Baby Pac-Man

[PacManPlus]

I've now headed for a high score, and I think I've got one... this was accomplished with the ghosts in Arcade mode, remembering pellets and 5 lives...

 

0010.png

 

I've noticed something odd by the way... I managed to earn a power pellet and then place the ball in the corresponding hole and ended up in the maze. There I used up the power pellet, but didn't make it back to the open chute. The next life started with both chutes open, and I went down one of the chutes, and the ball was gone and supposed to be served from the bottom, even though I placed it in the hole when I left the pinball part. Somehow it was magically released in between. I managed to reproduce this, and it happened with the upper left power pellet.

 

I just tried the same thing in Visual PinMAME, and there, even though you don't get a Pacscalator when you come back in this case, the ball is still in the hole and kicked out of it when you come back. I think this is a bug in your version.

 

Interesting... I actually put code in to do that, believing that once you lost the player, everything resets (including the ball). I just double-checked checked another video and sure enough, the ball stays in the saucer after a player dies.

 

...but what happens during a two player game, and player 1 dies with a ball in the saucer? Does the second player continue with a ball in the saucer instead of serving from the bottom? (This is why I forced the ball to come from the bottom after death).

Imstarryeyed, is this something you can check for us?

 

EDIT - ok, i took my code that resets the ball out, and now it acts as it should... but i'd still like to know what happens in the two player scenario above.

Edited January 26, 2019 by PacManPlus

[Kurt_Woloch]

 

Interesting... I actually put code in to do that, believing that once you lost the player, everything resets (including the ball). I just double-checked checked another video and sure enough, the ball stays in the saucer after a player dies.

 

...but what happens during a two player game, and player 1 dies with a ball in the saucer? Does the second player continue with a ball in the saucer instead of serving from the bottom? (This is why I forced the ball to come from the bottom after death).

Imstarryeyed, is this something you can check for us?

Well, I just played the Visual PinMAME version again with the two-player option (actually I'm surprised that there's a separate two-player button... normally with pinball machines you start a multiplayer game by pressing the start button the corresponding number of times)... and if one player leaves the ball in the hole and then dies, the other player, if he makes it to the pinball section, gets to play with the ball coming from the hole. Since that version is running the original ROM's, I guess that's how the arcade machine behaves as well. But maybe it's better to verify it...

[PacManPlus]

I *really* need to get the complete PinMame set up on my system (with the actual pinball table). I remember it being a PAIN the last time I tried, which was a few years ago.

[Curt Vendel]

Bob - when can I start throwing $$$ at you for a boxed version .... I watched a review video yesterday and cant wait to buy

[+Defender_2600]

Question for you guys:

 

I'd like to make the dots the right size, but unfortunately I don't have the colors to do that. Right now, they are 'partially' white because it's using the third color which will only show up if paired with another color.

 

If I make the dots the right size, they will either be the color of the outside of the maze or the inside.

How do you feel about this?

 

Here's an example:

0002.png

 

So it's either the dots elongated and partially white, or the 'correct' size and the maze (inside or outside) color.

 

What say you all?

Thanks,

Bob

 

 

Hey Bob,

an interesting alternative could be having two-color small dots, we can consider the second color simply as a shadow or reflection :

 

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2019 by Defender_2600

[AtariBrian]

For some reason I always prefer smaller dots .

[+x=usr(1536)]

For some reason I always prefer smaller dots .

 

Ditto. The smaller white dots look more correct to me, though I will put the ones that are the colour of the outer maze walls as a further-out-there second choice.

[Jinks]

Except the energy pills are candy caney.

[+Defender_2600]

Except the energy pills are candy caney.

 

 

As an alternative, for Energy Pills it is possible to use dithering :

 

 

[NostAlgae37]

 

As an alternative, for Energy Pills it is possible to use dithering :

 

 

This looks very nice indeed, but you know that I am already a fan.

[PacManPlus]

Thank you...

 

But unfortunately, that isn't going to work unless I move the dots off-center (and to me, that's much worse)

Reason being is that it only works in pairs, in columns 0 and 1, 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7. Putting the colors like that in columns 3 and 4 will cause the white to disappear because it doesn't 'line up ' with the corresponding column.

 

That's why I have the colors outside of the white dots in the current version... without them, the white would never show up.

Edited January 27, 2019 by PacManPlus

[PacManPlus]

Hey Curt - thanks man... I'm working on the manual too, so hopefully when that's done

[+Defender_2600]

Thank you...

 

But unfortunately, that isn't going to work unless I move the dots off-center (and to me, that's much worse)

Reason being is that it only works in pairs, in columns 0 and 1, 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7. Putting the colors like that in columns 3 and 4 will cause the white to disappear because it doesn't 'line up ' with the corresponding column.

 

That's why I have the colors outside of the white dots in the current version... without them, the white would never show up.

 

 

Yes, 1 pixel off-center dots. As always, many thanks for the reply, Bob.

 

Bob, if it's not asking too much, it would be possible to include these two-color small dots as an option via difficulty switches? After all, I think it's still an interesting compromise (in my humble opinion).

 

 

[PacManPlus]

Ok... changed (permanently). I tried the '1 pixel off center' thing to do white/mazecolor, and it doesn't look as bad as when I first tried it (admittedly, which was when I first started working on the game).

 

I think that's a good compromise. Thanks all.

Edited January 27, 2019 by PacManPlus

[+Defender_2600]

Ok... changed (permanently). I tried the '1 pixel off center' thing to do white/mazecolor, and it doesn't look as bad as when I first tried it (admittedly, which was when I first started working on the game).

 

I think that's a good compromise. Thanks all.

 

 

Thank *you*, Bob!!

