How to Create Custom 7800 Pacman Hacks!

[PacManPlus]

I like that idea

 

How about this: being that there is no fruit, the bonus points for the first player to finish the board are what the fruit points would have been. (i.e. 100 for the first board, 200 for the second, 500 for the third and so on). We could even to the 'random' amount on the 'random fruit' boards

 

An Idea, I wonder which player the monsters target? Just the closest one? Hmm... We may have to modify the monsters' AI a bit...

Edited May 5, 2015 by PacManPlus

[Trebor]

Great ideas, Justin and Bob! Really do wish we had some gameplay footage as well.

Road trip to Argentina, anyone?

[CloakandDagger]

Speaking of monster AI... sort of... ok not really... how about a 2-player "competitive" version where player 2 controls a monster? Or maybe player 2 can even rotate through the mosters using the fire button, to control any monster (though one at a time).... just an idea

 

I like that idea

 

How about this: being that there is no fruit, the bonus points for the first player to finish the board are what the fruit points would have been. (i.e. 100 for the first board, 200 for the second, 500 for the third and so on). We could even to the 'random' amount on the 'random fruit' boards

 

An Idea, I wonder which player the monsters target? Just the closest one? Hmm... We may have to modify the monsters' AI a bit...

[PacManPlus]

Speaking of monster AI... sort of... ok not really... how about a 2-player "competitive" version where player 2 controls a monster? Or maybe player 2 can even rotate through the mosters using the fire button, to control any monster (though one at a time).... just an idea

 

 

Pac-Man Collection already does this, it's enabled by the (i beilieve) right difficulty switch.

The opposite player gets to control Blinky, in 'Chase' mode only.

Edited May 7, 2015 by PacManPlus

[Trebor]

 

Pac-Man Collection already does this, it's enabled by the (i beilieve) right difficulty switch.

The opposite player gets to control Blinky, in 'Chase' mode only.

 

Correct, sir.

 

"In a two player game, if the right difficulty switch is slid to the right, the opposite player from the one who is playing has control of blinky only in 'chase' mode ('scared' and 'scatter' mode still do the same thing)."

[CloakandDagger]

Woohoo, I had no idea. And I already have PM+ and most of your other games. Can't wait to try this out with my son! Thanks Bob, best news all day

 

 

Pac-Man Collection already does this, it's enabled by the (i beilieve) right difficulty switch.

The opposite player gets to control Blinky, in 'Chase' mode only.

[PacManPlus]

Thank you

 

One thing that Trebor's link reminded me of: That change (for controlling Blinky) was made at the same time the 'smaller dots' change was made later in the life of this title. If you have the 'wider dots' version, then you don't have the version that controls Blinky.

 

Just wanted to put that out there.

Edited May 8, 2015 by PacManPlus

[Justin De Lucia]

Me personally, I'm indifferent about having the bonus "player as Ghost" mode in Ms. Pac-Man Twin. Though since it exists already in Collection, I say we should just leave it out.

 

Also another idea regarding the competitive play: Options could be set up so the players advance to the next round after either one or both color(s) of pellets are eaten, if lives are shared (and if not, the game ends after the still alive player finishes their color pellets current board, or instead of the game ending, the defeated player returns to the game with 0 score and three lives on the next board along with the still-alive player)

 

If anyone down in South America could get to Argentina and show us some real, non-attract footage so we have the most accurate gameplay demonstration footage of Ms. Pac-Man Twin, it'd help lots (unless they got rid of the machine or relocated it).

Edited May 8, 2015 by Justin De Lucia

[Trebor]

Some interesting observational tidbits about this game...

 

It appears the "READY!" message remains on the screen - at least for the demo per the captures:

 

 

Typically, during a 'regular' (Ms.) Pac-Man demo, the words "GAME OVER" (in red) would be plastered instead of "READY!" (in yellow).

