Idea for homebrew title that 7800-homebrew dev. may consider to produce: Pac Land 1984

[Atarifever]

This is my favorite thread this year. From wouldn't-it-be-cool-concept to sprite art, a possible engine discussion, and some music in two pages.  The 7800 community is pretty great.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Atarifever

[Synthpopalooza]

Well, I have been working on POKEY experiments anyway ... and i like the game.  Why not?  And this, my friends, is how you sell an idea:  By doing the hard work.  Designing the graphics ... it is looking good.

[TIX]

In 16x16 it is a pretty tight fit, but still recognizable 

we probably have to loose the black outline altogether..

 

[Synthpopalooza]

24x16 looks better

[Defender_2600]

I think a good compromise is 16 horizontal x 32 vertical. So, the same height as the arcade version.

[Synthpopalooza]

Also:  Do we design him with or without the hat?  I think Japanese version has the hat.

[Synthpopalooza]

At 16x32 It will look better than the NES version that way, too.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Synthpopalooza

[+SmittyB]

If I were to do a platformer like this I'd use a table of widths and x offsets indexed by the frame of animation to allow for a size of whatever*32.

Out of all the graphics, the main character should look the best and it's always good to make use of the 7800 strengths when it comes to throwing large objects around.

 

Using cart RAM for the graphics would simplify the parallax scrolling. It would almost be trivial to add extra layers of parallax over the arcade version, but I guess that would sort of defeat the purpose of a port.

[TIX]

At 16x32 he is pretty much perfect 

and we have 3 pixels to spare at the top to fit the hat (not a fan myself) !

 

[Defender_2600]

Very nice! ?

[TIX]

and a variant Japan version !

 

 

[Giles N]

1 hour ago, TIX said:

At 16x32 he is pretty much perfect 

and we have 3 pixels to spare at the top to fit the hat (not a fan myself) !

 

Absolutely gorgeous!

Isn´t the 7800 known for handling tons of sprites?

In the game (from videos) it would seem mostly 5 or 7 enemies usually on-screen-at-a-time.

[Trebor]

5 hours ago, Synthpopalooza said:

Also:  Do we design him with or without the hat?  I think Japanese version has the hat.

The hat is present in the US release of the game including both Bally and Bally-Midway versions.

 

It's not just for aesthetics, there's a helmet upgrade too.  Unless there's some workaround to account for that upgrade (Pac-Man is invulnerable from taking hits to the top of his head), accounting for space for the hat in the Pac-Man player graphic is necessary.

 

Besides many know he wears a hat... 

?

 

P.S. If leveraging Bentley, room for hat wearing is already accounted for in the game.

 

[Synthpopalooza]

That's because Midway wanted Pac Man to look like the US cartoon version.

[Defender_2600]

In the arcade version, Pac-Man's hat is a overlapped sprite 8 pixels high. When Pac-Man jumps, the hat bounces and it flies away when Pac-Man falls.

 

Bentley is 8 x 32 pixels (hat included), 160B mode, 2 frames (running and walking). Instead, Pac-Man should be 16 x 32 pixels + hat 8 x 8 pixels (therefore with a further palette), 160A mode, 8 frames (running) + 8 frames (walking). So, the game engine should be updated.

 

 

[Synthpopalooza]

I'll try working up some more music.  May have some alternate ideas for the bass, plus want to try some of the other bits of music.

 

Also, on that .asm for the music ... need a way to filter out those zero frequencies on the $2x channel.  I know @RevEng shared a method with me, but when I tried implementing it I think it messed up the timing of the tune.

[TIX]

If needs to be and since we are talking for a already available engine,

I believe he is still looking good in 8 pixel width.. if we have the height to pull it of !

And in 8x32 there is plenty of room for the hat..   I'll give it a shot later

 

 

 

 

 

 

[swapd0]

IMO the hat should be a different sprite.

 

[Trebor]

9 hours ago, Synthpopalooza said:

That's because Midway wanted Pac Man to look like the US cartoon version.

Actually, Namco requested Yoshihiro Kishimoto to create the game based on the show after seeing the success of the cartoon.  The hat is in the Namco original as well. ??

[Lost Dragon]

Looking at the European Home Computer ports..numerous versions looked nice enough,  but fell down in critical areas. 

 

 

The Amstrad CPC version was far too slow..

 

 

The ST version ruined by poor collision detection,  awful scrolling and floaty jumping..Amiga version did little to fix anything but the scrolling.

 

C64 version was a little limited colours wise but set the benchmark for how an 8 bit version of the game should play.

 

No reason the 7800 couldn't match or surpass the C64 version if similar resources devoted to it I guess..

[Synthpopalooza]

One other modification needed:

 

After the fairy visit, pac man heads home, replaying the level but scrolling in reverse...

 

In addition, the forest parallax scenes include elements which obscure the game sprites.

[Giles N]

On 10/1/2019 at 7:12 PM, TIX said:

In 16x16 it is a pretty tight fit, but still recognizable 

we probably have to loose the black outline altogether..

 

I think it would be better to lose the white-of-the-eyes, than than the black outline (if 16x16 is opted for), as the black outline really contributes to the cartoon-style.

[Synthpopalooza]

This is what we are up against:  

 

 

I don't think we got any worries ?

[Synthpopalooza]

Also to me, 16x16 is a non-starter.  He looks like a pancake.  ?  24 or 32 high is best.

[TIX]

He is rocking a fancy hat now

Unfortunately he also grow to a whooping 36 pixels.. maybe the hat being a different sprite is a better option ?

I added some secondary motion to the hat because why not ?

I gave the hat a wider brim to be more suave and also turned the feather yellow to be visible against the white background !

 

 

Edited October 2, 2019 by TIX