How Did I miss This? Pac-man CE DX on the PC?

[Howard_Casto]

Apparently the game was released earlier this year in the windows 8 marketplace. 

I was wondering if anybody had it.  What I'm curious about is if the game actually uses a version of direct-x or some other reason that it's win 8 only, or if it's just a marketing thing.  I would very much like to run this on XP or a similar OS if it's possible. 

I could also see myself doing a quick hack that rotates the text, the logos, the fruit and the ghosts 90 degrees, essentially making a vertical version of the game. 

[Le Chuck]

Oh god yeah, I'd be down for that. 

[Brian74]

Oh god yeah, I'd be down for that.

+1

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[ed12]

go to slashdot.org
there is a wirte up on the game on a rasbery

ed

[Howard_Casto]

I'm gonna need a link for that man.  Searching for pac-man yields zero results.  Searching for "pacman" only nets 20 and most of them are about that google doodle released last year. 

[Le Chuck]

On an rpi?  Wouldn't have thought it possible.   

[Howard_Casto]

I saw an article from a couple of days ago about setting up MAME and various emulators on a PI on Slashdot, but that is decidedly not what we are talking about. 

[Rigby]

Apparently the game was released earlier this year in the windows 8 marketplace. 

I was wondering if anybody had it.  What I'm curious about is if the game actually uses a version of direct-x or some other reason that it's win 8 only, or if it's just a marketing thing.  I would very much like to run this on XP or a similar OS if it's possible. 

I could also see myself doing a quick hack that rotates the text, the logos, the fruit and the ghosts 90 degrees, essentially making a vertical version of the game.

I have a Surface RT, and this game runs on it.  This means that it is a .NET application, most likely written in C#.  It is likely that you'll be able to disassemble the package to a degree, but surely Namco have put in place features which would prevent any tinkering.  Decompilation is never exact, and even if you were able to decompile the entire app and see all the assets, it is unlikely that it would run again if it even compiled.

Someone will significant skills will need to apply some cleverness in order to make that app into anything it isn't already.

[Sjaak]

I can do that...

[Rigby]

Yeah, you could, probably.  I would think it would be easier to rewrite it from scratch with XNA than to decompile, modify, recompile, and test, but you're more skilled in these arts than I.

[Le Chuck]

I can't, but I'm a big fan of those who do

[Howard_Casto]

Apparently the game was released earlier this year in the windows 8 marketplace. 

I was wondering if anybody had it.  What I'm curious about is if the game actually uses a version of direct-x or some other reason that it's win 8 only, or if it's just a marketing thing.  I would very much like to run this on XP or a similar OS if it's possible. 

I could also see myself doing a quick hack that rotates the text, the logos, the fruit and the ghosts 90 degrees, essentially making a vertical version of the game.

I have a Surface RT, and this game runs on it.  This means that it is a .NET application, most likely written in C#.  It is likely that you'll be able to disassemble the package to a degree, but surely Namco have put in place features which would prevent any tinkering.  Decompilation is never exact, and even if you were able to decompile the entire app and see all the assets, it is unlikely that it would run again if it even compiled.

Someone will significant skills will need to apply some cleverness in order to make that app into anything it isn't already.

Umm yeah, that's why I said that I could do it.  I mean no offense but perhaps you should check some of my threads before you assume I can't do it. 
Assuming it will run on a non-windows 8 machine (which was what I was asking).  There's no reason to decompile and recompile.  I'll find the texture assets via memory/hex editing, modify them and put them back. 

Also while I'm sure it's totally possible that it's a .net/xna application, considering that it started life on the 360, I highly doubt it.  My guess is it's straight C, not C# and while it might use .net for superficial things, the core of the game is most likely in C.  Of course this is pure speculation based upon previous 360 to PC ports.  I could be wrong on that.

Regardless, that doesn't tell me what I need to know.  .net will run on xp, as will xna.  I need to know the version of directx it uses, if any and if there are any win8 specific locks that prevent it from running on xp or 7.

