Pac-Man Collection with POKEY sound

[tep392]

With this new release there's some garbage at the top of all the HSC screens on real hardware.

 

Uh Oh. I was afraid something might crop up when I modified the animations. The problem is that I shifted some of the code in memory and missed updating some pointers. This is the problem when working with disassembled code instead of source code. Maybe Bob can help me out with this.

[tep392]

Any chance of making the sound of the ghosts hitting each other on the intermission closer to the arcade? At least on ProSystem it doesn't sound like the "knock" sound from the arcade.

 

Unfortunately, it sounds more like a blip than a knock. To do a "wood block" correctly, I need to control attack and decay, but that doesn't work too well with 60 Hz, interrupt driven sounds. Also, the code I'm using doesn't control volume per note. I'll see if I can tweak it a bit, but it probably won't improve much.

[tep392]

Ok, very wierd glitch in Ms. Pac-Man. I just got to the third level, and a blue ghost I chomped on keeps going through the walls at the top of the screen in a continuous horizontal pattern. The settings I used were to play Ms. Pac-Man, five lives at start, and fast mode on.

 

Thanks for the feedback. See my post above for an explanation. I'll make sure this gets fixed.

[Bakasama]

Jaybird you raise an interesting issue. The expansion module will make it easier to offer POKEY games since it will not be necessary to find chips for individual carts. I've expressed interest in the module, so the idea works for me. I think, long-term, the module is the best way to go but it does become a matter of individual choice. How far along is Curt with the expansion module? Maybe offering the module with an updated game cart like this would encourage more folks to get the module...

 

It sounds like that packing this game with expansion module might be good idea. I mean the module sounds great but without any games made for it, it might not sell as well.

[PacManPlus]

I actually agree; I like the idea of somehow packaging this with Curt's expansion module I hope Namco would be ok with that, being it's Pac-Man's 30th anniversary in 9 days. God knows I tried to ask them for permission 6 ways from Sunday when I first was working on this. Never got an answer.

 

@tep392: You have a PM

[tep392]

Packing this in with the expansion module does seem like a cool way to kick it off. I just hope the module doesn't cost and arm and a leg. Then we just need someone to produce a flash cart for it. Those CC2's are just too expensive.

 

Perry

[legeek]

Man, it continues to be an exciting time to be a 7800 fan. I imagine it would also be feasable to offer Beef Drop with Pokey support again...

[kenfused]

Man, it continues to be an exciting time to be a 7800 fan. I imagine it would also be feasable to offer Beef Drop with Pokey support again...

In theory Beef Drop VE should support XBoard (or compatible) POKEY or a POKEY at the place Ballblazer puts it.

 

--Ken

[+Mitch]

If there is one request I would make, it would be this: I've always thought the POKEY audio volume was much too low. The explanation has always been that, since POKEY was intended for background music, it shouldn't be played as loud as the sound effects from TIA. My response is that, if the background music needed to be played quieter at all, this should have been done programmatically and not as a function of the hardware, because in the latter case, it is more difficult to use POKEY for sound effects without blasting them out at maximum volume. I haven't tried Perry's version to hear for myself how he has dealt with this issue, but if it's something that can be corrected in the Expansion Module without modifying the console, I think it should be.

 

Do you have an A/V modded 7800? Both of the newer 7800 mod boards incorrectly implement Pokey sound levels. They make the Pokey sound much too soft.

 

Mitch

[tep392]

I had some help from Bob and think the HSC bug is fixed. I couldn't test it though because I don't own one. I also made a PAL version. Let me know what you think.

 

Perry

paccol_pokey_NTSC.zip

paccol_pokey_PAL.zip

[Underball]

Man, it continues to be an exciting time to be a 7800 fan. I imagine it would also be feasable to offer Beef Drop with Pokey support again...

In theory Beef Drop VE should support XBoard (or compatible) POKEY or a POKEY at the place Ballblazer puts it.

 

--Ken

So Beef Drop VE has the Pokey Sound coding, just not the chip itself?

 

So in theory, if one wanted to put an existing Beef Drop VE EPROM onto a Ballblazer board, you would get pokey sound?

[GroovyBee]

So in theory, if one wanted to put an existing Beef Drop VE EPROM onto a Ballblazer board, you would get pokey sound?

 

Yep! You should be OK. Ballblazer is only a 32K ROM so there is no bank switching to mess about with.

[Greg2600]

Okay, had to be asked, but how difficult is it to move all 7800 roms to Pokey?

[GroovyBee]

Okay, had to be asked, but how difficult is it to move all 7800 roms to Pokey?

 

It depends who is doing it, the bank switching used (if any), whether 16K of external RAM is used, the free ROM space available, whether DLIs are required and the availability of replacement sound effects and/or music.

