You should make it so user can hold down a key to change direction before they reach the intersection, joystick style.
As it is, it feels like you are checking for key press (not key down) in a narrow window when the ghost reaches the intersection. That is very hard to play. It is much more forgiving if I can press and hold the key whenever I want.
Not really. Presume that everything is time-reversed, and the game kills you if you do anything not possible when your playback is flipped around and played "forward." Then:
- Obviously, you "emit" dots and fruit and power pellets as you traverse the grid.
- Less obviously, once you populate a dot/fruit/power pellet onto a grid square, you can't visit that position again — as, if reversed, that'd look like you going over those things without collecting them.
- You'd randomly enter the powered-up state, and you'd then have to visit one of the unpopulated power-pellet grid positions in order to emit the power pellet to get out of that state — before the powered-up-state timer expires. (The power-up-state going on longer than that is invalid!)
- While in the powered-up state, you'd see pairs of ghost eyes unavoidably approaching you; they'd touch you, turn into ghosts, and then flee from you. That's fine. But once they become ghosts and move off of the grid-space you occupy, you can't touch them again.
Idea for a "challenge mode" on top of that, since this would probably be too hard for casual play:
A series of levels where you are given a score at the beginning. You must find the path around the map that brings your score exactly to zero, using reverse Pac-Man scoring rules (each dot you lay reduces your score by 10, etc). If you reach zero with more dots to lay, or finish laying down all dots without reaching zero, you die (as those would also be invalid states).
Recording input for these challenge runs would be a cool idea too, as you could have the option to watch the run "forwards" for further entertainment. To lessen the difficulty a little bit, the player could even have access to the "forward" version of a run that completes the desired score target (with appropriate bonuses for players who don't utilize the "hint" run).
Nintendo did something like this with "Pacman vs" for GameCube. The multiplayer gimmick was the players controlling the ghosts couldn't see the entire map and the player controlling Pacman could with a Game Boy Advanced linked to the Gamecube.
Awesome. It's mind-bending to control two players. The idea of using arrow keys to control one player and WASD to control another is genius. Maybe you can visualize which is which by coloring the explanatory text.
Fair warning: It's a game made for people who excel at ambidextrous tasks like patting one's head and rubbing one's tummy, or juggling Rubik's cubes that you are also solving.
Me and my friends used to play 3 player simultaneously in D-Zone. Obviously we had to be kind with each other about space around the keyboard and about key presses. Still one of the best gaming experiences I ever had.
One Little Ghost (2012) [1] [2] for the ZX81 is one version I only recently found out about. Figured it was worth mentioning here given how impressive it is for a game on the humble ZX81 machine that's well over 40 years old.
For anyone interested in this style of gameplay mechanic, the game Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons (steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/225080/Brothers__A_Tale_o...) uses a twin-stick approach to this, and builds puzzles around controlling two "people".
It's a quick play and the game is pretty good, I recommend experiencing it.
Reminds me of a demo I played 10 years ago called swap box turbo. Designed for two players, it is a simple platformer where you and your partner swap positions and momentum every 3 seconds.
You can play it single player too and have an experience similar to this.
The ghosts don't respond to a key until they encounter to an intersection, so that you cannot reverse direction instantly. Maybe there is a deliberate point to that, but it doesn't make it less annoying.
You should make it so user can hold down a key to change direction before they reach the intersection, joystick style.
As it is, it feels like you are checking for key press (not key down) in a narrow window when the ghost reaches the intersection. That is very hard to play. It is much more forgiving if I can press and hold the key whenever I want.
Thank you for the suggestion. Your wish has been granted. It is definitely better like this.
Yes! thanks
Fun game! From the title, I was expecting to guide Pac-Man to put all the dots back in place.
For that, you want this rom hack/patch
http://48k.ca/bacman.html
Haha. I haven’t thought of this. That would be a cool other mode
Poo-Man or Puke-Man
Crap-Man?
Me too, also because I remember playing that kind of game, on a Creativision, more than 40 years ago [1]
[1] https://archive.org/details/Crazy_Chicky_1981_VTL
While that would be amusing, mechanically it would be identical to the original game.
Not really. Presume that everything is time-reversed, and the game kills you if you do anything not possible when your playback is flipped around and played "forward." Then:
- Obviously, you "emit" dots and fruit and power pellets as you traverse the grid.
- Less obviously, once you populate a dot/fruit/power pellet onto a grid square, you can't visit that position again — as, if reversed, that'd look like you going over those things without collecting them.
- You'd randomly enter the powered-up state, and you'd then have to visit one of the unpopulated power-pellet grid positions in order to emit the power pellet to get out of that state — before the powered-up-state timer expires. (The power-up-state going on longer than that is invalid!)
- While in the powered-up state, you'd see pairs of ghost eyes unavoidably approaching you; they'd touch you, turn into ghosts, and then flee from you. That's fine. But once they become ghosts and move off of the grid-space you occupy, you can't touch them again.
Idea for a "challenge mode" on top of that, since this would probably be too hard for casual play:
A series of levels where you are given a score at the beginning. You must find the path around the map that brings your score exactly to zero, using reverse Pac-Man scoring rules (each dot you lay reduces your score by 10, etc). If you reach zero with more dots to lay, or finish laying down all dots without reaching zero, you die (as those would also be invalid states).