You see, what's sketchy is if it's even a real pc app or not.  It was released for win 7 phones a year or two ago and it could be that win 8 is running that version via some sort of emulation layer.  Also it isn't entirely clear to me if the win 8 version that runs on tablets is a true version of win 8, or a slightly stripped down model, similar to the old windows CE. In regards to everything else I'm more than knowledgeable, but I've yet to deal with Win 8, much less have a working knowledge of it's backend.  (Thankfully.  ) 

[Rigby]

Umm yeah, that's why I said that I could do it.  I mean no offense but perhaps you should check some of my threads before you assume I can't do it. 
Assuming it will run on a non-windows 8 machine (which was what I was asking).  There's no reason to decompile and recompile.  I'll find the texture assets via memory/hex editing, modify them and put them back. 

Ah, I wasn't assuming anything; sorry.  I have no idea who you are or what you're capable of.  I just said that someone who knows what they're doing will need to attempt it.  If you know what you're doing and you want to try it then I would definitely ask for you to do this because it would be pretty awesome, no doubt.

Also while I'm sure it's totally possible that it's a .net/xna application, considering that it started life on the 360, I highly doubt it.  My guess is it's straight C, not C# and while it might use .net for superficial things, the core of the game is most likely in C.  Of course this is pure speculation based upon previous 360 to PC ports.  I could be wrong on that.

The current paradigm is to use XNA because a single XNA app can be deployed virtually unmodified to Windows Phone 8, Xbox360, and Windows 8.  Since this game exists on all three, and there are 4 different processor architectures between the three platforms, (PowerPC, ARM, x86, & x86_64) I'm reasonably confident this is C# XNA.  I'm no XNA or Windows Store application dev, though, so I'm speaking from a theoretical viewpoint, not a practical one.  If you find out what platform it is, though, please let us know.  It would be nice to know for a certainty.

Regardless, that doesn't tell me what I need to know.  .net will run on xp, as will xna.  I need to know the version of directx it uses, if any and if there are any win8 specific locks that prevent it from running on xp or 7.

It's probably DX10 since that's what XNA itself requires, but since it's a Metro/Modern app, getting it to run on Win7 or WinXP unmodified is probably unpossible.  Again, I have no idea what you're capable of, and maybe it is possible to run Metro/Modern apps on Win7 with some hacks.  No idea at all.

You see, what's sketchy is if it's even a real pc app or not.  It was released for win 7 phones a year or two ago and it could be that win 8 is running that version via some sort of emulation layer.  Also it isn't entirely clear to me if the win 8 version that runs on tablets is a true version of win 8, or a slightly stripped down model, similar to the old windows CE. In regards to everything else I'm more than knowledgeable, but I've yet to deal with Win 8, much less have a working knowledge of it's backend.  (Thankfully.  )

If it's XNA then it's a real PC app, but it'll require the XNA redist to be available to run.  Windows 8 on the Surface Pro is full Windows 8.  Windows 8 on the Surface RT is a build compiled for ARM and is stripped down quite a bit to extend battery life.  One can compile Windows apps (desktop-style apps) to run on Windows RT (not to be confused with WinRT the runtime, or Surface RT the device) using regular compiling tools and by doing a soft jailbreak on the RT.  I've run MAME on the Surface RT in this way.

[Sjaak]

Can you copy the files and send them to me?

[Rigby]

So the fact that the asset files are right there on disk unencrypted leads me to believe this is either protected in some other way or won't run at all unless the checksums are valid.  Looking a the files makes it seem that the Windows 8 Store apps are all integrity checked before execution.  They're all in a hidden folder that you can't get access to without taking ownership, and all the apps are owned by the SYSTEM user.  Meager old Rigby only has low integrity level on his account and therefore can't edit any files.  only the SYSTEM user has enough trust to modify them without taking ownership of each file individually.  I'm not really willing to go that deep.

this exists.  You could get a copy of the game that way.  I'm not going to distribute my copy.

There is a file called Microsoft.Xbox.dll but I think that might just be the XBL integration component.  not sure.

[Howard_Casto]

All of that is extremely helpful, thanks....

If it's a system wide deal with the apps where that they all use the same security system (think Steam or Windows Live) then I probably won't have to do anything... the hackerz will figure out a workaround. 


