+atari2600land Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 I did some more work on the ghost moving and I think it's fair now. I'm skipping 4 frames. Any less and the sound gets out of sync with eating. pacline8.rom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 1 minute ago, atari2600land said: I did some more work on the ghost moving and I think it's fair now. I'm skipping 4 frames. Any less and the sound gets out of sync with eating. pacline8.rom 9.06 kB · 1 download Although I think 4 frames may be a bit of an overkill, it does look and feel alright to me. It is up to you -- it is your game, so make sure it feels right to you. :) (The original Pac-Man skips only 1 pixel but probably goes faster and the dots are closer together; Christmas Carol skips 2 but goes as fast as Pac-Man -- about 45 pps on the first level.) -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 Had to share this amazing score I just got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 1 minute ago, atari2600land said: Had to share this amazing score I just got. Wow! To be honest, I had not even noticed that it kept score!!! I was just playing it over and over ... 😃 -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 Should I move the score somewhere else on the screen to make it more visible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 5 minutes ago, atari2600land said: Should I move the score somewhere else on the screen to make it more visible? Hmm ... I don't know. Perhaps on the top-right, moving everything down one row? Here are my scores: Getting better! (But obviously not as good as you.) -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 Here is some feedback, although I am not sure how it could be addressed: When I am coming out of a tunnel and eat the ghost which is at its edge, I automatically die. I suppose this is because the new ghost pops up right there and kills me, but I can't really see that -- it just looks like the game just went back to the title screen. This gets worse as the ghost speeds up in higher levels. I also noticed that the eyes of the ghost run to the edge of the screen towards at which the ghost was moving before being eaten. Maybe a solution could be to make the eyes always go to the same corner (after all, in Pac-Man, they always have the same target: the ghost pen). Alternatively, you could make the eyes go towards the farthest corner of the screen (check the ghost position, divide by two, and see which half of the screen he is in). That way, it always gives a chance for Pac-Man to run away while the eyes go out of the screen and the new ghost appears. What do you think? It is just an idea; I'm not sure how it would work in practice. -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 How does this look? I added an extra "0" at the end of the score to center it. I also tried changing the ghost border positions so you would have a better chance of seeing the ghosts. I wonder why we've been the only ones posting on this thread today. Perhaps we should change it to a PM instead? pacline8a.rom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 14 minutes ago, DZ-Jay said: When I am coming out of a tunnel and eat the ghost which is at its edge, I automatically die. I suppose this is because the new ghost pops up right there and kills me, but I can't really see that -- it just looks like the game just went back to the title screen. This gets worse as the ghost speeds up in higher levels. I've not played this version, yet, but is the ghost re-appearing instantly after you eat it? In the original Paku Paku version, there should be a bit of a delay for when you eat a ghost and it reappearing, so this won't happen. But this sounds similar to an issue that the original Paku Paku has: You are moving through the tunnel and the dead ghost re-manifests at the same time as you emerge from the tunnel. It is quite irksome - a cheap death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 7 minutes ago, atari2600land said: Perhaps we should change it to a PM instead? why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 Looks great! Here is my new score (getting better): I'd be happy to continue this conversation here or in a PM, as you wish. :) One question: Does Pac-Man ever go faster? It seems that the ghost goes ever so faster as you complete boards, but Pac-Man remains at the same speed. This may not be very fair, especially with a single energizer pellet. I know I had a hard time eating the last two dots on the center of the board on my last couple of levels, because I could never beat the ghost to them. Even when I tried to get the ghost as closely as possible to the edge of the screen, by the time I go around the tunnel and make it to the center, the ghost is already there. :( -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 The ghost doesn't reappear right after you eat it. The ghost's eyes move to the opposite side of the screen first and then a new ghost appears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 Pac-Man doesn't go faster. Does he in the original game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 2 minutes ago, fdr4prez said: I've not played this version, yet, but is the ghost re-appearing instantly after you eat it? No, the eyes travel to the edge of the screen on the side he was looking at last. However, if you eat him close to the edge and he is "stuck" there looking towards the tunnel, he will re-appear immediately since the travel time is insignificant. 