[DaveC]

If you are and old fart like me you may remember the olden days of going into a smokey arcade, pockets busting with quarters, to play among other things Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man. You put your quarter up in que on the glass near the smoldering c1garette and waited, hoping for a quick death of the player ahead of you.

If you have been searching for the perfect portable Pac-Man, you have just come closer with GP MultiPac. This may be the best way to play Pac-Man and its variations on the GP32. It has support for the many ROM hacked and bootleg versions of the series that piled up over the years.

The way you can switch screen orientation with a press of the shoulder button is very well thought out. The vertical orientation allows for a pixel perfect view of the screen as it was in the arcades. The simple menu is quite good too, with a nice subdued background and the Pac-Man motif border. The only thing that I would have added would be a menu for setting the arcade dip switches for difficulty etc.

There a few different versions of this emu for different clock speeds. The 133 MHz version is fine it has a very slight slowness in Ms. pac-man but is almost unnoticeable unless you compare side to side. Overall I would reccommend this one if battery life is a concern.

The 156 version seem a bit off in the timing.

The 166 version is obviously the smoothest and is just like the arcade speed.

There are a few things that could be fixed and this will be perfect.

Some sounds are quieter (It is hard to hear the "nibble" sound while eating dots in Ms.Pac-Man) than others and should be at the same volume. Some sound's tone is a bit off as well having a bit of a "waver".

Also the control algorhythm is slightly off. If you are holding the stick in a direction and continue to hold it but then forget to center the stick before switching directions it will not move in new direction, it locks. This is wrong and should take the last input. If you are one of the ones that have a GP32 that doesn't do diagonals well you will not notice this as much, if at all.

Picky BLU owners (like me :) )may notice that the gamma is a bit high making what should be black backgrounds a dark gray instead, giving a bit less contrast.

For a first release this is great for fans of the Pac-Man series.

A score of 10 would be the games running perfect with perfect sound, and with the menu option for dip switch settings, and the control to be of the "last input" type like the arcade.

As it is now I give it a score of 7. A real good start, well above average for a first release (5 being in the middle, or average).

This post has been edited by DaveC: 23 February 2005 - 03:36 AM

[Topcat]

Well, i must say.. i really love this one too ;)

[look]

Was Mr Do (dig-dug, Mr E) a variant?

I quite like to drop apples on unsuspecting heads

[Jr2swiss]

Only problem I get is whe I press L it pauses the game an i cannot unpause it after. :( Maybe its just me, otherwise its relaly great. :)

[Iorgy77]

I have no pausing problems but can't quit back to the menu to select a different game by pressing L and R like it says in the manual.

Other than that an awesome emulator. :D

[Franxis]

Thanks DaveC for your review. I will release the source code of the emulator. If anyone wants to improve it. I'm now occupied with another bigger project...

[Gruntfuggly]

Was Mr Do (dig-dug, Mr E) a variant?

I quite like to drop apples on unsuspecting heads

[/quote]

No it wasn't unfortunately, and just to be really picky, dig-dug is a totally different game to Mr. Do. I guess what we really need (at the risk of repeating myself) is a BBC emulator (I guess you're a closet BBC fan if you're mentioning Mr. Ee!) to play Mr. Ee on...

[IntenseWage]

I just keep hitting L and R together until it goes to the menu. It might take a few times but it goes eventually.

[look]

[quote=Gruntfuggly,Jan 9 2005, 03:52 PM]
<!--QuoteBegin-lo
ok+Jan 9 2005, 01:22 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lo
ok @ Jan 9 2005, 01:22 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Was Mr Do (dig-dug, Mr E) a variant?

I quite like to drop apples on unsuspecting heads

[/quote]

No it wasn't unfortunately, and just to be really picky, dig-dug is a totally different game to Mr. Do. I guess what we really need (at the risk of repeating myself) is a BBC emulator (I guess you're a closet BBC fan if you're mentioning Mr. Ee!) to play Mr. Ee on...

[/quote]

Your spot on just tried dig dug on mame.........

also I'm an out of the closet BBC fan :D

[wildo2ne]

I'm not 100% sure but I think the backround on the loader is pre-made, there is an accuall multipac board for arcade machines and this looks alot like it, the loader might be the prom from the arcade machine


10 to 1 this is nothing more then a pac emulator running the multipac roms


B) wildo2ne

This post has been edited by wildo2ne: 15 January 2005 - 04:28 AM

[toxibunny]

can anyone point me to a ROMset for this please?

(and before anyone goes 'ZOMG! he's asking for ROMZZ!! :o ' just let me say this: please don't <_< )

[wildo2ne]

the one I downloaded came fully loaded....yours didn't?

B) wildo2ne

[toxibunny]

haha. no.

[wildo2ne]

get the 70 meg single download, it comes fully loaded in that download

B) wildo2ne

[toxibunny]

ah. cheers. romset is here if anyone else wants it :)

nice one, wild.

This post has been edited by toxibunny: 15 January 2005 - 04:56 AM