+SpiceWare Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 It's excellent with the color changed. I think the darker background made my camera's exposure longer. On the original pacman one of the ghosts has nearly faded from view(2 rows directly above pacman). In the hacked version none have faded and one even has a double exposure. I also noticed that the color difference in the original is very noticable in the photo(compare the rightmost ghost with the leftmost ghost). I put the full size images here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 FYI Apart from some slight blurriness due to lack of tripod, I get that excellent picture using the CyberTech S-Video Card with my old Amiga's 1084S monitor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARI TROLL Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Colors look great Nukey! Its no Hangley man but much more appealing. Its amazing how a simple color change can lift the boredom out of graphics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 I was a bit worried about the hues being too dark. The maze is at the lowest brightness, and the monsters are at the 4th brightness level (8 available). In the original game, they are set to the 7th level...which is why the color is so faint. They could be bumped up a bit, I guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Now could Tod have done variable flicker in 4K? It's been proven by Ebivision that it could have been done. I'd say yes he could have but after getting the disappointing no from management I have to assume Tod took on the attitude of, "Why should I bust my butt on this when management doesn't care?" It could have been done - within reason. I have doubts that it would have been anything as complex as Pesco/Ebipac's...and it might have been a stretch to get Ms.Pac's to fit within 4k. Since both of those games came out later, I guess it's a moot point. He said he needed 8k, I'm inclined to believe him. Only Tod knows why he wanted the 8K. Maybe he wanted to do a real conversion with more bells and whistles. Yup...total conversion is possible. If a lowly hacker like me could pull off a reasonable copy in 4k and then something even closer in 8k, no reason that he couldn't. Jury's still out on a few things tho (like monster eyes that look where they are going)...but since I'm no genius, I'd have to say that it is possible It is hard to believe but this story comes from Tod (via Stella @ 20) and Rob Zdybel (via CGE2K2 keynote speech). Atari had planned to make millions off this title and they could reduce their cost by doing the cart in 4K BTW, I don't think there were any 8K games from Atari (except Asteroids and that's questionable) before Pac-man. Asteroids is pretty much confirmed that it was in development once Pac-Man was looking for a programmer. I'm guessing that it had already been decided to use 8k chips for that game (which was also an arcade hit...one that Atari owned complete rights to)...and so it became impossible to funnel resources for another. IIRC, it was mentioned that they only had 1 workstation at that time that was capable of testing 8k games...and since Asteroids was already underway, Pac-Man would have to take a back seat to go that route (which was NOT an option...it was already announced). The orange maze color and blue background are really the only questionable things (which undoubtedly influenced the decision to use brighter sprites - in which the colors are not so apparent). I guess we'll never know where that came from. But since an early concept exists with a black background, I can only guess that it did indeed come from elsewhere. And since the monsters had no individual "personalities", distinguishable colors were not all that important anyway regarding gameplay. The prospect of "sprucing up" this game is beginning to look more attractive. Perhaps I'll take a stab at it one of these days. All it really needs is a more faithful maze to make it "passable" IMO. Anything else would be icing. Perhaps turn the maze on it's side a la "Snoggle"? That would seem to require the least amount of effort (the tunnel and monster door are already placed correctly). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingray Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 I'd love to get a cart of that Pac-Man color hack. It really looks great. Any plans to release one? -S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcprs1 Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Check out this commerical. You can clearly see the colors of the ghost being different. http://www.tvspil.dk/cgi-bin/commercial/st..._1_name_Atari_1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solarnaomi Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 i still dont see any different colors like the pictures here show. maybe what kind of tv being used matters. i dont remember different colors when i was a kid but i will take your word for it you guys are experts i guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 The hack is on page 2...I altered the colors to better illustrate that -yes- Atari's Pac-Man sets different colors for each of the monsters. The game code itself remains unchanged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Room 34 Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 i still dont see any different colors like the pictures here show. maybe what kind of tv being used matters. i dont remember different colors when i was a kid but i will take your word for it you guys are experts i guess I don't think most TVs have the precise color response to show the slight difference in the colors, especially if you have the brightness and/or contrast cranked way up. But if you look at the game in an emulator (or even on a 2600 run through a good monitor instead of a regular TV) you can see the difference, but it is very slight. Also, remember human perception isn't absolute. Just because you don't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. Seen the atoms in your own body lately? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 I don't think most TVs have the precise color response to show the slight difference in the colors, especially if you have the brightness and/or contrast cranked way up. Which is what most TVs ahve set as the standards. Even a GOOD TV comes with the settings way out of line for what it should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breakpack Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 Nukey's color adjustment looks great.Period! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WildBillTX Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 The colors look great - now could someone simplfy the maze to resemble something closer to the original arcade game or the Pac Man Arcade hack? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted July 31, 2004 Share Posted July 31, 2004 By expanding the game to 8k, should be relatively easy to add. I'm thinking of laying out the maze on it's side...less work, and it will be more faithful to the original's dimensions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcprs1 Posted August 2, 2004 Share Posted August 2, 2004 Wow, the color changes make a world of difference. Just amazing how something that simple makes the game that much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 Now could Tod have done variable flicker in 4K? It's been proven by Ebivision that it could have been done. I'd say yes he could have but after getting the disappointing no from management I have to assume Tod took on the attitude of, "Why should I bust my butt on this when management doesn't care?" Only Tod knows why he wanted the 8K. Maybe he wanted to do a real conversion with more bells and whistles. Is this available anywhere? Either as a ROM or for sale? I cannot seem to find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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