Windows Close to the original PAC-MAN

Sabnock

Member
Hi,

I have been working for month or so on a GMS version of PACMAN that i wanted to be as close to the original as possible. i finally completed it today and present it to you for criticism or praise. link to game and images below.


i have used this and a couple of other projects to learn GML. it has been really useful and i would like to thank a few people as well..Namely : AcientPaul, HayManMarc, Jackhigh24 && Paul Green for their support and help during this project. if it hadn't been for them i probably wouldn't have had the optimism or motivation to complete the game.

it is not perfect and there a couple of features that my current coding skill level just wouldn't let met have in the game but on the whole i am very pleased and proud of the result. The ghosts use very similar algorithms to hunt down PAC-MAN there's even some trigonometry in there for Inky to do his thing.

Let me know what you think.

Download: YYC
http://www.mediafire.com/file/cvs03dwk0p02iug/PACMAN_V1.0.exe

- Press space or enter to start the game
- Cursor keys to control PAC-MAN
- Esc for menu options, dedug mode that will show the ghost AI at work.
- high score initial entry
- cursor keys left & right to choose letter, space for next initial and enter to complete.

It features all the elements of game play that the original had, fruits, stage progression and difficulty, high score table. iv'e even put a intermission. Bugs have been squished but there maybe a few lurking where i can't see so i will continue to work on it but for now would just like some feed back.

Have fun
 

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G

Guest User

Guest
Its fun as hell but it seems I'm no better at it today than I was back in the 80's playing it in the arcades haha!

Great game and it was really fun to see it growing over time and getting better and better, quite frankly if I'd managed to make a 'clone' this good, I would be very proud of myself indeed. I'm determined to at least get to the 2nd 'cut scene', just one more game... :)


also.. 53 reads and no comments? c'mon guys jeez, its like pulling teeth on this forum at times. Play his game, give him your feedback.
 

K12gamer

Member
I had fun with it...Very similar to the original....Really cool when things start to speed up.
Way better than the old Atari 2600 version...


I also made a GM Studio Pacman style game...
 
B

Blakkid489

Guest
you definitely can teach me a few things about pac man. my version is trash

I'll PM you later

Very nice game remake bro
 

K12gamer

Member
Very nice. Watching that video I think there is little I can teach you and lots I could learn from you.
Yeah...that game has some really nice effects...complimented by really good sounds.
Is there a link...I'd like to play that game too.
 
J

JRLS

Guest
this looks pretty nice :)
btw, There's an extensive doc on pacman : "the pacman dossier" :
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3938/the_pacman_dossier.php?print=1

What i miss is 'cornering', and the special red zones, where ghosts cannot mose upwards.
also, I think pacman moves way too slow. In the original it's much faster (or it's my laptop that's too slow)
either way, the ghost A.I. should be pretty simple and not slow down the game, so i guess the slow speed is intentional?
 

Sabnock

Member
My full video review -
Hi ElectricdonkeyYT. thanks for the review. it seems to be running very slowly on your machine so not sure what is going on there but if you check the video out in the OP you'll see what speed it is meant to be at.

totally agree that it is old and people need new. the 4 retro games i have done are purely to learn. i have learned and am now working on something of my own :)

if anyone else is experiencing the slowdown let me know and i will review it.

if you hit escape and try full screen let me know if that makes a difference?
 

Sabnock

Member
new file uploaded to start in full screen. also new video in the OP

don't for get to hit escape for the menu to quit.
 
J

JRLS

Guest
it runs slow for me too.
i'm running on laptop core2 P8400 2.27Ghz with 4GB ram on windows vista, that should be way fast enough to run a "simple" game like this.

Normally when you implement some sort of pathfinding algorithm, i can very soon slow down your machine.
Reasons could be that the ghost is looking for pacman every step of the game (e.g. 60 times a second), instead of once when the ghost is at a junction for example.
That could be the reason it's slowing down. Not sure what's going on here, just stating a possible reason.

The OP is running it probably on a fast machine, but the OP should run this on a slower device, and see what happens
Considering the original pacman runs on a very slow device, i think the progamming might not be efficient OR something else is going on like YYC compiler?


[edit] : i just downloaded the game again. Now it runs fine. Did you change something? :)


Also, what AI did you use for clyde? (brown ghost). Or the other ghost?
It seems different than the original?

