PacManPlus Posted April 10, 2005 Share Posted April 10, 2005 Hello All: OK, I am publicly releasing my first version of PacMan Plus for the 5200. The following things were done to match the arcade version of Pac Man Plus: 1) Changed maze color 2) Changed blue monster graphics 3) Sped up overall game 4) Made the fruit put the monsters in 'scared mode' (like the energizer) 5) Doubled the points of the monsters in 'fruit scared mode' 6) Made monsters invisible (actually black) in 'fruit scared mode' 7) Randomly made 1 monster not turn blue in energizer mode Randomly made maze turn black when an energizer is eaten (although it's quite infrequent) 9) Changed the blue time to match the arcade version 10) Fixed the 'flashing bug' (something that always annoyed me) - the original 5200 version of Pac-Man did not flash the monsters correctly when turning back to their original colors (try the apple board for an example) 11) Fixed the 'endless blue time' bug that would happen when the energizers are not supposed to work at all. 12) Changed the title screeen. I would like to thank Nukey Shay for pointing me in the direction of the 5200's random number generator. One thing that bugs me is that the monsters are not actually 'invisible' when you eat the fruit, but black. This means if you look closely, you can sometimes tell where they are. I don't know a way around this. One major thing I would like to point out is that the fruit characters have not been changed to match the arcade version. This is because I have spent most of yesterday and all of today trying to figure out how to modify it (Thanks again Nukey for your help). I just cannot wrap my head around this one, so I am giving up on it. I have included the 16K and 32K versions here. Let me know if you find any other bugs! Have Fun Bob pacplus_5200_.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted April 10, 2005 Share Posted April 10, 2005 When the maze turns dark and then comes back, the green color doesn't match what it was (IMO the second color is more faithful...a duller shade of green). Also, you should try to get those monsters to disappear (just having them black doesn't really make them harder to find, as there's still 1/3 or 2/3 of the dots left that they can move over). The solution I used in the 2600 version was to change their color to an unused value...just like you did with black...but then going an extra step when drawing the sprite. If that particular color value is used, send it AS sprite data (black = no pixels). All it would take is probably a BIT and BEQ instruction to accomplish when drawing sprites Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted April 10, 2005 Author Share Posted April 10, 2005 Hi Nukey: Thanks for the feedback - I missed one place where I changed the color (when the maze comes back from being black) The problem with that second color is that when I burned an eprom and played it on the real thing, it still looked blue. I changed all three values to be $C4 (Initial maze color, flashing when finishing a board, and after the screen comes back from being black). I'm not posting that yet, as I want to try what you mentioned with the sprites first. Thanks again Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ignernt Posted April 10, 2005 Share Posted April 10, 2005 Other than not having the Coke can, the Pancakes, etc. I like it. I'll probably buy this as-is, but if Pac-Man could eat a bunch of grapes I'm in for sure. Thanks for Hangly-Man by the way man. Works and plays great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted April 10, 2005 Share Posted April 10, 2005 The fruit sprites appear to be part of the character set data at $80E0 to $814F...but I can't figure out how they are decoded when moving the data to ram Some kind of compression method? This differs from the pacman82-atari.atr version (the 8-bit game of the 5200 version), because in that one the fruit sprites are layed out just as they appear (you'd find them in sectors 9 to 10 on the disk). pacman_82_atari.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted April 11, 2005 Author Share Posted April 11, 2005 Version .2 Changed the Green color of the board ($C4) - looks better on an actual 5200. Made the sprites become "Invisible" instead of just turning them black (although I kind of cheated) It was easier to use the 'eyes only' sprite instead, and spread the eyes apart so you couldn't see them between the dots. I also had to remove the bottom of the skirt (it was being done seperately). The end result should be the same. All we need is to figure out how the fruit is stored pacpls52.