Um, a little hacking help?

[Feralstorm]

I've been messing with 2600 graphic hacking a little bit (check the "My firstest hack ever!" thread for example), using a hex editor. I'm looking for info on how to find the location and change the following things using a hex editor (assuming its possible to do so at all)

 

Atari Pac-Man:

. Pac Man player color

. Ghost player color(s)

. Playfield/background color(s)

 

Coleco Donkey Kong:

. colors for Mario/Pauline (changing placement of color changes)

 

Any help would be appreciated, thanx.

[StanJr]

Nukey Shay knows the Pac-man code inside and out, he's your man.

 

Neo knows the DK code pretty well, he might help you there.

 

Good Luck!

[Feralstorm]

Thanks. I found the commented ASM source for Donkey Kong, which showed me pretty much everything I needed for what I wanted to do. Now I need to see if there's similarly commented source for Pac-Man.

 

On DK, I'm pretty pleased with the final results. I hope when I get my CC2 I'll be able to test out some of these hacks on real hardware (and find out if my color choices that look OK on emulation are totally off-base on a TV.

dk_take2.bin

[Nukey Shay]

Code sleuth extraordinaire Dennis Debro has probably reverse-engineered the most (but it is still far from being commented fully). This file came from the old Dig...dunno if there's a newer one (it's not at MiniDig...but Donkey Kong is).

 

 

Here are the color locations:

;Color

      .byte $FC; |XXXXXX  | $FF2B ghost1

      .byte $EC; |XXX XX  | $FF2C ghost2

      .byte $DC; |XX XXX  | $FF2D ghost3

      .byte $CC; |XX  XX  | $FF2E ghost4

      .byte $7A; | XXXX X | $FF2F blue color

      .byte $5A; | X XX X | $FF30 flash color

      .byte $FB; |XXXXX XX| $FF31 pacman color

      .byte $84; |X    X  | $FF32 background

      .byte $F7; |XXXX XXX| $FF33 maze color

      .byte $44; | X   X  | $FF34 score1

      .byte $C4; |XX   X  | $FF35 score2
;black & white

      .byte $0E; |   XXX  | $FF36

      .byte $0E; |   XXX  | $FF37

      .byte $0E; |   XXX  | $FF38

      .byte $0E; |   XXX  | $FF39

      .byte $09; |    X  X| $FF3A

      .byte $04; |     X  | $FF3B

      .byte $0F; |    XXXX| $FF3C

      .byte $00; |        | $FF3D

      .byte $07; |     XXX| $FF3E

      .byte $04; |     X  | $FF3F

      .byte $0A; |    X X | $FF40

pac_man.zip

[Feralstorm]

thanks greatly for the help, and here's the result.

 

simple graphic hacking of Pac Man's a bit of a pain, since there's a lot of shared scanlines between animation frames.

munchkin.bin

[s0c7]

Very nice! I especially like the color scheme. A lot easier on the eyes. The original was about the only game I used to intentionally play in b&w mode.

[Feralstorm]

It's wierd to find out that the four ghosts in Atari Pac Man actually ARE four different colors, just four incredibly similar washed out colors. Only thing I can figure is they did that so they would show up on that hella-bright blue background (instead of making the bkg dark)

 

My K.C. Munchkin-styled ghosts look like they waltzed out of a box of Froot Loops.

[Corby]

Thanks. I found the commented ASM source for Donkey Kong, which showed me pretty much everything I needed for what I wanted to do. Now I need to see if there's similarly commented source for Pac-Man.

 

On DK, I'm pretty pleased with the final results. I hope when I get my CC2 I'll be able to test out some of these hacks on real hardware (and find out if my color choices that look OK on emulation are totally off-base on a TV.

 

now thats a great hack of dk!!! great job

[Big Doggy Dog]

I've included this version of Donkey Kong in my review of the Atari 2600 DK hacks... enjoy!

 

https://youtu.be/vD2uVWh5-jo