Andromeda Stardust Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 I just think it's so exciting that homebrew developers are giving us the definitive version we always dreamed of but never had back in the day. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/229152-new-pacman-for-atari-2600/ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfriendly Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 I was lucky enough to see the 2600 Pac-Man at a friends house and dodged that bullet. I was 12 and can clearly remember thinking "this is it"? I don't know anything about how far you can stretch 4K when writing code for a game on the 2600. I have read post in this thread that appear to defend how awful this game looks because of the 2600's limitations. Ms. Pac-Man came out later had more RAM etc. and I don't buy it. When did Missle Command come out? How much memory did it have? I know it's older than Pac-Man and its a hell of lot closer to the arcade than that piece of shit could ever hope to be. The corporate minions had their claws in Atari, didn't give a shit about the final product and rushed this POS out! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 (edited) Maybe the original game can be made better with Googly Eyes? There was a thread on NA last year that inspired me to make these: Atari Carts Googly Eyes Real.JPG Edited May 5, 2015 by stardust4ever 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfriendly Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Maybe the original game can be made better with Googly Eyes? There was a thread on NA last year that inspired me to make these:Atari Carts Googly Eyes Real.JPG LOL! Good stuff. The ET game looks the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10phoneman Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 The game was interesting I like the noise it made when you ate the energy pill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 (edited) LOL! Good stuff. The ET game looks the best. Yeah, LOL! I actually permanently glued those down but it's not like they were pristine collector's items. They still have plenty of clearance in my 4-switch and 7800. Pacman is a bit close though. ET and Pacman are just ass. Space Invaders Atari is a decent game but IMO way to many variations and the colors are horrid. Space Investigators I love for it's clean arcadey feel even if it's got zero game variations. And of course the many stellar hacked and homebrew Pacman variants. Edited May 5, 2015 by stardust4ever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 The game was interesting I like the noise it made when you ate the energy pill I swear I was watching an old rerun episode of Aqua teen the other night and the Mooninites were up to their usual antics but the whole episode was filled with sampled sound effects from Atari Pacman and other classic VCS games. I also loved how Beat 'Em ripped the cheesy death soundbyte so now whenever I play Pacman for VCS I get a mental image of "dude with giant wang" whenever Pacman dies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfriendly Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 You are right. Over the years the 2600 versions of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong have been used for sound bites on many TV shows and commercials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris++ Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 It seems as if the sounds of VCS Pac-Man in television programs have gotten more time than the six weeks of game development. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 That was my favorite commercial in this year's Super Bowl! I want this... Wow if that was real us old dudes would be in shape. I would run the hell outa that maze every night.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris++ Posted July 3, 2015 Share Posted July 3, 2015 Some of you might have already seen this, but I hadn't until yesterday, and it's worth sharing here. It's a great panel discussion from the PRGE, in which Rob Zdybel and Bob Smith talk about Tod Frye "begging" for 8 KB, but (as we know) not ultimately getting it from the cheap swine who were in charge at the time. It's a bit sad, but also extremely funny in parts. The relevant discussion starts at 20:00, but the whole thing's worth listening to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmqzybUe9m4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunpei Posted July 3, 2015 Share Posted July 3, 2015 Wow interesting looking game - what system is that? Cassette Vision. Japan only. Funny (given the name) that it looks like glitchy tape, but actually uses cartridges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usotsuki Posted July 3, 2015 Share Posted July 3, 2015 From what I've seen, Japanese people tend to call cartridges "cassettes" for some reason. Prolly just wasei eigo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 From what I've seen, Japanese people tend to call cartridges "cassettes" for some reason. Prolly just wasei eigo. Cassette = cartridge. Some Famicom carts even have "Cassette" molded into the plastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+darryl1970 Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Like the Pontiac Aztek, 2600 Pac Man checked all the technical boxes (Maze, Ghost, Power Pill, Bonus item, 2 player) - it failed the most important which was to release a pleasing game that looked/played close to the arcade game. But it got ALL of those wrong. lol. It wasn't much of a maze, Pac-Man eats dots and ENERGIZERS, not "Power Pills". He is chased by "MONSTERS", not ghosts (according to the arcade instruction bezels). Bonus items were fruits, not multi-vitamins. I still did enjoy it after the initial disappointment, but it never substituted for the real thing, even though I'd sit and play Pac-Man Fever on the record player over and over to get the right sound effects. Still didn't work. lol. I will always be bitter that Atari made the term "Ghost" and "Power Pellets" a household name, because it lost the true arcade feel. