Pacman Settings?

[LordGaz]

According to my calculations the perfect Pacman score of 3,333,360 must have been achieved with the initial lives setting set to 5 (plus the extra at 10k), is this true?

What I also want to know is, assuming that I am all systems go with patterns at the ready for recording a maximum game (I'm not btw ) - would my inp be dq'ed if I uploaded a recording to MARP with initial lives set to 5 rather than the default? Maybe a special rule is needed?

Thanks, Gaz.

[LN2]

I would think it would because the default MARP settings where there are no special rules are to use the default MAME settings whihc for pacman is clearly only 3 lives.

TG settings are also for only 3 lives.

You are correct about the score though.

Perfect 3 lives game is 3,333,180.

Perfect 5 lives game is 180 points more so 3,333,360 from 2 more lives and getting the 9 dots that respawn with each life 2 additional times. to do a perfect 3 lives game is same difficulty as 5 lives game really....cuz odds are with that 5 lives game the last 2 lives you only need to eat those 9 dots that respawn after dying...so you eat those then kill yourself....no biggie to eat those 9 dots before that first reverse/pop where the monsters would be after you.

It takes a lot more than just running patterns though. As far as eating all of the monsters there aren't clear patterns there. You manually group them together for eating. There are pattern-like moves to do this, but you aren't running a pattern in the way you run 9th key patterns. Even then, when you screw up a pattern you need to recognize it and be able to wing-it and survive each board....die once prior to split-screen and the perfect score is lost. You must reach it on your first life and for each life get those 9 "special" dots then also clear the rest of the dots and get the key on that split-screen. Get the 9 dots again with each additional life and you will have the perfect score.

Remember even Billy Mitchell who is regarded by most as the best pacman player, took 15 years to accomplish the perfect pacman game. I have no idea how many attempts he made over those 15 years, but I would guess it was quite a few....at least a few hundred.

Even when you have taught yourself techniques and a 9th key pattern or copied it from someone else it takes skill to know very subtle things for success in eating the monsters. I have had a couple perfect monster eat games...but didn't evne reach the split-screen on either of them.

My 3,322,900 score I submitted to MARP a few months ago I messed up on 2 energizers. I also messed up on the split-screen....got there on my last life....lost that before even eating many of the dots and didn't get that key.

Even then my score is among the top 10 ever accomplished. There are 4-5 perfect game scores...then a couple within a few thousand...then mine I believe.

I taught myself how to group and eat the monsters in about 5-6 weeks playing at least 2-3 hours almost every night for those weeks. I have barely touched it since....any pacman has been with those weird variants...hehe ..but I'm close to starting to play and set scores for the other clones of the original pacman as well.

Finally by "perfect" we mean just getting the max score possible without getting past the split-screen. Only 2 people in the world know how to get past the split-screen....so can get millions more in points. However, it still takes nothing away from that perfect game.

[JoustGod]

As a lot of people might be...I'm skeptical of the notion of getting past the split screen scenario for Pac-Man. I know this has been a hot topic on the TG forums. But, I'm afraid that until something more concrete emerges, this one falls under the "urban legends" category. Not to say that it's impossible, but highly unlikely given that the proof of such a thing is practically non-existant and no one seems to have any solid memory of the exact procedures that allowed these two players to accomplish this. This isn't exactly an obscure title. The egos of players at that level would be such that they'd at least want ONE other person to verify the feat. And what I mean by one other person is one other person that has a good understanding of the game. Not just some friend that can barely get past the apple boards, for example. And definitely not the scenario that was painted at the TG forums where the player made everyone turn their heads. A shame if it's true that there is not a better way to verify the claims.

[LordGaz]

Thanks. Yes I already have my own 9th key pattern, a refined version of the one I used for my MARP upload, and I perfected a split screen pattern earlier today which prompted me to write this post in case I got any ideas about going for a maximum score.

My only problem is getting there . I figured there weren't any patterns as such for the 1 sec monster eat levels and frustratingly I can't playback your game to see how it's done. Besides, I wouldn't want to copy anyone's 12 monster eat patterns directly anyway, no pain no gain.

no biggie to eat those 9 dots before that first reverse/pop where the monsters would be after you.

*cough* It is for me! I found a safer way.

