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How to Create Custom 7800 Pacman Hacks!


jwierer

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Hi

why not posting a BIN?

 

The instant I finalise 1.5 and test all the levels to make sure they do end when all pellets are consumed (Pac-Man Construction Set is one of the glitchiest editors I've ever used), I'll provide the .a78 and .bin files onto here. Why I had it in .ips format was so it could be posted onto ROMhacking.net and done the traditional way hacked ROMs are usually produced; patching the original ROM.

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"Pac-Man Construction Set is one of the glitchiest editors I've ever used" - Just curious what reproducable glitch you are getting? In fixing your roms for you, what I can tell is you've simply tried doing things that aren't enabled by the game engine and it gets the level in an unsupported state. If it's something else that you can repeat, I'd be happy to look at it.

 

-Jeff

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"Pac-Man Construction Set is one of the glitchiest editors I've ever used" - Just curious what reproducable glitch you are getting? In fixing your roms for you, what I can tell is you've simply tried doing things that aren't enabled by the game engine and it gets the level in an unsupported state. If it's something else that you can repeat, I'd be happy to look at it.

 

-Jeff

 

 

Well, by "glitches" here's what I got:

 

*When transitioning between levels in the editor, the stage selected will contain pellets in positions from the last viewed board.

*A recent scenario: When playing the game, some levels will fail to register that all of the pellets have been eaten off-screen, and thus leaving the player in endless limbo. I auto-removed all the pellets and re-drew them from scratch, and the problem still exists.

*When drawing walls, often the game will fail to draw the mirrored wall on the opposite side, requiring the player to edit it manually.

*A large amount of flicker.

Edited by Justin De Lucia
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*When transitioning between levels in the editor, the stage selected will contain pellets in positions from the last viewed board.

That could simply be a graphical glitch. I would try refreshing or reloading the level to see if they really are there. The control I use for displaying graphics isn't all that thread safe, but doing it all in the main thread was just too darn slow to be user friendly.

 

*A recent scenario: When playing the game, some levels will fail to register that all of the pellets have been eaten off-screen, and thus leaving the player in endless limbo. I auto-removed all the pellets and re-drew them from scratch, and the problem still exists.

This sounds like you are placing dots in an unsafe area. This unfortunately requires you understand the game mechanics a bit better. There are areas where you cannot place pellets for example near/bellow the ghost pen or in exits. Unless you have expert mode turned on it should prevent you from placing dots there though? If you do place them in one of those locations for example in the area where the game says "ready" at the beginning of each level, the ready text will make them disappear. Therefore you can never eat them and never finish the level. My recommendation is to create levels like the default ones. You'll notice the areas that are clear of dots. Follow that patttern and you should be good. Come to think of it, if you are placing too many dots you may be overflowing into the next level. My advice, don't go dot crazy as there isn't unlimited space :)

 

*When drawing walls, often the game will fail to draw the mirrored wall on the opposite side, requiring the player to edit it manually.

Noted. I put that in there to make it simple, but I am not sure I was getting the math correct. I could take a 2nd look to make that perfect. Personally I don't use the mirror feature.

 

*A large amount of flicker.

Yeah there is a lot going on in different threads to speed things up. I have a pretty high end laptop so I may not be seeing what you see.

 

-Jeff

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That could simply be a graphical glitch. I would try refreshing or reloading the level to see if they really are there. The control I use for displaying graphics isn't all that thread safe, but doing it all in the main thread was just too darn slow to be user friendly.

Well this is what normally (IMO) leads to the utility creating the BIN files unreadable by the utility any other time the program is launched,

 

 

This sounds like you are placing dots in an unsafe area. This unfortunately requires you understand the game mechanics a bit better. There are areas where you cannot place pellets for example near/bellow the ghost pen or in exits. Unless you have expert mode turned on it should prevent you from placing dots there though? If you do place them in one of those locations for example in the area where the game says "ready" at the beginning of each level, the ready text will make them disappear. Therefore you can never eat them and never finish the level. My recommendation is to create levels like the default ones. You'll notice the areas that are clear of dots. Follow that patttern and you should be good. Come to think of it, if you are placing too many dots you may be overflowing into the next level. My advice, don't go dot crazy as there isn't unlimited space :)

I took your advice and removed a good number of pellets close to the ghost pen, it worked.

