MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal
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Thanks @pjft ,
It's a picade kit from www.pimoroni.com, with a few modifications and embellishments.
It's not actually very big as you can see (beer for scale!).
Also it's only single player. But I got it because it's portable and very moddable. I added the Pacman decals, artwork etc. separately. Replaced a few bits of hardware etc. too.
My latest mod was having the bright idea to paint the joystick knob, which as you can see is wearing off already. Not my best idea then! The next upgrade planned is swapping out that 8" screen for a 12" one.
Yeah, I think most people have skipped over this game in MAME. I think I read somewhere that it wasn't available in many arcades and was pretty rare, so not many people will have persevered with it I imagine.
Still, I'm clinging on to that '11th in the world at a relatively unknown game' claim to fame! Ha ha!
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@GtBFilms said in MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal:
I think I read somewhere that it wasn't available in many arcades
It was a Japanese exclusive. However, during the run of the Hanna-Barbera 'Pac-Man' cartoon series, Miru was sprite swapped for the Pac-Family dog Chomp-Chomp and was given a wide release under the title 'Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp'. I played it a few times at my local skating rink when I was a kid. All I really remember is surprise and frustration at that damn dog dragging my fruit away.
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@mediamogul said in MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal:
I played it a few times at my local skating rink when I was a kid
It's a bit off-topic but... Do you like skating? :-)
Aggressive inline skating is one of my favorite hobbies. I like it so much that I even put a hand rail on my backyard, just to do some tricks. You can see it on this video I posted on youtube:
I know that it looks a bit weird an adult doing this, but I can't help it! :D This is my hobby since I was 14. :-)
Cheers!
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Fantastic video! Those are some cute kids you got there too.
Do you like skating?
That's a loaded question, because I used to enjoy it very much. I had a pair of Roces that I used primarily a means of transportation around my city, but I also carried an aggressive wheel set that I would trade out for trick practice. I was never anywhere as good as you are now though.
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@meleu Just awesome. Clip 9 and 10 are insane! And of course you have cute kids: Chip of the old Block.
Annother question, did you ever skated on ice?I know that it looks a bit weird an adult doing this, but I can't help it! :D This is my hobby since I was 14. :-)
Even worse! I heard of lots of adults do retro gaming in spare time :) Unbelievable!
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@GtBFilms Thanks for the note. I had never seen one - that's good for reference.
I am planning on building a regular sized one, but I am now curious about the PiCade. What's the screen resolution, and how comfortable is the joystick? Is it 8-way? 4-way? Just curious, as it might be an interesting alternative - or stopgap measure.
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@pjft the standard 8" screen is only 800 x 600 resolution. It looks okay on most games because the screen is so small, but I wouldn't like to have that resolution on a larger screen. The replacement 12" ones are 1024 x 768 generally I think.
The kit is kind of expensive at £180, but they occasionally do deals for 10% off at random intervals (I got their Star Wars 'May the Fourth' 10% discount)
You have to add your own raspberry pi and power supply.
Although its expensive I priced out all the components and to be honest, reckoned I couldn't do it much cheaper myself, once you factor in several lots of postage costs from different suppliers.
Downside is the small screen, and it's only single player.
The joystick is an 8 way zippyy stick, it has a restrictor plate underneath to limit it to 4 way if required. It's okay, but a bit too clicky. I replaced it with a Seimitsu stick (LS-32-SC) which does feel nicer, especially with a heavier aluminium bat handle on it. The standard kit buttons are fine, not too clicky or stiff and I have kept the stock ones (although I've now moved them all around and used the black ones on the control panel instead of the coloured ones) apart from the two new illuminated buttons I put on the front for COIN and 1P START.
I play it a lot more than my bartop as it's lighter and more portable. Also handy for taking along to our monthly retrogaming club meetings. However the bartop has a PC in it and can handle Future Pinball etc, and also is two player. The bartop also looks a lot better with vector based games such as asteroids, star wars etc as it's got a lot more graphic processing power. I would love a full size cab but sadly don't have the space (plus my wife's arcade cab tolerance level has definitely now been reached!)
