Pacmania STE - New Version

[Zamuel_a]

One thing that was missing in my Pacmania game compared to the Amiga version were shadows. I wasn't able to add it since the game took more or less 100% CPU time, but I took another look at it and was able to optimize it a little bit more so here is a version with shadows

If it took close to 100% CPU before, it's even closer now, so sometimes the screen might flicker.

I have also fixed some old bugs I found, and probably included some new

Try it out and see how it works!

PACMANIA_STE_2015.zip

Here is a link to my Giana Sisters conversion.
http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph ... na+sisters

[qq1975b]

can't wait to try it!!

EDIT: i have just played the first 9 levels of the new version ( ). It is awesome! I only noticed few screen flickers. If I have to point something else I would say that the sandbox land shakes a little when going up or down but as I said....AWESOME!

It seemed that it was not possible to improve it more but you did it Zamuel!

Congratulations

[Anima]

Tried it on Hatari and it looks great. Thanks for your work!

[Zamuel_a]

If I have to point something else I would say that the sandbox land shakes a little when going up or down

This is the same as on the previous version and also on the Amiga. (I don't know how they solved the issue on the Amiga so the "shaking" might be a little different)

The problem here is that Pacman moves at 75% of "fullspeed" (100% = 1 pixel/VBI in X, 2 pixels/VBI in Y). In the first levels he moves at 50%, the sandbox land 75% and jungly steps 100%. Later on he will run at 150%.
The problems at sandbox land is that he moves 1.5 pixels in Y and 0.75 in X, so it's not really the best for integers. Floats are ofcourse not possible so I use 4 bit fixed point math for the sprite coordinates. So there will be some "shaking" here.
This is actually better on the ST version since it runs at 25fps, so every move is multiplied by 2, so on this level he moves 3 pixels in Y instead of 1.5 and 3 is ofcourse much better for the display

The best level is Jungly step since he runs 1 pixel / VBI here.

[Marakatti]

looks gorgeous! And plays so smooth Excellent work!

[deeez]

What if you add 0.5 (8 in 4 bit fixed point) to the position before you shift right? This should round 0.75 up to 1.0 instead of down to 0.0.

[NGF]

Great addition with the shadows

[Zamuel_a]

What if you add 0.5 (8 in 4 bit fixed point) to the position before you shift right? This should round 0.75 up to 1.0 instead of down to 0.0.

Here is a test with this added. Difficult to say if it makes a difference or not. It looks ok on a CRT monitor I think.

PACMANIA_STE_2014_2.zip

[russ]

Yes!! Great job- A lot of fun

[Zamuel_a]

I wonder how many people who beat the ST version. It's so difficult since the display is so small. You don't see the ghosts until they hit into you. In my version it's almost to easy and I have never a problem to beat it since it's so easy to keep track of the ghosts.

[simonsunnyboy]

I wonder how many people who beat the ST version. It's so difficult since the display is so small. You don't see the ghosts until they hit into you. In my version it's almost to easy and I have never a problem to beat it since it's so easy to keep track of the ghosts.

Yes I noticed the latter too. Your reworked version is much too easy to play for a seasoned Pacmania addict like me (who thinks the original ST version has the perfect difficulty, it can be beaten from Round 1 on with 1 continue)

[Zamuel_a]

I wonder how many people who beat the ST version. It's so difficult since the display is so small. You don't see the ghosts until they hit into you. In my version it's almost to easy and I have never a problem to beat it since it's so easy to keep track of the ghosts.

Yes I noticed the latter too. Your reworked version is much too easy to play for a seasoned Pacmania addict like me (who thinks the original ST version has the perfect difficulty, it can be beaten from Round 1 on with 1 continue)

Well it match the Amiga version. They use more or less the same screen resolution as I do. I got a few more lines in Y, but not a big difference.
Now it's at least funnier to play for "everyone" and the ST version looked like crap

[simonsunnyboy]

I disagree on the latter. It was well done for the standards of 1988.

[Zamuel_a]

I disagree on the latter. It was well done for the standards of 1988.

No the ST can do alot better than this. There are several games that use scrolling in 4 bitplanes and with Pacmania they didn't even try...

Not even the start menu or level select screen is nice to look at

[Zamuel_a]

I compared the resolutions and the Amiga version runs at 340x272 and my STE version is 320x276 so it's basically the same. The amount of lines visible in Y depends on monitor / emulator and so on so it's not a real fixed number.

