Pacman emulator for spectrum!!!!

[Joseman]

Hi

I don't know if this topic must go here, on emulators, or on programming 

Impressed i'm with this, Simon Owen has achieved to emulate de arcade game pac-man on spectrum

The program code is the same on the same  memory positions, "only" translate the sound, key code and screen to speccy real hardware...

To my head comes two thoughts:

-the cpc can do the same with better colors

- other games that uses the same arcade pcb, will work too...

anyway impressive:


Pac-Man Emulator for Sinclair Spectrum

http://simonowen.com/spectrum/pacemuzx/

Regards
Joseman

[ervin]

Very very cool!
Pity the ghosts' colours aren't reproduced (even with colour clash), as they do have slightly different behaviours.
Still, absolutely awesome.

[MacDeath]

he cpc can do the same with better colors

easy, because as far as I'm looking at this video I see no colours.

Good point there are no clashes too...


Well, those early arcade machines were often Z80 based and quite minimalistic too.

But it went better quite fast...

BTW most of those pre-1984 games can be ported "arcade perfect" on even a machine like Amstrad CPC...
Just see Donkey Kong (well it could have been even a bit better perhaps...)


Would it be that fast on a CPC ?
provided the code is mostly unchanged, should it be Mode1 or Mode0 ?
The difference un pixel size may change some stuff...or not.

In theory the Amstrad PLUS may be able to be completely Arcade perfect in mode1.
Provided you can update the Sprites fast enough (those little buggers are quite heavy and slow to upload in ASIC)

What do we have ?

5 sprites only...
Plus the bonuses... which may be a bit more problematic when they stack up (perhaps some multiplexing ?).

Such a PLUS version should then be a bit more than jsut some emulation in order to cheat on those sprites and colours.

Only 5 sprites would need frequent update.
Well, the pacman sprite may be software too to ease the Hardsprites too (needs only 1 color)

Wikipedia on the Namco PacMan machine :

Arcade system

Namco Pac-Man

CPU	1x ZiLOG Z80 @ 3.072 MHz[4][5]

[/q][/t]

Sound

1× Namco WSG (3-channel mono) @ 3.072 MHz

Display

Vertically oriented, 224 × 288, 16 palette colors

Specifications

   
• Main CPU: Zilog Z80^[1]
• Sound chip: Custom 3-channel 4-bit WSG (Waveform Sound Generator)
• Video resolution: 224 x 288^[2]
• ROM: 16 KB^[1]
• Main RAM: 2 KB^[1]
• Video RAM: 2 KB^[1]
• Color depth: 8-bit color (256 colors)^[2]

The Z80 seem to run at 3mhz only...
And the PSG seem to be as simple as good old AY.

Resolution may be achived quite well in 256x256 screensize on CPC/PLUS...

[Gryzor]

This is mighty impressive. Congratulations to the author, it's so faithful! Wish we could see a proper CPC version (of course).

Moving to the proper category

[tastefulmrship]

Pacman (from MAME) in MODE 1 CPC (fake!)

[Gryzor]

Pacman (from MAME) in MODE 1 CPC (fake!)

5 colours?

Also, what are you trying to do, put MacDeath out of business?

[tastefulmrship]

5 colours?

Ahhh! Bloody PSP7! I told it 4 colours and it decided 5 might look nicer!
Dang you PSP, dang you to hell!

EDIT: No, it wasn't PSPs fault as the original definitely is 4 colours (BLACK, BLUE, RED, YELLOW) it was fecking PHOTOBUCKET who upped the colours (to include WHITE, somehow) when converting to .jpg!

[Gryzor]

Well, it could have gone the whole mile and upgrade it to 256 colours just as well, so nevermind

But, it kinda needs that fifth colour. If not for the dots, at least for the eyes...

[tastefulmrship]

But, it kinda needs that fifth colour. If not for the dots, at least for the eyes...

Yeah, yellow eyes on a yellow ghost just doesn't work!
MODE 0 sprites it would have to be, then.

[fatbob]

He describes how he did the full colour SAM Coupe version here - http://simonowen.com/sam/articles/pacemu/

Now all I need to do is learn how to program

[MacDeath]

I think the Fantoms should use ditherings instead of plain flat colours...

Also, what are you trying to do, put MacDeath out of business?

Haha lol NO...

I for example would never use this shitty format called JPG.... NEVER !!!


and should should too be ashamed... pixel art is completely NOT compatible with .JPG...

[TFM]

Pacman... the first pills-addicted video-game-character 

[TotO]

I think the Fantoms should use ditherings instead of plain flat colours...

