New pacman for atari 2600

[BalloonFighter]

This has to be the best port of Pac-Man on the 2600 that I have ever played! Can't wait to see updates on this game, your improved Mario Bros, or any other future projects. Keep up the awesome work!

 

P.S. Why didn't you join AtariAge sooner?!

[BrianC]

That is not the version sold in the AtariAge Store. <sad>

 

This hack of Pac-Man 4k is probably the closest to the one in the store, but I think it still has some slight differences.

 

Nice job with this new Pac-Man. I especially like the sound.

Edited September 1, 2014 by BrianC

[littleman jack]

Amazing! I hope this one gets to cartridge one day. Especially a day when I receive a paycheck.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I bet newbie programmers who want to know how to make games would love this page about Pac-Man:

 

home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html

Very interesting read, thanks.

 

I wonder which of those rules and details are implemented in the various Pac-Man versions we know. Maybe the developers can give us some insight?

 

E.g. I would suggest increasing the pellet value to ~15, so that the total scores better match the arcade game.

[DemonoidTentacle]

Flippin' incredible!

[iesposta]

This hack of Pac-Man 4k is probably the closest to the one in the store, but I think it still has some slight differences.

 

Nice job with this new Pac-Man. I especially like the sound.

You are correct! Thank you. For the record, this version of the older PacMan4K is the closest to the AtariAge Store release, albeit with slight differences, but the look and speed is the best match.

 

Still hard to believe all the improved graphic, sound, and movement details of this new program, and it is still within 4K.

[davidbrit2]

Holy hell, I gotta try this out on the Harmony this morning. From what I've seen in the video, the ghost AI looks extremely accurate to the arcade version, to the point where the programmer has probably already cribbed material like Pac-Man Dossier. Sweet.

 

EDIT: Yeah, this is astonishingly good. I think this might be the second most accurate Pac-Man on any Atari system, behind only Pac-Man Collection for 7800. I don't think I've seen any other 2600 Pac-Man hacks/homebrews that replicate the arcade AI so closely, even though there are a lot of really good versions of Pac-Man for 2600.

Edited September 1, 2014 by davidbrit2

[Antiriad]

And everyone is asking now ... WHEN the cartridge will be available in the store?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

As always, the answer is easy: When everything is done.

[Omegamatrix]

Just played this again, and the sounds are fantastic! DINTAR816 if you are reading this then I'm wondering what tools/methods you used to create the sound.

 

 

Good music programmers and tools are the most valuable commodity for our community. That is something we can always use more of.

[tep392]

Very interesting read, thanks.

 

I wonder which of those rules and details are implemented in the various Pac-Man versions we know. Maybe the developers can give us some insight?

 

 

This was my reference while working on the 400/800 Pac-man update. I followed all the AI rules, pac/ghost speeds and point values.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Maybe you can tell me, where exactly the home corners are located?

[tep392]

Maybe you can tell me, where exactly the home corners are located?

Are you asking me? I just approximated their location from the map on the Dossier page. I remember having to adjust their position little to get the ghost patterns correct. Maybe because of the different aspect ratio of my version.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Maybe my English is not good enough for getting all the details. Are the home tiles really at the corners of the maze (outside), or are they within the theoretical circular home path's of the ghosts. Where did you put them?

[tep392]

Mine are outside the maze. Close to as shown in the Dossier.

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

So it was not my English but my eyes. I missed those tiles.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

E.g. I would suggest increasing the pellet value to ~15, so that the total scores better match the arcade game.

No. There are less pellets onscreen due to the limitations of the VCS, but all scoring, rules, timings, and AI needs to be as close to arcade accurate as possible. Scoring is one of the few things that is solidly set in stone; altering it would be a misnomer.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

But then the score balance is different to the original. There are much less pellets to collect, so you gain much less points from them in total. But the bonus for the fruits and catching the ghost stays the same.

[DINTAR816]

Looks great on emulator! Any plan for a PAL version? PAL-60 would do.

Later I'll make a PAL version.

 

 

Hell of an endorsement, right there!

 

Kind of inspires you to want to delve more into the 2600 now, doesn't it? C'mon Bob, admit it...

