MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal

obsidianspider

NOW I understand why this game won. It's very addictive once you get the hang of what to do. I can see this using up my lunch breaks for the rest of the week.

pjft

@obsidianspider ...and when you manage to get it to work ;)

Good score - I think my highest when we were just trying the games was around 36k or something. I think I made it to stage 4 maybe - the first or second after the first bonus round. Likely the first.

Still, hope to get to play some during the evenings these days, after putting the kids to bed!

backstander

Arcade Hunters Review: Namco's Pac & Pal

backstander

The Wikipedia page for Pac & Pal says that there's "An alternate version of this game features Chomp-Chomp, Pac-Man's dog from the animated cartoon series, in place of Miru, and the game's name is changed to Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp."

I think this would make more sense if a dog was picking up the items and taking them to the middle. Man's best friend!

pjft

@backstander Wow. Impressive!

GtBFilms

Does a score achieved on the PC count?

pjft

@GtBFilms I don't have a problem with that, as it is my understanding that this is really for fun and to get us to discover new games :) I'll leave it to @meleu to confirm or comment, though.

Congrats on the score - round 8, impressive!

mediamogul

@GtBFilms said in MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal:

Does a score achieved on the PC count?

Works for me. Nice score.

cyperghost

The game is totally underrated. It's surely one of the better PacMans from the series...
Great thanks to @GtBFilms for the explanation of the game mechanic :)

Competition stimulates business - fine voting and a high number of voters :)

mediamogul

@cyperghost said in MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal:

The game is totally underrated. It's surely one of the better PacMans from the series.

A sentiment we will not hear repeated if 'Professor Pac-Man' ever comes up for a vote.

cyperghost

@mediamogul Haha ... maybe in ROW #9 PacMans World vs Street Fighter II???
Who will win?
Seriously, there are tons of bad games but every ROW winner was a good selection.

obsidianspider

@mediamogul said in MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal:

'Professor Pac-Man'

Wow. Just Wow.

cyperghost

@obsidianspider Now I'm feeling old :D
Do you think there is a question like "Tell me a colourful animal!" - possible answer: ZEBRA

backstander

@obsidianspider

I think I might've paid more attention in school if it was like this game!

mediamogul

When I was a kid, our local movie theater chose to add Prof-Pac to it's collection. I clearly remember that in a crowded room full of children and teenagers, the prime real estate that this cabinet occupied was a complete void of activity for at least five feet around the unit. I took naps there when I got sleepy until some older boys drew a swear word on my forehead.

meleu

@GtBFilms said in MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal:

Does a score achieved on the PC count?

Sure! We talked about it on the first round (the Phoenix round) and decided that it's OK to play on any platform you want. I forgot to mention it on the "rules". I'll put it from now on. ;-)

GtBFilms

@mediamogul Thanks for that, a google on 'mame 0.78 roms' soon got me the right version, and in lr-mame2003 my weird sound delay problems are gone.

Still can't manage to beat my PC score though - closest I've got was 37,000. I think I just got lucky one time!

mediamogul

@GtBFilms said in MAME ROW #8: Pac & Pal:

my weird sound delay problems are gone.

Glad it's working for you. Man, we really have a great turn out this week. Pac-Man really brings out the players.

pjft

Didn't get to play it yesterday, hopefully I'll manage today. Very much looking forward to it :)

mediamogul

I've mentioned this in other areas of the forum, but in the spirit of level-grounded competition, I'll repeat it here. It should be noted that with all maze-based Pac titles, you'll always be working at a disadvantage through MAME's default control scheme. In an effort to maintain compatibility with all possible input devices, MAME allows full directional control from almost any input device. This raises a problem in games that were designed with only four directions in mind. When using a typical hatswitch DPad, an analog axis, or even an arcade setup with more than four directions, the controls become momentarily unresponsive and even confused when angles are input from the control device. Some of you may have already noticed this when navigating the tight corners in this game.

The easiest way to combat this is to stay away from analog joysticks entirely and stick to digital input. Even then, making clear and concise movements in four directions will allow for greater control with any digital input device that allows for more than four directions, which pretty much includes every modern digital input device. For anyone looking to get the type of control found in the original machine, I have posted instructions on the RetroPie wiki, explaining how to restrict a controller's movement to four ways using xboxdrv. Unfortunately, this technique only works with standard joystick input devices and not devices that identify as keyboard input.