Recording input for these challenge runs would be a cool idea too, as you could have the option to watch the run "forwards" for further entertainment. To lessen the difficulty a little bit, the player could even have access to the "forward" version of a run that completes the desired score target (with appropriate bonuses for players who don't utilize the "hint" run).
Nintendo did something like this with "Pacman vs" for GameCube. The multiplayer gimmick was the players controlling the ghosts couldn't see the entire map and the player controlling Pacman could with a Game Boy Advanced linked to the Gamecube.
The game is also available on nintendo switch and it supports multiplayer with that same gimmick, with two devices.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_Vs%2E
Awesome. It's mind-bending to control two players. The idea of using arrow keys to control one player and WASD to control another is genius. Maybe you can visualize which is which by coloring the explanatory text.
I built a dual snake game where you simultaneously control two snakes a while back, perhaps I should do a Show HN about it at some point.
https://specularrealms.itch.io/the-twins-of-caduceus
Fair warning: It's a game made for people who excel at ambidextrous tasks like patting one's head and rubbing one's tummy, or juggling Rubik's cubes that you are also solving.
I used to solo play 2-player Gauntlet for the PC this way, back around 1990.
In the 1980s it was pretty common to have 2-player games with both players on the same keyboard.
Edit: Spacewar (see https://archive.org/details/msdos_Spacewar_1985) is an example of a two-player-on-one-keyboard game, from 1985.
Me and my friends used to play 3 player simultaneously in D-Zone. Obviously we had to be kind with each other about space around the keyboard and about key presses. Still one of the best gaming experiences I ever had.
https://www.mobygames.com/game/69231/destruction-zone/
Yellow Wizard Needs Food Badly!
Warrior is about to die!
man that takes me back
I can't see the whole screen on my laptop, and the screen doesn't scroll.
Thanks for the feedback. It is fixed
It's one of those things that "why did nobody think about it yet?!"
One Little Ghost (2012) [1] [2] for the ZX81 is one version I only recently found out about. Figured it was worth mentioning here given how impressive it is for a game on the humble ZX81 machine that's well over 40 years old.
[1] https://bobs-stuff.itch.io/one-little-ghost
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq2hOlC97SQ
Pac-Man Vs. [1] was a commercial game on this wavelength. I don't think I ever played that one.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_Vs.
I was going to say the same thing. Pac-Man Vs was incredibly fun and a great party game.
Fixed link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_Vs%2E
(trailing dot escaped via %2E)
For anyone interested in this style of gameplay mechanic, the game Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons (steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/225080/Brothers__A_Tale_o...) uses a twin-stick approach to this, and builds puzzles around controlling two "people".
It's a quick play and the game is pretty good, I recommend experiencing it.
That game was an emotional journey, man. Very short as these games go, but it hit hard.
And the music was by Gustaf Grefberg, "Lizardking", my favorite oldskool demo musician by a mile.
Reminds me of a demo I played 10 years ago called swap box turbo. Designed for two players, it is a simple platformer where you and your partner swap positions and momentum every 3 seconds.
You can play it single player too and have an experience similar to this.
https://www.freeindiegam.es/2012/12/swap-box-turbo-nifflas/
On FF (similar on Edge):
Secure Connection Failed
An error occurred during a connection to reverse-pacman.staticrun.app. PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR
Thanks for letting me know. There is a problem with the host. I moved it to itch.io https://themarelle.itch.io/reverse-pac-man
On Firefox it freezes on the keyboard instructions screen for me. Console shows it requires WebGL. Maybe put a message on screen indicating that?
Would be fun to have dual stick controller support: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Gamepad_API
The ghosts don't respond to a key until they encounter to an intersection, so that you cannot reverse direction instantly. Maybe there is a deliberate point to that, but it doesn't make it less annoying.
Are you planning on adding the power pills to give Pac Man a fighting chance?
Also, I noticed that he often circles around the upper left area a few times at the start even though there are no dots to collect.
Good idea ! That will add a new cool dynamic. The behavior of the Pac-Man is to avoid the ghost with some random pattern added. This might happen.
I like the concept but shouldn't the score be counting down? Or am I trying to shepherd Pac-Man into eating as many as possible to get a high score?
It's not loading at all for me. Hug of death?
Even with this link ? https://themarelle.itch.io/reverse-pac-man
This was why I liked opposing force. Give NPCs their own backstory and make them playable.
Very cool. Gemini is such a fun tool to do a one-shot MVP of a game like this: https://g.co/gemini/share/7639ee864df7
Gemini wasn't clever enough to disallow ghosts changing directions mid-way, but it did do a smart thing with "pellets remaining" scoring.
Really ? Even if you specify that ghosts can turn only at intersections?
I'm sure it could. I was very unspecified with my prompt (below). No doubt it could add sound, etc. as well.
Prompt: Create a game of Pacman with only 2 ghosts. Instead of the player controlling pacman, the player controls the ghosts.
Controls: Ghost 1 (Red): WASD or ZQSD Ghost 2 (Cyan): Arrow Keys
The game screen is cut on the right when browser window is small.
genius
Haha. I’ll take the compliment.