New game (for Pac-Man arcade hardware): Pacu Pacu

Sokurah

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Thanks for your reply.

There is no request (or need) for you do any more programming/make any change to the code.

Basically I need to know where in memory the high score and current score are kept.

I think I have found them..... file PACMAN.6e Offset 000006A0-06 has the numbers 000000025000.

Now I have to figure out a bit more..........
Ahh, okay. In that case I can shed a bit more light onto things.

The "25000" you've found is actually being copied elsewhere.
The score is kept at $4C6D and once a highscore is achieved, it's being copied to $4C73

I hope this helps 😉😅
 

qjuk

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I burnt the Eproms for one of my Midway PacMan boards and it works great :cool:

The trouble is I seem to be quite useless at it, I haven’t beaten the 25000 high score yet :D

….it is highly addictive though :geek:
 

Hitesh

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Ahh, okay. In that case I can shed a bit more light onto things.

The "25000" you've found is actually being copied elsewhere.
The score is kept at $4C6D and once a highscore is achieved, it's being copied to $4C73

I hope this helps 😉😅
Thanks for doing that. That is exactly, I think, what I needed but I could still not figure out the tiny bits of data I need to insert into HISCORE.DAT.
I'll ask LEEZERS, the guy who seems to be in charge of HISCORE.DAT, for help.
 

Hitesh

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1754987255287.jpeg
New high score....... Level 82, 094002

I am saving my high score between sessions by using Mame's Save State feature.

I am finding the speed up of the ghosts inconsistent. At Level 20, it goes super fast but not always. In the above game of mine where I got 94002, I did not get the faster level often at all.

PS - Can I claim to be the WORLD RECORD HOLDER at this. So proud. I am the worst gamer there is/has ever been. Still not hit 20k on Frogger for example. Been playing it since it came out 40+ years ago.
 

Sokurah

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Thanks for doing that. That is exactly, I think, what I needed but I could still not figure out the tiny bits of data I need to insert into HISCORE.DAT.
I'll ask LEEZERS, the guy who seems to be in charge of HISCORE.DAT, for help.
Just let me know if there's anything else you need.
 

Sokurah

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View attachment 43341
New high score....... Level 82, 094002

I am saving my high score between sessions by using Mame's Save State feature.

I am finding the speed up of the ghosts inconsistent. At Level 20, it goes super fast but not always. In the above game of mine where I got 94002, I did not get the faster level often at all.

PS - Can I claim to be the WORLD RECORD HOLDER at this. So proud. I am the worst gamer there is/has ever been. Still not hit 20k on Frogger for example. Been playing it since it came out 40+ years ago.
Impressive score (y)

Well, let me tell you a bit of what goes on behind the scenes - it will definitely make sense in relation to what you say.

For most of the development, the fixed speed of the player was "30" and the speed of the ghost was "40" (lower is faster).
Then, quite late, to make the game a bit more predictable, I introduced an element of randomness to the speed of the ghost.

So now the speed of the ghost is random every level. Up to level 20 the speed of the ghost has a random speed between 30 and 45, but from level 21 the speed is now between 25 and 40, so definitely faster and in some cases even faster than the player. Then the player really needs to prioritize getting the pills in the centre of the screen, because those are the hardest to get if the ghost is really fast.
(Oh, and the time a shost stays blue is also decreasing with every level, but that's calculated differently, so I can't give exact numbers.)

So, yes, that means that after level 20, 33% of the time you can risk the ghost being slightly faster than yourself, but the rest of the time its speed will be equal or slightly slower than your speed.

I'd be happy to adjust the values if anyone has ideas for good values.

Example:

Level 1-20 = between 30 and 45
Level 21-29= between 25 and 40
Level 30-40= between 23 and 36
Level 40+= between 20 and 33

That should drastically shorten the time people will play, because past level 40 the ghost will almost always be faster than the player ... but perhaps that's too much?

Any ideas? I'd be happy with suggestions from other users?
 

