QB64 Pac-Man Clone

[Dav]

I'm supposed to be designing a website tonight, but with your game here and MasterGy's virtual world to play with I fear I'll get little web designing done.

- Dav

[madscijr]

Finally! A working version I can share. This version is as about as close as you can get to the original without using MAME and ROM images.
...
Have fun! Waaka Waaka Waaka ...

This is really nice. Thank you. 

I know you have worked hard on this, and it's excellent. Now I'm going to try and push for just a little more. The obvious would be Ms. Pac Man, but I think there is something better - add an editor and a couple of options to be able to MAKE Ms. Pac Man from inside the game, as well as create different mazes, edit the Pac sprites and edibles, play with the rules a little bit, change colors timers and speeds, play simultaneous multiplayer (cooperative or competitive?), maybe even a simple editor and primitive language to program the ghosts' logic or fruit's path through the maze. 

That's asking for a lot. Maybe just a way to edit mazes to start with, would give this game a longevity and add a new level of fun that the original never had. 

But anyway, great job, as always! You did it with Berzerk, you did it with Asteroids. What about Tempest (with level editor!), Gravitar, and Defender / Stargate?? ?

[mnrvovrfc]

But anyway, great job, as always! You did it with Berzerk, you did it with Asteroids. What about Tempest (with level editor!), Gravitar, and Defender / Stargate?? ?

How about Mr. Do? (Dig-Dug clone)

[TerryRitchie]

Finally! A working version I can share. This version is as about as close as you can get to the original without using MAME and ROM images.
...
Have fun! Waaka Waaka Waaka ...

This is really nice. Thank you. 

I know you have worked hard on this, and it's excellent. Now I'm going to try and push for just a little more. The obvious would be Ms. Pac Man, but I think there is something better - add an editor and a couple of options to be able to MAKE Ms. Pac Man from inside the game, as well as create different mazes, edit the Pac sprites and edibles, play with the rules a little bit, change colors timers and speeds, play simultaneous multiplayer (cooperative or competitive?), maybe even a simple editor and primitive language to program the ghosts' logic or fruit's path through the maze. 

That's asking for a lot. Maybe just a way to edit mazes to start with, would give this game a longevity and add a new level of fun that the original never had. 

But anyway, great job, as always! You did it with Berzerk, you did it with Asteroids. What about Tempest (with level editor!), Gravitar, and Defender / Stargate?? ?

Yes, I agree, a level editor would be cool. However, games that do support level editors are built with that functionality in mind before a line of code is even written. Unfortunately I didn't design the game with an editor in mind. It would take much more than a simple modification I'm afraid. I would need to rewrite the entire maze handling routine to accommodate it. I suppose a generic maze generator and handler could be designed that would allow graphics of all the various pac-man iterations to be plugged into (or evern custom graphics). But then there's the issue with movement too. Pac-man looks simple enough at the surface but underneath pac-man has a very sophisticated movement algorithm. You can literally slide pac-man around corners at 7 different points at intersections. The original programmers of pac-man were quite ingenious with its design as I found out while emulating it.

[TerryRitchie]

But anyway, great job, as always! You did it with Berzerk, you did it with Asteroids. What about Tempest (with level editor!), Gravitar, and Defender / Stargate?? ?

How about Mr. Do? (Dig-Dug clone)

I actually have some Dig-Dug code laying around here that I started a few years back but haven't finished. I also have Missile Command, Frogger, and Super Mario on a drive or two around here somewhere as well, again, all unfinished. Now that I'm older I have the patience to finish code. But in my younger years I was like the proverbial dog in the back yard ... Squirrel! ... Squirrel! ... with every new squirrel (project) I would get distracted and forget about the previous.

Believe it or not Tempest is actually a 3D polygon game using the same math box technology as Battle Zone. Tempest is another one of those games that look simple on the surface. The more I dig into these old arcade games the more I appreciate the programmers and engineers that made them. When I was a kid I used to think 25 cents was too much for a game. Now I realize it probably wasn't enough. Although all it would take is one big hit and the programmers would make money hand over fist which would cover those games that didn't do as well I'm sure.

