Pac-Hack

People are still making stuff for the Sinclair related machines. Tell us about new games and other software that runs on the Spectrum, ZX80/ZX81, Pentagon and Next.
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highrise
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Pac-Hack

Post by highrise »

Greetings everyone

Following a request by Stuart Campbell, i dug deep into the code of Atarisoft's Pacman, and modified the maze and some of the graphics to look a little more like the arcade. It still plays quite jerkily, but it's a lot more frantic, and it really does make a difference. Great suggestion Stu! This game has been playtested for a while and I think we squished the bugs but do let me know if there is anything critical.

Download for free here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/23jtb52lgszu3s6/pachack5.szx

Part one of a video talking about how I went about it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9XS6JxfUBo

Have fun and stay safe!
redballoon
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Re: Pac-Hack

Post by redballoon »

Hac-Man, surely!!
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: Pac-Hack

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Nice to play. Congrats!
redballoon
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Re: Pac-Hack

Post by redballoon »

Yip, I agree! This is great! Thanks!
highrise
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Re: Pac-Hack

Post by highrise »

You can call it whatever you like :) when i posted some screen shots I just started calling the images 'pachack1,2' etc so it stuck. I think Hac-Man has almost certainly been done before and as this is really just a hack rather than a full game I think it's better suited.
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gabriele amore
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Re: Pac-Hack

Post by gabriele amore »

I love it!
highrise
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Re: Pac-Hack

Post by highrise »

that's nice to know, but to be clear, call it what you want in private, please don't refer to it as anything else because that will only cause confusion.
toot_toot
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Re: Pac-Hack

Post by toot_toot »

This is amazing, thank you!

Now can you do the same for Ms Pac Man? :D It's by the same author, so maybe the same "engine"?

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=3316

Or you could always do the same modifications to the original Z-Man (which was modded to make PacMan) and get a brand new maze!

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=5858

I also remember this being on a Your Sinclair cover tape in '92, but I'm sure it was marked as a reader submission :lol:
highrise
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Re: Pac-Hack

Post by highrise »

it's interesting that Ms Pacman was written by the same author isn't it? Ms Pacman is a completely different game and one which is a lot smoother than this game. It could still be improved I guess, but for the Spectrum it's a decent effort. I have my own version in the works and will get around to finishing it some day perhaps!
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