[R.Cade]

Really nice hack. My only comment is that the Ms. Pac-Man "siren" sounds more like the sound that regular "Pac-Man" should play during the power-pellet timeout.

[tep392]

Really nice hack. My only comment is that the Ms. Pac-Man "siren" sounds more like the sound that regular "Pac-Man" should play during the power-pellet timeout.

 

Are you talking about the Pac-man "energizer" sound thats made while the monsters are blue? The Pac-man energizer and Ms. Pac-man siren sound very similar in the arcade as well.

[jaybird3rd]

Do you have an A/V modded 7800? Both of the newer 7800 mod boards incorrectly implement Pokey sound levels. They make the Pokey sound much too soft.

Now that you mention it, I think you're right ... all of my 7800 consoles have been A/V modded. When I began noticing soft POKEY sound with more than one upgrade kit, I figured it was a problem with the console, so I worked around it by tapping into the audio line directly from the cartridge port.

[+Mitch]

Do you have an A/V modded 7800? Both of the newer 7800 mod boards incorrectly implement Pokey sound levels. They make the Pokey sound much too soft.

Now that you mention it, I think you're right ... all of my 7800 consoles have been A/V modded. When I began noticing soft POKEY sound with more than one upgrade kit, I figured it was a problem with the console, so I worked around it by tapping into the audio line directly from the cartridge port.

 

It happens because the mod board makers are lazy in handling the audio. You just need to add two resistors to the circuit to fix it. I'm pretty sure I've posted the fix multiple times but if you can't find it let me know.

 

Mitch

[NightSprinter]

Ok, I'm really digging the improved sound when a ghost returns to its box after it got chomped. I'd trade a couple of games I have for the 8-bit to get a copy of this on cart. Strangely enough, when playing Ms. on the "Random Mazes" setting did anyone know that you could still find the hiding spot on the original Pac-Man level?

[Trebor]

Really nice hack. My only comment is that the Ms. Pac-Man "siren" sounds more like the sound that regular "Pac-Man" should play during the power-pellet timeout.

 

Are you talking about the Pac-man "energizer" sound thats made while the monsters are blue? The Pac-man energizer and Ms. Pac-man siren sound very similar in the arcade as well.

 

I believe R.Cade is referring to the 'regular' siren sound in Ms. Pac-Man (When the ghosts are NOT blue), is very close to the sounds you would hear from original Arcade Pac-Man after the energizer was consumed, you eat a ghost monster, and a siren/sound plays.

 

I would tend to agree. It does sound too close to that frequency and pitch. In fact, I would change the siren in this port that is being used as the 'regular' Ms. Pac-Man siren, and use it as the siren/sound for after you eat a ghost monster in this port of Pac-Man. The Ms. Pac-Man 'regular' siren should be redone altogether.

 

Just my opinion and two cents (Probably worth less).

 

-Trebor

Edited May 14, 2010 by Trebor

[HammR25]

I had some help from Bob and think the HSC bug is fixed. I couldn't test it though because I don't own one. I also made a PAL version. Let me know what you think.

 

Perry

The HSC screen is fixed. The problem Nightsprinter saw is a lot worse now though. The ghosts teleport at times now. I've seen them go through the top line like there's no collision detection there and then get stuck. Once I was actually only going against 3 ghosts because one got stuck in no ghosts' land between the top and bottom of the screen. The one stuck changed to pink.

 

Also the last ghost that comes out of the pen in Ms PacMan was going around in circles and wouldn't leave the pen until it magically teleported out like it finally spun fast enough to break through the wall or something.

 

I also got some maze artifacts in Ms Pacman as well as some weird stuff showing up in the menu screen. Extra letters and what not that show up as I move the joystick left or right to change game versions. They disappear if the game goes to attract mode and is then forced back to the menu then reappear as I move the joystick.

 

One can kind of see where I circled the things in the pictures.

Edited May 14, 2010 by HammR25

[tep392]

I had some help from Bob and think the HSC bug is fixed. I couldn't test it though because I don't own one. I also made a PAL version. Let me know what you think.

 

Perry

The HSC screen is fixed. The problem Nightsprinter saw is a lot worse now though. The ghosts teleport at times now. I've seen them go through the top line like there's no collision detection there and then get stuck. Once I was actually only going against 3 ghosts because one got stuck in no ghosts' land between the top and bottom of the screen. The one stuck changed to pink.

 

Also the last ghost that comes out of the pen in Ms PacMan was going around in circles and wouldn't leave the pen until it magically teleported out like it finally spun fast enough to break through the wall or something.

 

I also got some maze artifacts in Ms Pacman as well as some weird stuff showing up in the menu screen. Extra letters and what not that show up as I move the joystick left or right to change game versions. They disappear if the game goes to attract mode and is then forced back to the menu then reappear as I move the joystick.

