Thomas Jentzsch Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 7 hours ago, Karl G said: Pretty cool! It definitely looks like it could be mass chaos! Yup. 7 hours ago, Karl G said: I was wondering how score could be displayed. Perhaps each player could have an associated color, and the score displayed is the player that most recently scored a point with the score in their associated color (so maybe each Pac-Man should be the appropriate color as well). Since the players are constantly scoring, the scores would change way too fast. I think displaying only the top score in the leading player's color would work. And when the game is over, one could cycle through all 8 scores. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Muddyfunster Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 Plays really well James, great work ! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted April 14 Author Share Posted April 14 On 4/13/2024 at 8:01 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said: Here is a quick mockup which shows how a multiple players PacLine game might look like. Wow, that's incredibly impressive, great job Thomas! Looks like it could be a fun and chaotic 8 player game. - James 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted April 14 Author Share Posted April 14 On 4/13/2024 at 9:49 AM, tkarner said: So... Cartridge release? Probably not through AA since the characters aren't Atari IP, but maybe a DIY release??? No plans on a cart release at the moment for the reasons you've stated. If there's interest I may change the characters to something original! On 4/13/2024 at 10:36 AM, Dire 51 said: I've really liked what I've played so far! Thank you for playing and enjoying it! 4 hours ago, Muddyfunster said: Plays really well James, great work ! Thank you so much Lewis, it's been such a blast programming it!! More enhancements to come and then on to the next game, this time an original one! - James 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 On 4/13/2024 at 10:01 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said: Here is a quick mockup which shows how a multiple players PacLine game might look like. Wow, that is really damn cool!!! Although you'll really need to focus on keeping track of your own row if you had eight people playing! If there was something to visually discern them from one another, such as different background colors (but still dark), or maybe different color lines between each row, or something else, that would help a bit. ..Al 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 19 minutes ago, Albert said: Wow, that is really damn cool!!! For now I am only playing with the idea. I do not want to interfere with James' project. 19 minutes ago, Albert said: Although you'll really need to focus on keeping track of your own row if you had eight people playing! I thought, since players will focus on their own Pac Man, this would be sufficient. Maybe it is not, probably we could only find out when the demo would become playable. 19 minutes ago, Albert said: If there was something to visually discern them from one another, such as different background colors (but still dark), or maybe different color lines between each row, or something else, that would help a bit. Yes, that might help. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoundGammon Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 I got thinking about someone doing a hack of Activisions Grand Prix with the players car as Pac-Man and the cars as the ghosts! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bent_pin Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 3 minutes ago, SoundGammon said: I got thinking about someone doing a hack of Activisions Grand Prix with the players car as Pac-Man and the cars as the ghosts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KainXavier Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 Fantastic work, James! I look forward to checking out any future builds! Regarding a physical release, why not swap out the sprites for Pac-Man and the ghosts with your cats? You could call the game, Treat Time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 7 hours ago, KainXavier said: Fantastic work, James! I look forward to checking out any future builds! Regarding a physical release, why not swap out the sprites for Pac-Man and the ghosts with your cats? You could call the game, Treat Time. Thank you so much! I'm currently working on adding in fruit into the game. I have definitely been thinking about a sprite swap using Atari and Sprite as the protagonist/antagonists after I've finished the full game. Treat Time is a great name or possibly Treat Line to preserve some of the original name of the game. - James 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 It is not forbidden to release a ROM for free which contains IP, right? So you should be prepared for two versions, a PacLine ROM and a "Catwalk" cart binary. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 8 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: It is not forbidden to release a ROM for free which contains IP, right? So you should be prepared for two versions, a PacLine ROM and a "Catwalk" cart binary. I will continue to update the Pac-Line 2600 binary, no worries about that. 🙂 - James 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapitanClassic Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 @ZeroPage Homebrew, when you start to implement flicker management for the fruits, you might want to decide to flicker the power pellet (if that helps with drawing fruit/ghost (eyes)) While in pico-8, the power pellet doesn’t flash, the arcade version of Pac-man it does. With it being on for approximately every 2 out of 3 frames, and off for 1/3 of the time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 2 minutes ago, CapitanClassic said: @ZeroPage Homebrew, when you start to implement flicker management for the fruits, you might want to decide to flicker the power pellet (if that helps with drawing fruit/ghost (eyes)) While in pico-8, the power pellet doesn’t flash, the arcade version of Pac-man it does. With it being on for approximately every 2 out of 3 frames, and off for 1/3 of the time. Interesting idea! Currently I'm using hardware collision with the playfield (pellets) to determine if you've eaten a dot, then I check via software if that dot is a power pellet. I'd have to change to software collision with the pellets to implement that, as right now Pac-Man couldn't eat the power pellet while it's not visible. I'll think about that as I move forward with the game, great suggestion! - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 8 minutes ago, CapitanClassic said: @ZeroPage Homebrew, when you start to implement flicker management for the fruits, you might want to decide to flicker the power pellet (if that helps with drawing fruit/ghost (eyes)) The power pellet uses the ball combined with playfield. So it cannot be used for drawing complex sprites. Regarding flicker: At first glance it is obvious to flicker ghosts and bonuses. But maybe it is better to flicker ghosts and player. Because the player will never move over white playfield pellets. These make flicker very obvious. For ghosts this is fine, but not for fruits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 8 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: Regarding flicker: At first