2 minutes ago, fdr4prez said: In the original Paku Paku version, there should be a bit of a delay for when you eat a ghost and it reappearing, so this won't happen. But this sounds similar to an issue that the original Paku Paku has: You are moving through the tunnel and the dead ghost re-manifests at the same time as you emerge from the tunnel. It is quite irksome - a cheap death. Exactly. I think it is a cheap death. That's why I suggested maybe making the eyes go all the way towards the opposite end (or to the farthest corner) to give Pac-Man a small chance. -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 6 minutes ago, atari2600land said: The ghost doesn't reappear right after you eat it. The ghost's eyes move to the opposite side of the screen first and then a new ghost appears. Not really ... not to the "opposite side." The eyes seem to go right to where the ghost is looking, so when he is "stuck" at the edge, his eyes are right there and so they do not travel far at all. It makes him then re-appear almost instantaneously. 5 minutes ago, atari2600land said: Pac-Man doesn't go faster. Does he in the original game? Yes, in the original he does. He has a maximum speed (which I think is 1 pixel per frame), but he starts slower and builds up towards that. The Pac-Man Dossier has all the details: https://pacman.holenet.info/#CH2_Speed By the fifth level he is going at its fastest, but so are the ghosts. -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 OK, I changed it so it now goes to the opposite side. pacline8b.rom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 9 minutes ago, atari2600land said: OK, I changed it so it now goes to the opposite side. pacline8b.rom 9.06 kB · 1 download Looks good. One more observation: Pac-Man seems to transition off the screen on the left tunnel smoothly, but harshly on the right side. Are you "pre-scrolling" the screen? By default, you should be able to smoothly transition Pac-Man off the screen on both sides. -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 No, the screen does not scroll at all. I just need to replace a couple of numbers in this part of the code. I changed it to 168: ' pac-man going thru borders if guyx>168 then guyx=2 if guyx<2 then guyx=168 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 12 minutes ago, atari2600land said: No, the screen does not scroll at all. I just need to replace a couple of numbers in this part of the code. I changed it to 168: ' pac-man going thru borders if guyx>168 then guyx=2 if guyx<2 then guyx=168 Ah, makes sense. 👍 -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 14 Author Share Posted April 14 My math was off. That was due to me not knowing how wide the Intellivision screen is in pixels. This should work well. I tried to make a crunch sound when Pac-Man eats a ghost (there's nothing like a crunchy ghost!) But I don't know. If anyone can design a better crunch sound (or like the one I have in there now), that'd be nice. I also changed it so it skips 2 frames instead of 4. pacline9.rom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 49 minutes ago, atari2600land said: My math was off. That was due to me not knowing how wide the Intellivision screen is in pixels. This should work well. I tried to make a crunch sound when Pac-Man eats a ghost (there's nothing like a crunchy ghost!) But I don't know. If anyone can design a better crunch sound (or like the one I have in there now), that'd be nice. I also changed it so it skips 2 frames instead of 4. pacline9.rom 9.06 kB · 1 download Hmm ... sounds a bit ... er ... farty. I do not think there was any noise in the sound effects of the original Pac-Man. They were all tones modulated in different ways. No filters, just oscillators -- and I believe they were square/pulse waves. I believe that the chomp is just a stepped frequency ramp upwards, with an exponential curve -- that is, the increase in frequency gets faster as it progresses, to give it that "bwooooooaahk!" sound. I think the "crunch" is from amplitude modulation (the volume going to 0 or low level on every other frame). -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 Are you sure you are skipping 2 frames? I barely notice it. It almost makes me think that the previous 4 looked better. Almost. Maybe 3 frames would work? Anyway, here is my new high score: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 14 Author Share Posted April 14 Here it is skipping 3 frames and another attempt at a crunch sound. pacline9a.rom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 14 Author Share Posted April 14 I saw that the power dot was on the left side of the screen but not the right. I fixed that. Now the left and right most dots the power dot can be from the edge of the screen is 2. This is also due to me deciding that 16 is a power of two and 20 is not. pacline9b.rom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 41 minutes ago, atari2600land said: Here it is skipping 3 frames and another attempt at a crunch sound. pacline9a.rom 9.56 kB · 0 downloads 3 frames seems to have done the trick. I think it feels right ... what do you think? About the crunch sound? I'm debating which of the two I like less ... LOL! It still sounds a bit noisy. I do not think there should be noise in it, just tones ramping up slowly, then faster. I think alternating between high and low volume on every frame would give it the "crunch" feel. I don't know. It has been a while since I've played with sound effects myself. 29 minutes ago, atari2600land said: I saw that the power dot was on the left side of the screen but not the right. I fixed that. Now the left and right most dots the power dot can be from the edge of the screen is 2. This is also due to me deciding that 16 is a power of two and 20 is not. pacline9b.rom 9.56 kB · 1 download Looks good! Here is my latest score. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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