5200: Pac-Man Plus Version .1 (Hey Breakpack!) :D

[PacManPlus]

Ok everyone version .4

 

1. Changed blue monster speed to be a little slower (let me know if it's ok)

2. Sped up pacman a little when blue (again, let me know)

3. Could not fix Galaxian color when in the maze

4. Made the program change a monster back to it's original color if it was selected and it was blue.

5. Made the slowdown happen at the 4th pancake. (Although again, because of Atari's original bug you won't see it until you lose a life).

 

Here they are!

PACPLUS_5200_.ZIP

Edited April 13, 2005 by PacManPlus

[PacManPlus]

BTW - Nukey, I have to apologize as I realize that you put a lot of work into the assembly. I should have used that as a starting point, and I actually started to - but it was beginning to take longer because at this point I am used to hand-coding through Hack-O-Matic. So I went back to changing it that way.

 

Although there is only 1 routine that changed (all of the other changes were tables) I may still take a look at it.

 

Thanks again.

[hepcat]

OK it’s great, but I’m going to be a little more nitpicky this time.

 

First though, a huge bug: sometimes a monster will come out of the box and go straight up through the walls. It’s actually quite similar to an arcade bug I’ve seen a couple times, but it happens much more frequently here.

 

The blue monsters still seem a bit fast to me, but it’s better than before. And blue monsters in this game do reverse instantly which may make it seem like they’re moving a bit faster.

 

Next: when you get an energizer in arcade Pacman Plus even if one of the monsters remains its regular color, it will still reverse. That’s not happening in this game. The monster is completely unaffected and keeps chasing after you. I’m not sure if this was intentional on your part, or if there’s simply no way to tweak this game to make it match the arcade in that way.

 

This lack of reversal can have a big impact on later, no blue time boards. One of the ways I deal with no blue boards is to lure the monsters into the tunnel. Just as they’re about to leave the tunnel, I grab an energizer forcing them to go all the way back through at a slow speed before they can chase me again. Last night I was playing on the fifth pancake and tried this trick, but one of the two monsters in the tunnel did not reverse and since they’re so much faster than you on that level, he nailed me before I knew what was going on.

 

One other thing, I noticed that the Pac-man slow down you implemented will be begin on the fifth pancake if you don’t die on the fourth. So one way or the other, it’s going to happen pretty quickly.

 

Great job! I’m going to be playing this one for a while.

 

--Jason

[PacManPlus]

Hey Jason:

 

The one about the monster going straight up concerns me; I was playing the most recent version this morning and it did not happen even once Do you remember what level you were on where it was happening? Can you tell me anything else about what may have caused it (eating a monster right over the box, etc)?

 

I've seen the reverse thing... I'll look into that one.

 

The slowdown really happened on it's own without you dying???? Wow - maybe I did fix that bug, but it's a screen off... I'll look into that one again.

 

I will slow the blue monsters down a little more as well.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Bob

Edited April 13, 2005 by PacManPlus

[8bitclassics]

Here is one that I did for Pac-Man Plus today.

 

 

Let me know what you think. I did it in Photoshop at 300 DPI but reduced the res for loading times here. It fits the template I created for the labels I have for sale on my site.

 

Corey

[Nukey Shay]

BTW - Nukey, I have to apologize as I realize that you put a lot of work into the assembly.  I should have used that as a starting point, and I actually started to - but it was beginning to take longer because at this point I am used to hand-coding through Hack-O-Matic.  So I went back to changing it that way.

 

Although there is only 1 routine that changed (all of the other changes were tables)  I may still take a look at it.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

No apologies necessary. I was just trying to make the original disassembly made by bryan able to assemble through Dasm, to provide a better starting point if anyone wants to try hacking the game. The changes you've added were pretty small, so I figured I'd throw those in as well.

BTW those routines you added to $6000 are relocatable...so you could compact them together if you start running low on space (just take out the additional ORGs I used to seperate them). The original game still has unlabelled vectors, so the same isn't true for the entire game (yet).

[PacManPlus]

Hello

 

Here is version .5

 

I have fixed the 'reverse' issue, and I slowed down the Blue monsters slightly more.

 

Jason (or anyone) - let me know if you can still get a monster to go straight up through the wall and if possible, how you were able to get it to happen. I just tried a bunch of levels and it didn't happen to me at all.

 

Thanks!

 

BTW - Awesome label 8bitclassics!

PACPLUS_5200_.ZIP

[8bitclassics]

Thanks! I almost gave up after the second crash of Photoshop. I need more memory in my 'puter. Anyway, gave it one more try while saving on a regular basis Imagine how much better I felt once it was completed. Also took a while to figure out the flag on the head, but came together. If you want the hi res version, let me know. I think I need to shorten the bottom blue part a bit also. Also, wasn't sure what people thought of the blue or change it to the black like in the game?

 

I still need to try out the game, looks fun, just been busy with work, work, school, and family. I have been enjoying working on the labels also.

 

Corey

Edited April 14, 2005 by 8bitclassics

[jwierer]

Hello

 

Here is version .5

 

I have fixed the 'reverse' issue, and I slowed down the Blue monsters slightly more.

 

Jason (or anyone) - let me know if you can still get a monster to go straight up through the wall and if possible, how you were able to get it to happen.  I just tried a bunch of levels and it didn't happen to me at all.

 

Thanks!

 

BTW - Awesome label 8bitclassics!

836644[/snapback]

 

This is awesome. Within an emulator I see no problems. When I run it on an actual 5200 I periodically get garbage on the opening screen around the PAC-MAN logo. If I keep hitting the reset button it will come and go, but definitely reproduceable.