 

I'm wondering too if this game may be overlooked for something else (generic) from a distance. Notice the marquee on top. It doesn't state "Ms. Pac-Man (Twin)" but two other words. Perhaps just the title "VIDEO GAME":

 

 

Additionally, here's some alternate pics from different sources. Obviously, this game was placed in a generic/bootleg cabinet, besides the one that likely states "Video Game", here are a few from "Play Time" marquee and includes the control panel:

 

 

Unfortunately, the above leads to more questions than answers. I'm thinking some of the buttons were not used, perhaps being in a multi-cab of sorts the buttons associated with their respective joystick may do nothing at all (for this game). Also, check that middle shot with a game just starting. Funky configuration/layout of the ghost monsters, eh? Plus an interesting start point for both Ms. Pac-M(e)n. Further, there's what I'm presuming a lives counter in the lower left hand side of the screen [?]

 

Finally, here are the last three pics that I was able to locate. Notice that it does show a "Game Over" in the center in addition to the Game Over(s) on top in the last capture:

 

 

I believe it means there may be more than one version of the game, or/and a more likely scenario, it's almost "Crazy Kong"-ish in nature with behavior that is a little 'off the wall' from the original in containing some flaky or/and inconsistent effects:

 

 

From the comparison of the above - they both seem to "start" the game/board differently regarding position of Ms. Pac and the ghost monsters. Then again in the former shot, the Ms. Pac-Men aren't even eating the dots, just floating over them! Notice too, in the latter/second capture, only Player 1 has a score (and the high score) and Player 2 has 00. It provides reasonable assurance there is a one player only option.

 

Giving this some more thought...What if the buttons determined what set of dots you ate? One button allowed you to eat your color dots, and another button allowed you to eat your opponents dots. That would also explain how you would still be able to complete a level if one player was completely out of the game mid-level.

 

Might as well take in the whole control panel layout situation here, considering there are three buttons for each player perhaps it goes something like this:

 

Button 1 = Eat your color dots.

Button 2 = Eat other player's dots.

Button 3 = Ms. Pac-Man Speed-Up (But no dots consumed).

 

Last thing I noticed, and I'll stop writing this book...LOL. Energizers in the first/left capture are red. Energizers in the second/right capture are white. You see the same white/red different energizers coming from the same cab when you look at the three pic combo capture I posted earlier above; white in the center, red on the right.

 

Again, could be a flaky "Crazy Kong"-like effect; or more interestingly, if the energizers did change colors....Red for Red Ms. Pac, Green for Green Ms. Pac, white energizer for either. Perhaps eating the wrong color (when not white) results in a lost life or no effect on the ghost monsters [?]

[PacManPlus]

Hi Guys:

 

Man, it was a lot of work just to get it to this state (more than I thought)

 

Small WIP, where the 2nd player replaces the fruit, and is controlled like the 'attract mode'.

There is no 'second set' of dots yet, and the monsters only go after the human player.

 

Bob

MsPacTwn.A78

Edited May 12, 2015 by PacManPlus

[Trebor]

That is so COOL!

[PacManPlus]

Hi Guys:

 

Got a little farther with this, now there are two sets of dots, with each player eating their own.

But without someone who knows the actual gameplay (or can take video of it), I'm stuck:

 

i.e. - What happens when one person finishes their dots? does the board end? or do they wait for the other person to finish?

 

In action:

https://youtu.be/6rZW_0t5Wzs

 

 

hmmm... can't get the video to embed.

Edited May 13, 2015 by PacManPlus

[Andromeda Stardust]

In action:

https://youtu.be/6rZW_0t5Wzs

 

hmmm... can't get the video to embed.

Fixed.

 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6rZW_0t5Wzs

 

EDIT: This hack would be awsome with a Robotron controller!

Edited May 13, 2015 by stardust4ever

[Trebor]

What happens when one person finishes their dots? does the board end? or do they wait for the other person to finish?

 

Perhaps, if still going with the Competitive or Cooperative options:

 

Competitive mode = Board End

Cooperative mode = Wait for the other person to finish.

[Justin De Lucia]

Looking great so far.

 

I also find it funny that you also shifted the spawns of the Pac upwards just like the original on the first board. Me personally, I would've just kept the spawns the same as normal Ms. Pac.

 

 

Giving this some more thought...What if the buttons determined what set of dots you ate? One button allowed you to eat your color dots, and another button allowed you to eat your opponents dots. That would also explain how you would still be able to complete a level if one player was completely out of the game mid-level.

