like to add that it maybe better for the objects as the magnet, keys, sword and chalice to be standing up instead of lying down so to be more visable to locate from a distance.

In another galaxy, Dec. 25 is called "life day." We're nearly point five past that now. after all this time -maybe the community need an extra clue (spoiler tag perhaps) to uncover the GR easteregg. Nobody made any mention of it's discovery yet. also wondering if there's other eggs in SS' other games?

I like this new spin on an old classic! I know this is a test version, but three things I find that bothered me: 1. the control is quite awkward in first person having to use both the keyboard and mouse. I find it a chore to constantly face in the direction my player is moving. 2. the catacombs is too dark and a royal pain to navigate cause the walls black out when you come up against it. It's very hard to get around not knowing where I'm facing but managed to find the purple room and magnet. But back in the catacombs got me lost again and that's where I gave up. 3. the sword is always pointing the "wrong way" (like an arrow) no matter which end I try to pick it up.

Thank you very much Impaler!

Is there a commented disasembely of the 2600 game E.T. posted anywhere in the forums that I can be pointed to look at? I'm trying to find the part of the code that has the looping theme music that plays in the title screen for an old hack I'd like to soon finish.

Perhaps the second game installment of MM2 (currently in brainstorming process) can address that.