Pac & Pal / Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp on a Super Pac-Man boardset patch

vbrooks

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Pac & Pal / Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp on a Super Pac-Man boardset patch

This patch allows Pac & Pal or Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp to run properly on a Super Pac-Man boardset. Pac & Pal runs on the same hardware as Super Pac-Man but one of the custom I/O controller chips is different so simply putting the unmodified Pac & Pal or Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp ROMs on a Super Pac-Man boardset would result in the game working but the dip switches won't be read at all so the settings would default to one life and no bonus lives and service mode would be inaccessible. A list of what ROMs need to be replaced and the dip switches are included with the patch. Modified program ROMs for both Pac & Pal and Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp are provided. The remaining game ROMs should be obtained from the usual sources.

This was playable at California Extreme in a cabinet with fantastic artwork built by Brendon Parker (Jr. Pac) - http://www.pacificarcadecompany.com/pac-man--chomp-chomp.html

Pac & Pal was released in Japan and is the sequel to Super Pac-Man. Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp was intended to be the North American localization of the game with the Pal character (Miru) replaced by Chomp Chomp the dog from the Pac-Man cartoon. It was reportedly field tested in a Chicago area arcade but for reasons unknown it never had an official release here.

P.S. If anyone figures out patterns for the bonus stages then please let me know. It seems like where Miru/Chomp Chomp and Blinky are hidden are deterministic but I haven't figured out what this is based upon yet.
 

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  • PacandPal_Patch.zip
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Amazing. Been waiting a decade for this. My wife's favorite game (Ms. Pac and Jumping Jack--of all things are her others) I have about 7 Super Pac boardsets, 4 working; plus a full size and cocktail cabinet (of Super-Pac). Still waiting to find a mini. Thank you SO MUCH!

I played a lot of Super-Pac and Kick on a cocktail in the 80's at the arcade since they were never busy.
 
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It should work on a cocktail cabinet as well and rotate the screen between the two players but it was only tested in a full upright cabinet. If you can test it on a cocktail cabinet then please let me know the results.
 
Very cool. I don't suppose JROK's Super Pac HSS code could be applied to this for the modified board to save scores?
 
Very cool. I don't suppose JROK's Super Pac HSS code could be applied to this for the modified board to save scores?

No it's a different game and different code so the high score table is in a different location in RAM therefore a high score save specific to Pac & Pal / Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp would have to be done. If it helps in Pac & Pal / Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp the high score table is at 104Dh and is 40 bytes long and the top score is at 116Dh and is 3 bytes. Also you have to update video RAM with the readable high score or it won't appear right away unlike Super Pac-Man which does in the game code.

For comparison Super Pac-Man high score table is at 1138h and is 40 bytes long and the top score is at 1087h and is 3 bytes.
 
I'm not educated enough to follow that, lol. I wondered if a patch could be done that would include both games switchable? Either bank switching or a menu? I think I read a long time ago someone may have been looking into that with Super Pac and Pac n Pal.
 
I wondered if a patch could be done that would include both games switchable? Either bank switching or a menu? I think I read a long time ago someone may have been looking into that with Super Pac and Pac n Pal.

Theoretically it should be possible to make a Super Pac-Man / Pac & Pal (or Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp) 2-in-1 kit to install on a Super Pac-Man boardset using my patched ROMs but I would guess that two CPU replacement pods would be needed since there are two 6809 CPUs (one for the main program and one for the sound program). A question for Mike Doyle perhaps ? Also I'm not sure how well it would sell since Super Pac-Man is not nearly as common as Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man.
 
Theoretically it should be possible to make a Super Pac-Man / Pac & Pal (or Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp) 2-in-1 kit to install on a Super Pac-Man boardset using my patched ROMs but I would guess that two CPU replacement pods would be needed since there are two 6809 CPUs (one for the main program and one for the sound program). A question for Mike Doyle perhaps ? Also I'm not sure how well it would sell since Super Pac-Man is not nearly as common as Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man.

That's if you want computer controlled bank switching with a pretty menu.

It would be (relatively) simple to just do a dip switch toggle kit to do a 2-in-1 or a 3-in-1 (SP, PP, PCC) off the existing roms, depending on size.

I did this on my Popeye to let me flip to the "easy" roms vs. the "hard" roms. A total of 4 IC's on the CPU board IIRC, and just bent out one pin to tie to the bank switch.

I'll have to look to see what can be done with the size of eproms Super Pac uses.

Of course, as pointed out above, you'd corrupt your high score area by switching (if you were using a battery backed rom mod), so it may just be easier to swap an entire boardset in.
 
It would be (relatively) simple to just do a dip switch toggle kit to do a 2-in-1 or a 3-in-1 (SP, PP, PCC) off the existing roms, depending on size.

I did this on my Popeye to let me flip to the "easy" roms vs. the "hard" roms. A total of 4 IC's on the CPU board IIRC, and just bent out one pin to tie to the bank switch.

There are no common ROMs or PROMs between Super Pac-Man and Pac & Pal so this probably isn't possible. There are 6 ROMs and 4 PROMs on the boardset though Super Pac-Man only uses 5 ROMs with the socket at 1D unpopulated.
 
Perhaps Mike Doyle or Braze Technologies could do a Super Pac-Man / Pac & Pal (or Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp) multigame kit for Super Pac-Man boardsets. That would be cool.

Note there is another game called Grobda which runs on the same hardware but it is a very different game. Grobda is an overhead arena tank shooter which uses an 8-way joystick and 2 buttons (fire and shields). Also Grobda uses a bigger sound ROM and an additional graphics ROM.
 
Bump'n this old thread...

How does one apply these patches? I've got a friend who's trying to fix their Pac N Pal whose board died and he's trying to swap out with a regular Super Pacman.
 
Amazing. Been waiting a decade for this. My wife's favorite game (Ms. Pac and Jumping Jack--of all things are her others) I have about 7 Super Pac boardsets, 4 working; plus a full size and cocktail cabinet (of Super-Pac). Still waiting to find a mini. Thank you SO MUCH!

I played a lot of Super-Pac and Kick on a cocktail in the 80's at the arcade since they were never busy.

What's there to wait for? Even without ROM hacks, it's been known for at least a decade that by swapping chips, Mappy + Super Pacman = Pac'n'Pal + Dig Dug II. (with some reburned color proms).

Dig Dug II is the best of the bunch on that hardware.
 
Bump'n this old thread...

How does one apply these patches? I've got a friend who's trying to fix their Pac N Pal whose board died and he's trying to swap out with a regular Super Pacman.

Get the Pac & Pal ROMs and replace the files listed in the patch docs with the ones from my patch.


What's there to wait for? Even without ROM hacks, it's been known for at least a decade that by swapping chips, Mappy + Super Pacman = Pac'n'Pal + Dig Dug II. (with some reburned color proms).

Not at all correct. Super Pac-Man, Pac & Pal and Grobda run on the same hardware though the custom I/O controller chips prevents them from being a simple ROM swap. Mappy, Dig Dug II, Motos and The Tower of Druaga run on similar hardware which supports scrolling so the video RAM is doubled and the memory map is slightly different from the Super Pac-Man hardware. Also The Tower of Druaga has a larger color PROM though you probably don't want to play that game anyway. Again like the Super Pac-Man games the custom I/O controller chips prevents them from being a simple ROM swap.
 
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