 

BTW: just played this on real hardware... didn't try too hard, but scored 22340. Difficulty ramps up quite nicely! Didn't spend too much time on it, but one thing I noticed out of place was that the power pellets are blue and there's a dot right under it. Big deal. Colors, animation, sounds and everything else seem spot on!

 

Oh, ate all the dots and saved one power pellet for last. The pellet sound stuck through the blinking maze intermission, all the way up until the maze comes back and Pac-Man sets off...

This bug already fixed it, but it was two more bytes in ROM.

 

Looks excellent! If you need any help making more room then you should take TJ up on his offer. He's the best at that.

 

 

I recently discovered a new clear routine that only takes 8 bytes:

;A  = 0
;X  = 0
;Y  = random
;SP = $FF
;All TIA registers and RIOT ram cleared

    cld
.loopClear:
    ldx    #$0A          ; ASL opcode = $0A
    inx
    txs
    pha
    bne    .loopClear+1  ; jump between operator and operand to do ASL

If you take out your SEI (not needed for the 2600), and use this routine then that saves you 4 bytes already.

That routine is interesting, I will implement it in the next update, but I'll keep the "SEI" if in the end I need a byte, I will remove it.

 

ROM update (fixed power pill sound bug):

 

pacman2600_4k_20140831.bin

[DINTAR816]

http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html

 

That is precisely the document that I used to make this game.

 

Just played this again, and the sounds are fantastic! DINTAR816 if you are reading this then I'm wondering what tools/methods you used to create the sound.

 

 

Good music programmers and tools are the most valuable commodity for our community. That is something we can always use more of.

This is the main tool I use:

sndatar3.bin

I made this rom with gasega68k to make sounds in 2600 more easily, using audacity to "see" the sounds and try to replicate them.

Here are some examples, maybe you recognize these sounds:

[+Random Terrain]

This is the main tool I use . . .

Thanks for posting the ROM. I see how to change the numbers, but I'm not sure how to play them. How do you play what has been entered?

[DINTAR816]

Thanks for posting the ROM. I see how to change the numbers, but I'm not sure how to play them. How do you play what has been entered?

I forgot to say how to use it.

To change values​​, press and hold the button and move up or down. "SP" is the speed (0 = every frame, 1 = every 2 frames ...), to select sp, play and stop, move left or right to point them out. RESET to clear all.

[Omegamatrix]

This is the main tool I use:

sndatar3.bin

I made this rom with gasega68k to make sounds in 2600 more easily, using audacity to "see" the sounds and try to replicate them.

Here are some examples, maybe you recognize these sounds:

 

Excellent! Thank you very much. This will help when I get to the sound section of my game. I like that you laid out a long buffer.

[Andromeda Stardust]

But then the score balance is different to the original. There are much less pellets to collect, so you gain much less points from them in total. But the bonus for the fruits and catching the ghost stays the same.

The score from the pellets is a fixed amount just like in the arcade game. Making it to the [insert fruit here] stage will earn you the same amount of doe every time. True bonuses are the ghosts and fruit, for which there is a risk/reward opportunity. Eating every ghost four times will earn a net 12000 pts per stage, a far cry from the 2400 points you get from the 240 standard pellets in the arcade game plus an additional 200 for eating the power pellets. The potential to increase your score is there, or just avoid the ghosts and play as many screens as you can without achieving a high score.

 

Changing the default score for eating a pellet from 10 to 15 points will not change the fact that the primary opportunity to gain points is by consuming fruit + ghosts. In fact less pellets in the maze only increases the relative score potential of eating fruit and ghosts. I see no reason why pellets should be worth more than 10 points, which would only serve to devalue other point bonuses.

 

Nobody is trying to compare scores across multiple Pacman ports.

Edited September 1, 2014 by stardust4ever

[+Random Terrain]

I forgot to say how to use it.

To change values​​, press and hold the button and move up or down. "SP" is the speed (0 = every frame, 1 = every 2 frames ...), to select sp, play and stop, move left or right to point them out. RESET to clear all.

Thanks. I couldn't see the highlighting because it was blue on blue, but now that I know to look closer, I can kind of see it.