What a great game! I ❤ Ms. Pac-Man, and Lady Pac is a big improvement! The bonus rounds and randomly generated mazes have kept me playing for hours. Only gripe: it's a tad slow on PAL systems. Could you perhaps provide an option on the title screen to adjust the game speed the way e.g. Jumpman Jr. does?
Edit: or maybe you could provide two binaries: one for PAL systems and one for NTSC so that the game runs at the same speed? I find the speed of the game under VICE in NTSC mode to be perfect, with PAL it's sluggish, but that's just my 2c (I have a PAL C64 at home and would love to play the game at full speed on real h/w).
There are 8 different speeds in Jumpman Junior. At speed 1 the game updates every frame, at speed 2 it updates every 2 frames, and so on up to speed 8 where the game updates every 8 frames. Very simple. The character, however, moves 4 pixels per frame so it is quite jerky. In my game, instead, Lady Pac moves 1 pixel per frame, so at 60 fps on NTSC and 50 fps on PAL (that's the reason for the different speeds). To make the game run faster on PAL, I would have to move Lady Pac 1.2 pixels per frame. Furthermore, the speed of the ghosts (which is different for each of them and which increases round after round) should also be recalculated accordingly. It is therefore not a question of changing a couple of values in the code, but of reviewing all the calculations of the various speeds, which requires a fair amount of work. I don't think it's worth it. Also because those who play Lady Pac on PAL get used to it and don't realize that it is slightly slower than on NTSC.
> Also because those who play Lady Pac on PAL get used to it and don't realize that it is slightly slower than on NTSC.
Well, I noticed, didn't I? I get you don't feel like making the changes. If I'm motivated enough, maybe I'll disassemble and make the changes myself. Thanks anyway for a great game. Cheers.
What I meant is that anyone who plays Lady Pac ONLY on a PAL machine (without comparing it to NTSC) would not say that the game is slow. I tested the game on PAL myself during development, and never thought "Oh no! It's too slow".
As I said, it's not just about adding a delay counter like in Jumpman Junior. I should recalibrate the speed of Lady Pac, the speed of each single ghost (considering it increases round after round), and the speed of the fruits (both in normal rounds and bonus rounds). In addition to this, I should also recalculate the time during which the ghosts chase Lady Pac or go around randomly (this also changes round after round), the time during which the ghosts become edible (this also changes round after round), the time before the fruit disappears, the delay counter for the timer in the bonus rounds, the times for animations, and many others. Also consider that speeds and times must be recalculated based on the chosen difficulty level (Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert). It's a lot of work, and I personally don't think it's worth it.
If you find it appropriate to modify the disassembled to have your own version of the game, go ahead.
Anyway, thanks for appreciating what I have done.