Pacman4K

[+MrFish]

This is a great version of Pac-Man for the 2600. Amazing what can be done in 4k. A lot of nice touches.

 

Here's my 2 cents:

 

1. My vote is for eyes like the 8-bit/5200 version. There aren't enough pixels available to make a lot of details here. It ends up taking away more than it adds. In this case, "less is more".

 

2. There seems to be a slight difference in speed when moving side-to-side as compared to up-and-down. This tends to take away from the controllability. It becomes more difficult to judge your movement in relationship to the ghosts.

Edited June 9, 2007 by MrFish

[Nukey Shay]

I dunno...the 8-bit sprites always seemed to lack character. Like a thumb with eyes.

 

BTW the 4/5 final versions are playable in an unmodded Supercharger if you change one of the death sprite vectors (either removing it or just pointing at a different existing bitmap). You can bump it down to use the previous bitmap by changing these 2 bytes in the animation tables:

 

$0F66 -> $2A (..X.X.X.)

$0F72 -> $F1 (XXXX...X)

 

Otherwise, the SC will bankswitch/crash as it attempts to read the bitmap ($0FF0-$0FFA) at the end of the rom.

[+MrFish]

I dunno...the 8-bit sprites always seemed to lack character. Like a thumb with eyes.

 

You could always use Mario. It works for Karateka.

[jwierer]

Anybody try putting this on a cart and running it on a 7800? I've tried twice and both just hang after going a few seconds into the attaract mode. Finally tried the same carts on a 2600 and they works fine.

 

-Jeff

[DEBRO]

Anybody try putting this on a cart and running it on a 7800? I've tried twice and both just hang after going a few seconds into the attaract mode. Finally tried the same carts on a 2600 and they works fine.

After reading this I realized that I never ran the finished cart on my 7800 just my 2600 and Video Arcade II.

 

I gave my cart a try tonight on my 7800 and it plays fine without hanging.

[jwierer]

Anybody try putting this on a cart and running it on a 7800? I've tried twice and both just hang after going a few seconds into the attaract mode. Finally tried the same carts on a 2600 and they works fine.

After reading this I realized that I never ran the finished cart on my 7800 just my 2600 and Video Arcade II.

 

I gave my cart a try tonight on my 7800 and it plays fine without hanging.

 

Must be my 7800 then. Odd that it works with everything else. Oh well, at least I can play it on my 2600.

 

Thanks,

Jeff

[+Cafeman]

I haven't been following this thread since its beginning, although I knew Dennis was working on it. I tried all the demos in succession tonight as I went thru this thread from page 1. I was frankly amazed from the first demo; but the final one, with its eaten-ghost points being displayed and tweaked speed, is utterly fantastic for an 8K game ... and is rather stunning for a 4K game, which it is.

 

If only ...

[mos6507]

I haven't been following this thread since its beginning, although I knew Dennis was working on it. I tried all the demos in succession tonight as I went thru this thread from page 1. I was frankly amazed from the first demo; but the final one, with its eaten-ghost points being displayed and tweaked speed, is utterly fantastic for an 8K game ... and is rather stunning for a 4K game, which it is.

 

If only ...

 

I also haven't followed it since the beginning and feel the same way. Time to make a cart and send a care package to Tod Frye.

[+Cafeman]

Seeing what kind of Pac-Man can be done on the 2600 platform, its amazing that Frye even went the way he did. Sure, I know he was under extremely small time frame, but he didn't even make the maze the right color!

 

At first I was surprised to see Pac-Man flickering, but after experiencing it, this solution is so much better than static Pac-man and ultra-flickering ghosts. The flickering on the emulator is significantly better than old Pac-man (I know, 20Hz vs 15Hx or whatever). I bet the flickering at 20Hz looks even better on a standard TV, the way the visuals retain for a few moments.

[Lord Helmet]

Seeing what kind of Pac-Man can be done on the 2600 platform, its amazing that Frye even went the way he did. Sure, I know he was under extremely small time frame, but he didn't even make the maze the right color!

 

I have always wondered about this. Its like he didn't even ATTEMPT to make it look even remotely like the arcade game.

[DEBRO]

I also haven't followed it since the beginning and feel the same way. Time to make a cart and send a care package to Tod Frye.

If you do send this to Tod Frye please let him know that I admire his work. I truely believe if Atari had given him the resources, he could have done a better Pac-man for the 2600. After reading all the stories about this I put the blame on Atari for releasing this and not Tod.

[Impaler_26]

I finally spent some time playing this and i must say it's an absolutely awesome game!

 

Pretty impressive for 4k and 100 times more fun to play than Atari's version. I'm looking forward to the 8k version now

[Gregory DG]

Nice work! But it's soooo slooow going up and down! (Sorry if this has been discussed already.)

[mos6507]

I also haven't followed it since the beginning and feel the same way. Time to make a cart and send a care package to Tod Frye.

If you do send this to Tod Frye please let him know that I admire his work. I truely believe if Atari had given him the resources, he could have done a better Pac-man for the 2600. After reading all the stories about this I put the blame on Atari for releasing this and not Tod.

 

I do still have his home address somewhere in my notes from when he signed the release form for Stella at 20, assuming he's still there. So I could follow through on this.

[DEBRO]

Hi Glenn,

So I could follow through on this.

I assume this was a question Sure, I just ask that no one sell the game for money. I still plan on doing an expanded version that would be placed on cart. This version was done to see what I could do in 4K.