 

Since both Hangly Man and Pacman Plus fit into 16K, have you put any thought into a 32K combined Hack-Man 5200 Collection with a start-up menu to choose between the two?

[Nukey Shay]

You wouldn't need an additional 16k to accomplish that. The 2k of space that this one still has free should be able to handle it (just setting or removing a bit in ram is enough to instruct it if it should branch off when building the display).

[PacManPlus]

Hello

 

Here is version .5

 

I have fixed the 'reverse' issue, and I slowed down the Blue monsters slightly more.

 

Jason (or anyone) - let me know if you can still get a monster to go straight up through the wall and if possible, how you were able to get it to happen.  I just tried a bunch of levels and it didn't happen to me at all.

 

Thanks!

 

BTW - Awesome label 8bitclassics!

836644[/snapback]

 

This is awesome. Within an emulator I see no problems. When I run it on an actual 5200 I periodically get garbage on the opening screen around the PAC-MAN logo. If I keep hitting the reset button it will come and go, but definitely reproduceable.

 

Since both Hangly Man and Pacman Plus fit into 16K, have you put any thought into a 32K combined Hack-Man 5200 Collection with a start-up menu to choose between the two?

836766[/snapback]

 

That seems to have happened with my 'Hangly-Man' hack originally as well. I don't get what I am doing to cause that - all I did was move some text around

 

I've been playing it on a real 5200 as well, and I haven't seen the garbage at all (the same with the 'monster going up through the walls' that hepcat mentioned)... I hate when I cannot reproduce a problem

 

Which reminds me - HepCat - please let me know if you are able to reproduce the issue you brought up with the new version. Also how you got it to happen (please). Thanks

 

Thank you everyone for your kind words, help, and testing.

Edited April 14, 2005 by PacManPlus

[hepcat]

That seems to have happened with my 'Hangly-Man' hack originally as well.  I don't get what I am doing to cause that - all I did was move some text around

 

I've been playing it on a real 5200 as well, and I haven't seen the garbage at all (the same with the 'monster going up through the walls' that hepcat mentioned)...  I hate when I cannot reproduce a problem   

 

Which reminds me - HepCat - please let me know if you are able to reproduce the issue you brought up with the new version.  Also how you got it to happen (please).  Thanks

 

Thank you everyone for your kind words,  help, and testing.

836850[/snapback]

 

Sorry, I didn't have time to try the new version (#5) last night. I will definitely get to it tonight.

 

BTW, what's the difference between the 16K and 32K versions?

 

--Jason

[PacManPlus]

Thanks

 

The 16k version is the one I am working with. The 32K Version is there because some people have issues getting the 16k version to run. They are essentially th esame thing.

[Atariboy2600]

Well I after I did Hanlgy Man label here'smy take on Pac-Man Plus labelart and you can download the center-label art for any one wanted to use it.

atari_5200_pacman_plus_template.bmp

[hepcat]

OK, I just played a few games of version 5. The bug I mentioned before did not occur and I tried eating a couple monsters close to the box to see if that triggered it.

 

The blue monster speed seems just about perfect now and the monsters reversed after every energizer whether they stayed their regular color or not.

 

I'll play it some more over the next few days, but right now this looks really good. Too bad there is no cuttle cart for the 5200.

 

--Jason

[Breakpack]

I like those labels,but how about one based on the marquee??

Edited April 15, 2005 by Breakpack

[PacManPlus]

And I was kinda sorta hoping for a label in the 'Old Style' (like the original 5200 Pac-Man) |

[classics]

Little bug report, pressing keyboard 1-9/#/* seems to cause a crash randomly in the emulator. I have not burned a real cart to test with.

 

Steve

[jwierer]

Little bug report, pressing keyboard 1-9/#/* seems to cause a crash randomly in the emulator.  I have not burned a real cart to test with.

 

Steve

838037[/snapback]

 

I just tested it with a cart and couldn't reproduce a crash with the keypad.

[PacManPlus]

Thanks Steve and jwierer -

 

I actually tried it on two different emulators last night and could not reproduce it...

 

Steve, which emulator were you using, and what did you press?

[PacManPlus]

I took Both 8bitclassics' and Atariboy's label, combined them (somewhat) and used the 'EXCITING NEW' from the marquee and came up with this...

 

I think this is the one I'm going with... is it ok?

[hepcat]

I'm going to be traveling again soon so I figured I'd try to put PacMan Plus, Hanglyman and the "Fixed" 5200 Pac-man on my GP32 using the GP32's Atari 800 emulator. No luck so far, but I couldn't get ANY games to work on that thing so it's probably because I'm not using the emulator correctly.

 

I'm trying to get some help over at the gp32x.com and I'll let you know if I ever do get them running.

 

--Jason

[classics]

Thanks Steve and jwierer -

 

I actually tried it on two different emulators last night and could not reproduce it...

 

Steve, which emulator were you using, and what did you press?

838157[/snapback]

 

I'm using my modified Atari800Win 3.1. If you cant get it to do it on a real 5200 then it must be just one of my modifications running amok.

 

Steve

[PacManPlus]

Hi Jason:

 

Very cool - I can't remember if I was able to get that emulator running on my GP32 when I had it... :-/

 

Hey Steve:

 

Thanks for the update

 

Bob

[hepcat]

OK, thanks to someone over at GP32x, I finally did get the Atari 800 emulator running and all three of the games do work on the GP32.

 

I did notice that Hanglyman still has a couple of "bugs" that you took out of Pacman Plus and original Pacman. By far the biggest of these is the monsters staying blue forever on no blue boards. Did you fix that for the Hanglyman carts you made up?

 

--Jason