8k Atari Pac-Man

[Lord Avallon]

It´s the definitive version of Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 in my opinion, excellent work!

[littleman jack]

It´s the definitive version of Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 in my opinion, excellent work!

 

I agree. This Nukey Shay, Pac-Man 8k rocks.

[Brian O]

This is great. I wish this is the Pac-Man I got to play at home as a 9 year old kid. If I ever get my hands on a Delorian, a Flux Capacitor, and some Plutonium, I know exactly where I'm headin'...

 

-B

[Keatah]

I neither liked nor disliked 2600 Pac-Man at first. I was only slightly disappointed when I played it, if even that. Only slightly. I never really played the arcade version much, it was far too difficult for me, too fast. And I could only maybe make it to level 2 or 3 if I was lucky and having a good day. The overly difficult arcade iteration, made me dislike the Pac-Man franchise. In fact many arcade games were too difficult and I felt ripped off when I was done at the end of a $20 gaming session. Thank god for the children's variations in some game cartridges.

 

I was not upset at all, because I *knew* the 2600 didn't have this mongo circuit board with hundreds of chips to do awesome graphics. The VCS had to make do with 5 chips, and that's it! So to me, the home version is what it was.

 

As time wore on, the hours turned into days and the days into weeks. I began to actively dis-like it. Not for any one concrete reason or anything. Just all the negative press generated by magazines really put the hurt on.

 

Today, in retrospect it is what it is. It is also important to consider that since the days when 2600 Pac-Man was released; VCS programming has advanced by leaps and bounds. Just look at the homebrews we have going - Boulderdash, BallBlazer(wip) and StarCastle(wip), among tens of others! Look at all the fine new games out.

 

Besides we know the 2600 can do an acceptable version of Pac-Man anyways thanks to Nukey and the homebrew scene. Not to mention the fantastic tools we have today, the PC as a development platform, the Stella emulator for testing. And what about the other supporting tools used in writing and managing code?

 

WOW! What a great time to be a part of the hobby eh??

[Tangentg]

This is really good! A nice fun-to-play version of Pacman that stays true to the original 2600 version without being a complete reworking. I'm assuming the 4 ghosts have their individual personality, which is my biggest complaint of the original 2600 Pacman. Great to see the fruits and intermissions!

 

I mistakened the 8K for 8II in the title screen.

 

Though, there's a bug that allows you to stop moving if you're moving say, horizontally, and there's a vertical path in front of you. I expected to hold down to move down at the next junction, but it stops me at the vertical path because you'd be able to move down there.

 

Let me illustrate:

 

I was at A so I held the down button, intending to move down at C, but instead the sprite faced down at B and stopped moving because of the vertical path.

 

There's also a time when I died and the death animation/sound played twice.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Tangentg

[Nukey Shay]

The first is a problem in the original game. I didn't touch any movement code (or "personality" either), other than allowing chasing and fleeing ghosts to share the same frame. I never saw the second...details?

[Tangentg]

The second is as I said. After you died, the ghosts all stop in place and Pacman's death animation and sound plays. After the animation and sound are over, they restarted again. It didn't happen another time though so it's probably a rare bug.

 

Edit: it also seems that the ghosts reverse their direction above the ghost den from time to time...

Edited August 24, 2016 by Tangentg

[Moo]

Is there a reason this isn't on the store? I saw a video on this on youtube and it seems to be the definitive version of 2600 pacman. It has arcade sounds and everything.

[+SpiceWare]

the definitive version of 2600 pacman. It has arcade sounds and everything.

 

This hack is impressive. Have you seen this homebrew version?

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/229152-new-pacman-for-atari-2600/

[+TrekMD]

To me, this is the definitive Atari 2600 Pac-Man version because the changes make it closer to the arcade while still being Atari's Pac-Man.

[Tangentg]

The second is as I said. After you died, the ghosts all stop in place and Pacman's death animation and sound plays. After the animation and sound are over, they restarted again. It didn't happen another time though so it's probably a rare bug.

 

Edit: it also seems that the ghosts reverse their direction above the ghost den from time to time...

I still think the ghost den thing is a serious bug that should be addressed.

[bradhig1]

Will this be released on a cartridge? I have the 4k version.

[slaanesh]

Been playing this and a whole lot of other home-brew. What a great version of Pac-man! One of the most fun from any home version - very faithful to the arcade version too.

Thanks, great work on this one!