And to think, these guys and gals did this all on CPUs like the 6502, 6809, and Z80 to name a few, in Assembler no less!

[TerryRitchie]

I'm supposed to be designing a website tonight, but with your game here and MasterGy's virtual world to play with I fear I'll get little web designing done.

- Dav

That's how I was when Fellippe came out with TicTacToe Rings. I played that thing for weeks. I wonder how he is doing? I wish he would come back and join us.

By the way, if anyone wants to try TicTacToe Rings I have it here on the tutorial site:

https://www.qb64tutorial.com/games#h.mq0zraw9g2o8

[madscijr]

But anyway, great job, as always! You did it with Berzerk, you did it with Asteroids. What about Tempest (with level editor!), Gravitar, and Defender / Stargate?? ?

How about Mr. Do? (Dig-Dug clone)

Oh hell yeah! I spent many quarters on that one, and then many hours back in the 90s when MAME came out! Dig Dug, too. 

You know, I thought of mentioning Mr. Do & Dig Dug along with the idea of a construction set. What if the user could build a game that combines elements of Pac Man and Mr. Do? 

Things could get really far out if we add more, maybe also Donkey Kong and Jr. But enough, I'm getting carried away!

[madscijr]

Finally! A working version I can share. This version is as about as close as you can get to the original without using MAME and ROM images.
...
Have fun! Waaka Waaka Waaka ...

This is really nice. Thank you. 

I know you have worked hard on this, and it's excellent. Now I'm going to try and push for just a little more. The obvious would be Ms. Pac Man, but I think there is something better - add an editor and a couple of options to be able to MAKE Ms. Pac Man from inside the game, as well as create different mazes, edit the Pac sprites and edibles, play with the rules a little bit, change colors timers and speeds, play simultaneous multiplayer (cooperative or competitive?), maybe even a simple editor and primitive language to program the ghosts' logic or fruit's path through the maze. 

That's asking for a lot. Maybe just a way to edit mazes to start with, would give this game a longevity and add a new level of fun that the original never had. 

But anyway, great job, as always! You did it with Berzerk, you did it with Asteroids. What about Tempest (with level editor!), Gravitar, and Defender / Stargate?? ?

Yes, I agree, a level editor would be cool. However, games that do support level editors are built with that functionality in mind before a line of code is even written. Unfortunately I didn't design the game with an editor in mind. It would take much more than a simple modification I'm afraid. I would need to rewrite the entire maze handling routine to accommodate it. I suppose a generic maze generator and handler could be designed that would allow graphics of all the various pac-man iterations to be plugged into (or evern custom graphics). But then there's the issue with movement too. Pac-man looks simple enough at the surface but underneath pac-man has a very sophisticated movement algorithm. You can literally slide pac-man around corners at 7 different points at intersections. The original programmers of pac-man were quite ingenious with its design as I found out while emulating it.

Wow, I always thought the game had good feel, but I never knew how it was implemented. 

I'm not intimately acquainted with the code like you, but when I think about it, it seems that any maze is just a combination of the same limited set of turns and intersections. There are only so many directions Pac Man can go, so even with 7 different points each, any maze can probably be broken down into the same root "tileset", no?

[madscijr]

But anyway, great job, as always! You did it with Berzerk, you did it with Asteroids. What about Tempest (with level editor!), Gravitar, and Defender / Stargate?? ?

How about Mr. Do? (Dig-Dug clone)

I actually have some Dig-Dug code laying around here that I started a few years back but haven't finished. I also have Missile Command, Frogger, and Super Mario on a drive or two around here somewhere as well, again, all unfinished. Now that I'm older I have the patience to finish code. But in my younger years I was like the proverbial dog in the back yard ... Squirrel! ... Squirrel! ... with every new squirrel (project) I would get distracted and forget about the previous.

Believe it or not Tempest is actually a 3D polygon game using the same math box technology as Battle Zone. Tempest is another one of those games that look simple on the surface. The more I dig into these old arcade games the more I appreciate the programmers and engineers that made them. When I was a kid I used to think 25 cents was too much for a game. Now I realize it probably wasn't enough. Although all it would take is one big hit and the programmers would make money hand over fist which would cover those games that didn't do as well I'm sure.