glance it is obvious to flicker ghosts and bonuses. But maybe it is better to flicker ghosts and player. Because the player will never move over white playfield pellets. These make flicker very obvious. For ghosts this is fine, but not for fruits. Interesting, I was going to flicker the Ghosts and Bonuses, but for a different reason. I thought that the player's attention would be focused on Pac-Man most of the time making flickering the Ghost and Bonus a better choice to minimize the visual impact. Playing it just now I found most of my attention is on where the Ghost is! Thinking about it even further, really the only choice is to flicker the Ghost and Bonus as I'm currently using hardware collision. Using Hardware Collision: Flicker Pac-Man/Ghost = No death from Ghost as they're never on the screen at the same time. Flicker Pac-Man/Bonus = No collecting Bonus as they're never on the screen at the same time. Flicker Ghost/Bonus = No problem, Ghost and Bonus don't care about each other For my next game I will be using all software collision to avoid having no options like this. For this game I can still make it work without changing to software collision.... for now. - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 3 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: For my next game I will be using all software collision to avoid having no options like this. For this game I can still make it work without changing to software collision.... for now. Since you already use software collision for the power pellet, why not for the other collisions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalton Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 (edited) On 3/29/2024 at 10:16 PM, ZeroPage Homebrew said: This is my first homebrew game and what better system to make it for than my favourite, the Atari 2600! My game is a port of Pac-Line for the Pico-8 by Sizescape, which in turn is a port of Paku Paku by Kenta Cho. When I ran across the game on my Pico-8 handheld I knew that this was the perfect game to game for my first homebrew, it's both fun and perfectly suited for the system. Congratulations! I've just put your Pac-Line on my Anbernic handheld and tried it. It is a simple game, yet very fun and addictive. It was a wise choice you made to port it to Atari 2600. I like such small, simple games that fits the platform well. I'm looking forward for the strawberries So, am I already in TOP 5? Edited April 19 by Dalton typo 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted April 19 Author Share Posted April 19 15 minutes ago, Dalton said: Congratulations! I've just put your Pac-Line on my Anbernic handheld and tried it. It is a simple game, yet very fun and addictive. It was a wise choice you made to port it to Atari 2600. I like such small, simple games that fits the platform well. I'm looking forward for the strawberries So, am I already in TOP 5? Nice and thank you so much! Looking great on the handheld and congrats on making it into the top 5 scores, I've added your name to the list. Strawberries are coming... - James 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrChickenz Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 (edited) What an awesome game! Perfect for the 2600! I can’t stop playing. Works great on my Flashback X. Thanks James! Edited April 21 by MrChickenz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 39 minutes ago, MrChickenz said: What an awesome game! Perfect for the 2600! I can’t stop playing. Works great on my Flashback X. Thanks James! You're so welcome! I'm really glad that so many people are enjoying it and it works on so many systems. 🙂 - James 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 (edited) This game is cute! And somehow it seems to be smoother - can't put my finger on why exactly. Cheap Death? - a ghost suddenly appears on the same side you were on Mr. James @ZeroPage Homebrew, Apologies if this question was asked before. Do you think that sometimes the gameplay leads to "cheap deaths" where a ghost suddenly appears on the same side that your Pac-Man is on? (Or is this hazard intentional and I just need to adapt my gameplay accordingly?) Sometimes in Jawbreaker for Atari 2600, I would experience similar deaths (that I thought IMO were cheap) where smiley faces would enter the maze from the same side as my jaws and honestly I thought it was not fair and a flaw in the game design. What do you think about it in the case of Pac-Line? But regardless, I like your game very much so far and am happy to see that it is progressing! Edited April 25 by Living Room Arcade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted April 24 Author Share Posted April 24 42 minutes ago, Living Room Arcade said: Cheap Death? - a ghost suddenly appears on the same side you were on Mr. James @ZeroPage Homebrew, do you think that sometimes the gameplay leads to "cheap deaths" where a ghost suddenly appears on the same side that your Pac-Man is on? Or is this hazard intentional and I just need to adapt my gameplay accordingly? Sometimes in Jawbreaker for Atari 2600, I would experience similar deaths (that I thought IMO were cheap) when smiley faces would enter the maze from the same side as my jaws and honestly I thought it was not fair and a flaw in the game design. What do you think about it in the case of Pac-Line? The ghost should be visible at all times on the screen, either chasing you, as a scared ghost or as eaten eyes, and shouldn't appear out of nowhere. Based on your screen shot I can only guess you ate a power pellet, ate the ghost, the ghost went to the right hand side to regenerate and as you approached the right hand side it regenerated and killed you. The ghost always heads to the far side from where it was eaten, giving Pac-Man the maximum amount of time to get away. It's generally not a good idea to head towards the eyes without a power pellet nearby as the ghost will be back to full power again as soon as it hits the end of the maze. If that's not what happened, let me know exactly what happened so I can investigate. If you're able to record a video of your gameplay, even better. - James 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 (edited) 21 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: Based on your screen shot I can only guess you ate a power pellet, ate the ghost, the ghost went to the right hand side to regenerate and as you approached the right hand side it regenerated and killed you. Yes, that's exactly what happened! 21 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: The ghost always heads to the far side from where it was eaten, giving Pac-Man the maximum amount of time to get away. It's generally not a good idea to head towards the eyes without a power pellet nearby as the ghost will be back to full power again as soon as it hits the end of the maze. Okay, I get it now. I didn't understand the idea that after eating the ghost, it's dangerous to follow the eyes to the other side of the screen because when they get there, the ghost will return to full power again. Thank you! Edited April 25 by Living Room Arcade 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+LS650 Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 Thanks for posting this. I just downloaded it and spent some time playing it with Javatari. Great fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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