Might as well take in the whole control panel layout situation here, considering there are three buttons for each player perhaps it goes something like this:

Button 1 = Eat your color dots.

Button 2 = Eat other player's dots.

Button 3 = Ms. Pac-Man Speed-Up (But no dots consumed).

I don't think that'd be the case; usually in bootleg cabinets if there's extra buttons on the control panel, the game would usually never use them if they require less than three buttons to work.

Edited May 13, 2015 by Justin De Lucia

[Trebor]

I don't think that'd be the case; usually in bootleg cabinets if there's extra buttons on the control panel, the game would usually never use them if they require less than three buttons to work.

 

Probably true and was thinking along those lines when posting prior to possible button options:

 

"I'm thinking some of the buttons were not used, perhaps being in a multi-cab of sorts the buttons associated with their respective joystick may do nothing at all (for this game)."

 

Just wish we had more video recording(s) - especially game play related ones - and confirmed (first hand) details about this game.

[PacManPlus]

 

Perhaps, if still going with the Competitive or Cooperative options:

 

Competitive mode = Board End

Cooperative mode = Wait for the other person to finish.

 

 

Looking great so far.

 

I also find it funny that you also shifted the spawns of the Pac upwards just like the original on the first board. Me personally, I would've just kept the spawns the same as normal Ms. Pac.

 

To answer both of these, I kind of want to keep it as close to the arcade version as possible, if I have to wait a little while to get more info, I'd rather do that.

Also, I noticed that they put both Blinky and Pinky out of the monster pen at the beginning of a round. I will do that as well.

 

Someone out there knows how this is played...

Bob

[Andromeda Stardust]

PMP, you are amazing! So glad to see you back again. A shame there's no MAME dump of this so you could capture every nuance of gameplay.

 

I noticed in your video that Pacman and Ms Pacman only needed to consume half the total dots in the maze. I'm guessing both the red dots and the green dots count towards the total. I forget offhand how many dots there are but would this lead to overflow issues? IE the combined total of player 1 and player 2 dots is greater than 255 and the game uses an 8-bit counter to determine if all pellets are eaten. So you would either need an overflow bit or a separate 8-bit counter for each player. Using separate counters for each player would enable options like requiring both players to finish or just one player to finish.

 

In the case of both players need to finish, maybe the player that finished early can vanish or become invincible. Also a "mirror mode" would be cool for intense single player action, ie the player two controls mirror player one. When player one moves his/her character to the right, player two goes left, etc... This would be an extremely challenging and fresh way to play, but both players would have to reset positions upon death in order to work.

 

Also have you given thought as to the ghost AI? Do they track player one, player two, or a combination of each?

[Jaynz]

Doing a little big of Google Fu to find out more about this game... here's a bit more info, including maze changes.

http://superjustintheblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/ms-pac-man-twin-recreation.html

Okay, finding out a little bit about this. Apparently this was a home-made custom and only 3 machines are known to exist. A few things of note that I can find.

1) Monsters are at 'apple' speed and ramp up from there.
2) No fruits are in the game, at all.
3) Players can 'drop in' at any time, resetting the score, but continuing with a coin drop.

4) Music and intermissions are gone

5) Each of the three cabinets known have SLIGHT differences either in placement of the Pac Sisters , or starting monster positions.
6) Fast mode is not optional, both Pac Sisters are on full Random Fruit speed for the duration of the game.
7) Energizers are not layered like the dots. First Pac Sister to eat one clears it and gets the points.
Fives lives for each player , noted with red boxes (with what LOOKS like the life numbers in them) on the lower left, green for the lower right.

Not finding much else about this. No successful emulation anywhere, either. (Even the MAME Emu sites don't have much in their forums.) Definitely not an official product of any sort, and seems like someone selling to local bars. All three copies known are in multi-game cabs.

Edited May 14, 2015 by Jaynz

[CPUWIZ]

Doing a little big of Google Fu to find out more about this game... here's a bit more info, including maze changes.