And to think, these guys and gals did this all on CPUs like the 6502, 6809, and Z80 to name a few, in Assembler no less!

It truly is mind blowing... Eugene Jarvis and the Atari guys were my heroes as a budding computer geek. Not only did they work wonders with very primitive tools, the games themselves are works of art, they're beautiful to look at, and fun to play, even after all these years. 

I would love to one day build a cartridge for my Vectrex that turns it into a vector display that plugs into a PC's USB port, and be able to program vector games in QB64PE on a real vector screen!
^^^
You were talking about squirrels - I am well acquainted with them, I have a basement and many hard drives full of such rodents, burying their acorns and forgetting all about them until they dig one up by accident! Focus, Danielson!!! Stay on target!

Tangentially yours...

[TerryRitchie]

This is really nice. Thank you. 

I know you have worked hard on this, and it's excellent. Now I'm going to try and push for just a little more. The obvious would be Ms. Pac Man, but I think there is something better - add an editor and a couple of options to be able to MAKE Ms. Pac Man from inside the game, as well as create different mazes, edit the Pac sprites and edibles, play with the rules a little bit, change colors timers and speeds, play simultaneous multiplayer (cooperative or competitive?), maybe even a simple editor and primitive language to program the ghosts' logic or fruit's path through the maze. 

That's asking for a lot. Maybe just a way to edit mazes to start with, would give this game a longevity and add a new level of fun that the original never had. 

But anyway, great job, as always! You did it with Berzerk, you did it with Asteroids. What about Tempest (with level editor!), Gravitar, and Defender / Stargate?? ?

Yes, I agree, a level editor would be cool. However, games that do support level editors are built with that functionality in mind before a line of code is even written. Unfortunately I didn't design the game with an editor in mind. It would take much more than a simple modification I'm afraid. I would need to rewrite the entire maze handling routine to accommodate it. I suppose a generic maze generator and handler could be designed that would allow graphics of all the various pac-man iterations to be plugged into (or evern custom graphics). But then there's the issue with movement too. Pac-man looks simple enough at the surface but underneath pac-man has a very sophisticated movement algorithm. You can literally slide pac-man around corners at 7 different points at intersections. The original programmers of pac-man were quite ingenious with its design as I found out while emulating it.

Wow, I always thought the game had good feel, but I never knew how it was implemented. 

I'm not intimately acquainted with the code like you, but when I think about it, it seems that any maze is just a combination of the same limited set of turns and intersections. There are only so many directions Pac Man can go, so even with 7 different points each, any maze can probably be broken down into the same root "tileset", no?

The maze in pac-man is deceptive. Each pellet is actually contained in an 8x8 box and these 8x8 boxes are chained together to form paths. The maze itself is 16x16 but the characters running around in the maze are only concerned with those 8x8 boxes. Once a character enters an 8x8 box it then keep track of it's position within the box (0 through 7). Once position 8, or position -1, is reached it leaves that box and moves to the next one. That is why ghosts can seem to partially cover pac-man but still not kill him. It gives the player that sense of "yikes, it almost got me" when in reality the two characters were in separate 8x8 boxes.

The reason pac-man can slide around corners in 7 different positions is due to the nature of these 8x8 boxes. If pac-man is at an intersection the player can decide to turn at any time within the first 3 or 4 points, depending on direction, and the sooner the turn the bigger slide around a corner pac-man gets. It's a brilliant tactic that allows pac-man to speed up a bit around corners to evade ghosts. The ghosts are not allowed to slide but must wait until they reach the center of an 8x8 box to turn. This is the reason the maze borders are all rounded off, so the pac-man sprite does not cover them while sliding.

I have lots of maze generating code. You can view a really good algorithm in my Super Mega Bug game that generates random braided mazes of any size. Rounded corners and sliding needs special coding and sliding would require a maze generator that can create rounded corners. Doable but much more work.

You have a Vectrex! How cool is that! I remember seeing these for sale when I was kid and wanted one so bad.