Another Hanglyman thread.

[OregonPacman]

As you may recall, a week or so ago Stoonfer posted about a Pac-Man cocktail he got that had Hanglyman ROMs installed in it. He was looking for a set of original ROMs and I had some extras. We swapped chips through the mail and I am happy to have a new variant to play. For those that haven't played it, the maze sure is different. As if that wasn't enough, on some mazes, the maze barriers (not the outer boundary) will disappear when a power pill is eaten. This happens on Pac Plus as well (maze 3 and up) but not every time and the entire maze and dots disappear (except remaining power pills). For the third maze, there are are no barriers, only the outer boundary. Its much harder to chase blue ghosts that way. Maze four is the same as maze one. Maze five is maze two and I'm not sure after that. The maze has three exits on either side instead of one and on maze three, there is one exit at the top and another at the bottom. If any Pac owners out there are bored with their machines, this definitely bears looking into. I'm not sure if Hanglyman is available on the 96-in-1 or any of the other multis out there but even if its not, the ROM images may be downloadable from somewhere.

 

[Atlas100]

My Pac-Man cabaret has Hangly-Man in it. I was originally going to try to swap out the ROM's, but found that I enjoyed playing it quite a bit. So does everybody else for that matter. And so for now, it has stayed in my machine.

Also, having three tunnels on the "normal" boards makes it WAY easier for first-timers to play. They can escape ghosts in those normally difficult lower corners. Definitely a fun variant on the original. The "open" boards are fun too. It takes an entirely different kind of play to clear the board and the ghosts move differently.

I may eventually turn it back into the original, but for now I will keep enjoying it as is.

 

[CrazyKongFan]

After the 2nd screen, the maze and mazeless screens keep alternating. Also, if you like alternate mazes, here's another bootleg maze variation, the "New Puck X" maze, from my Pop-man board:

Mine had the hard difficulty jumper set and the alternate names jumper set (so instead of what yours shows, mine had Urchin "Macky", Romp "Micky", Stylist "Mucky" and Crybaby Mocky") which I've since fixed...I wanted it regular, not hard, with the Japanese names...I like those better

 

[OregonPacman]

I love the Pac games but even with what I have, I still get bored. I have Pac and Ms. Pac uprights. I have a speed up chip, alt maze for Ms. Pac and a Pac Plus kit. That helps mix it up. I sometimes will put my Jr. Pac PCB into one of them.

I don't use them but I have a Driving Force kit and a Shoot The Bull kit. Driving Force is a bitch to install because you have to hack the board and solder wires to various places. At one time, I got a Pac board that already had it installed. It plays a lot like Turbo. The graphics could be better but it does have a certain challenge. I have never been able to play Shoot The Bull since I do not have a trackball. There is a seperate PCB for converting trackball signals into joystick inputs. I have the harness but one end has pins but no header and thusly, I have no idea what wire goes where. I have the conversion manual but, again, no trackball. I also have a conversion kit control panel and Driving Force marquee. At one time, I had a kit for Boardwalk Casino, but I gave it to Lawnmowerman for hopeful incorporation into MAME but that didn't happen. I still have the marquee and monitor bezel, though.

It amazes me how many clones and software and hardware hacks have been spawned from just one game. I guess it is true that imitation is the highest form of flattery.

 

[OregonPacman]

Played it some more tonight. I'm enjoying it. Probably going to keep it in the Ms. Pac for a while.