[Breakpack]

Hi Glenn,

So I could follow through on this.

I assume this was a question Sure, I just ask that no one sell the game for money. I still plan on doing an expanded version that would be placed on cart. This version was done to see what I could do in 4K.

 

Once you get the expanded version with all the bells and whistles,any chance of seeing a Pac-Man Collection?I'd love to see this and a 5200 version

[procyon]

Seeing what kind of Pac-Man can be done on the 2600 platform, its amazing that Frye even went the way he did. Sure, I know he was under extremely small time frame, but he didn't even make the maze the right color!

 

I have always wondered about this. Its like he didn't even ATTEMPT to make it look even remotely like the arcade game.

 

I asked Tod about this when I worked with him at 3DO. He wasn't as into reminiscing about Atari as Howard Scott Warshaw was, but I did coax some tid bits out from him about this. The details that I can remember are: What he showed to the execs was only a prototype to show what could be done theoretically. But the execs felt that with a little polish, the game could ship in a matter of weeks, and they'd all make tons of money. I think it was Tod's intent to sit down and remake the game correctly, but the execs didn't want to "waste time" when they thought what he showed them was playable.

 

Regarding the color, Atari marketing had a strict policy on avoiding black backgrounds for any game that didn't take place in space. They felt that color helped to sell a game because color TVs were only beginning to become mainstream around that time, and they wanted to hype up the fact that the VCS could produce color. So it's doubtful that marketing would have let Tod correct the colors if he wanted to.

 

And lastly, the bit about the ghosts flashing: Tod knew how to implement the now-famous horizontal interrupt that was later used in Ms. Pac-Man to cut down on the flashing. But his project manager was an ass and was very patronizing to him, so he left it out and submitted a final version that did not contain the fix. He was one of the first Atari programmers to get a huge royalty check under the new bonus incentives that Atari arranged to keep from losing programmers to the competition (Activision, Imagic...) so I don't think he lost too much sleep over the lack of accuracy.

 

Honestly, Tod is a brilliant guy, and if he wanted to make a more accurate conversion of Pac-Man, I'm sure he could have. But it doesn't matter how smart you are; when you work for buttheads all you make is poo. (I cleaned that last bit up, but you know what I mean)

[+SpiceWare]

Regarding the color, Atari marketing had a strict policy on avoiding black backgrounds for any game that didn't take place in space.

guess they forgot that for Space War.

[Steril707]

I understand how the rest of you feels about the old pacman, and i like this pacman4k as much as the rest of you, and it gets a lot of play along Ladybug, but whenever i play the old version, with its weird color scheme and harsh sounds, i start to smile. It's somehow what the Atari was about and what makes it still special in hindsight:

 

These ports all looked somehow different yet, iconic somehow... I mean, i don't know any VCS game that looks remotely like its counterpart from the arcades, yet i remember its own distinct look as much (and sometimes even more) than the arcade version. It's the "Atari thing".

 

Hope my "artistic" rant made some sense...

[Jess Ragan]

Regarding the color, Atari marketing had a strict policy on avoiding black backgrounds for any game that didn't take place in space.

guess they forgot that for Space War.

 

Or for that matter, Crystal Castles!

[Breakpack]

Just as a note - the ghosts don't slow down in the tunnels while blue in the arcade version, either, but that's because the blue ghosts always go at the same speed that the non-blue ghosts go through the tunnels.

 

This looks and plays really great anyway. (Though, to be quite honest, I rather prefer the 5200-style ghosts of the original kernal demo)

 

=DS=

 

 

This is a great version of Pac-Man for the 2600. Amazing what can be done in 4k. A lot of nice touches.

 

Here's my 2 cents:

 

1. My vote is for eyes like the 8-bit/5200 version. There aren't enough pixels available to make a lot of details here. It ends up taking away more than it adds. In this case, "less is more".

 

2. There seems to be a slight difference in speed when moving side-to-side as compared to up-and-down. This tends to take away from the controllability. It becomes more difficult to judge your movement in relationship to the ghosts.

 

Ok,I edited the ghosts back to the '5200' look.I am partial to this look as well.It gives the 2600 'Atari 800 power' feel to it

 

Based on the latest bin posted by DEBRO

pacman4k5200ghosts.bin

Edited August 21, 2007 by Breakpack

[+MrFish]

This is a great version of Pac-Man for the 2600. Amazing what can be done in 4k. A lot of nice touches.

 

Here's my 2 cents:

 

1. My vote is for eyes like the 8-bit/5200 version. There aren't enough pixels available to make a lot of details here. It ends up taking away more than it adds. In this case, "less is more".

 

2. There seems to be a slight difference in speed when moving side-to-side as compared to up-and-down. This tends to take away from the controllability. It becomes more difficult to judge your movement in relationship to the ghosts.

 

Ok,I edited the ghosts back to the '5200' look.I am partial to this look as well.It gives the 2600 'Atari 800 power' feel to it

 

Based on the latest bin posted by DEBRO

 

Thanks Breakpack! I like!

[vdub_bobby]

Probably should ask before you go hacking someone's homebrew...

[Breakpack]

Probably should ask before you go hacking someone's homebrew...

 

I did.Thanks

[+FujiSkunk]

Regarding the color, Atari marketing had a strict policy on avoiding black backgrounds for any game that didn't take place in space.

guess they forgot that for Space War.

 

Or for that matter, Crystal Castles!

 

I doubt it was the same marketing department by that point. Point out Video Pinball instead.