Hitesh

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Impressive score (y)

Well, let me tell you a bit of what goes on behind the scenes - it will definitely make sense in relation to what you say.

For most of the development, the fixed speed of the player was "30" and the speed of the ghost was "40" (lower is faster).
Then, quite late, to make the game a bit more predictable, I introduced an element of randomness to the speed of the ghost.

So now the speed of the ghost is random every level. Up to level 20 the speed of the ghost has a random speed between 30 and 45, but from level 21 the speed is now between 25 and 40, so definitely faster and in some cases even faster than the player. Then the player really needs to prioritize getting the pills in the centre of the screen, because those are the hardest to get if the ghost is really fast.
(Oh, and the time a shost stays blue is also decreasing with every level, but that's calculated differently, so I can't give exact numbers.)

So, yes, that means that after level 20, 33% of the time you can risk the ghost being slightly faster than yourself, but the rest of the time its speed will be equal or slightly slower than your speed.

I'd be happy to adjust the values if anyone has ideas for good values.

Example:

Level 1-20 = between 30 and 45
Level 21-29= between 25 and 40
Level 30-40= between 23 and 36
Level 40+= between 20 and 33

That should drastically shorten the time people will play, because past level 40 the ghost will almost always be faster than the player ... but perhaps that's too much?

Any ideas? I'd be happy with suggestions from other users?
That should drastically shorten the time people will play, because past level 40 the ghost will almost always be faster than the player ... but perhaps that's too much?
 

Hitesh

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" past level 40 the ghost will almost always be faster than the player " : I don't think this is what is happening. I would not reached level 82 if this was happening.

If you want a tiny bit of code change, then please put on the screen (somewhere central) the speed of the ghost. Then send me a copy and I'll play test it for you.
 

Sokurah

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" past level 40 the ghost will almost always be faster than the player " : I don't think this is what is happening. I would not reached level 82 if this was happening.

If you want a tiny bit of code change, then please put on the screen (somewhere central) the speed of the ghost. Then send me a copy and I'll play test it for you.
You misunderstand me. The numbers I wrote under "Example" were suggestions that I could change it to. Not the way is is now.

But your idea is good. I will make the change you suggest and send you two new versions tonight - the current version that shows the speed of the ghosts, and a version with the changes I suggested ... then you can give me some feedback on that ;)
 

Hitesh

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Hello

I did read your post a second time and understood current/proposed but before I had a chance to post, you posted.

I look forward to receiving the two files tonight. I'll be up early tomorrow giving them a go.
 

Sokurah

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Pacu Pacu has been updated to v.1.1

v1.11.png

I felt the game was a bit too easy – but both Georgian2 and Hitesh has provided good feedback on my attempts at increasing its difficulty – so the main thing in this new version, is that I’ve tweaked the difficulty so it’s a lot harder and a bit more unpredictable now 😅
I've also made a few cosmetic changes and one relating to the scoring – all minor things, but all that improve the game … even if they’re not super apparent.
I'm much happier with it now and I fully expect this version to be the final version 😁🕹️
 

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  • PacuPacu_v1.1_final.zip
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Robert

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Just added this to next HBMAME (0.245.27) and tried it out. At first it was a bit confusing as the player seemed to change direction randomly by itself, but maybe it was me as a second attempt had no issues. I scored 39579 at level 39.

You need to be careful around the left-hand side, as new enemies spawn there and you can instantly die without seeing what happened.
 

Georgian2

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The game will run on this "made in greece" bootlegs. The problem is the GFX rom has the A0 and A2 lines swapped and also the D4 and D6.
With permission from @Sokurah I can uplod here the right GFX rom file.

For the CPU file (27C128) one needs to combine the 6e+6f+6h+6j files. BIN Wizard is a great tool to do it.
IMG_20250817_172454.jpg
 

qjuk

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I must admit I combined all four of the row 6 game roms into a 27C128 using the MAME debugger, only because one of my Midway PacMan pcbs has the single rom hack done to the board.
 
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