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Baby Pac-Man


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My copy came today.  I like the game, but it got loose in the box.  It rattles horribly and I think it might be causing issues.  I tried 4 different controllers and with each there are times where the game registers the main button is bring pressed.  This means the game won’t start till I hit select on the console.  Once I get into the pinball field  the flippers stick up and cannot be moved at all. At one point the game wouldn’t register movement  inputs from my original 7800 and I assumed it was broken.  Then I tried a few other games and all was well.   Maybe it is my system, but I doubt it since all the issues are related to this very well made game. 

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21 hours ago, MatthewSplatoon said:

My copy came today.  I like the game, but it got loose in the box.  It rattles horribly and I think it might be causing issues.  I tried 4 different controllers and with each there are times where the game registers the main button is bring pressed.  This means the game won’t start till I hit select on the console.  Once I get into the pinball field  the flippers stick up and cannot be moved at all. At one point the game wouldn’t register movement  inputs from my original 7800 and I assumed it was broken.  Then I tried a few other games and all was well.   Maybe it is my system, but I doubt it since all the issues are related to this very well made game. 

I'd be glad to exchange this copy for another..

 

 ..Al

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11 minutes ago, CommodoreDecker said:

 

Wow!  That's an impressive quantity!  They are going to *love* this game. It's a genuine challenge but addictive!

And now it’s a 7800 exclusive!? 

 

There couldn’t be a better time to own a 7800. The devs are coming up with some amazing games.

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Just got my copy today. It's absolutely fantastic, and really accurate (i.e. completely brutal). It plays great with my converted NES controller. The pinball table is a bit tough to get the shot angles with the straight overhead view, but that'll come with practice.

 

Don't let the difficulty scare you off, because the addition of "classic" AI and adjustable starting lives make it a lot more accessible than the arcade cabinet.

 

After a couple of plays, I got 238,500 on default settings. Going to need some more work...

 

EDIT: 501,660 on defaults. That's probably the best I'll hit today. :) I like how the game remembers which side the hoop ball is on in between games, just like you'd see on the arcade machine.

Edited by davidbrit2
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Very cool video and project. :thumbsup:

 

I'm not a fan of the proline sticks either, but when he's demonstrating one, he looks as awkward as O.J. struggling to try on a glove. :lolblue:

 

[edit - Everybody should click the "watch on youtube" icon and give this guy a sub and like. Support his content, and Bob's game.] 

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@PacManPlus

 

Got my copy a week and half ago.

Haven’t had time to play it thoroughly yet, but very promising first-impressions.

 

Totally wonderful pinball-section, and stylish maze-sections.

 

Very hard though!

 

But I just want to congratulate you on another professionally-executed game-release!

 

As there are no other pinball-games for the 7800, this game really is a must for the 7800 game-library!

 

Again, congrats on yet another high-quality-game!

 

(Loved PacMan Collection!)

 

Edited by Giles N
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CONGRATULATIONS to Baby Pac-Man for being nominated in the 2019 Atari Homebrew Awards!

 

Be sure to vote for your favourite homebrew games of 2019 with the links below and watch the awards LIVE on February 1, 2020!

 

Awards Show: February 1, 2020 @ 12:00PM PT | 3PM ET | 8PM GMT LIVE on the ZeroPage Homebrew Twitch Channel!

 

Atari Homebrew Awards Categories (VOTE IN ALL!!):

118953748_2019AtariHomebrewAwardsLaurel-Nominated-BestHomebrewAtari7800.jpg.282d22ea22f418035d13e3a9400d0dc7.jpg

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On 1/4/2020 at 2:40 PM, sixersfan105 said:

This game is fantastic! Got in a play session tonight. Can't say I'm surprised, as Bob sets the bar so high...

 

One thing that has absolutely nothing to do with the game itself, but did anyone else notice how the box art on the side/spine goes the wrong way? It's written bottom-up instead of top-down like every other original game and homebrew for the 7800 and many other systems. Doh!

Haven't played the game yet -- just got it through customs recently.  Came to the thread just for this.  Not a big deal.  Just have a lot of collector pride in my homebrew section and this sticks out on the shelf :P 

 

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7 hours ago, durkada said:

Haven't played the game yet -- just got it through customs recently.  Came to the thread just for this.  Not a big deal.  Just have a lot of collector pride in my homebrew section and this sticks out on the shelf :P 

 

Haha right? The game is fantastic; you'll enjoy it. Don't believe the box issue has been acknowledged as an error but it surely is. Oh well...

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10 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

Haha right? The game is fantastic; you'll enjoy it. Don't believe the box issue has been acknowledged as an error but it surely is. Oh well...

Forgive my intrusion. But "Box issue???"

 

I got one of Bob's customs from the original run prior to the store release, so I haven't seen the box up close.

 

@durkata: play your games. Don't be a "shelf queen" ?