 

One can kind of see where I circled the things in the pictures.

 

I noticed some goofy things going on as well. I had made a change which resulted in my VBI routine altering temp variables that are used in other area's of the code. Not a good thing to do. This should fix it. Please let me know if anything else is broken. Thanks.

 

Perry

paccol_pokey_NTSC.zip

paccol_pokey_PAL.zip

[Curt Vendel]

Hmmm...

 

Downloaded the latest, no I have no sound Prosystem 1.3 Previous versions worked fine.

 

 

 

Curt

 

I had some help from Bob and think the HSC bug is fixed. I couldn't test it though because I don't own one. I also made a PAL version. Let me know what you think.

 

Perry

The HSC screen is fixed. The problem Nightsprinter saw is a lot worse now though. The ghosts teleport at times now. I've seen them go through the top line like there's no collision detection there and then get stuck. Once I was actually only going against 3 ghosts because one got stuck in no ghosts' land between the top and bottom of the screen. The one stuck changed to pink.

 

Also the last ghost that comes out of the pen in Ms PacMan was going around in circles and wouldn't leave the pen until it magically teleported out like it finally spun fast enough to break through the wall or something.

 

I also got some maze artifacts in Ms Pacman as well as some weird stuff showing up in the menu screen. Extra letters and what not that show up as I move the joystick left or right to change game versions. They disappear if the game goes to attract mode and is then forced back to the menu then reappear as I move the joystick.

 

One can kind of see where I circled the things in the pictures.

 

I noticed some goofy things going on as well. I had made a change which resulted in my VBI routine altering temp variables that are used in other area's of the code. Not a good thing to do. This should fix it. Please let me know if anything else is broken. Thanks.

 

Perry

[tep392]

That's odd. Are you testing PAL or NTSC. I only checked the NTSC in Prosystem and it worked fine.

 

 

Hmmm...

 

Downloaded the latest, no I have no sound Prosystem 1.3 Previous versions worked fine.

 

 

 

Curt

 

I had some help from Bob and think the HSC bug is fixed. I couldn't test it though because I don't own one. I also made a PAL version. Let me know what you think.

 

Perry

The HSC screen is fixed. The problem Nightsprinter saw is a lot worse now though. The ghosts teleport at times now. I've seen them go through the top line like there's no collision detection there and then get stuck. Once I was actually only going against 3 ghosts because one got stuck in no ghosts' land between the top and bottom of the screen. The one stuck changed to pink.

 

Also the last ghost that comes out of the pen in Ms PacMan was going around in circles and wouldn't leave the pen until it magically teleported out like it finally spun fast enough to break through the wall or something.

 

I also got some maze artifacts in Ms Pacman as well as some weird stuff showing up in the menu screen. Extra letters and what not that show up as I move the joystick left or right to change game versions. They disappear if the game goes to attract mode and is then forced back to the menu then reappear as I move the joystick.

 

One can kind of see where I circled the things in the pictures.

 

I noticed some goofy things going on as well. I had made a change which resulted in my VBI routine altering temp variables that are used in other area's of the code. Not a good thing to do. This should fix it. Please let me know if anything else is broken. Thanks.

 

Perry

[Curt Vendel]

NTSC version...

 

I didn't have to set a Pokey switch or anything in the previous versions, anything different I need to change in any of the prosystem settings?

 

 

 

Curt

 

That's odd. Are you testing PAL or NTSC. I only checked the NTSC in Prosystem and it worked fine.

 

 

Hmmm...

 

Downloaded the latest, no I have no sound Prosystem 1.3 Previous versions worked fine.

 

 

 

Curt

 

I had some help from Bob and think the HSC bug is fixed. I couldn't test it though because I don't own one. I also made a PAL version. Let me know what you think.

 

Perry

The HSC screen is fixed. The problem Nightsprinter saw is a lot worse now though. The ghosts teleport at times now. I've seen them go through the top line like there's no collision detection there and then get stuck. Once I was actually only going against 3 ghosts because one got stuck in no ghosts' land between the top and bottom of the screen. The one stuck changed to pink.

 

Also the last ghost that comes out of the pen in Ms PacMan was going around in circles and wouldn't leave the pen until it magically teleported out like it finally spun fast enough to break through the wall or something.

 

I also got some maze artifacts in Ms Pacman as well as some weird stuff showing up in the menu screen. Extra letters and what not that show up as I move the joystick left or right to change game versions. They disappear if the game goes to attract mode and is then forced back to the menu then reappear as I move the joystick.

 

One can kind of see where I circled the things in the pictures.

 

I noticed some goofy things going on as well. I had made a change which resulted in my VBI routine altering temp variables that are used in other area's of the code. Not a good thing to do. This should fix it. Please let me know if anything else is broken. Thanks.

 

Perry