All in all I'm just as far away from a max score as I'll ever be I think and as for passing the split screen, that argument is still raging on another forum .

Cheers, Gaz.

[tmorrow]

All in all I'm just as far away from a max score as I'll ever be I think and as for passing the split screen, that argument is still raging on another forum .

Which forum has the current pacman split screen discussion raging - can you provide a link?

Thanks,
Tim

[LN2]

Besides, I wouldn't want to copy anyone's 12 monster eat patterns directly anyway, no pain no gain.

I don't know of anyone that has patterns for the early boards that results in eating all the monsters. You need to just wingit and use how they move around the board to group them together for eating.

It takes me about 2 hours to play those early boards to group and eat the monsters. Plus there aren't just 12 boards, but 17 boards to eat monsters on.

*cough* It is for me! I found a safer way.

Yeah, before I do any more serious pacman runs I should develop a pattern for the split-screen. It was dumb of me to not have one when I got the 3,322,900 game. I could have been just over 4k short of a perfect score...instead of 10.5 k off.


The split-screen discussion as mentioned above is at the TG forums.

http://www.twingalaxies.com click the forum link on the left.

[JoustGod]

More specifically...

http://www.twingalaxies.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=721

[***PL***]

...And definitely not the scenario that was painted at the TG forums where the player made everyone turn their heads. A shame if it's true that there is not a better way to verify the claims.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Rick (LN2), but I think it was more than just making people turn their heads. Your story from 20 years ago talked about having the people actually move far enough away from the game as to not see the screen or what he could be doing. This is very suspect because: wouldn't it be easy to reach into the machine and rack advance past the split-screen board?

If this guy got at least 12M he would have had to ask people to walk away 3 times assuming a rate of 3.1M+ per 256 boards. No one remembers ALL the details from 20 years ago, perhaps even this player himself. This was the "wild west" days -- no TG settings, anything goes type environment. Perhaps this play technique costs him a life, so his max score would be in the 17M - 18M range. I believe this number was also tossed around.

Pat

[LN2]

Correct me if I'm wrong, Rick (LN2), but I think it was more than just making people turn their heads. Your story from 20 years ago talked about having the people actually move far enough away from the game as to not see the screen or what he could be doing. This is very suspect because: wouldn't it be easy to reach into the machine and rack advance past the split-screen board?

Not at all...we could still totally see him and the machine. It was a cocktail model. He just had us move far enough away so we didn't have the viewing angle to see the display to see exactly what he was doing.

We could still easily see him. He let us return to where you could see the screen after he was past it.

If this guy got at least 12M he would have had to ask people to walk away 3 times assuming a rate of 3.1M+ per 256 boards.

very good...and that is what happened. I was there for only 2 instances of that though. I was away when it occured the 3rd time.

No one remembers ALL the details from 20 years ago, perhaps even this player himself.

I'm quite sure he remembers that day very well.

Perhaps this play technique costs him a life, so his max score would be in the 17M - 18M range. I believe this number was also tossed around.

perhaps... It's interesting you are the first one to mention that. No one at the TG forums put 2+2 together there.

However, I'm not sure how you get 17-18M unless you are thinking of a 5-man game. He played a 3-life game....TG settings. I didn't toss around any 17-18 million score at all.

[***PL***]

He played a 3-life game....TG settings.

OK, so if he played TGTS and this method does cost him a life, then a 3+1 man game gives him a "perfect" score of 13.3M (4 consecutive perfect games!).

...and a 5+1 man "perfect" game (6x) would be just shy of 20.0M

If at all possible, this feat translates into 24+ hours of game play and would be truly most remarkable!

Pat

[LN2]

I forget offhand how long his game was. I think it was in the 18 hour range...which sounds about right.

I'm not sure about the 13.3 million calculation though.

Sure you get 3.3 million reaching the first split-screen, but then after it you get the early fruit again but no monster eating...still 9th key boards essentially except the fruit.

So you actually would get 204,000 less in the score to get to the next split-screen.

So...if you do play out the same 255 boards each time before you reach the next split-screen(which I'm not even sure about) then you would have

3,332,910(3,333,180-270 since you don't waste lives getting the extra 90 pts of dots each life on the split-screen) then 3,128,910 to reach the next split-screen, and the one after that etc.

So that adds up to 12,719,640.