Pac-Man Pattern Trainer (MAME)

[SnicklefritzG]

I was able to complete stages 3 and 4 without issue. Now, these are not straight-forward patterns. At the start, there's an about-turn on straight section at the bottom. The 180 turn must be carefully timed to grab the pellet at the earliest moment. I assume this is were the pattern starts to break down for you. There's another of these 180 turns a bit later in the stage too.

What version of MAME are you running?
I'll record an .inp for you. You can play the .inp back using the plugin to verify that it completes on your setup. If it doesn't complete then this confirms your setup has a problem.

Also, on killerclown, the line goes red on the left straightaway on the way to getting the first power pellet, however I’m usually still able to complete the level,

So something is definitely going off track early even though I’m using cornering techniques to turn before I actually get there, etc,

 

[SnicklefritzG]

Also, on killerclown, the line goes red on the left straightaway on the way to getting the first power pellet, however I’m usually still able to complete the level,

So something is definitely going off track early even though I’m using cornering techniques to turn before I actually get there, etc,

 

[Alpha1]

How did I miss this. Absolutely incredible.

 

[kingtreelo]

ive not tried this, but it looks amazing, but to add something that may be pointless at this time, if you dont have the correct ROM then this will be useless, there are so many pacman roms about, and so many versions of mame, i have found only one version works like the arcade

 

[SnicklefritzG]

ive not tried this, but it looks amazing, but to add something that may be pointless at this time, if you dont have the correct ROM then this will be useless, there are so many pacman roms about, and so many versions of mame, i have found only one version works like the arcade

Which ROM do you like?

 

[SnicklefritzG]

ive not tried this, but it looks amazing, but to add something that may be pointless at this time, if you dont have the correct ROM then this will be useless, there are so many pacman roms about, and so many versions of mame, i have found only one version works like the arcade

Which ROM do you like

 

[10yard]

pacman and puckman rom on MAME versions from 0.196

 

[10yard]

One more thing, are there certain joystick settings that would help with responsiveness? Or would I need a different joystick?

im running 0.280

The attached zip contains an .inp I recorded today on MAME 0.180.
Can you try playing this back (with the plugin) and it should clear boards up to start of stage 10.

Also, if you can try playing at a slowed emulation speed to help you master the cornering and see if there is still an issue. use

-speed 0.5

to play at 50% speed.

 

[SnicklefritzG]

The attached zip contains an .inp I recorded today on MAME 0.180.
Can you try playing this back (with the plugin) and it should clear boards up to start of stage 10.

Also, if you can try playing at a slowed emulation speed to help you master the cornering and see if there is still an issue. use

-speed 0.5

to play at 50% speed.

Thank you!!!


Where do I put the file? In the same folder where the ROMs go? How do I execute this from the command line? I'm not sure what to
do with inp files

 

[10yard]

Thank you!!!


Where do I put the file? In the same folder where the ROMs go? How do I execute this from the command line? I'm not sure what to
do with inp files

Extract .inp and place it into inp folder. Add following to your command line.

-playback pacman_killerclown_280.inp

 

[SnicklefritzG]

Extract .inp and place it into inp folder. Add following to your command line.

-playback pacman_killerclown_280.inp

I was able to get it to playback and had no issues it ran very smoothly.
What would that suggest regarding the issues I've been having?

 

[10yard]

I was able to get it to playback and had no issues it ran very smoothly.
What would that suggest regarding the issues I've

Maybe your MAME or stick has lag issue. It’s definitely not related to the plugin.
You could try installing an older MAME. Try going right back to 0.196 and see if it plays any better.

 

[SnicklefritzG]

Maybe your MAME or stick has lag issue. It’s definitely not related to the plugin.
You could try installing an older MAME. Try going right back to 0.196 and see if it plays any better.

I am wondering if it is the stick in part because I tried your playback speed suggestion and had issues staying ahead of the trainer pattern

I also tried going back to 0.196 but wasn't able to get it to run on my computer with the joystick or pactrainer plugin
I'll keep trying.

 

[SnicklefritzG]

I'm happy to report that after a lot of practice, and making a small change to the way I follow the pattern2 in the "killerclown" set, I'm now consistently up to scores 150k+ and into the key levels from memory and have got up to level 19 even though I've not yet memorized the 5th key pattern yet!
My high score from memory is now 163k which is very close to my all time high of 170k which I was using with Pactrainer on.

Many thanks to 10yard for helping me get going on this. Now on to memorizing the last two patterns!!!

 

[kingtreelo]

im always extremely confused, so i have been playing pacman on mame for a few years now, my best score is around the 160k mark, i went to AC Bury and got 200k once, and recently i have acquired an original and i cant get anywhere near those scores with the same strategy, the ghosts just move ever so differently, so unless my proms have been replaced, i think there are so many versions out there you may not be playing the "original", it could even be that Midway released a few different versions which would explain the above

still, great game and this is a great trainer for anyone wanting to learn patterns in pacman, it will help regardless

 

[big10p]

im always extremely confused, so i have been playing pacman on mame for a few years now, my best score is around the 160k mark, i went to AC Bury and got 200k once, and recently i have acquired an original and i cant get anywhere near those scores with the same strategy, the ghosts just move ever so differently, so unless my proms have been replaced, i think there are so many versions out there you may not be playing the "original", it could even be that Midway released a few different versions which would explain the above

still, great game and this is a great trainer for anyone wanting to learn patterns in pacman, it will help regardless

The original Midway Pac-Man PCB has two difficulty settings. There's a solder bridge pad next to the DIP switches. Screwdriver is pointing to it in this pic. If it's un-bridged like this, it's normal difficulty; if it's been bridged with solder, it's harder difficulty. The ROMs don't need to be changed.

 

[SnicklefritzG]

I'd love to get my hands on an original pacman arcade. Although I wonder how one maintains these, a working one would be awesome.

 

[10yard]

I'm happy to report that after a lot of practice, and making a small change to the way I follow the pattern2 in the "killerclown" set, I'm now consistently up to scores 150k+ and into the key levels from memory and have got up to level 19 even though I've not yet memorized the 5th key pattern yet!
My high score from memory is now 163k which is very close to my all time high of 170k which I was using with Pactrainer on.

Many thanks to 10yard for helping me get going on this. Now on to memorizing the last two patterns!!!

Fantastic! and good to hear you are making progress with my trainer.
I really like the default "Pacstrats" pattern set and have been playing regularly myself. The set is very unforgiving and you have to be pixel perfect on every turn. This set has no 180 direction changes and only 3 patterns to learn. I find it easier to follow, just need to give it my full concentration.

To help with learning patterns. I thought about adding an "advanced mode" were the guide path temporarily fades out and then fades back in a few moments later. The frequency and duration of the fades could be configurable or it could increase as you progress into the game. Idea being to encourage learning of the pattern rather than mindlessly following along the path. What do you think?

 

[kingtreelo]

The original Midway Pac-Man PCB has two difficulty settings. There's a solder bridge pad next to the DIP switches. Screwdriver is pointing to it in this pic. If it's un-bridged like this, it's normal difficulty; if it's been bridged with solder, it's harder difficulty. The ROMs don't need to be changed.
View attachment 47420

i'll take a look when i open it up this week to fit the save game thingy

 

[philmurr]

i'll take a look when i open it up this week to fit the save game thingy

No need to.

The multi gives you the choice of normal/hard in software so bridging/removing the link has no effect