Paku Paku C64 (1D Pacman)

Background

Paku Paku is a very simple but addictive game that was created by Kenta Cho of ABA games and has gone somewhat viral in the past week. I needed a short break from a large project I am working on so converted it for the C64 in 6502 assembly over a couple of evenings. It is playable in the browser above but for best results download the .prg file for use with a C64 emulator, TheC64 or real hardware.

How To Play

Simply press FIRE (Z in browser) to change direction in order to gobble all 16 pellets and escape from the ghost. Like the original Pacman, you can use the tunnels on either side in order to teleport to the other side of the screen (the ghost cannot use them), and collecting the flashing 'power pellet' will turn the ghost blue for a short period and enable you to eat it. Once you collect all the pellets a new set appears and the speed of the game increases, along with your score multiplier.

One basic strategy is to concentrate on the central pellets of each set first so they aren't left stranded, after that you're on you're own!

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C64 version

Although the source code for the original is available and very small, I could not convert the code 1:1 because it relies on running the game tick at smaller and smaller intervals as each set of 16 is completed, whereas on the C64 I keep the game loop tied to the 50 FPS frame rate to avoid glitches (every 6th frame is skipped on NTSC).

Therefore I had to simulate that by increasing the speeds of Pacman and the ghost and reducing the time the ghost is frightened, while also keeping the relative speed of the ghost 10% faster than Pacman, ghost eyes 50% faster etc.