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@meleu wow, that's amazing. I have a friend who is into skateboarding tricks but nothing like that! Pretty cool!
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@GtBFilms said in MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal:
Future Pinball
I love Future Pinball! Talk about a project, I'd love to make a full size virtual pinball table with a giant flatscreen monitor and a few smaller ones for the back glass and score readouts. Time, money and available space sadly prevent me from living the dream though.
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@mediamogul yeah, I've seen a few of these electronic pinball machine builds using full size HD TV and force feedback etc. on YouTube. They do look absolutely awesome.
I know a guy locally who was talking about building one, he's built a full size arcade cab with switchable control panels previously, but I don't think it's come to anything yet.
Sadly I have neither the cash, the expertise, nor the space for such a build. They look incredible though.
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It's funny how both familiar and foreign this game has felt at the same time. I worked out a couple of pattern-based strategies for the first few levels to stun the ghosts twice with each special item. That, along with keeping my peripheral vision locked to miru at all times so that she doesn't get away with anything, helps to a point. However, after about stage six or seven, I'm really just trying not to get caught by the ghosties. I'm gonna knock it on the head for this one and let my score stand at 89850.
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@mediamogul excellent score. I had another go on the PC on Friday, it was easier with a D-pad. However I didn't beat your score.
84470
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Hey guys. I'm sorry for not playing with you this week. The oil platform that I work will go through an audit and I'm having a lot of work in the last few days.
But my day off starts the day after tomorrow and I'll play with you in the MAME ROW #9: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/5336/mame-row-9
Cheers!
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@meleu Real life happens some times, thanks for still making all of this happen!
I'm sad that I didn't have a lot more chances to play Pac & Pal - I was having a good time with it. I will likely return to it in the future when I have the time - it was an enjoyable game, and one I wouldn't have discovered without ROW!
Congrats @mediamogul @GtBFilms for your great scores!
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Not a problem. Looking forward to the next one.
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@meleu
Thank you for hosting this! Sorry to hear about the audits but I just watched the movie Deepwater Horizon (2016) and that disaster could have been prevented if BP would have allowed for proper audits instead of rushing because they where behind schedule. Stay safe @meleu :-)I didn't have much time to play Pac & Pal but I could only get to the 2nd level so I didn't bother taking a picture of my high score but I did visit family this weekend and we got pretty competitive playing the Gameboy version of Tetris!
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@backstander said in MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal:
we got pretty competitive playing the Gameboy version of Tetris!
It's a great game to get competitive over. Arguable the best version of the game as well.
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@backstander @mediamogul Fully agreed.
In fact, any way to play it two player on RetroPie - or a similarly fun 2P competitive Tetris game?
That's one of the few games I get to play with my wife, but no version so far has been fully successful in winning us over - tried Tengen Tetris on the NES, Tetris Gaiden on the SNES, Tetris Plus 2 on MAME...
The closest one we got was the one in SNES on the Dr. Mario + Tetris bundle.
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@backstander said in MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal:
I just watched the movie Deepwater Horizon (2016)
I watched only the trailer when I went to watch Dr. Strange. Only the trailer was enough to make me have a huge lump in my throat.
I'm not sure if I'll watch this movie some day.
Now let's vote
on Kung-Fu Masterfor the MAME ROW #9! :) -
@pjft said in MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal:
@backstander @mediamogul Fully agreed.
In fact, any way to play it two player on RetroPie - or a similarly fun 2P competitive Tetris game?
yeah, tgb-dual. not looked into it myself https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/56jcnn/how_do_you_install_tgb_dual_gameboy_multiplayer/
That's one of the few games I get to play with my wife, but no version so far has been fully successful in winning us over - tried Tengen Tetris on the NES, Tetris Gaiden on the SNES, Tetris Plus 2 on MAME...
tetris battle gaiden is my fave :) ninja kid OP!
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