Pacmanoid
by Richard Eric M. Lope
A Pac-Man clone...not bad for a first try...
| Premise | A Pac-man clone. Eat all the pellets. Don' t get killed. |
| I have to say that this game is pretty cool. While there is only
one map, and only two ghosts, the game tries to be the best it can. Initially there is the question as to how fast your computer is so it can slow down enough for it. Unfortunately it might not be slow enough for some of the faster computers out there. Still, the code is there so you can change the code if you want to. Besides that the game basically offers you a playing field. I haven't looked at the code at all, but I see that the AI is a little better than the ghosts in my own first Pacman game...Anyway, once you eat all the pellets, the level resets and you continue again. This reminds me of the original Pac-Man in that there was no end really, but the only real problem design-wise is that the program just ends if you get a game over. It has an intro and all, but a menu there would have been perfect so that once you get a game over you go there so you can decide whether or not you want to exit. There is also a nice added benefit: Pressing A or L gives you an increased number of lives. You won't notice it at first, but when you lose a life, you will see them all. I would normally think that this is a nice feature, but because of some problems with the controls and the speed, it is almost necessary. |
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| While they aren't anything to swoon over, they do their job. The walls and the pellets look normal. The sprites are pretty small so that any animation is flickerless for the most part. The movement is smooth, and the flashing tiles that indicate that you ate a power pellet add a bit to the game. Again, it isn't flashy, but for this game the graphics do a good job of conveying the action. | |
| Possibly the weakest area of this game, it might have more to do with the speed of the game than anything else. I found that it was hard to turn towards an opening because you end up going past it over and over and over again. If you don't know what I mean, you never played Pac-Man before! In the arcade game, it happens periodically, but that is usually your fault anyway. In this game, it can be frustrating because it happens so much even if you really try to avoid it. Perhaps the 100Mhz computers will have better luck, but I played it on my 800Mhz, and it was way too fast. Here at work (where I am doing this review now) I am on a 300Mhz and I still think that speed played a role in causing the control complications. My laptop for some reason ran perfectly fine, and so I found that the controls on this machine were perfect. For the most part, the controls are fluid though. If the game would take into account speed based on the timer rather than for specific machines, future gamers with 2Ghz machines would be able to enjoy these games. Bad control can easily ruin the game. | |
| Basically PC speaker sound effects, but there is a bit of music to let you know that you ate a power pellet and that you had eaten one of the enemies. It isn't too intrusive, and it does add to the game a bit. | |
| This game was pretty difficult to play, mainly because the game runs way to fast for me to avoid the enemies, but also because even if I am running from the enemies, I sometimes get trapped because the controls are not as good as they should be. Once you get used to the idea that you don't have full control of your character and once you get used to the speed, the game gets a little easier, but never easy enough. One of the problems is in the AI of the enemies. They will move back and forth in the same spot over and over again, and they move so fast that there is no way you would be able to get past them; however, if you can get them to come from above, they get stuck in the center in a single spot! At that point you can get as many pellets as you want without fear of being attacked. This not so balanced challenge derives from an unfinished game. Still, for what it is, this game does provide a challenge if you ignore all that. | |
| While I did finally get into this game, the sharp learning curve (for the controls and the speed) would turn off most gamers. The challenge does provide an incentive to keep playing, but like any game that has the same level over and over again, you eventually want to stop. I would have enjoyed it more if the problems weren't there, but the game does grow on you...and then eventually dies. | |
| Aside from the problems mentioned, I think that this is a worthy first attempt at a program. I even think it was better than my game (even though my game had cherries B-) hehe). If you want to try out a game, and perhaps even look at the code, this download would be good for you. For serious gamers, you can probably pass this game up. | |
| .zip file: 9.73KB download | |
| V Planet |