True. But your mockup use 6 colors too !
black, blue, red, yellow, white and green...

[TFM]

True. But your mockup use 6 colors too !
black, blue, red, yellow, white and green...

Ok, you're going interlaced now :-)

[Morn]

True. But your mockup use 6 colors too !
black, blue, red, yellow, white and green...

Perhaps 6-color MODE 1 is a special feature of the French firmware? 

[TotO]

Like said Picasso: "Quand je n'ai pas de bleu, je mets du rouge".

[MacDeath]

Concerning my first mockup, It is a PLUS version, featuring bigger vertical resolution and Hardsprites... lol...


Well I must admit i had no time to do a proper mockup, I had to go out to a birthday...

There a more proper mocked ups (sounds as in screwed up).

It is more in 4 colours and 256x272... more CPC friendly resolution I guess (provided the screen warmed up a little bit)

TotO did a nice one... a bit on the "period" side IMO...

But Mode0 would definitly be more than fine for such game.


The fun thing with the original PcMan (FuckMan ? not its PuckMan...) is that there is no hasard in the engine...

you can do a perfect game, with every bonuses gotten and eating every 4 fanthom on each "bigpills" bonus... the famous 3 333 360 points game with no life loss. (which actually takes 6 hours to complete... according to Wikipedia)


Also the engine had a few flaws, enabling to pass through the fantome with a perfect timing.

Said fanthoms had a logic behind their movement and you could cut the angles to go faster than the fanthoms (doing diagonal movement before reching the crossroads).


Perhaps a classic case of "glitching" and abusing the engine (exploits) to win.


the last screwed up level is also fun, perhaps some sort of ending cinematic... "you're too good dude, you broke the machine..."

Anyway, Pacmania was quite a god game, I liked it a lot and was so disapointed the CPC version was a speccy pork of the worst kind...

Hell ... They even got a sluggish thing because they tried too hard to put those damned raster, yet they let those shitty colours clashes artefacts... Arrrgggghhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!
the game actually managed a decent speed when you got the speed-up bonus though...
And the musics were simply delightfull...



But as you can see, you can get Mode1 with 6 colours on screen.
So my mockup was right... dear TotO.



ouch, I would even have prefered this :


Simple; black and yellow are always set, the 2 other inks may be changed to break monotony between each levels...

And PLUS may get a few patches in Hardsprites for the HUD.

True Fact : every monocolour speccy games with masked sprites done the same on CPC were messy abject deep screwery...

masked sprites are 1bpp+1bpp = 2bpp... sprites could be in 2bpp (actually 3 colours+Transparency) with no additionnal weight but programer time on this.

[Gryzor]

Dithered ghosts look surprisingly nice, both in red an blue versions. Very interesting.

Concerning the diagonals 'cheat', correct me if I'm wrong, but the original cabinet only had a four-way stick, is it not so? You couldn't pull diagonals... (even now on my cab I switch my joysticks to four-way for my girl to play it, since eight-ways makes it very hard to pull the turns ultimately)

[TotO]

Gryzor: It's true. (4-way locked)

MacDeath: You may use the white color for the score on your mockup, because you get enough time to change the ink.
Else, your screen don't fit on a 16K bank... A 256x256 version does and may look like:
(for the 224x288 version, you just need to rotate the monitor! )

[tastefulmrship]

@Macdeath
Here's my PACMANIA screens I did a few months ago... and yes, they're in JPG format! PHOTOBUCKET converts pictures into JPG and they're only for casual viewing, not for CPC use! Calm down, fella!

The Original                               Retouched Version                     Proper CPC Version
                   

Here's the .dsk file with the originals on; view with ADVANCED ART STUDIO!
(attached)

[TotO]

Here's my PACMANIA screens I did a few months ago...

Nice work. You "forget" red gloves ? 

[tastefulmrship]

Nice work. You "forget" red gloves ? 

Nope, the original didn't have red-gloves.

LEMONAMIGA doesn't like direct-links to their pictures, so here's the URL;
http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/screenshots/full/pac-mania_01.png

[TotO]

OK. Sorry!

The original print AUST instead of AUSTRALIA.
It's may look better for your Mode0 "9", "O", and "©" font aspect ratio too.

[tastefulmrship]

The original print AUST instead of AUSTRALIA.
It's may look better for your Mode0 "9", "O", and "©" font aspect ratio too.

I wanted to fit as much 'legal' text as I could in MODE0. It's only a loading-screen, it disappears quickly! ^_^

[TotO]

And sprites...