Unreleased Coleco Pacman version non flicker sprite question

[65Gamerguy]

After seeing the unreleased Atari version of Pacman on the ColecoVision, which I think is a pretty good version, I noticed that the game doesn't seem to have much "flickering" when 4 or more sprites are on the same horizontal level like other games do. I admit that I never got past basic programming on my ADAM, but I do know a little about the ColecoVision's limitations so my question is to you fine people that have way more knowledge than I have about programming. How was Atari able to do this as well as they did? Has anyone studied the ROM to see how they pulled it off as well as they did?

 

Many Thanks!

[opcode]

After seeing the unreleased Atari version of Pacman on the ColecoVision, which I think is a pretty good version, I noticed that the game doesn't seem to have much "flickering" when 4 or more sprites are on the same horizontal level like other games do. I admit that I never got past basic programming on my ADAM, but I do know a little about the ColecoVision's limitations so my question is to you fine people that have way more knowledge than I have about programming. How was Atari able to do this as well as they did? Has anyone studied the ROM to see how they pulled it off as well as they did?

 

Many Thanks!

 

The eyes are backgroung graphics. So you can have all 4 ghosts in the same scanline and no flickering.

[65Gamerguy]

After seeing the unreleased Atari version of Pacman on the ColecoVision, which I think is a pretty good version, I noticed that the game doesn't seem to have much "flickering" when 4 or more sprites are on the same horizontal level like other games do. I admit that I never got past basic programming on my ADAM, but I do know a little about the ColecoVision's limitations so my question is to you fine people that have way more knowledge than I have about programming. How was Atari able to do this as well as they did? Has anyone studied the ROM to see how they pulled it off as well as they did?

 

Many Thanks!

 

The eyes are backgroung graphics. So you can have all 4 ghosts in the same scanline and no flickering.

 

Thanks for that information. As good is this game is, it is in no way near as good as your opcode version, it pales in comparison.

[opcode]

After seeing the unreleased Atari version of Pacman on the ColecoVision, which I think is a pretty good version, I noticed that the game doesn't seem to have much "flickering" when 4 or more sprites are on the same horizontal level like other games do. I admit that I never got past basic programming on my ADAM, but I do know a little about the ColecoVision's limitations so my question is to you fine people that have way more knowledge than I have about programming. How was Atari able to do this as well as they did? Has anyone studied the ROM to see how they pulled it off as well as they did?

 

Many Thanks!

 

The eyes are backgroung graphics. So you can have all 4 ghosts in the same scanline and no flickering.

 

Thanks for that information. As good is this game is, it is in no way near as good as your opcode version, it pales in comparison.

 

...background, not "backgroung".

Atari's Pac-Man was designed so that the space inside the maze didn't use the same "tiles" as the maze walls. That is why they could use background graphics for the eyes.

For my port I used the arcade maze and scaled everything down 3/4, so I didn't have the same conditions. On the other hand I could better replicate the arcade gameplay. I am doing the same thing with Moon Cresta, scaled down 3/4 on the y axis.

[newcoleco]

I had to play very long and be lucky to see sprites flickering with Atarisoft version of PacMan for the ColecoVision, putting all the ghost and PacMan pretty much on the same horizontal line. And now, I can't remember if there was sprites flickering or just disappearing of a ghost body for a split second.