I should be able to track down a copy and poke around with it a little.  It's not a high priority atm, but assuming that I can get it running on something else, I should be able to do some mods, although I don't know how extensive I can get.  I would just be satisfied with a pseudo vertical mode so I could put it on my pac-man cab. 

[Rigby]

I should be able to track down a copy and poke around with it a little.  It's not a high priority atm, but assuming that I can get it running on something else, I should be able to do some mods, although I don't know how extensive I can get.  I would just be satisfied with a pseudo vertical mode so I could put it on my pac-man cab.

Given what I saw in those files, rotation of anything you want will not be an issue at all, if you can get the app to run without integrity checks.  The graphic assets are plain Jane .png files.

There's a soft jailbreak (soft because you lose it on reboot) for Windows RT that lets you bypass integrity checks, so it seems this would also exist on vanilla Windows 8.

[Chris John Hunter]

I love PM I'd love to be able to play that. ---smurfing--- DX10. What kind of shader does Pacman need ffs.
 

Bloody Microsoft trying to shoehorn game developers into DX10/11 only/Win 8 only territory forcing gamers to upgade this years model of a polished ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

XP has been the best OS they made end of. Its like Office. Every version they play about with all the stuff you like just so they can say they updated it.

[Howard_Casto]

Well just for the record I didn't pursue this any further because at E3 they announced the pac-man collection, that'll include all the pacman's up until battle royale.  It's slated to be released on the pc and the Wii U. 

Now it's unknown if "pc" means an actual pc release and not the win 8 b.s.  but it comes out later this year, so for now I'd just rather be patient.   

[Rigby]

I love PM I'd love to be able to play that. ---smurfing--- DX10. What kind of shader does Pacman need ffs.
 

Bloody Microsoft trying to shoehorn game developers into DX10/11 only/Win 8 only territory forcing gamers to upgade this years model of a polished ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

XP has been the best OS they made end of. Its like Office. Every version they play about with all the stuff you like just so they can say they updated it.

DX10 has been supported by cards for a long while now, since Windows Vista SP1, which was released in early 2008.  It is likely that you have DX10 cards and don't know it.

[Howard_Casto]

It's been supported by cards, but not really by software. 

Let's put it this way... say you've got a pc game you want to release.  You can work in dx11 or dx10 and your game will only run in win vista and above.  On the other hand, make your game in dx9 or dx8 (yes people still write stuff for dx8 believe it or not) and it'll run on just about anything. 

And this is Microsoft's doing.  There isn't anything stopping dx10 and 11 from working in XP... they just deliberately don't release a version for Xp to force people to upgrade.  This is evident by the fact that some people have gotten dx10 working in xp simply by using a hacked installer. 

Of course this is changing, xp is going by the wayside (although I'm sure 8's totally failure has stalled it a bit longer). 

[Chris John Hunter]

Rigby, I know, but it's not that. I don't appreciate MS forcing users to upgrade when they don't need to. I write games for a living and I make them without shaders. Direct X9 is bloody decent for anything other than cutting edge games- you know the ones- Mine, they thus work with anything XP and above.

I have PCs with Win 7. It just annoys me that games that could technically be played with XP and soon, Win7 are being locked out to only play on systems so that we upgrade.

I don't want Microsoft telling me . Lets face it XP was great. Direct X too. But Microsoft have an agenda. Something that Direct X was invented for, cross platform integration is being got rid off so that MS can fill the coin jar. 

We all remember when they did away with Dos. Ultimately DX was much better platform and all pcs now are IBM PC compatibles remember.

Also, I object to MS having so much power that no one can compete in the Operating System stakes with them because they have such a stranglehold on development on the PC. - Win 8. Very bad news.
Trying to retrofit a locked App Store. This is not as if MS invented the PC.

With the IPod etc... Apple's own tech. Nintendo was doing that in the 80s. With licences and Sega. But Microsoft had sod all to do with inventing the platform.

Remember when you would buy say, An Amiga when you knew you could play (in my case) Jimmy White's Whirldwind Snooker and Lemmings?

Or a PS1 for Crash Bandicoot. Its the same thing, but this time your being told to upgrade for no good reason. Thats what I object to.


