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Hack'em! / Hangly Man combined :)


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Using batari's memory map, I edited it to attempt to detect which type of console it's being played on. This detection might not work in emulation (in which case, it will default to the 2600 mode)...but it might work using an eprom cartridge:

pause_test.zip

BTW I had to free a bit in memory to accomplish this. This bit was robbed from the control of the fruit sprite (so the GO message will only appear briefly at the start of a new game...it's replaced by the fruit any other time). If you look closely, you can see an invisible apple when the player sprite passes over the center of the screen.

Oops...I forgot to mention:

What this is supposed to do is that the cart should detect whether it is being played on a 7800. If so, the pause routine works as a flip-flop (every other time that the switch returns to the color position, the game is paused). Otherwise, the game will be paused only when B&W is selected. This is attempting to avoid needing seperate versions for the 2600 & 7800 to keep the pause feature, as well as eliminating the need for the 2600 console to have it's switch toggled twice for each mode.

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
This is without a doubt the best Pac Man ever, even though it is not Pac Man :D

I would like to see Mr. Frye play Hack 'Em and then explain himself :twisted:

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Mr. Frye being the author of the first Atari Pac Man? If he was in a good mood, I'd think he'd give a four-word answer to the effect of "Four kay six weeks" (or whatever his time limit was).

The game plays an intermission following the strawberry, first apple, first Galaxian, and first key. There are 3 different ones (the last one repeats). Like the arcade game, the 2nd intermission is cut short...however using the pause function while this one is playing may cause it to accidentally loop. Never did fix that ;) This glitch will not affect the other intermissions.

Although this is excellent work, is there a way you could slow it down just a tad?

 

I'm playing it on a Cuttle Cart 2 on an unmodified 7800 and it's ridiculously fast. The controls are sketchy at best, and Pac-man mis-corners all the time, overshooting the intended turn.

Although this is excellent work, is there a way you could slow it down just a tad?

 

I'm playing it on a Cuttle Cart 2 on an unmodified 7800 and it's ridiculously fast. The controls are sketchy at best, and Pac-man mis-corners all the time, overshooting the intended turn.

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Sounds like you have it in "turbo" mode. I think one of the difficulty switches changes it to "normal" mode. Been a while since I played it but I think that's right.

 

Mitch

I'm playing it on a Cuttle Cart 2 on an unmodified 7800 and it's ridiculously fast. The controls are sketchy at best, and Pac-man mis-corners all the time, overshooting the intended turn.

 

Maybe your joystick isn't working properly? I have played this game more than any other since Nukey first started working on it and I don't think I've ever had control problems.

I'm playing it on a Cuttle Cart 2 on an unmodified 7800 and it's ridiculously fast. The controls are sketchy at best, and Pac-man mis-corners all the time, overshooting the intended turn.

 

Maybe your joystick isn't working properly? I have played this game more than any other since Nukey first started working on it and I don't think I've ever had control problems.

886676[/snapback]

 

Nope. Joystick is a brand new 7800 Pro-Line sitck. Works just fine. Pac-man just moves WAAAAAY too fast. Overall the game plays way too fast. Try the speed of Pac-Man in MAME, or the 7800 Pac-Man that Bob created for the Homebrew contest. That speed is much more playable. And I tried the difficulty switch thing, and yeah, it slows down Pac-Man to a more reasonable speed, but the Ghosts don't slow down at all, and are so fast you die within seconds.

 

I'm not complaining mind you, I just thought such a gorgeous looking 2600 game might benefit from slightly more user-friendly play mechanics, that's all. Not everyone agrees with the thinking that "insanely difficult gameplay=good challenging game".

Although this is excellent work, is there a way you could slow it down just a tad?

This question had come up during the original hack's development. The problem is that if the monsters are slowed down, the game becomes REALLY easy (because in B difficulty, only the red one chases you. And the chase routine itself is not so hard to figure out...they always "try" to match the vertical height first when that routine is being run. Practice a bit ;)

BTW it's absolutely possible to create "patterns" in the game :D

 

I'm playing it on a Cuttle Cart 2 on an unmodified 7800 and it's ridiculously fast. The controls are sketchy at best, and Pac-man mis-corners all the time, overshooting the intended turn.

886645[/snapback]

 

This one has me stumped :? Only a couple of WIP versions had control issues. Are you using the final version hack from the database? Other than that, I dunno what could be causing it.

Edited by Nukey Shay

Game controls:

 

Left difficulty will alter the monster "intelligence" (really, all the expert setting does is allow the other 3 monsters the ability to use the red monster's "chase" routine...by giving each monster a seperate ratio of how often to use this routine keeps them from bunching up). In B setting, the other 3 just move randomly all the time.

 

Right difficulty selects your speed. In B position, you move twice as fast and the dots don't slow you down.

 

Game select allows you to begin a new game at any of the 22 starting levels (up to the 10th key).

 

Game reset will restart the game and toggle between 4 different versions (Hack'em -> Hack'em2 -> Hanglyman -> Hanglyman2).

 

The color/B&W switch selects the pause mode...because the physical switch differs between them, seperate routines are used for the 2600 and 7800 (the boot routine attempts to detect which console is being used automatically). This boot routine will not detect properly when using emulation...in which case it will use the 2600 mode by default.

Important note: Toggling ANY switch besides this one during gameplay will reset the current game.

 

Once a game is over, the joystick trigger can be used to begin a new game at the last level reached in the previous game.

  • 2 months later...

A few tweaks:

 

I improved the invisibility of "plus"-mode monsters. There were occasional glitches that would give their position away in the earlier binary.

 

The eyes roll a bit while running to the box.

 

The fruit shapes are larger...they look closer to the arcade versions (still not quite satisfied with the strawberry, tho).

 

Either joystick can be used to move.

 

The last intermission also repeats following the 5th key. Forgot to add that (intermissions are supposed to play each time a level with more bluetime is reached).

 

Added a 50hz binary (I think). Still not too clear about what is involved between NTSC/PAL switching...but this should work AFAIK ;) The PAL60 version remains at 262 scanlines.

 

The computer here is acting a bit odd...so I'll post it later :P

Let's try this again... :P

 

A bit of space left, so I added another oddity for players to discover ;)

 

(hint) try not to collect many points on the boards, and eventually it will show up

Hack__Em.zip

Edited by Nukey Shay

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