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+darryl1970 Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Actually it doesn't. It's a single player game. Tod had to his as a two player game in 4K, which means using even more resources for keeping track of two distinct mazes, etc. That's again what also lead to the constraints in the finished game. All the Pac-Man 4K home brews are also single player. It's not just the 4K it's what he had to accomplish in that 4K. And every other programmer at Atari we interviewed had immense respect for Tod and what he was able to accomplish. Props to Tod. He did an amazing job with the tools and limitations he was given. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+darryl1970 Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 I have the utmost respect for all of the Atari programmers. This was Tod's first VCS game and is very impressive from a technical standpoint. But the bottom line is that customers don't really care about how hard it was to program the game or the difficulties the 2600 hardware imposed. They were expecting the the same pac-man game they had been playing in the arcades, and that is not what they got. The game was similar but not quite the same. Monsters became ghosts, fruit bonuses became a single vitamin pill and the maze is not really a maze. Had it been called "munch man" it would have been scrutinized less I think, but the public was expecting pac man and that is where the public was disappointed. Thank you for recognizing how marketing ALSO screwed up the game! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+darryl1970 Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 I call "BS" on the 'ghost' crap. Every instruction card in every Pac-Man game back in 1980 called them 'Monsters': Ms_Pacman_Instruction_Card.jpg The second cut-scene has the monster tearing it's kilt/dress/whatever and showing a leg underneath. The third cut-scene has it sewn - *and has the actual monster (without the kilt/dress/whatever) running back to the right* Atari / Tod didn't make them flicker because he thought they were ghosts, they called them ghosts because they had to flicker the sprites. (Which is completely understandable, but let's call a spade a spade). Period. I had this same discussion in the new Pac-Man forum months ago. I agree. I am more saddened by how this game (probably more due to marketing) changed the Pac-Man history and story. Coincidentally, I was playing Pac-Mania last night (not a favorite, but trying the NES version). It actually used the term "Monsters" on screen. It said, "Beware Jumping Monsters". As gaming fans,we need to preserve the history! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+darryl1970 Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 And yet, there's that inconvenient "Monsters" designation on the U.S. arcade cabinet. It's on the Japanese cabinets also. So, it is the TRUE history. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+darryl1970 Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 I wonder why the GLITCH happens when the joystick is wiggled in the tunnel? Everybody is familiar with that, right? Pac-Man will float down the middle of the screen. Probably because the sprite can smoothly go off the screen up or down without immediately popping into the other side of the screen. So he didn't have to use any tricks and waste code space on it. Move the sprite in this example program off the sides in all directions and you'll see what I mean: randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#find_border_coordinates Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+darryl1970 Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Wandered upon this thread. I see I was late to the party, but it was fun reading. In the end, it's bittersweet. I was disappointed at the time, but now I love it for what it is, because it reminds me of when the arcade was something that only Rick Shroeder had in his house. I remember thinking the arcade would never come home, unless I won the lottery. Good memories! I am probably better off in life and appreciate a lot more, since I couldn't have everything I wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Wandered upon this thread. I see I was late to the party, but it was fun reading. In the end, it's bittersweet. I was disappointed at the time, but now I love it for what it is, because it reminds me of when the arcade was something that only Rick Shroeder had in his house. I remember thinking the arcade would never come home, unless I won the lottery. Good memories! I am probably better off in life and appreciate a lot more, since I couldn't have everything I wanted. Funny you bring this up. I've got my own Bartop minicade. My Raspberry Pi has 2271 arcade games on it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+darryl1970 Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Funny you bring this up. I've got my own Bartop minicade. My Raspberry Pi has 2271 arcade games on it! Yes. Those are pretty sweet. I was at the CCAG (Classic Console and Game) show in Cleveland last Saturday. There was a booth where somebody make Raspberry Pi units in different designs. There were table top standard and table top cocktails. They used colored Plexi and wood. Very nice. Seemed pretty snappy too. I wasn't able to hear them. Emulators are pretty great. Even those Jakk's Pacific Plug-And-Plays would have BLOWN MY MIND back in 84! Back then I never thought I'd see that at home, let alone what I see on the XboxOne and PS4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 (edited) DP. Edited July 28, 2015 by stardust4ever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 (edited) Emulators are pretty great. Even those Jakk's Pacific Plug-And-Plays would have BLOWN MY MIND back in 84! Back then I never thought I'd see that at home, let alone what I see on the XboxOne and PS4. ^^Funny how times change! There was a booth where somebody make Raspberry Pi units in different designs. There were table top standard and table top cocktails. They used colored Plexi and wood. Very nice. Seemed pretty snappy too. I wasn't able to hear them. They must have been demoing the Porta Pi kits from http://retrobuiltgames.com That's where I got mine... Edited July 28, 2015 by stardust4ever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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