I bet if there is another edition of House of the Dead it will only be Win7/8 and yet, technically the code hasn't changed since the first one. Its just Op Wolf on rails. Probably needs DX8 max. 


You might find Howard that that collection works on XP, because they want to spread the net far and wide, hence the collection. Probably didn't sell as many as expected.


I have a PC here that can play absolutely anything. Its not the point. What about others that don't.

Apologies for the rant but it 'gets on my tits'. (English expression)
 

[Rigby]

I agree that planned obsolescence and artificial scarcity are bad things, but surely you don't consider the UNIVAC I to be a valid platform for new software today; somewhere between the UNIVAC I and Windows 8.1 is the line where it no longer makes sense to develop software, but the location of that line will vary from person to person. 

I agree that MS should not push new versions so hard, but they don't force you to upgrade; customers upgrade at their own will and you as a game developer must chase them, if you want their business.  I agree that old platforms provide engaging game play, and can run spreadsheet software, but businesses require lots of new sales to stay alive (look at the arcade business, which lost almost all sales, and where it is or isn't going). 

Microsoft is providing avenues for new sales when it releases new systems and technologies.  It is an unfortunate reality that most computer users do not understand the computers they use day to day, and that they can use their hardware and OS much longer than they believe.  Microsoft and hardware vendors take advantage of this and offer the customers what they think they want, and the vast majority of customers think they want something new all the damn time.

I'm not agreeing with anything they do, except that they continually improve their products.  No, there are probably no effects in this Pacman game that require DX10 shaders, or that couldn't be provided by a DX9 shader, but the Win8 platform itself requires it for some reason, artificial or natural, and if you want to publish a game on the Windows Store you must meet the minimum requirements, whether they are technically valid or not.  I'm not saying it is right; I'm saying it is how it is.  If Namco wants to release a Pacman game for the Surface RT then they must abide by that platform's requirements, and that's what they did.

If you really want to do the right thing, you should support OpenGL.  Valve says it outperforms DirectX on Windows.  OpenGL is not inferior in any meaningful way, except in that of public opinion, and very often has new features before DirectX adopts them.  You'll also gain the ability to go cross-platform to Linux or Mac, if you choose to.

[Chris John Hunter]

Rigby. I agree with a lot of what you say but not with some of it.


1, Most casual game players (ones I do) , have older hardware.
2, The more systems your game can play on = More sales = More money to pay the bills.
3, I can write a game that will work with both XP Vista and 7. This is what I do.
4, Nothing Windows 8 says to me, this is essential.
5, When my games come out they play on 7. I haven't tried them on 8 but I am assuming they
I suppose I could do two builds one that is DX11 and one that is DX9 and when the installer
checks the operating system it installs the correct version. Actually I am going to do that in future,
and I might throw in a few shader effects just to justify it. It already tweaks its install for 7.


Eventually I will give up on XP but casual / retro /
2d games don't need it and it doesn't take a lot to make sure at DESIGN STAGE you don't integrate
anything too tech heavy. I think the AMIGA DIED TOO SOON memories keep me awake at night
 

Open GL is a pain in the arse. In the days of dos, id say you were right but not now.

[Howard_Casto]

I would just like to point out that OGL sucks, it always has.  The package itself has always been good to work with, but video card support of OGL has always been sketchy, so by making a game in ogl you automatically require a beefier video card if it's anything high-end.  Same goes for it's (ill)logical replacement, sdl. 

So we are stuck with directx basically.  The problem just lies in Microsoft's deployment.  They need to make it more like .net.... just an installer package instead of how they treat it now, which basically integrates it with the OS to where you can't down-grade, you can only "officially" install it on what they tell you, ect....

I'm not sure why the Namco guys would give a crap about surface.  All of their games decidedly need a joystick... ever played the android ports of some of the pac-man games?  they are crap. 

And just to bring home the point that xp is still relevant, all of your modern arcade games essentially run on a pc using XP Embedded.  If Microsoft keeps on, what few new arcade titles we get are going to diminish even further.  Right now a company can make an arcade game on the xp-based machine and then easily release it on the pc later with minimal effort.  Since the effort is so minimal, we still get a few games every year.  Once Microsoft makes it so that pc games must be win 8 compatible, the companies will just ditch the arcade version, which makes less of a profit.   

