Ms. Pac-man Nights

[YarsRevengeFan]

I have an idea for a hack that I would like to see come to light, since I posses no programming abilites.

 

How about Ms. Pac-Man for the 2600, in which the outline of the maze has neon-like colors and flashes like a neon sign at random intervals. When the maze is not lit up, only the ghost's eyes are visible as they make thier way around (kind of like in Haunted House), but when the maze is lit up, then the ghosts appear as normal. But even better would be to have music playing in the background, such as the club hit "What is Love" by Haddaway, "I'm coming out" by Pink, in the same music format looped over and over again like the Combat Rock hack. Perhaps even vary the dot colors randomly.

 

Same original game play rules would apply.

 

Could this be done? I pose this challenege to the "hackers" out there!

[Nukey Shay]

I can see the seisures happening even now...

 

I suggest you look for a hack of Adventure that features gradients...you'll see what I mean

[YarsRevengeFan]

I can see the seisures happening even now...

 

[Nukey Shay]

Found it...

http://atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p...p=210238#210238

 

 

Anyway, if you are talking something a little less hard on the eyes like a disappearing maze ala'PacmanPlus or something...I'll see what I can do

Ms.Pac is pretty messy inside IMO

[Nukey Shay]

Just a quick note...

I haven't forgotten about this. I'm currently labelling the disassembly (about halfway thru the display kernal section...all the GFX and data in the first bank).

The current mazes are stored as 14x3 sections of data...with the dot data OR'd into the playfield data very much like a different game does halfway through displaying them. So it should be possible to make a much more detailed screen for the Pac26 or PacPlus hacks...since each of those only use 1 maze. Rather than having a group of 14x3 bytes of data, you could have 28x3, or 56x3. That would cost no memory at all. Though the maze "map" that dictates how you can move within that maze would definately need some additional space as well (if you don't lay out the walls to follow the same method).

Though you could save a lot of space by removing the bitmapped logos and compacting the digit GFX (which I've already done before), you would still need to edit the subroutines to take page crossovers into account IF you wanted higher displays possible for MsPac. I dunno if it's possible to do those just yet...since timing is critical in the display kernal. And there doesn't appear to be very many wasted cycles in there (though some of the routines are done pretty sloppy and could be cleaned up).

 

 

A more detailed Pac26 on the way?

[Nukey Shay]

Just trimmed out nearly a page of memory from the 1st bank by compacting to digit GFX and removing the logos. It should be possible to add in the missing fruit...as well as adding seperate GFX for the monsters (so they'll look where they are headed). I also fixed the high-pitched whine heard during the music and FX by using 4 of those bytes here:

 

       sta    AUDF0                      ;3

      beq    NoSound1                   ;2 added

      lda    #$0F                       ;2

NoSound1:

      sta    AUDV0                      ;3

      beq    NoSound2                   ;2 added

      lda    #$0D                       ;2

NoSound2:

      sta    AUDC0                      ;3

      rts                               ;6

LDBF2:

As you can see, the program was ALWAYS sending a value to the volume and distortion registers (even when no frequency was being played). The added instructions will skip over those, and clear the sound

[neotokeo2001]

Just trimmed out nearly a page of memory.

As you can see, the program was ALWAYS sending a value to the volume and distortion registers (even when no frequency was being played).  The added instructions will skip over those, and clear the sound

 

I always wonderred about that.

[Nukey Shay]

This is odd...$DFB8 to $DFF1 doesn't seem to be used by anything

 

Ghost in the machine?

 

 

Address $F0E9 (second bank) is the background color. The sprites seem to show up better with a black background. Wonder what the story was with that?? Damn Atari...always changing things

[ATARI TROLL]

The black does look better! LOL this one sounds fun..especially if you get the "what is love" midi to work with this! Can't stop now

 

[Saikyo]

Black background definately brings more memories of the original arcade

version back to life

 

Looks like this ghost in the machine lets you see the ghosts more clearly

[ATARI TROLL]

That they do!

[Nukey Shay]

It would be address 10E9 in HackOmatic Clear out all bits there to make the background dark in all mazes. $D714 (HOM address 0714) is the score color...change to white by using 4 blanks+4 pixels ($0F)

 

 

BTW I found that the two music data tables can be combined into one...

 

LF47D:
;original routine...
;       sta    AUDF0       ;3 save to channel 0
;       lda    LF4DA,y     ;4 get harmony value
;       sta    AUDF1       ;3 and save to channel 1


;replacement...

      tay                ;2 save the table value to Y

      and    #$0F        ;2 Clear off the top nybble

      asl                ;2 make the tone lower

      ora    #$01        ;2 ...and add in the low bit

      sta    AUDF0       ;3 save to channel 0

      tya                ;2 fetch the table value from Y

      lsr                ;2 shift downward 3 bits...

      lsr                ;2 .

      lsr                ;2 .

      ora    #$01        ;2 tack on the low bit

      sta    AUDF1       ;3 and save to channel 1

 

Now you can combine both data tables ($LF485, $LF4DA) into one. Shift all bits in $LF485 to the right 1 bit, and put the data found at $LF4DA into the top nybble. That eliminates table $LF4DA

 

76 bytes saved

[ATARI TROLL]

@ Nukey

 

Cheers

[NE146]

Address $F0E9 (second bank) is the background color.  The sprites seem to show up better with a black background.  Wonder what the story was with that??  Damn Atari...always changing things

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13124

 

 

 

Incidentally, I was messing around with the mazes too a long time ago.. trying to make it more arcade like. I think i only got the first one though. What do you think of this?

[Nukey Shay]

Whoops! I didn't know that it was already done (why wasn't that submitted as an "official" hack? The black background rules!)

 

And your maze looks pretty close I'm still trying to work out if the maze sections can be multiplied...I've got parts of both .asm files broken up and edited...trimming out a good portion of memory in each half. With just slightly more detail, an arcade-perfect maze pattern can be made (though stretched horizontally instead of vertically).

 

Also, it appears that high-pitched whine still appears upon the player's death...just not during the music. I still need to track that one down

 

Where are the maze "rules" kept? I found the 4 mazes themselves in the 1st bank...but the internal map will also need to be changed. Which bits in that map signify upward/downward/left/right movements?

[NE146]

It's been so long there's no way I can even start to remember. I do know however that I used Rob's Hacks notes to point me in the right direction. They're obviously just personal notes.. but if you can decipher them even partially I remember it had lots of info about msPac. It's in the pac26 download on his page and is the TXT file within the zip.

 

http://www.kudla.org/raindog/pac26.html

[Nukey Shay]

Thx. BTW I already have the routine located where the fruit score is added to the players'...and where an energizer is eaten. By finding the correct ram location in the energizer routine, it will be possible to add that to the fruit routine (so you can get bluetime when eating fruit - PacPlus)

[ATARI TROLL]

Did AA have a HACKS section back in 02. OMFG NE146 That background rocks! Do you plan to follow up on this (Asking for Stan). Cheers and thanks for posting.