An intelligent Pac-Man version?

[KAZ]

I have about one billion versions of Pac-Man on my computer. I have the following versions emulated:

 

2600

5200

7800

Nintendo

Mame (pac-man, ms. pac-man, etc.)

Super Nintendo (Ms. Pacman)

Jrok's Assembly pac-man versions (all very very cool).

Namco Museums on Playstation (pac-man, ms. pac-man, super)

 

So, I know exactly how the ghost monsters usually behave.

Blinky (red) is usually programmed to follow you (shadow). It rarely will ambush

Pinky (pink) is programmed to travel to a place that is about 8 dots ahead of where your pac-man is travelling to (it tries to ambush). It won't even go straight at you sometimes if there is a tunnel that it could take instead (Atari 5200 does this for sure).

Inky (blue) this does a little bit of both Blinky and Pinky, but it isn't very aggressive

Clyde (orange) this one actually seems to try to guard the last dots in a stage. In the meantime, it just journeys around the maze in a set pattern, it never actually chases pac-man.

 

 

So my ultimate question is if pac-man could somehow be reprogrammed to be an extremely INTELLIGENT version, where the ghost monsters actually constantly try to come at you and destroy you. Kind of like playing chess, except it is pac-man. The computer tries to outthink you, and catch you. Is there a way to hack the mame version to clone all the ghost monsters to be like Pinky (the most intelligent ghost).

 

Jrok's version of pac-man doesn't really follow the "rules" of ghost monsters. In his version the ghost monsters will travel upwards from the regeneration box. In the arcade version, and other versions like 5200 and 7800, the ghosts will never go upwards through the tunnels above the ghost monster box (unless they were blue because of power-pellet).

 

That is all

[DEBRO]

I have about one billion versions of Pac-Man on my computer.  I have the following versions emulated:

 

2600

5200

7800

 

There's a Pac-man for the 7800 ????? Where can I get this??

[DanBoris]

It's technically possible to hack a version of Pac-man to change the way the ghosts behave, but it wouldn't be easy. You would have to disassemble the existing code, figure out how it works, replace the section for that handles the ghost movement, then re-assemble the code.

 

The other (and larger) problem would be making the game playable with this sort of algorithm for the ghosts. It would be very easy to make all four ghosts move right for your position on the screen but this would result in you dying very quickly every time.

 

The patterns that the real Pac-Man arcade game uses where probably picked very carefully to make the game challenging, but not impossible.

 

Dan

[NE146]

Here's a page I know has a dissasembly of arcade Pac/MsPac if you're interested.

 

http://www.cis.rit.edu/~sdlpci/Software/pacman/

 

Incidentally.. as far as having all four ghosts tail you doggedly.. isn't that exactly what they do in 2600 Jr. Pacman? (or at least it seems that way to me!)

 

If you've ever played Make Trax / Crush Roller.. that runs on Pacman hardware doesn't it? And that game is hard because those 2 fish tail you constantly. yes TWO.

 

Anyway, I agree Kaz. Changing the ghost AI and behaviour is actually pretty interesting. I know I've seen it brought up on IRC every now and then and on the Newgsroups... I do think it would be interesting and could potentially make for some good and fun hacks.

[KAZ]

If all four ghosts were to always move straight for your position, they would all line up in a single file line, and the game might end up becoming more easy.

 

I always wondered what makes the ghost monsters in pac-man suddenly switch directions (it seems random).

 

Also, it is true that there was no pac-man made for the 7800, my bad

 

It would be sorta neat if the ghost monsters could somehow just completely STOP, and would stalk you slowly. You'd think this would make the game impossible, but there are still the power pellets, which would mean you could still eat them.

 

Do I like pac-man the way it was created before? Of course!!

[DEBRO]

I always wondered what makes the ghost monsters in pac-man suddenly switch directions (it seems random).

 

I haven't looked at the code but it seems to be on a timing interval. I can pretty much time when the ghost are going to change direction on the arcade machine (on boards that aren't intense like the 5th, 7th, 8th, and 9th keys )

[StanJr]

So my ultimate question is if pac-man could somehow be reprogrammed to be an extremely INTELLIGENT version, where the ghost monsters actually constantly try to come at you and destroy you.  The computer tries to outthink you, and catch you.  

 

This already exists, I like to call it Jr. Pac-man. All those bastards do is come straight at me in that game!

[KAZ]

Rofl, I know what you guys are talking about with Jr. Pac-man for the Atari 2600. It is a crazy fun game tho.