1) The Easter Egg...
What's an Easter Egg? It's a hidden program within a program. I created this Easter Egg, which I'm calling Pac-MANager, with sound and everything. It's basically PacMan, but you can use your managers/co-workers as the characters (though I used Bill Gates and his competition for this upload) and dollar signs for the pellets. So change the pictures to whatever you need in order to tell your own work story! However, you can also go with "normal" Pac-Man characters if you'd prefer. The whole thing is intentionally contained in one form so it's easy to add to an actual work project, except for some external files called "DataX.dat," which are actually wav files from the original PacMan game to distribute with your work app -- the user will never know! I'll also show you one way to activate the game through your project, but you can do that however you choose -- just be sure to be sneaky about it! Also, the game's AI increases for each level as well as speeds up -- can you help Bill conquer all five levels and beat the competition? Do you even want to? :)
2) The Tutorial...
This also comes with a Graphical Tutorial on sprite animation using BitBlt. I thought about making this a seperate entry on PSC, but thought it'd be much more helpful when combined with an actual game which utilizes what the tutorial has to teach. So for anyone interested in sprite animation, you should really check this out as I think it will be invaluable to you. Comments and votes are welcome, and I hope some people find this useful. (Both the tutorial, and Pac-MANager!)
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I tried to give you 5 stars, but it didn't increment the tally. So unless PSC can fix that, I'm sorry about that! (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Thanks for the votes and the comment! (As well as the attempted vote). :( So can anyone complete all 5 levels, without tweaking the code? The AI gets pretty tough. :)
But mainly, I really do hope the tutorial gives at least one person a nice jumpstart. So are there any newbies out there who actually find it helpful and learned something new? (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Great!!! Bout time a pac man game with a point. 5's *!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Alex -- Not sure I understand what you're saying. Is the animation not smooth on your computer? I tested it on 6 different computers, and they all had very smooth animation, so I'm sorry if yours doesn't. (Though I never tested it on a laptop). However, you can play with the MOVEINCR const and the FPS (set in the InitializeProgram procedure) and it may help your particular machine. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Nice Job! You may want to make the ghost move faster than you, and then when you eat a big $ you move faster then then. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Thanks -- PacMan just wouldn't be the same without those sounds of yesteryear! :)
And BTW, for anyone reading the Tutorial, I should mention that another reason to not use the SLEEP api command to slow down Game Loops, is even though you can use it to make the speed "look right" on your machine, it won't be consistent with other machines. However, using FPS, the speed will remain consistent for other computers as well. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
hehe, that's not bill gates :) great program! but i think my missile command story line beats your ;) (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Xiaohua -- Actually, it really is Bill Gates, taken from the book cover image on Amazon.com of "Hard Drive : Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire." I had to shrink it, and of course remove some pixels from his mouth area to give him the PacMan look. But maybe shrinking took away too much detail, though I thought he was still quite recognizable. :( (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Awesome! 5 stars without a doubt. By far the best example of animation on the net that I've run across, and I've been looking. Your tutorial is second to none as well. Completely impressed, keep up the good work! I'll be looking for further work from you in the future. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
anyone tried 2 change the levels ? when i do that then the ghosts can walt trough the wall but the pacman cant.. whys that ? and how can i fix that ? (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
In working with Dean, I found a couple no-nos with mazes which I'll mention here. First, a maze must always have 1 one empty space -- that's where PacMan starts.
And second, there can be no dead ends. Or put another way, every pellet must have at least 2 directional paths to reach it. If you really want dead ends, you'll need to tweak the ghosts' pathfinding algorithm. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
thnx again for help :).. ill try to tweak the code... but at the moment im working on a level editor for it :).. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
9/10/2002 3:50:12 PM:
An excellent game! Thanks for the tutorial, it's very usefull for newbies like me. (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
Why is this showing as an update? None of the files have been modified since 1999 (If this comment was disrespectful, please report it.)
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9/6/2001 2:33:26 PM: 
