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Jake

Idle Thumbs 67: Dot Gobbler

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The ghost AI stuff is really fascinating. It shows an attention to mechanical detail that isn't often associated with that era of video games. I wonder how the developers came to the decision to program specific behaviours for each ghost.

I bet it's to give the impression of non-deterministic behavior for the ghosts. If they all behaved the same, it would be a lot more obvious. A very clever solution.

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That is an interesting hypothesis. This paragraph from the strategy guide toblix linked describes their behaviour.

"When it comes down to it, Blinky and Pinky are the most dangerous of the four ghosts. Blinky tries to attack you by taking the shortest path that he can find to Pac-Man's current position. Pinky, on the other hand, tries to ambush you by moving to the location that you seem to be headed in. Compared to these two, Inky and Clyde just don't have that "killer instinct". Inky won't really pursue you too strongly unless Blinky is around, and Clyde just seems to be in a world of his own."

Maybe they realised they had to give them distinct routines then decided to continue elaborating. I like that Clyde is specifically programmed to be an idiot. Also the implication that Inky's behaviour is dependent on Blinky is amazing. It seems like they had a lot of fun with the ghosts.

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Here's a more detailed look at Pac-Man's ghost AI, aided by an actual deconstruction of what the code's doing. For example, it notes that Inky's behavior IS dependent on Blinky's state—but it's not so simple as he gets artificially smarter when Blinky's near Pac-Man.

Related: everything you'll ever want to know about Pac-Man.

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Everybody should read up on Pac-Man AI, it is truly excellent and it shows how important it is to have engaging, elaborate, and varied enemy AI.

The game

, for the GBA and DS is sort of an isometric Metroid rip-off. But where Metroid games have enemies that shuffle back and forth or up and down walls, Scurge's enemies rush the player in terrible, mindless zombie fashion. It shows a big difference between intentionally minimal AI and just plain bad AI.

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So many amazing things in the AI article:

One important implication of Pinky’s targeting method is that Pac-Man can often win a game of “chicken” with him. Since his target tile is set four tiles in front of Pac-Man, if Pac-Man heads directly towards him, Pinky’s target tile will actually be behind himself once they are less than four tiles apart. This will cause Pinky to choose to take any available turn-off in order to loop back around to his target. Because of this, it is a common strategy to momentarily “fake” back towards Pinky if he starts following closely. This will often send him off in an entirely different direction.

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Yes, that article is so, so good. The mind reels. Thanks for the link greg!

Revelatory that Pac-Man was a "Girlfriend Mode" predecessor:

There were no games that everyone could enjoy, and especially none for women. I wanted to come up with a “comical” game women could enjoy.” - Toru Iwatani, Pac-Man creator

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Yes, that article is so, so good. The mind reels. Thanks for the link greg!

Revelatory that Pac-Man was a "Girlfriend Mode" predecessor:

There were no games that everyone could enjoy, and especially none for women. I wanted to come up with a “comical” game women could enjoy.” - Toru Iwatani, Pac-Man creator

I don't want to suck this down into the mire but the "girlfriend mode" that came up recently (and which was rightfully hated on) was "easy mode," not "a game about something other than war and violence," which is what Pac-Man was meant to be according to the quote (the first part reads "All the computer games available at the time were of the violent type - war games and space invader types.") The way you put it, it might be seen as a vindication of "girlfriend mode," where really it's anything but! Pac-Man is not at all dumbed down or made "easy" for your girlfriend who can't play hard games because she's a woman, which is what "girlfriend mode" implies. Pac-Man is just about something other than bullshit macho power fantasy (in fact it's largely about evasion) which is not at all what Borderland 2's "girlfriend mode" is.

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I didn't mean to say it's a vindication of girlfriend mode. I also don't think Pac Man is above charges of sexism in claiming woman can't enjoy virtual violence and only can play games that have pretty colors in it. That aside, it's still awesome that they made a game that wasn't about doing violence even if I personally think the driving force behind the idea was sexist. Same thing goes with girlfriend mode. It's not simply easy mode, it's a shifting of mechanics so that players unfamiliar with first person shooters can still engage with the game and join their friends when they otherwise might be turned off, which is a really great idea and was unfortunately sucked down "into the mire" thanks to the dev's comments and probably his impetus as well. That's the comparison I'm making.

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hurray.. girldfriend mode! :tup:

What is girlfriend mode? Is that like the Rez vibrator thingy?

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Wait, eating pills slowed Pac-Man down?

This is, in my opinion, the primary reason Ms. Pac Man is the superior game.

Slowing down while eating is an interesting tradeoff in theory, but I think in practice it detracts from the fun in a subtle way.

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Totally resurrecting a dead thread here, but I found another Pac-Man ripoff while reading about kusoge on some random site. Check it out:

 

ohshit.jpg

 

The best part is that they simply cut to the chase in the Japanese release:

 

ohshitj.jpg

 

There's some other real gems to be found out there, like Tagin' Dragon:

 

tagincover.jpg

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I can't recommend Kid Fenris' "The Gallery of Hideous Box Art" enough. I don't know the guy personally, though it seems he was a contract writer for 1up and wrote a few articles on failed systems and mascots, but his sense of tired horror and displeasure at the ugliness the nineties produced is hilarious. Not that the box art doesn't get laughs all on its own.

 

wbmonsterland.gif

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Just discovered this.

 

N2swwLR.jpg

 

 

EDIT: aw poop toblix already posted it NEVER MIIIIIND

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