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted April 11, 2005 Share Posted April 11, 2005 Currently working at fixing the disassembly so that it can be assembled...and getting the remainder of the vectors labelled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted April 11, 2005 Author Share Posted April 11, 2005 Also, just so everyone has an idea, There is a 1 in 8 chance the maze will turn black when eating an energizer. There is a 50/50 chance that one of the monsters will not turn blue when eating an energizer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted April 11, 2005 Share Posted April 11, 2005 Bob, VERY NICE... the pace of the game is incredible and the random elements add some good scares. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted April 11, 2005 Share Posted April 11, 2005 Current assembly of the original game: (Dasm Pac5200.asm -f3 -opac5200.bin) Still trying to figure out those fruit sprites pac5200.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hepcat Posted April 11, 2005 Share Posted April 11, 2005 Holy crap, I'm going to download a 5200 emulator tonight just to try this! In the alternative, will it work in MESS? --Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 (edited) I don't see why it won't. But I prefer to use Atari800Win. It's just a binary image like any other Rom image that MESS can use. EDIT: Looks like a couple of recent posts didn't make it over here Thanks for the confirmation that the game uses compressed data...I figured it was something like that. @PacManPlus Yes, you can use multicolored characters (in fact due to the display list...you HAVE to). Multicolor characters use 2 bits per pixel...so each fruit object can be made of up to 4 colors including black...8 pixels across (because 2 characters are used for each of them). The cherry is characters $3A and $3B, strawberry is characters $3C and $3D, etc. .byte $3A; | XXX X | $9D21 .byte $3C; | XXXX | $9D22 .byte $3E; | XXXXX | $9D23 .byte $3E; | XXXXX | $9D24 .byte $40; | X | $9D25 .byte $40; | X | $9D26 .byte $42; | X X | $9D27 .byte $42; | X X | $9D28 .byte $46; | X XX | $9D29 .byte $46; | X XX | $9D2A .byte $4A; | X X X | $9D2B .byte $4A; | X X X | $9D2C .byte $4C; | X XX | $9D2D .byte $4C; | X XX | $9D2E .byte $4C; | X XX | $9D2F .byte $4C; | X XX | $9D30;reverse order for the bottom of the screen .byte $4C; | X XX | $9D31 .byte $4C; | X XX | $9D32 .byte $4C; | X XX | $9D33 .byte $4A; | X X X | $9D34 .byte $4A; | X X X | $9D35 .byte $48; | X X | $9D36 .byte $48; | X X | $9D37 .byte $44; | X X | $9D38 .byte $44; | X X | $9D39 .byte $40; | X | $9D3A .byte $40; | X | $9D3B .byte $3E; | XXXXX | $9D3C .byte $3E; | XXXXX | $9D3D .byte $3C; | XXXX | $9D3E .byte $3A; | XXX X | $9D3F ;Fruit Characters .byte $3A; | XXX X | $9DEB .byte $3C; | XXXX | $9DEC .byte $3E; | XXXXX | $9DED .byte $3E; | XXXXX | $9DEE .byte $40; | X | $9DEF .byte $40; | X | $9DF0 .byte $44; | X X | $9DF1 .byte $44; | X X | $9DF2 .byte $48; | X X | $9DF3 .byte $48; | X X | $9DF4 .byte $4A; | X X X | $9DF5 .byte $4A; | X X X | $9DF6 .byte $4C; | X XX | $9DF7 .byte $4C; | X XX | $9DF8 Edited April 12, 2005 by Nukey Shay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 I'm totally hooked on this hack. Did I mention how great it is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breakpack Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Dude,that is AWESOME!!!!!!U DA MAN!!!!!!!Cant wait to see the completed version!Just a few quick q's.Do you plan on changing the intermission ghost to one with a flag on its head.Is it possible to change the color of the in game ghost sprite's flag to a different color?How about lowering the ghost eyes down about a pixel?I think Pac-Man's mouth had an extra pixel in the center on the arcade version as well.I remember subtile differences in the sprites of the arcade's Pac Plus compared to the regular arcade Pac Man.I know you guys are working on the fruits,so I wont bother asking YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Now all we need is Atariboy to mock us up a box shot (front,back and side??? )!!! PacManPlus......................I love you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted April 12, 2005 Author Share Posted April 12, 2005 (edited) OK, Here is version .3 Changed the fruit sprites (thanks Kenfused and Nukey!) The only thing that bugs me is the 'galaxian' is a slightly different color on the maze than in the bottom. Oh well... BTW thanks guys for all the nice compliments! Let me know if you find any more bugs. Breakpack: No, I don't think I'm going to bother with the intermission monsters... The sprites are only one color, so we can't change the color of the flag I tried lowering the ghost's eyes down one pixel, but they were too close to the bottom I put the extra pixel in PacMan's mouth (look closely while you're playing) Here are two screenshots and the zip file: PACPLS52.ZIP PACPLUS1.BMP PACPLUS2.BMP Edited April 12, 2005 by PacManPlus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted April 12, 2005 Author Share Posted April 12, 2005 Why