[Rigby]

I don't know, I play a lot of OpenGL stuff on my ATI card and it all seems to run just fine.  I'll boot over into Linux once in a while and try out TF2 there and it's just as fast as on Windows.  I run with vertical sync on though so as long as they're both 60fps I wont' notice a difference.

Windows 8 Embedded exists, and I will add that Windows XP and Windows XP Embedded are not the same operating system at all.  True, it is easier to port an app from one to the other than it is to port to/from another embedded OS, and true, they share a lot of the same development frameworks, but the CPU, RAM, and disk on an embedded device are necessarily MUCH smaller in every non-arcade system I've seen.  The low CPU, RAM & disk requirements are why you choose an embedded platform in the first place.  I imagine arcades use the embedded versions because they can be real-time operating systems, whereas desktop OSs cannot.

[Howard_Casto]

TF2 isn't exactly a high end game. 

You can take an app that was designed for xpe and just throw it on a xp machine and 9 times out of 10 it just runs.  They might not be the same os, but they have the same architecture to where if you write an app for xpe you are almost assured that it'll run on other windows operating systems. 

Embedded 8 exists, but nobody is really using it and unless the popularity of 8 ever increases I doubt anyone will.  There is a reason that even though you can get embedded versions of nearly all the windows versions and yet people still prefer the xpe version. 

Afaik the arcade use xpe (and in some cases flavors of Linux) due to rapid game development time.  Arcade manufacturers don't really care about efficiency.... they charge thousands for their machines in this day and age, so a couple hundred extra for added ram, ect doesn't really phase them.  Writing a game without a OS to do the heavy lifting is a pain in the butt.  XPE is cheap, familiar and again, leads to easy porting. 

Of course the sad thing is that eventually everybody will use 8... all new machines come with 8.  We can only hope that they do like they did with the whole vista debacle and release a windows 9 very soon. 

[Rigby]

TF2 isn't exactly a high end game. 

Hah, yeah TF2 isn't a great example.

You can take an app that was designed for xpe and just throw it on a xp machine and 9 times out of 10 it just runs.  They might not be the same os, but they have the same architecture to where if you write an app for xpe you are almost assured that it'll run on other windows operating systems. 

If that's true then it's likely the .NET framework which is actually running the app.  Every embedded XP system I've used was on a non-x86 processor, though I've definitely not seen them all.

Embedded 8 exists, but nobody is really using it and unless the popularity of 8 ever increases I doubt anyone will.  There is a reason that even though you can get embedded versions of nearly all the windows versions and yet people still prefer the xpe version. 

It just came out a few weeks ago.  Embedded systems are chosen because of their stability and their extremely low rate of change.  There are still people using DOS embedded.  Hell, my employer still uses mainframes all over the place.  If it works, don't fix it.

Afaik the arcade use xpe (and in some cases flavors of Linux) due to rapid game development time.  Arcade manufacturers don't really care about efficiency.... they charge thousands for their machines in this day and age, so a couple hundred extra for added ram, ect doesn't really phase them.  Writing a game without a OS to do the heavy lifting is a pain in the butt.  XPE is cheap, familiar and again, leads to easy porting. 

No argument, but being able to guarantee that a button press will be detected next interval is a huge benefit to one writing an arcade game, or any game, really.   This is what an RTOS such as embedded XP can offer that desktop OSs just can't.  I'm actually hoping that Linux takes off in gaming; there was a rumor a while back about the PS4 running Linux at its core, and Valve's SteamBox is rumored to do so as well.  It is a very easy platform to get your hands on, and the kernel is a very good example of modern-day software architecture.  It's all the userland opensource freetard desktop environment crap that makes ALL Linux desktop distributions terrible; the kernel is solid and is a very good performer.

Of course the sad thing is that eventually everybody will use 8... all new machines come with 8.  We can only hope that they do like they did with the whole vista debacle and release a windows 9 very soon.

