Pac-Man is the worst game!

[Animan]

Personally, I still never understood why the colors were way off. Rumors are it was because of Atari's policy to leave black backgrounds for space games ONLY, but that seems slightly ridiculous. Oh, and the addition of an eye on Pac-Man was kinda weird, too.

 

Oh, and I liked Bugs. It grows on you, a lot. Sorcerer was OK, too. Now, Sssnake is probably the worst game, hands down. I once had the crazy idea of setting the Twin Galaxies world record on it, and I literally could not sit through it without getting a headache. I almost felt ill just playing it. When a game makes you literally feel sick from playing it for about 20 minutes without anaglyph glasses, you're in trouble.

[Zoyx]

Google it"nazis and crystal meth"Hitler and his scientists invented other potent forms of it.It's not something they'll teach you in history class

This man speaks the truth! It is all documented in the Wolfenstein games.

[Big_Mo]

Okay, so what's the best HACK of PACMAN (not Ms.) that sticks to the 4K size limit and makes the game look and/or play better?

[4Ks]

Ebivision made a 4K Pac-Man game from scratch that looked, played, and sounded great.

[Lord Thag]

Okay, so what's the best HACK of PACMAN

 

Nukey's Pacman4k. It's a hack of the actual 2600 Pacman, only with proper maze, ghosts, fruit etc. It shows what could have been done with time and effort.

Edited September 4, 2010 by Lord Thag

[Nukey Shay]

Pacman8k, actually

It shows what could have been done with time and effort.

I'm afraid that nobody knows what that would have been with any certianty. Based on what is known, it would lean heavily toward what you see in Ms. Pac-Man. That would make PMA the game that "would have been", in that case. It was my intention to keep the 8k hack easily identifiable as much as the original game is...so that preceded the idea of altering too much of it (which would have been pointless anyway, because later games had implemented such ideas better/more efficiently already).

[Nukey Shay]

Ebivision made a 4K Pac-Man game from scratch that looked, played, and sounded great.

Not very faithfully, tho. It differed from the arcade game almost as much as Atari's port did...it just featured a proper maze and fruit shapes (and most notably, sprite multiplexing to skirt around the flicker issue). For the most-faithful translation of the game, that would be Debro's Pacman4k homebrew.

[NE146]

On that note I would nominate Nukeys hack of said Ebivision Pacman game into Hangly Man as one of the all-time great 2600 Pacs

[nightglider1]

Oh let me say for the record I was 100% fully acquainted and loved the arcade game as a child when 2600 Pacman came out.

 

That being said I didn't "hate" the VCS version. I simply accepted the fact it was different and chalked it up to the 2600's limitations which were becoming more and more apparent as arcade games got nicer through the years. I played 2600 Pacman a lot and I even won a local contest with it.

 

I'm glad I read the whole thread before replying. This spells out my feelings exactly. In fact, I too won a local contest for high score on 2600 Pac-Man.

[nightglider1]

No. Once again, don't let modern myth cloud the facts. Both Pac-Man and ET were wildly popular at the time they were made (the millions of both out in the wild today is evidence of that...opened software is non-returnable).

BITD, many stores had much more lax return policies. Saying "I didn't like it" was a perfectly valid reason for returning a cartridge. In an effort to cut down on this sort of return, many stores would have a 2600 hooked up in the electronics department and an open copy of each game so that a customer could try before they bought.

 

My personal recollection is that "opened software is not returnable" policies began to spring up in the late days of NES.

[nightglider1]

sounded more to me like PUKSQUAAT

I always heard "Puck-WHAT". On the topic of sounds, the "jumping a barrel" sound in 2600 Donkey Kong always sounded (to me) like "Peelapotato".

[Nukey Shay]

Interesting you should say that...we used to say aloud - "puck-one, puck-two"...etc when getting them

 

PUKSQUAAT! was getting captured in Maze Craze.

[Big_Mo]

Okay...so where in Nukey's 4K PacMan? I'd love to see it.

[Cliff Friedel]

sounded more to me like PUKSQUAAT

I always heard "Puck-WHAT". On the topic of sounds, the "jumping a barrel" sound in 2600 Donkey Kong always sounded (to me) like "Peelapotato".

 

That Donkey Kong reference reminds me of something funny about the Atari. When I play Atari Donkey Kong, my wife sings a song when Mario runs that goes "Hickey bum poo tits rear end suck my hiney hole all day long" as long as I make him run. To this day, if I put that game on anywhere within earshot of her, she will subconsciously start and stop over and over. It is like a messed up version of the Manchurian Candidate. I just wonder what bits of info she forgot to keep that in her long term memory.

[sandmountainslim]

Okay...so where in Nukey's 4K PacMan? I'd love to see it.

 

Nukey did 8K Pac Man which is a major revision of the Atari version.

 

4K Pac Man was written by Dennis Debro and is an entirely new version programmed from scratch.

 

Wp

[Nukey Shay]

Latest versions:

 

Pacman8k (by me)

 

 

Pacman4k (by Dennis Debro)

Edited September 5, 2010 by Nukey Shay

[Big_Mo]

Latest versions:

 

Pacman8k (by me)

 

 

Pacman4k (by Dennis Debro)

Danke, Nukey! I checked them out!

 

I'm curious, from your working with the code, about how the ghost logic works. I'm very familiar with how the ghosts work in arcade PAC-MAN, but I was wondering if they have distinct targeting routines.

Edited September 5, 2010 by Big_Mo

[sandmountainslim]

Latest versions:

 

Pacman8k (by me)

 

 

Pacman4k (by Dennis Debro)

 

 

I know that Dennis was trying to prove that a very good Pac could be made with 4k and he had a success with that.....BUT if his game were 8k to solve the flicker issues it would be the PERFECT Pac Man port for the VCS.

 

Wp