Here is info on the AI of the original pacman (see chapter 4):
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3938/the_pacman_dossier.php?print=1
 
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E

ElectricdonkeyYT

Guest
Hi ElectricdonkeyYT. thanks for the review. it seems to be running very slowly on your machine so not sure what is going on there but if you check the video out in the OP you'll see what speed it is meant to be at.

totally agree that it is old and people need new. the 4 retro games i have done are purely to learn. i have learned and am now working on something of my own :)

if anyone else is experiencing the slowdown let me know and i will review it.

if you hit escape and try full screen let me know if that makes a difference?
Ah, forgot to mention my main computer is in for repairs so im currently using a laptop with low low specs, I'll try in fullscreen however

EDIT - In fullscreen it is now running pretty smoothly and appears much more like the original pacman however the controls still feel a little unresponsive, was this intentional or not (just wondering)
 
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Sabnock

Member
Ah, forgot to mention my main computer is in for repairs so im currently using a laptop with low low specs, I'll try in fullscreen however

EDIT - In fullscreen it is now running pretty smoothly and appears much more like the original pacman however the controls still feel a little unresponsive, was this intentional or not (just wondering)
No Not intentional so i will look into that as well. the key presses are stored so that that they are executed as soon as pac hits a corner hence you can press the up key and he will go up at the next junction even if you are not touching the keyboard. i did this because i could not figure out how to make pac cut corners as an advantage using the movement code that i had programmed. i will return to that as well at some point.

you hit th enail on th e head early on in your review when you said i was doing a trilogy(ended up 3.5 game, space Invaders,asteroids, Pacman and a partly completed Galaga clone) of retro games to learn GML. i am now working on something of my own making and once complete i will post it for all to laugh at :D
 
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Sabnock

Member
it runs slow for me too.
i'm running on laptop core2 P8400 2.27Ghz with 4GB ram on windows vista, that should be way fast enough to run a "simple" game like this.

Normally when you implement some sort of pathfinding algorithm, i can very soon slow down your machine.
Reasons could be that the ghost is looking for pacman every step of the game (e.g. 60 times a second), instead of once when the ghost is at a junction for example.
That could be the reason it's slowing down. Not sure what's going on here, just stating a possible reason.

The OP is running it probably on a fast machine, but the OP should run this on a slower device, and see what happens
Considering the original pacman runs on a very slow device, i think the progamming might not be efficient OR something else is going on like YYC compiler?


[edit] : i just downloaded the game again. Now it runs fine. Did you change something? :)


Also, what AI did you use for clyde? (brown ghost). Or the other ghost?
It seems different than the original?

Here is info on the AI of the original pacman (see chapter 4):
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3938/the_pacman_dossier.php?print=1

i have a feeling the issue maybe that i have been using a lot of draw functions so am looking to reduce that by baking a lot of the static text into the background. it's a shame becasue as you say it is asuch a low profile game it should run on a matchstick :D

I am running on an i7 6700k so i need to start to consider older / lower spec machines when making coding choices.

To your edit : yes i had a fiddle and made some optimisations and forced it to full screen and also compiled it using the YYC compiler. so glad it works better for you.

Clydes AI is to chase you if he is outside a radius of 8 tiles from pac and to head towards his home corner if he is less than 8 tiles. this is as the original i believe i also read the dossier and several other resources. i used what i thought were the correct algorithms for all ghosts for the ai based on what was in the dossier and if you hit escape key during play and turn on debugging mode you can see their targets being drawn when they are in chase mode. the path finding is actually very simple with a script for generic AI and a small script for each of the individual ghost personalities.

Thanks to all who have commented as this is exactly what i want. good and useful comments.
 
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J

JRLS

Guest
for a ghost : Do you calculate which direction to go in every step? Or only when the ghost is at an intersection?
just wondering?
 

Sabnock

Member
for a ghost : Do you calculate which direction to go in every step? Or only when the ghost is at an intersection?
just wondering?
Good question, every step but now I'm thinking I will change that to just junctions.
 
J

JRLS

Guest
yes, that would probably be more efficient and taking way less CPU.
(If it's between junctions, the ghost just has to move in the same direction it was going)
I reckon you have room_speed set to either 30 or 60?

Also, it seems that clyde is still chasing me when closeby. It could be that i'm in "his" corner and it looks like it, i'm not sure. I'll test again :)

Btw, do you intend to implement "cornering" and the red dead zones?


Said it earlier :)
Normally when you implement some sort of pathfinding algorithm, i can very soon slow down your machine.
Reasons could be that the ghost is looking for pacman every step of the game (e.g. 60 times a second), instead of once when the ghost is at a junction for example.
That could be the reason it's slowing down.
 
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Sabnock

Member
yes, that would probably be more efficient and taking way less CPU.
(If it's between junctions, the ghost just has to move in the same direction it was going)
I reckon you have room_speed set to either 30 or 60

Also, it seems that clyde is still chasing me when closeby. It could be that i'm in "his" corner and it looks like it, i'm not sure. I'll test again :)

Btw, do you intend to implement "cornering" and the red dead zones?


Said it earlier :)
This very true. I had an iteration of the AI that checked at the junctions only but forgot to reimplement it when I swapped it out for this version. Should be quiet simple to reintroduce.

Thank you for the great feedback.
 
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