Windows 8.1 (which is codenamed "Windows Blue" I believe) is coming out later this year as a free upgrade.  If you read up on it, it's clear that MS is saying "we're sorry please give us another try" in a lot of ways.  Not all ways, but a lot of ways.

Not everyone will stick to Win8 Embedded, but once someone starts using it, they will be very reluctant to leave.  Win8 Embedded would be an excellent OS for tiny computing devices with touchscreens, such as alarm control panels, smart thermostats, etc.  I used to work in diesel engine testing, and a smart embedded touch screen controller would work well for a lot of those automated systems.  Win8 Embedded would be one of a few good choices for that use case.

[Chris John Hunter]

Howard, your right Open GL is a pain in the arse. Especially to code for. Sometimes for no reason your framerate drops though the floor whereas on another system with different card it runs smoothly.


When they brought out DirectX it basically did the one thing we all wished for allowed you to code for one system and know it would run on any system with different hardware and equivalent processing power.


This was a godsend.


HAL / Direct X / Win XP are the best things Microsoft have ever done. And it makes me laugh to think their ropey
Microsoft Basic got them here. I love them for it. But I hate them for everything else.




People are spending less time in the arcades. We prove that just by being here that less people will be willing to pay (UK) 50p a play on a machine now. So less and less arcade machines will appear.


Do you remember what happened with ME? I think that peoples reactions to 8 will force Microsoft to either release the next edition, or in fact, a patched up upgrade to 7. To meet peoples requirements. Between the next version and I don't mean 8.1 or whatever.

[Chris John Hunter]

TF2 isn't exactly a high end game. 

No. Its a bloody good game though.     Of all the FPS's. Wolfenstien 3d. Doom. and a handful of others. A lot of them are generic shite. Bad design. !

DIVERSION

With games whatever you do, its all about DESIGN! Some people actually code games without sketching them out first. No wonder they end up throwing money into a massive pit and scratch their heads going 'Why don't we have a game yet?'

All the classic retro games were designed very well , You can spend money on design, say artists working but a decent design document can save a developer a fortune.

Back to point, I think its dumb to target a decidely retro game at the latest platforms. Sonic and Mario aside. Which Mario in particular always pushes things forward tech wise. I counted up over 100 Mario games the other day. They've really had their moneys worth..

If I was Mario id transfer in the draft.

Strange guy, happily breaks rocks with his head but gets killed when he touches a turtle.

[Howard_Casto]

Well to be fair turtles bite. 

I agree about the design thing btw.... it's one of the reasons I so adamantly defend Nintendo on these forums.  Sure they sometimes do seemingly odd things, but nobody can deny that the design of their games is second to none.  I don't really care if their latest box is quirky or underpowered, because I'll get those superior games on it.  I've heard they'll spend months just tweaking Mario's jumps in a new game, for example.  For other developers, as soon as the character can jump... they are done tweaking.   

I certainly hope that in the future devices do NOT switch over to Linux.  Linux just doesn't know what to do with hardware, mostly because of the previously mentioned open-sourced free for all.  And again, it's biggest problem is that it doesn't have directX.  I doubt the ps4 is running on Linux considering it's rumored to run dx11 (not sure how they managed that considering the Xbone).  I mean Linux is trying... sdl is an attempt to make a direct-x like standard, but much like ogl it's just not as good.   

The best thing about windows programming is directx.  The worst part is the fact the Microsoft owns directx.  It's a paradox really. 

[Chris John Hunter]

Howard, you and me are in total agreement here. Nintendo. Wow and Sega to a major extent in the past designed games very well they had bigger teams before anyone else, they took care to design fun enjoyable games that had what we used to call last-ability built in challenge and longevity. If your paying upwards of 40 Dollars / 30 quid a game it has to be good and it has to be at least a few weeks challenge.

You cannot fault Nintendo when it comes to the quality of their games. I haven't played anything of theirs I didn't at least like to some extent. Go back to the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Check out those games.
I know they had a stranglehold on developers wanting things like MK and anything unfamily orientated but then thats fair enough they didn't call it the Fami-Com in Japan for nothing. Licences and that.
The only thing is they milk that cash cow man do they milk it others are guilty too but ---fudgesicle--- I think they had Mario Golf at one point. I am shocked they haven't had Mario Soccer. Mario Baseball. Mario Basketball. I think I would actually like to see that.
They had that Apple Apps thing locked up back then! But they DID develop the platform and not just the OS and that's what annoys me with Win 8. This underhanded in the shadows way MS operates.


