Paku Paku -- New DOS port of Pac man?

[deathshadow]

*** UPDATE *** version 1.6 released

Adding early stages of general MIDI and MT-32 support. (still very WIP, but cool none-the-less)

Official Site Page:
http://www.deathshadow.com/pakuPaku

Version History
http://www.deathshadow.com/pakuPaku_Revisions
(massive changes in 1.6)

Direct Download links:
http://www.deathshadow.com/downloads/paku_1_6.rar (59k)
http://www.deathshadow.com/downloads/paku_1_6.zip (67k)

Preview image:
http://www.deathshadow.com/images/pakuMenuThumb.png
Click for Larger (1024x768 - 17.1k) (http://www.deathshadow.com/images/pakuMenu.png)

Play it Live with jDOSBox (requires java)
http://www.deathshadow.com/pakuPakuLive

If you want the prebuilt .zip file for running it in jDOSBox with a custom .conf file included, you can get that here:
http://www.deathshadow.com/jdosbox/paku_1_6.zip

Which can be embedded easily into a web page with the following (valid HTML/XHTML) code.


****** [if IE]>
<object
classid="clsid:8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93"
width="640" height="400"
>
<![endif]****
****** [if !IE]>****
<object
type="application/x-java-applet"
width="640" height="400"
>
******<![endif]****
<param name="code" value="jdos.gui.MainApplet" />
<param name="archive" value="jdosbox_applet.jar,paku_1_6.zip" />
<param name="param1" value="-conf jar://dosbox.conf" />
<param name="param2" value="imgmount e jar://paku_1_6_160k.IMA -t floppy" />
<param name="param3" value="e:" />
<param name="param4" value="paku /cms" />
<p>
This game requires Java to function. Please either enable it in your browser, switch to a Java capable browser, or download the appropriate version off of
<a href="http://www.java.com">Oracle's Java Website</a>
</p>
</object>


Just thought I'd share that I've released a new pac-man game for Dos, with the minimum target being a 128 meg 4.77mhz 8088 with a CGA card...

What makes this one so special? It uses the "undocumented" 160x100 16 color mode -- the same one that classics like "round42", "moonbugs" and "tunneler" uses... and like "tunneler" I've got EGA/VGA support.

Unlike Jeoffrey Silverton's "tunneler" I don't just accept the odd/even 9 pixel issue on the VGA or the 50px black bar at the bottom of the EGA display -- so I reprogram the CRTC on both cards to try and force a true 640x200 or 640x400 display mode. On some clone VGA cards this does result in a stripe down one side, and on many clone EGA cards choke on the reprogram, so I've included a /safe command line option to make those cards use Silverton's technique of just reprogramming the scanline height.

I've also added a quick 3 voice audio stack, with support for adlib, C/MS (aka game blaster), Tandy/Jr and PC Speaker sound. Of these, C/MS actually sounds the best with tandy/jr a close second. (I always hated Adlib, and my code to support it is a bit dodgy). If you've got an old box with a SB 1.0 or a soundblaster 1.5/2.0 with the optional C/MS support chips installed your in for a treat -- a game by someone other than Sierra that supports it.

Runs great under DosBox, I suggest setting oplmode to CMS and using the /CMS command line option to enable that sound type, though if you like you can live with the default adlib sound -- it's still better than speaker. (kind-of)

Mostly I just made this as a stress reliever from my day job of dealing with nimrods trying to set website development back a decade with all the HTML5 nonsense -- Or should I say HTML 3.2 that they've stopped slapping a tranny doctype on and instead just slap a HTML5 one on for no good reason vomiting up presentational markup any old way. I've been on a real retrocomputing kick of late (as evidenced by my dusting off my Tandy 1000EX).

In terms of licensing I'm releasing it to the public domain, and you'll find the COMPLETE Turbo Pascal 7 source code in every major release's archive file.

I'm thinking over the next year I may release two or three more games using the same video/audio code base.

[Japo]

Cool. :) It could be reviewed for Abandonia Reloaded (http://www.reloaded.org/).

[Lulu_Jane]

Wow, this is pretty neat! Seconding that it should be on Reloaded.

[Japo]

I've requested it over there:

http://www.reloaded.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=11216

In case anyone is willing to write the review, post away (over there).

[Nick02]

Reviewed. :)

http://www.reloaded.org/download/Paku-Paku/513/

[deathshadow]

Edited the original post to link to version 1.4 -- most of the changes in this release is incorporating the fixes from the last batch of testing executables, and improving joystick handling by dividing up the two read routines to be called during timer ticks were not a whole lot else is going on. Spacing the two reads apart gives certain joystick interfaces (like that on the PcJr) that fail to discharge the capacitors when they aren't fully charged time to 'normalize' after reading one axis.

Basically if you try on some machines to read X and then immediately read Y the Y value will be all messsed up. Some people check that all bits on the interface are set, however that technique will hang certain machines like the tandy 1000 or a machine with the original PC gamecard if the second joystick isn't plugged in...

So instead of just sitting there waiting, I'm doing roundtable reads -- update the screen, read joystick X, run game logic, read joystick Y... lather, rinse, repeat.

Unless something major comes along as a problem, and unless I figure out why some CGA's meant to drive a LCD don't work with it, this is probably the final release of this game.

In other news, I've started preliminary game logic code for my next release which has the working title "Offense Command" which is going to be a bit more robust a redo/mashup of Moonbugs and the old TRS-80 Model 1 "defense command".

I've also been working on some sprites and animations for it:
http://www.cutcodedown.com/retroGames/dev/defense.png

If you've played any TRS-80 model 1/3 games some of those may seem like familiar friends.

[_r.u.s.s.]

paku paku :paco:

[Luchsen]

So, Paco-Paco cleans the FTP by eating the bad data and is hunted by the bad, bad uploaders who cry in horror because their precious random uploads are eaten?


Is it just me or does EGA not work in DOSBox?

Third and fourth attachment with /safe parameter:

[deathshadow]

Is it just me or does EGA not work in DOSBox?
0.74 has a code regression where you can't turn the 'blink' bit off... it's fixed in the SVN's so hopefully the next official release this will be resolved.

[Luchsen]

I like the back-to-the-roots Japanese title, by the way. :2thumbs:

[deathshadow]

Version 1.5 released:
http://www.cutcodedown.com/retroGames/paku_1_5.rar

I have to apologize for version 1.4, which thanks to the CVS tree getting all messed up turned into a total unrecognizable train wreck compared to the private 1.4 beta. I ended up having to scrap the extra "programmers tools" and go through by hand to clean the whole blasted thing up manually. I swear, the only thing about software like that which can be considered professional grade tools are the people promoting their use.

From now on I'll stick to doing my code revisions by hand.

So, cleaned up code to get rid of the ENDLESS regressions, added some speed optimizations (wringing another 25-36% speed out of the blit operations), fixed a few more PC Jr. issues, so this release should be as close to perfect as I'm going to get.

SHOULD tandy or PCJr owners have video issues, they can try the included PAKU1KJR.EXE file which is optimized for that platform and uses the 160x200 graphics mode. This may be too slow for the Jr but will at least run -- try the regular PAKU.EXE first, see if that works. If it doesn't then try the other one.

[deathshadow]

.. and here's 1.6, edited the original post, but you can find all the relevant data on the new official home of the project.

http://www.deathshadow.com/pakuPaku