Paku Paku - DOS PC Game Review - LGR

A new MS-DOS game? From the year 2011? Yes, they DO exist, and this awesome Pac-Man game by Jason Knight is living proof!

Download Paku Paku (v1.5 was shown in video, v1.6 fixes the issues I was having with CMS sounds and freezing)
http://www.deathshadow.com/pakuPaku
http://www.classicdosgames.com/game/Paku_Paku.html

Play the game online
http://www.deathshadow.com/pakuPakuLive

Jason M. Knight's Blog
http://my.opera.com/deathshadow/blog/

Enjoy LGR
http://www.lazygamereviews.com/

Regarding gameplay logic, this is directly from the dev, Jason Knight:

The game logic is similar in most respects to the original, though due to the 8:3 reduction in game resolution many elements had to be dropped or faked. For example the animation appeared jerky trying to make the ghosts move faster or slower than PakuPaku, so they are for the most part the same speed. In the original you could take corners faster than the ghosts by clipping the edges of each turn -- this was called "cornering" by most players. It was impractical to recreate that at such a low resolution so instead I gave the player a one pixel "boot in the patoot" at every corner to give a slight advantage.

When the ghost go into 'flee' mode when you eat one of the four super-pellets the ghosts are cut to half speed -- this proved using the 'random movement' logic to be too easy despite being remarkably close to the original game's logic. As such I have changed their flee logic to be a bit more intelligent, making you have to put a bit more effort into hunting them down.

Likewise their pursuit mode logic is a bit different -- for the most part the red ghost still tracks you directly, the magenta ghost tries to get in front of you, the cyan one's accuracy decreases the further away the red one is from you, and the brown one is still a bit... silly... but they've been tweaked with a bit of randomness to make them a hair less predictable. Likewise the movement restructions of not being able to turn upwards at the two center "T" shaped maze section while present, has a 1 in 10 chance of being ignored... just to give players a bit of a surprise every once in a while.

The level progressions follow the original game fairly closely, the entire game speeding up or slowing down depending on the level you are playing. The fastest level speed is pretty quick, even compared to the original so be ready for a bit of a challenge in that department.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• paku paku
• dos
• pc
• game
• review
• ms-dos
• video game
• pc game
• commentary
• classic
• vintage
• retro
• 2011
• CGA
• tweaked
• pac-man
• arcade
• jason knight
• public domain
• IBM
• computer
• lazy game reviews
• phreakindee
• lgr

[supermariosunshine64]

This would be more exciting if it wasn't...you know, just Pac-man.

[phreakindee]

@supermariosunshine64 "Just" Pac-man?! May the retro gaming gods of old smite thee!

[deathshadow60]

Update, version 1.6 is now out... and I moved the official place to get it all onto my programming website. Early support for MT32 and general midi is included too.

Unfortunately it's not letting me post the links...

[phreakindee]

@deathshadow60 Thank you kindly for the update! I'll add it to the video description above. The MIDI support has me intrigued.

[mattrock1988]

@phreakindee Btw... looks like CMS actually works this time on real CMS hardware according to the version history. Check and see if that works for you. :)

[phreakindee]

@mattrock1988 Yes, Jason sent me an email letting me know. He fixed it completely with 1.6, which is just awesome!

[MAMECADE]

THAT WAS AMAZING! Hats off to Jason Knight for accomplishing is colorful masterpiece, and you you my friend for showcasing it to us all.

[omarsis81]

@supermariosunshine64 Maybe the next Jason Knight's proyect?

[omarsis81]

I've seen from one of your reviews you own a PCjr. Can you please make a demo of this game playing on that machine?

[DJalaviivaLibor]

hah love your Duke voice

[supermariosunshine64]

@phreakindee I know, dude. Pac-man is still a juggernaut, but it's also on every platform out there. Hell, I bet you can even play it in those refrigerators with internet. I just wished this guy's effort would have gone into something more original like the homebrew games that are produced for the NES or Genesis.

[SoulSyster]

I never really understood how giving a Pac-Man clone a different name made it able to bypass copyright infringement. I'm not very informed on the specifics on copyright infringement, but I don't really see how blatant game copies get away with ... blatant copying. Haha oh well, great review :) the graphics are impressive when you know how they came to be.