[Andromeda Stardust]

Speaking of HIGH scores...while the BPM crew has been busy slaving over this game, I've been playing it for what seems like forever. I'd like to personally thank Bob for creating the first billion point capable game! Bonus points to you! This must be some kind of a record! For sure we now know the scoring algo completely functions. But what happens when the game rolls over at 10 Billion points? Stay tuned, you never know what Bob's cooked up!

 

RPD_BabyPac_1BillionPts.jpg

 

Holy crap! 1B points... :o

 

Did you use save states?!?! Debugger? How many days of continuous playing did it take to reach this score?

[Cobra Kai]

Holy crap! 1B points...

 

Did you use save states?!?! Debugger? How many days of continuous playing did it take to reach this score?

If the game is that easy then the difficulty needs to be ramped up big time. I'm serious. This was always the hardest Pac-Man game.

[PacManPlus]

If the game is that easy then the difficulty needs to be ramped up big time. I'm serious. This was always the hardest Pac-Man game.

 

BBA always creates 'invincible' versions of a game that he tries out. I'm fairly certain that is what he used, or modified the point values in some way. I assure you, this game is NOT easy, by any means. IMHO, it is only *slightly* easier than the arcade. The 1,000,000 point video I did was an anomaly. I usually don't get that far on here or the arcade machine. BUT, I will say that I learned a lot about what to do in both maze mode and pinball mode while making this game. So, I think I need to try my hand at the arcade version again.

Edited January 27, 2019 by PacManPlus

[Trebor]

It took Bob over twenty minutes to achieve 1,000,000 points with some outstanding playing. Let's go crazy...

 

Even if a million points could be achieved every ten minutes, a player would need to play...

100 minutes to just achieve 10 million.

1,000 minutes to achieve 100 million.

10,000 minutes for 1 billion. That's over 166 hours.

 

Doing it in half that time (A million points every 5 minutes), well over 80 hours of playtime is required.

 

To state the least, BBA's capture was not from playing (without cheats or/and hacks) from any official release by Bob.

 

...I usually don't get that far on here or the arcade machine...

 

I echo that sentiment...

 

If the game is that easy then the difficulty needs to be ramped up big time. I'm serious. This was always the hardest Pac-Man game.

 

...I have a relatively great game of Baby Pac-Man, only to tank the next time. This game keeps you on your toes; bored or easy are two words not even remotely close to ever describing this port. Challenging and exciting are a couple of appropriate and accurate words that come to mind.

 

I'm serious. This *is* the hardest Pac-Man game. It makes Jr. Pac-Man seem like Atari 2600 Ms. Pac-Man in Teddy Bear mode.

[Inky]

All I know is that I suck at this and the arcade game.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Well, there are some places where the arcade game is harder than the 7800 version. I think in the arcade versoin, you can't corner as well, the blue times are a bit shorter and some ghosts head for the tunnel to cut you off if you enter the tunnel at the other side, so if you go through a tunnel, you're more likely to meet a monster and die than on the 7800 version.

[CrazyChris]

Was tilt ever implemented?

[PacManPlus]

Ok. I changed the blue times to match *exactly* with the number of frames they are blue on the arcade, for each maze. My longest blue time length and the shortest blue time length were correct, but it only takes 4 mazes to get to the shortest time, where on mine it took 12. That has been changed. BTW, I keep the 4 flashes. They reduce it to 2. I hate that. The length of time the monsters are blue is the same, I just start the flashing earlier to get all 4 in.

 

I'm not sure I agree with you on the cornering. I can outrun the red monster on the arcade by taking a lot of corners, just like in this version, and about as fast.

 

The tunnel thing, is odd. Sometimes I can see one of them go in the other direction (to meet on the other side of the tunnel), sometimes they don't.

 

Yes, Tilt was implemented.

Edited January 27, 2019 by PacManPlus

[Baby Blue Azure]

Thanks to bro Bob for replying to Kosmic Stardust's question about 1B points. (I hope I didn't waste too much of your time on this). I think 1B is like 1,000 points cubed. Why, if I played 1,000,000 points a day it would take just under 3 years to accumulate that score. And Bob is right, the game isn't that easy. Why not? What I did was 're-wired' the game to play the maze game by itself and amped the scoring closer to infinity. I think it took about 40 minutes to amass the 1B score. Sorry to disappoint anyone about this news. But it's good to know that Bob thought of EVERYTHING when he built this game. No one can be disappointed with this game. It's really special. I never buy games but I will buy this one, just so I can have the box and manual. Bob will probably charge me $1000 for the official final release cartridge for mucking with the downrevs of his game, but I can afford it. /BBA

[Kurt_Woloch]

Hmmm... that makes me ciurious how you wired the game up this way. I mean, even if it played itself flawlessly in a proper way, I can't imagine it would be able to amass this kind of score in only 40 minutes. So there must be something going on where some high-scoring item is triggered much more often than would normally be possible...

 

Ah, wait... so you didn't only change the game to play itself, but you also changed the scoring of the items... that explains a lot.

 

Thanks to bro Bob for replying to Kosmic Stardust's question about 1B points. (I hope I didn't waste too much of your time on this). I think 1B is like 1,000 points cubed. Why, if I played 1,000,000 points a day it would take just under 3 years to accumulate that score. And Bob is right, the game isn't that easy. Why not? What I did was 're-wired' the game to play the maze game by itself and amped the scoring closer to infinity. I think it took about 40 minutes to amass the 1B score. Sorry to disappoint anyone about this news. But it's good to know that Bob thought of EVERYTHING when he built this game. No one can be disappointed with this game. It's really special. I never buy games but I will buy this one, just so I can have the box and manual. Bob will probably charge me $1000 for the official final release cartridge for mucking with the downrevs of his game, but I can afford it. /BBA

Edited January 29, 2019 by Kurt_Woloch