QUIKMAN 2008 for the unexpanded VIC 20

[rhurst]

Thanks for the replies. Here's thoughts on the varied points:

If this binary could be integrated with Mega Cart, that would certainly be a thrill for me. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Regardless, I would like to purchase one when it becomes available. Sounds like a great project. Where was this stuff 25-years ago? Heh.

The maze is closer now to the original arcade, in terms of geometry, than my 1984 version -- I had to remove four dots to increase the height to the tunnel entrances. At first I was not happy about doing that, but it made sense. The only other realistic "improvement" to achieve a closer match would be to skinny the cage, allowing the main up-down corridors to move in a little. But I am not comfortable that would achieve anything useful, but make the tunnels more likely to become death traps.

The latest screenshot is not 4:3, but from the MESS view option mentioned before as: "Pixel Aspect (25:31)" which gives it an improved look, although it is not accurate of a real VIC display. Sorry if I caused confusion, and there was no intent on any deception... just my personal preference to play the game.

Even though I have a functional VIC 20 and a compatible television, I am not using any original hardware for testing. I am relying upon MESS and VICE, as they both have exhibited identical behavior as far as I can perceive. MESS provides superior video output capabilities over VICE, but I am more fond of VICE overall. JarVIC is getting close, but its timing is still off too much. I am hopeful that project will continue to mature.

That red SOB (I like hearing him called that!) may be the fastest monster of the four, but Quikman is still overall the fastest. Like the arcade game, Quikman is penalized a "turn" when swallowing a dot, allowing all monsters a chance to catch up. Red is awarded the same extra "turn", but on every other X-cell and on every Y-cell (so running away from Red left-right without eating dots is the best way to increase distance, as it is a tie when moving up-down) The left-right tunnel is always the best way to escape.

I played original Pac-Man all my life, and I do not recall any perceptable difference with Blinky getting faster than Pac-Man (while NOT munching) after so many dots were removed from a level. If I put that "feature" in, I fear the game may be a little too hard. As it is, its difficulty level is fairly high -- but there are patterns that can exploit specific levels, that much has been true for me. I have a difficult time going beyond the Pear level, although I have reached the 3rd key and over 100,000 points. My personal best on an arcade Pac-Man was the 7th key, but I was 17 at the time!

Thanks again for all your feedback -- it has been a lot fun to do this!!

BTW, I will post another ROM update shortly (the title screen will say START instead of PLAYS) and the source/listing will be dated today or later. Nothing serious, just an inconsistency detected due to some bad bit-math on my part.

[ral-clan]

In the original Pac-Man, couldn't Pac-Man take corners faster than the ghosts?

[Pedro Lambrini]

Noob alert! How do I play the 'cart' version in ViCE 2.0? I tried the command line "xvic -cartA quikman-rom.a0" but I get an error: Argument 'quikman-rom.a0' not a valid for option '-cartA'. Sorry for the noob annoyance.

[Richard James]

That error can appear when you start xvic in another directory to the ROM image. so if you change to the directory the ROM image is in and run xvic again it should work.

[rhurst]

You can use its menu interface, too, just remember to set it to a standard VIC:

Settings -> Memory expansions -> Common configurations -> No expansion memory
Settings -> Joystick settings (configure to your preference)
Settings -> VIC settings (configure to your preference)
... it seems to play just fine in either NTSC or PAL mode.
Settings -> Save settings

File -> Attach a cartridge image -> Attach 4/8kb image at $A000...
a file dialog will open, make certain its filter picklist is reset to "all files" and not *.prg, and go select the quikman-rom.a0 file.

File -> Reset -> Reset soft
... and the game will autostart from that location.

An equivalent command-line might look like:

xvic -ntsc -VICdsize -sound -memory none -joydev1 1 -cartA /path/to/quikman-rom.a0

... and use your NUMPAD as the joystick.

[Pedro Lambrini]

Thanks very much for your help. I can now play the cart version and WOW! It really is impressive. Incredibly smooth, fluent and feels like a real Pacman game. Love it!

PS: When's Ms Pacman coming?!

[rhurst]

PS: When's Ms Pacman coming?!

Heh, actually, the Atarisoft version of Ms. Pac-Man is already quite good.

P.S., I posted an updated ROM cartridge today that makes the maze look even more like the original, Quikman starts off going Left like the arcade instead of Right and is "less" penalized when eating dots, improved animation during pauses, improved monster AI algorithms during chase, flee, and return to cage modes. Still fits in small 4KB ROM, with only 6-bytes left unused. Enjoy!

[Jeff-20]

I love the idea of constantly optimizing a program! This just keeps getting better. I want to have a really good game idea and do the same.

[Pedro Lambrini]

I love the idea of constantly optimizing a program! This just keeps getting better. I want to have a really good game idea and do the same.

Ms Pacman?

[Pedro Lambrini]

PS: When's Ms Pacman coming?!

Heh, actually, the Atarisoft version of Ms. Pac-Man is already quite good.

P.S., I posted an updated ROM cartridge today that makes the maze look even more like the original, Quikman starts off going Left like the arcade instead of Right and is "less" penalized when eating dots, improved animation during pauses, improved monster AI algorithms during chase, flee, and return to cage modes. Still fits in small 4KB ROM, with only 6-bytes left unused. Enjoy!

Are you sure you updated it? I just dl'd it and Quikman still goes to the right!

[Mayhem]

I just grabbed it and it works fine, the yellow blob goes left to begin with.

[Pedro Lambrini]

Sorry. I accidently attached the old cart image.

[nbla000]

Wow! That new ROM version looks great! Can't wait to play it!

Poor Nicola! This really deserves to be on the Mega-Cart, but every time he thinks the MC ROM is finalized, someone releases a new great game!

Yes really

Thanks for the replies. Here's thoughts on the varied points:

If this binary could be integrated with Mega Cart, that would certainly be a thrill for me. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Regardless, I would like to purchase one when it becomes available. Sounds like a great project. Where was this stuff 25-years ago? Heh.

I cannot do any promise, since the Mega-Cart is currently full, i need certainly to remove something maybe another Pac-Man clone but just if this change do not force me to retest everything btw i will assure you that i will try to add it if possibile for the next mass-produced version.

PS: may i suggest to use the fire button as well to start game ?

[rhurst]

PS: may i suggest to use the fire button as well to start game ?

Your wish is my command. Funny how a little shuffling of code around to squeeze that in also allowed for a few nice playability timings and animations. All but 1-byte is used.

ROM, source, and listing has been posted.

[gklinger]

All but 1-byte is used.

Do you find yourself getting addicted to the tweaking and optimizing? I'm intrigued by the way you're managing to squeeze things in by using every last byte of memory.