IIRC IBM created the PC as we know it. We are only using Compatibles.


With XP, you are forced to upgrade to Service Packs which in turn put crap in there to keep tabs on you. Nag you about Genuine XP and loads of other bollocks. They invented spyware! 


Yes Direct X is great. The XBOX! Great game machine. Microsoft try to have a finger in every pie and eventually they get their fingers chopped off. Problem is they have cloaked their code in so much red tape that stuff we should all have access to on a level fair playing field (to develop our own type of Direct X or OS) means we cant compete. So many things are geared towards MS OS platform that migration to Linux or another would be incredibly difficult I like the IDEA of it. But it doesn't have support for a ton of things and to get the whole industry to move to that unstable and unsecured platform is not going to happen. Everyone tries to hedge their bets.

I see Mario's brother has given up Plumbing and become a ghostbuster.

 

[Howard_Casto]

Actually.... there's a game called Mario Strikers... it's Mario Soccer. 

Mario Baseball and Mario Basketball have been been both explored in stand alone games (Mario Hoops 3 on 3 and Mario Baseball Stars respectively) and in the Mario Sports Mix games.  Most of these were released in the gamecube era and since the gc didn't sell all that well they never caught on.  They are surprisingly good though... again, not sure how they manage to always pull that kind of stuff off.  Nintendo decided after that to exploit their little money printing mascot a little less. 

[Chris John Hunter]

Actually.... there's a game called Mario Strikers... it's Mario Soccer. 

Mario Baseball and Mario Basketball have been been both explored in stand alone games (Mario Hoops 3 on 3 and Mario Baseball Stars respectively) and in the Mario Sports Mix games.  Most of these were released in the gamecube era and since the gc didn't sell all that well they never caught on.  They are surprisingly good though... again, not sure how they manage to always pull that kind of stuff off.  Nintendo decided after that to exploit their little money printing mascot a little less. 

I think they thought, hang on a minute if we push it too far we might alienate the people who really love the original mario games. Did you ever play Paper Mario. That was funny as ---fudgesicle---.


Ah! That would be Mario Football then I hate bloody golf. But Mario Golf was alright
I really enjoy the 'Cart' games. They remind me of Powerdrift in the arcades. Crash Team Racing was my favourite, Crash Bandicoot rocked.

Why are they not making CB games for PS3 ? They could be incredible.

[Chris John Hunter]

Back in the day, we had a couple of machines, Sinclair Spectrum and Amstrad that were not very well known outside of the UK but they were good. Not as good as the C64 which was my main weapon of choice but they were good.

Anyway, A guy called Jim Bagley. A coder from the spectrum 8bit days. He put a game called Manic Miner (if you've never heard of it check it out - based on Miner 2049er) on original pacman hardware.  I mean coded it on the original hardware and then got a mate of mine to build him a cab for it.

Cool as. But only if you remember Manic Miner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miner_2049er
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manic_Miner






I'm interested in this concept. I wouldn't mind a crack at converting a game to the CP1 system. Upgrade the graphics and sound while I am at it. It's based around a

Motorola 68000 Which IIRC is the same processor in the Amiga. Which is a bit of a mystery why the conversions were sometimes a bit off. Final Fight was alright.

[Le Chuck]

So anybody ported pac-man ce dx yet?














How bouts now?   

[Howard_Casto]

Eh like I said earlier Namco announced this uber compilation that'll be released later this year... it'll include everything from the classics to CE and battle royale, so it's probably best to wait until that is released. 

[Howard_Casto]

Hell yeah!  They've updated the article.  It now specifically states that steam will be the delivery platform for the collection!  Now I'm not a fan of steam, but at least that confirms that it doesn't use the windows 8 marketplace b.s. 

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/06/pac_man_museum_announced_for_wii_u_and_3ds_eshops