 

Another thing to mention: If you do update the editor, please make it so all colors on the Ghosts (and maybe the foods/items) are editable. I feel like I'm being chased by Smurfs with technicolor hair half the time.

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Another thing to mention: If you do update the editor, please make it so all colors on the Ghosts (and maybe the foods/items) are editable. I feel like I'm being chased by Smurfs with technicolor hair half the time.

Some colors are shared and well if you change one you'll be changing something elsewhere as well, but if you check the help file there are tables at the end where you can change additional colors using a hex editor.

 

-Jeff

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Here's a great hack idea, which I do not believe I have ever seen in any (Ms.) Pac-Man port or hack on any of the Atari systems:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZb_czxZgFo

 

Instead of trying to squish a vertical oriented maze in a horizontal oriented display. Turn the maze 90 degrees keeping the original layout(s). Despite having a green color - it is the original Pac-Man gameplay (It's not Pac-Man Plus).

 

Bonus items have been (obviously) changed though. It was an excellent Pac-Man port at the time. And still holds up well today. The video seems to playback choppy animation at times, but playing it on a real computer it is nice and smooth. Anyhow, here's a screen capture as well:

 

post-18-0-68467500-1347573626_thumb.png

 

It would be great to see something similar done on the 7800, utilizing the system's higher resolution mode (As done in Bob's Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man 320 ports), but eliminating the scroll as the maze can now completely fit since it is turned.

Edited by Trebor
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Here's a great hack idea, which I do not believe I have ever seen in any (Ms.) Pac-Man port or hack on any of the Atari systems:

 

Instead of trying to squish a vertical oriented maze in a horizontal oriented display. Turn the maze 90 degrees keeping the original layout(s). Despite having a green color - it is the original Pac-Man gameplay (It's not Pac-Man Plus).

 

Bonus items have been (obviously) changed though. It was an excellent Pac-Man port at the time. And still holds up well today. The video seems to playback choppy animation at times, but playing it on a real computer it is nice and smooth. Anyhow, here's a screen capture as well:

 

It would be great to see something similar done on the 7800, utilizing the system's higher resolution mode (As done in Bob's Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man 320 ports), but eliminating the scroll as the maze can now completely fit since it is turned.

 

You probably could accomplish something like PC-Man by hacking Jr. Pac-Man; but with slight alterations to the maze layout (since the pen would have to be horizontal, not vertical). though to be honest, PC-Man (aside from the rotation of the maze) is just Pac-Man with different colors and bonus items; with said bonus items having modified values. (i.e. the first item gives 150 instead of 100). Blinky retains his red color, (though with a bit of orange in hue), Pinky is yellow-orange (she is the second to escape the ghost pen, despite not being in the center), Inky is lime-green, and Clyde is a dark sea green. Vulnerable ghosts are hollow with green outlines as opposed to be solid and blue.

 

The items are as follows, based on viewing another video of the same game:

 

Candy Cane- 150

Watermelon- 300

Banana- 600

Rose- 1,000

Heart- 1,500

Candle- 2,000

There may be one more item, but I don't have the time to find out; the game is stupid hard. :U

 

Anyways, Gambler 172, here's the patched ROM and bin for Bleach Pac-Man.

bleach pac-man.a78

Bleach Pac-Man.bin

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PC-Man (aside from the rotation of the maze) is just Pac-Man with different colors and bonus items;

 

Understood...I thought I made that clear in my post as well. The point was to utilize the rotation of the maze under the system's higher resolution setting.

 

I was thinking it may have been possible to hack Pac-Man 320 & Ms. Pac-Man 320 to accomplish the aforementioned. Unfortunately, as jwierer replied, hacking is just not possible.

Edited by Trebor
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Well, after a quick 30 minutes or so, I created PC-Man for the 7800. I don't want to play the DOS version since well, it's just next to unplayable; with how many of the strategies in the original and many ports seem to be absent, and how speedy the game is (trying to slow it down just causes controls to only respond half the time)

 

It also turns out I got the colors for Inly and Clyde reversed. :P

pc-man78.a78

PC-MAN78.BIN

Edited by Justin De Lucia
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Nice job, Justin. Although the colors and bonus items was not really why I was interested in this port.