Edited by Kosmic Stardust
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As the system's ever expanding library continues to grow, there are going to be differences respecting the spine title of boxes.  It happened (intentional or not) on contemporary systems of the time with a library of ~800 games, and it was bound to happen with the 7800 too:

 

BPCM_BOX_01-EDIT.PNG.96a61944db648c35531c47afceb850af.PNG

 

NES_BOXES_01-EDIT.thumb.png.1fa583fc1b260fbddaf818956b00065e.png

 

Hope everyone's OCD can cope; mine is doing fine with it. ?

 

New "drinking-game" type...every time the title orientation of the Baby Pac-Man box bothers you, a session of Baby Pac-Man is played. ?

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Since a few people complained about the game being hard, here are a few tips and tricks how to achieve higher scores...

- As in most pinball games, the angle the ball takes depends on where it is on the flipper at the moment you push it - and I actually took care to replicate this behavior. That is, for instance, if you hit the left flipper when the ball is on its tip, the ball will go roughly in a diagonal, while if you hit it while the ball is in the middle of the bat, it will go more straight up. It's not always accurate and also depends on the speed of the ball, but you can somewhat steer where the ball is going by timing your pushes.

- Sometimes it's better not to shoot the ball straight up, but rather to let it bounce towards the upper part of the flipper by holding up the flipper as the ball hits it, so it will only be deflected and bounce off. This gives you a bit of control in preparation for the real shot.

- You should try to get good at hitting the green holes because they are very beneficial for the player. Each time you hit one of them, either the fruits or tunnel lights will advance, and for 6 advances you get an extra arrow, with 6 arrows giving you an extra baby. When I played Baby Pac-Man on Virtual PinMAME, I actually had a technique down where, after coming back from a hole, I would hit the ball just as it hit the flipper, and it would go straight to the other hole! This technique doesn't work on the 7800 port though because the ball doesn't always come out of the holes in the exact same direction, but I put in a bit of randomness in there. ;-)

- Another advantage of the green holes is that if you have power pellets earned, hitting the green hole will give you a turn at the maze, giving you some extra points before you return to the pinball field. But if there's a chute open, you should take care of returning to the pinball field before the ghosts can eat you! This works especially well if there are still lots of dots to eat in the lower part because then you just get a few of them and then head down again, and next time you return, the monsters will start out from their pen again, so you have some more seconds for collecting dots before they catch up to you again.

- If you've earned some power pellets, and you have some practice in hitting the green holes, it might be good not to use all the power pellets immediately, but to retain at least one of them as you go down the chute (if one is still open) so that each hit in a green hole will send you to the maze again. In addition to that, left-over power pellets can be multiplied by means of the "even up" rollover when the yellow lights above them are lit.

- In the maze part itself, it's always a good idea (like, in fact, it is in many similar maze games) to lead around the ghosts in circles. That is, keep to the edge of the maze or some fast tracks and go in a direction where none of the ghosts can get you. They will try to find you where you are, so then you try to find an opening to another part of the maze and then lead them there. With a bit of strategy, this way you can reach left-over stretches of dots without ghosts getting in your way.

- If a ghost is on your heels, take a winding path around many corners (without hitting any other ghosts of course!) because you can corner faster than the ghosts can, so with each corner taken, the distance between you and the following ghost will increase by a few pixels.

- Another general Pac-Man tip is to use the tunnels if the ghosts crowd together on the left or right and head towards you. Some of the ghosts won't follow you through the tunnels, and those who do slow down, so basically you appear on the other side with some air to breathe.

- If you use the tunnels and have gained a higher tunnel speed, it may be good to hold the controller up or down as soon as you've entered the tunnel so that Baby will continue in this direction after you reach the exit.

- If you've reached the maze with some power pellets in it by means of the green holes, it might be better not to clear the maze just yet, but rather return to the pinball part to get some more points (and possibly power pellets) there. If you lose the ball there, you'll still end up in the maze one more time before you lose that life, and then you've got another chance of finishing the level and starting a new one with the chutes open again!

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6 hours ago, Kosmic Stardust said:

Forgive my intrusion. But "Box issue???"

 

I got one of Bob's customs from the original run prior to the store release, so I haven't seen the box up close.

 

@durkata: play your games. Don't be a "shelf queen" ?

LOL. 

Someone wants to rumble!  I actually host a monthly retro-gaming night at my local bar, and these things all come out for people to enjoy.  /smack!

 

But, yeah, I'm a bit of a shelf queen.  Everything looks soooo good, except for Baby Pac-Man!  I'm trying to think of it like one of those buggered US stamps that are mis-printed and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.   I'll start using that as work when I mistake -- the more mistakes I make, the more revenue we make.

 

Genius.

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

Haha right? The game is fantastic; you'll enjoy it. Don't believe the box issue has been acknowledged as an error but it surely is. Oh well...

Looking forward to it next weekend!  Too busy for the nonce.

 

I left my collection in the states, and initially came here wondering if maybe, just maybe, there was a weird standard with 7800 games that would make the spine reversed.  That seems like a tail-end Atari move :P

 

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