can't I get the screenshots to show up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breakpack Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 (edited) This is awesome!!! I noticed something.When I eat a pellet and all 4 ghosts turn blue,if I eat another one,they stay blue (at least the games I played)The arcade sometimes will randomly turn a ghost back the normal color even if they were blue,but I didnt see it happen while playing the hack.Sorry,I dont mean to be nitpicky,as this is an awesome hack to begin with.You kicked ass with the fruits!!!You truly are the Pac-Man specialist!Nukey,you too!! Edited April 12, 2005 by Breakpack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 If you want them to appear as images, save them as jpgs or gifs. That'll attach them as viewable thumbnails. FWIW, I was able to view both images through Quicktime and think both look great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hepcat Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Wow, just wow. This is one challenging game. I doubt I'll ever break 300K on this one. You matched up the blue times to arcade PacPlus pretty well, but the blue monsters seem to run away alot faster than they do in the arcade. It may have been the same on the original Atari 5200 Pacman; it's been so long since I played that game I can't remember. But it also seemed like Pac-man slowed down a bit after eating a fruit which makes catching the invisible monsters even more difficult. I only managed to get all four of them once. I made it to the fourth key (by starting on the 1st key) and I noticed that Pac-man didn't slow down at all. Do you plan on implementing that feature? (You couldn't slow him down much or the game would become impossible.) I did try this in Mess but it didn't run very well so I downloaded Atari800Win. It took me a little while to figure out how to set it up, but I eventually figured it out and even managed to use the Slik Stik controller which is FAR better than the keyboard. The game seemed to run slow at "100%" speed in Atari800Win, so I upped that to 120% which seemed just about perfect. I did all these tests with version 2, I will definitely be trying version 3 tomorrow. Again, great job! --Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Screenshots converted to jpeg... now to play the new version! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 (edited) Great work on the character set! Altered the disassembly to assemble both versions of the game (PLUS = 0/1). hepcat might be right about the blue monster speed...it does appear to be quicker than the arcade's. Something else that's missing is the animated splash screen that lists the monster names. There's a routine in one of the Atari 8-bit versions that does this...might be possible to add it to this one as well pac5200.zip pac5200.zip Edited April 12, 2005 by Nukey Shay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted April 12, 2005 Author Share Posted April 12, 2005 Thanks everyone I got my list: 1) Change blue monster speed (I hadn't touched this before so it's the same as the original 5200 Pac-Man, but I agree it needs to be changed) 2) Fix Pac-Man speed when blue (same comment as #1) 3) Fix Galaxian color (I can use the 'other' character - I hope - to show on the maze so they match) 4) Possibly turn 1 monster back when eating 2 energizers in succession (this one might be a little difficult because of the way the routine was written - not 100% sure this one will get done) 5) 4th Pancake slowdown (I think I may have forgotten and left it at the 9th pancake. I'll change it, but remember it will suffer from the same bug the original 5200 Pac-Man did - it will only change when you lose a life. That was another section I spent quite a while trying to figure out but couldn't - following the code it looks like it should happen) Ok I'll get on these Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Looks great. I'm gonna play this tonight! Needs a label from Atariboy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted April 12, 2005 Author Share Posted April 12, 2005 I'm actually going to give the label a shot as well (once I finish my list) I would like to see this one with the 'old style' label (like the original 5200 Pac-Man) Curious to see what Atariboy comes up with also... He did so well with Hangly-Man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jetset Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 I'm actually going to give the label a shot as well (once I finish my list) I would like to see this one with the 'old style' label (like the original 5200 Pac-Man) Curious to see what Atariboy comes up with also... He did so well with Hangly-Man 835610[/snapback] I want one! Sign me up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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