 

What would be cool is utilizing the higher resolution and fit the entire (Ms.) Pac-Man maze without scrolling. The whole reason I brought up PC-Man is realizing the 7800 can handle higher arcade-like resolution and could fit the entire maze horizontally oriented - Just like PC-Man did under CGA graphics which also could not display a vertical maze completely on screen at a higher resolution at the time.

 

Utilizing a vertical arcade maze under the 7800 leaves two options:

1. At (320) high resolution the 7800 needs to scroll

or

2. Displayed at a standard/lower resolution (160) as done in your hack and the original Pac-Man Collection.

 

I was looking more at the higher resolution 320 ports here:

http://www.atariage....50#entry2346529

http://www.atariage....n/#entry2344539

 

Take that higher resolution port and turn the maze horizontal - Like in PC-Man. It would eliminate the need to scroll.

 

Putting numbers to it...

Arcade Pac-Man has a resolution of 224x288.

Low/Standard Resolution of the 7800 is 160x240 (NTSC).

High Resolution of the 7800 is 320x240 (NTSC)

 

When the maze is left vertical the high resolution is still short ~48 lines to display the entire maze (288 Arcade Vs 240 Atari 7800).

 

However, rotate the Arcade maze horizontal (As done in PC-Man under DOS/CGA) and the resolution is 288x224.

As stated above the Atari 7800 high resolution is 320x240.

Now there would be more than enough room to fit the entire maze without scrolling... 320>288 & 240>224.

 

It would look something along the lines of this:

post-18-0-04137400-1348193592_thumb.png

 

(Ignore having two Pac-Men, it is a bad hack job by me to try an illustrate what I am suggesting).

Edited by Trebor
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  • 1 month later...

Hi Justin

looks good;any BIN available?

greetings Walter

 

I really wish I could say I could, but I wouldn't be able to, as no bin exists. This is intended for the arcade Ms. Pac-Man, but with a modified code for nine new maze layouts, two new bonus items inbetween the sixth and seventh, worth 3,000 and 4,000 respectively, and a new intermission, thus transforming it into Champ Ms. Pac-Em, but playing it on arcade hardware with different, enhanced maze layouts and without either the pellet machine or ice cube power up, and a pineapple instead of the ChamPrograming emblem. These mazes were made because I greatly despise the default mazes Champ Ms. Pac-Em imcludes for its Champ mode, as a good number of these default mazes break two "laws" that I developed from playing many Pac-Man mazes over time. The ninth (pineapple) board here is a severe edit of the unmodifiable "Champ" maze to transform it into something tolerable.

 

And it's not real either, these are just mockups for what I'd like to see, I took screencaps of the mazes I designed from DOSBox, and placed them into screenshots of Ms. Pac-Man, applying masks where necessary.

 

Modding these levels into the 7800 version of Ms. Pac-Man would require an addition of reordering levels so a new maze is presented for every board, not after a sequence of the same board like in standard Ms. Pac-Man, and two new fruit slots, plus a change in what levels trigger the intermissions, as well as the new intermission that occurs after "The Chase" but before "Junior".

 

I'm up for doing the graphics or correcting/finalizing the maze designs for any form of port of either Champ Pac-Em or Champ Ms. Pac-Em (the later presented with my own maze designs) for play on either arcade or 7800 hardware. Here are my custom arcade-based sprites.

ChampPac-EmSpriteProject.png?t=1352616281

Edited by Justin De Lucia
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  • 4 months later...

Is there any chance of please updating The Pac-Man Construction Set to add support for the following "official" updates?

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/190980-pac-man-collection-pokey-with-small-dotsis-it-possibleattn-pacmanplus/?do=findComment&comment=2448145

 

There are considerable changes already made that would be nice to have available via the editor; most outstanding would be the size of the dots.

 

Thanks!

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Is there any chance of please updating The Pac-Man Construction Set to add support for the following "official" updates?

 

http://www.atariage....s/#entry2448145

 

There are considerable changes already made that would be nice to have available via the editor; most outstanding would be the size of the dots.

