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Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: Zeno on November 30, 2007, 12:05:22 am

Title: Ms Pacman - New vs. Old roms?
Post by: Zeno on November 30, 2007, 12:05:22 am
Hey all,

Quick question for you Ms. Pac gurus...

I have been playing Ms. Pac for ages.  When I got my MAME cabinet up and running, my roms were  a perfect version of the arcade classic we all know and love.

I then purchased a Ms. Pac cabinet with a bad CPU.  I sent it in and had it fixed.  When I installed the fixed CPU, not everything was the same as the old version.  For example, the amount of time the ghosts are blue in the Pear level and the Banana level is not correct.  It's like their timing is switched.

This seems like a small deal, but not for me.  It makes it almost unplayable. 

Anyone else experience this?

Zeno
Title: Re: Ms Pacman - New vs. Old roms?
Post by: DeLuSioNal29 on November 30, 2007, 03:01:32 am
For example, the amount of time the ghosts are blue in the Pear level and the Banana level is not correct.  It's like their timing is switched.
I'm not really an expert about Ms. Pacman (the actual arcade), but I was toying around with the emulator in Mame.  Under the cheats menu, there are the following options, which affect the length of time the ghosts are blue:
--Practice Speeds--
-stay blue until eaten
-slow changeback
-moderate changeback
-quick changeback
-lightning changeback
-no change to blue

I was thinking... in order to create these cheats originally in the emulator, the cheats had to be discovered by exploits in the rom(s) correct?  In other words, to enable the cheat it inserts code into the original rom to alter it's behavior.  As such, would it be possible that the CPU that you had repaired is flawed?  It may appear to be working correctly for certain levels, but when you get to other levels in the rom the data is somehow corrupt and the ghosts are behaving abnormally.

Again, I'm not an expert, but at least it's something to consider.

- DeLuSioNaL
Title: Re: Ms Pacman - New vs. Old roms?
Post by: Fozzy The Bear on November 30, 2007, 06:59:51 am
Check the dip switch settings......

             As far as I remember MSPac has a difficulty level setting in there.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)