 

http://superjustintheblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/ms-pac-man-twin-recreation.html

 

I bet Justin is going to LOL at you.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/149672-how-to-create-custom-7800-pacman-hacks/?p=3210360

[Jaynz]

 

I bet Justin is going to LOL at you.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/149672-how-to-create-custom-7800-pacman-hacks/?p=3210360

That's what I get for making sure I saved my first find before finishing my Google-Fu efforts.

 

Anyway, my own thoughts on the game.

 

Getting arcade perfect is probably going to be insanely difficult unless one of the owners gives up their chips, and that seems unlikely. So 'as close as reasonable' seems like the only option here.

 

Game can start either as player one or two depending on who hits the start button. Other player can 'drop in' at any time. (Think Pac-Man Champ)

Two-player option would, of course, start both players off simultaneously.

 

The game play cuts the introduction music, but that saddens me. How about using tune #3 from Ms Pac's intermissions, instead?

 

The game seems to just use the four mazes from Ms Pacman in the magenta color. Try throwing the original Pac-Man maze and some of the alternate mazes from the Collection in there if there's room?

 

The whole enterprise seems like an early attempt at 'Pac-Man Champ'. So game pacing should probably be kept up with that.

 

Lastly, for now, the Pac Sisters look TOO similar with only the bow and lipstick changing color. Maybe change the color/shade on P2 Pac Sister to have some contrast?

 

Oh, and because CPUWIZ DARED to mock my Google-Fu... how about throwing in Sue, Funky and Spunky at higher levels?

Edited May 14, 2015 by Jaynz

[Andromeda Stardust]

The less we know about this obsure Ms Pacman hack, the better. That just gives PacManPlus all the more creative license to bring us a multiplayer game that's orders of magnitude better than what some hack cranked out in the 80s.

 

Still though, in efforts of preservation, it needs to be dumped by someone. Those EPROMs aren't getting any younger.

[PacManPlus]

Hi Guys:

 

Been sick, so I haven't worked on this much. I do want to reiterate that I'd like to get this as close to the 'released' version as possible, so if I have to wait until we get more information, I'm fine with that. I do need to fix things in mine anyway (i.e. separate dot count for each player so the board doesn't end 'in the middle' like in the video, the death of one player doesn't stop the action, etc.).

 

Also, again I do plan on making this two-player only, as a one-player version would just be fast Ms. Pac-Man with no fruit.

 

 

Doing a little big of Google Fu to find out more about this game... here's a bit more info, including maze changes.

http://superjustintheblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/ms-pac-man-twin-recreation.html

Okay, finding out a little bit about this. Apparently this was a home-made custom and only 3 machines are known to exist. A few things of note that I can find.

1) Monsters are at 'apple' speed and ramp up from there.
2) No fruits are in the game, at all.
3) Players can 'drop in' at any time, resetting the score, but continuing with a coin drop.

4) Music and intermissions are gone

5) Each of the three cabinets known have SLIGHT differences either in placement of the Pac Sisters , or starting monster positions.
6) Fast mode is not optional, both Pac Sisters are on full Random Fruit speed for the duration of the game.
7) Energizers are not layered like the dots. First Pac Sister to eat one clears it and gets the points.
Fives lives for each player , noted with red boxes (with what LOOKS like the life numbers in them) on the lower left, green for the lower right.

Not finding much else about this. No successful emulation anywhere, either. (Even the MAME Emu sites don't have much in their forums.) Definitely not an official product of any sort, and seems like someone selling to local bars. All three copies known are in multi-game cabs.

 

Hey Jaynz - where did you find this information? I've been scowering the internet looking for any info I can find and I only came up with what we already had.

 

Thank, Guys!

Bob

[Jaynz]

MameDump 's forums and a few other MAME forums discuss this game a little bit, but not much. They're trying to convince on of the few owners to give up his rom temporarily to get it dumped, but he's (understandably) resisting and talking a bit about the game itself instead. To be fair, I guess, most of my info is from message board discussions and not the game itself, per se...

[PacManPlus]

Thanks, Jaynz:

 

I'd like to ask them a few more questions, do you have a link to where they talk about the game (i.e. where you got the above info)... I have so many questions for them (hope I don't annoy them)

 

Thanks!

Bob