 

Thanks!

<sigh> That was on my backlog of things to do... Let me take a look this weekend, I haven't touched that code in a year.

 

-Jeff

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Played a bit with it today and I think I have the latest Pacman Collection, Pacman Collection (Pokey) and this updated version of Jr. Pacman from these threads

 

http://www.atariage....s/#entry2448145

http://www.atariage....75#entry2605642

 

Unfortunately any existing hacks based on older versions of these roms won't work with the latest, but you can always download an older build that will.

 

Added the latest to the first post in this thread.

 

-Jeff

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Justin

Do you have pictures of all MAZES?It should be easy to put them in a game :)

greetings Walter

 

If it was possible to take a Ms. Pac-Man ROM and extend the number of mazes represented from four to nine and make the maze change after every round instead of after rounds 2, 5, 9, and every fourth round thereafter, I'd consider porting my custom-made Champ Ms. Pac-Em mazes into a playable 7800 hack without the gumball machine, two extra bonuses, and the ice cube powerup. But until then, I'm just stuck in the water.

 

If anyone'd like to make a ROM of standard Pac-Man that allows a multitude of fruits and level designs (probably somewhere around 128, if enough can fit inside an 7800 game, with the cap adjustable in the utility) with standard, plus, random, and random-plus modes, and support for vertical tunnels (which I'm sure may already exist), I'd absolutely love to create the ultimate Pac-Man 7800 existence. These are the mazes I'm considering:

 

*This monstrous collection of 54 mazes I found and later edited to fit my needs (viewable below in the attachments)

*The ten extra boards from the NES, Game Gear, and Game Boy (Color) ports of Ms. Pac-Man (with certain corners modified to remove diagonal tunnels).

*My nine Champ Ms. Pac-Em mazes

*The eight default Champ Ms. Pac-Em mazes, with few edits to free up space in the longer hallways and horizontal symmetry. And more butchering of diagonal tunnels.(ScreenShot2013-02-20at15840PM_zps2bcf3f72.png)

*The six new mazes from "Pac Man+ Tournament" with some on different colors than shown, and altered starting/ghost pen positions. (viewable in the attachments)

*The first two (of three) mazes from Baby Pac-Man.

*These four additional mazes found on Video-Games-Museum.com, but with small fixes. (http://i913.photobuc...zpsfe51429d.png)

*Additional filler mazes from Shaun William's "Cookie-Man" game, the results of a random level generator.

 

All that and you'd have a little over 100 mazes. Oh, and the fruits/bonuses until I update it to match what Pac-Man+ Tournament adds:

http://i.imgur.com/DscFyo2.png

 

EDIT: I looked up the Cookie-Man Javascript game a little further, turns out it was slapped with a C&D. Guess Namco is another of those companies that fails to understand the concept of "freeware" and "non-profit tributes".

And just for giggles, the site I originally found the game on. And another on a Chinese site, with author e-mail contact. Hopefully if we can reach the author we can get Cookie-Man resurrected and have it spread around like wildfire so if it does get C&D' again, we'll have numerous backup copies. A few mazes I've found can be found in the attachments as well.

 

2nd EDIT: I got in touch with Shaun; he supplied me with a link to the Cookie-Man game, viewable here. I also took a whopping 72 screens of my results, eight mazes of each maze color.

Javascript Cookie Man screen.zip

post-31999-0-89738200-1364267808_thumb.png

post-31999-0-99320300-1364267824_thumb.png

Edited by Justin De Lucia
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If it was possible to take a Ms. Pac-Man ROM and extend the number of mazes represented from four to nine and make the maze change after every round instead of after rounds 2, 5, 9, and every fourth round thereafter, I'd consider porting my custom-made Champ Ms. Pac-Em mazes into a playable 7800 hack without the gumball machine, two extra bonuses, and the ice cube powerup. But until then, I'm just stuck in the water.

You should be able to accomplish this by hacking the Ultra Pacman rom. If I recall Bob made it so additional levels could be added and the level changing is just a matter of editing the maze order. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/71508-7800-ultra-pacman-i-promise-this-is-the-last-1/#entry877208

 

-Jeff

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