[qq1975b]

I disagree on the latter. It was well done for the standards of 1988.

No the ST can do alot better than this. There are several games that use scrolling in 4 bitplanes and with Pacmania they didn't even try...

Not even the start menu or level select screen is nice to look at

I totally agree....I got depressed when I saw the Atari version...half screen and very few colors. The Amiga version was awesome.

Zamuel, did you made the change on the second sandbox land level? I noticed something wrong there: It appeared the Apple item but not on the path. It was above one of the piramids so Pacman wasn't able to eat it. Besides, once it disappeared, it didn't appear any other item.

[Zamuel_a]

It appeared the Apple item but not on the path. It was above one of the piramids so Pacman wasn't able to eat it.

Strange. Have to take a look. Didn't do any changes here what I know of


EDIT:

I tested it and couldn't see any problems. Must been a graphical glitch so it didn't remove the sprite from the screen as it should. Did you have the icon active in the bottom right corner when it happen? If not, when it wasn't a real object. The hit detection has nothing to do with the graphics on screen so you should always be able to pick up items, even if there is something that looks wrong.

[qq1975b]

Yes, it was the active icon on the bottom right corner and when the item disappeared, the one on the bottom right corner disappeared too. Don't worry then, if it happens again I will try to take a picture.

EDIT: I have been playing for some time and didn't happen again. Once, I have got all the gfx corrupted but it has been only once.

Is there a pause key?

I haven't said it before...now the Sandbox land maze runs smoother

[Eero Tamminen]

Just tried, the new version runs & looks great, also with EmuTOS!

[Zamuel_a]

Yes, it was the active icon on the bottom right corner and when the item disappeared, the one on the bottom right corner disappeared too. Don't worry then, if it happens again I will try to take a picture.

EDIT: I have been playing for some time and didn't happen again. Once, I have got all the gfx corrupted but it has been only once.

Is there a pause key?

I haven't said it before...now the Sandbox land maze runs smoother

Yes you have some key combinations that is there (also on the ST and Amiga version).
SHIFT + P = pause
SHIFT + Q = quit current game.

If you press ESC in the main menu, you will exit the game.

In the game you can use Joystick or keyboard
Z,X,K,L,SPACE controls pacman.

[tjlazer]

Thanks for the update!

[qq1975b]

I compared the resolutions and the Amiga version runs at 340x272 and my STE version is 320x276 so it's basically the same. The amount of lines visible in Y depends on monitor / emulator and so on so it's not a real fixed number.

The Amiga version runs also at 50 fps?
The resolution on Amiga is 4.7% higher than the STe but sprites don't appear on the border frame. On STe the sprites are shown in all the visible screen.

[Zamuel_a]

The Amiga version runs also at 50 fps?
The resolution on Amiga is 4.7% higher than the STe but sprites don't appear on the border frame. On STe the sprites are shown in all the visible screen.

Yes the Amiga version runs at 50 fps.
I have seen that the sprites don't clip against the screen borders, but instead suddenly appear. I'm not sure if this is something to do with the Amiga hardware (can't show sprites outside visible screen) or if the programmers were lacy

[Retrogamer_ST]

Not often that i post something like this. To share my honest opinion.

Pac Mania and Llamatron was THE games that made me a ST gamer again after many years of silence and heavy use of PC.

I think that the orginal ST version of Pac Mania is better then the Amiga version. Why? It has a much better feel, better title screen, better cut scenes, real chip sound instead of low quality digitized sound. I just love the status screen containing pac man and all the ghosts while playing the game because it warms up the game and gives it a sort of arcade feeling unlike the full screen area seen in the Amiga version. In fact, the Amiga version feels cold and sterile compared to the more human and warm ST version.

This goes for some other games too.

So if we forget the technical bit for a moment, this is how i experience Pac Mania.

[Zamuel_a]

Ofcourse the Amiga version is better than the ST version It's less technical and not even good for a ST game. Only 4 colors for the backgrounds instead of 16. The title image looks like it's monochrome and also the level select screen. These two screens could have been much better since they have nothing to do with the ingame performance.

The resolution on the game field is 176x200 compared to the arcade version which had 224x288, so not even the aspect ratio is correct. A smaller screen on an ST game could be ok but since other games with bigger screens run at 25fps in 16 colors there is no real reason why this couldn't have done that to.