pac-man 9th key patterns...

Ok so I now can make it to the 9th key with between 1-3 extra guys. However I have learned and have been trying out this pattern http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzR9FgazHRQ (my comments are under itetcboo for this video) and it seems that I can not always get it to work. Should I stick with this pattern or should I use a different pattern? If so what is the most reliable pattern that is rock solid? I seen this page http://nrchapman.com/pacman/9thkey.html and they all look interesting. Any input is appreciated.

Thanks

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Originally Posted by kurgan

Ok so I now can make it to the 9th key with between 1-3 extra guys. However I have learned and have been trying out this pattern http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzR9FgazHRQ (my comments are under itetcboo for this video) and it seems that I can not always get it to work. Should I stick with this pattern or should I use a different pattern? If so what is the most reliable pattern that is rock solid? I seen this page http://nrchapman.com/pacman/9thkey.html and they all look interesting. Any input is appreciated.

Thanks

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There are a ton of 9th key patterns on youtube. I know, because I have put up MANY of them myself. However, most of these are "Booey" patterns where pac-man travels unharmed through 1 or more ghosts. These patterns require PRECISE timing on all turns to execute.

check http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=pha ... s&start=20

DJ

If you are having problems with stacked, good luck with Mr. Hodges booey patterns :)

It sounds like you need to work on your pre-turning, try to make the turns at the earliest possible moment. You are probably losing a little time on your 'S' turns coming up from the bottom, and or circling the upper T. 9th key patterns as a rule have very little room for error. Keep at it, you'll get the rhythm.

I have never had problems that early in the pattern. It is actually identical to a classic pattern called 'Bazo's Breaker' up to about the 15 second mark. I am sure the pattern is solid. But if you keep having problems, by all means try another pattern.

On a whim a couple days ago I decided to try and learn and play through a few pac-man patterns to see what all the fuss was about. After all, every pattern necessary to complete a perfect game is now published on Youtube so how hard can it really be right? I would have thought the true mastery of the game was in coming up with the patterns in the first place.

Upon learning and trying to play through a few screens, I was AMAZED at how difficult it is to execute a pattern, they break down constantly.

The fact that you have to execute each and every turn extremely early makes this task so much harder and requires so much more raw skill than I would have thought that I can now understand why there are so few perfect games recorded. Even when you "know" the path and "follow" the path, inevitably a corner is taken more casually causing pac-man to take that corner less aggressively and then you are one pixel behind -- and yes this is pretty much always enough to ruin the pattern. Take the corner TOO early and you run the risk of taking the wrong path or getting yourself two inputs ahead which often causes pac-man to freeze.

I have a new level of respect for perfect pac-man players.

There's a reason why only a handful of people have done it perfectly, patterns or not...it's not as easy as it looks :mrgreen: Even if you only use 1 9th key pattern, you have to run it 234 times without making a mistake (and if you do make a mistake, hope you can "right the ship" and finish the board without dying)

I appreciate all the tips and comments. I know what you all are saying about pre-turning and how if its isn't exact it can immediately break down a pattern and I know and use 2 other pac-man patterns and they all work flawlessly for me. I even know/use a turbo pac-man 9th key and I can even execute that flawlessly and that game runs so fast its crazy. I wonder if my computer is not emulating pac-man 100% and if that could be the problem. I have a 60 in 1 multicade arcade board that I nearly have up and going in my arcade machine and I know that although its not authentic it seems to be exactly the same pac-man game play. I have a good 4 way joystick that I am going to put on that arcade cab and I will see if I do better on that. Its either me or its my equipment right?

I will keep everyone posted. Thanks again for the help.

we have recently discovered there are differences between puckman and pacman even due to the difference in the ghost name lengths in the rom set. this results in reading in a different value for a particular timing element that will make some patterns that work on pacman fail on puckman or visa-versa.

many patterns work same on both though. other than that the entire game is same.

I seriously doubt your 9th key turbo-pac patterns are pure. However, they likely are so safe that it doesn't really matter of clean turns or not.

also, there are some patterns more forgiving than others where if you are slightly off a turn where it isn't quite pure the pattern still runs fine. there are others that even if 1 bad turn somewhere the pattern breaks down.

my guess is a few you are trying are the sensitive ones that require 100% pure turns for almost the entire pattern to work. others are those that are a tad forgiving(which is what you want to run).

Very interesting what you are saying between puckman and pac-man. I was trying this on puckman as I was going for a recorded TG score. And on puckman it seemed that if I purposely made a turn late then the pattern would work but its tough trying to time a late turn when you are used to making them correctly. I will try it on pac-man and see if there is a difference. As for the 9th key turbo pac-man pattern that I use I dont know how pure it is but I do know that it took a lot of effort even after learning the pattern (I use what donald hayes used to get a perfect score) to get it to work correctly. Currently I can get nearly 900K using it. But it runs so fast that fatigue seems to set in and I can not break 1 million even after a lot of trying. Maybe some day though. :)

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Originally Posted by kurgan

As for the 9th key turbo pac-man pattern that I use I dont know how pure it is but I do know that it took a lot of effort even after learning the pattern (I use what donald hayes used to get a perfect score) to get it to work correctly. Currently I can get nearly 900K using it. But it runs so fast that fatigue seems to set in and I can not break 1 million even after a lot of trying. Maybe some day though. :)

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oh ok. I have not watched his pattern. 5-6 years ago though on a whim I played some turbo-pac...intentionally stopped at 1 million with perfect game intact. I wish I had played it out and maybe had the first perfect turbo now...versus Don doing it just recently. anyway, I had no 9th key pattern..but was semi-developing it as I played....mostly an initial eat and get first fruit...then some start-stop spots where you end up just long outrunning them.

the key is having enough time after getting the 1st fruit that you also get the second. you have to make sure you give time for the points display for eating the first fruit disappears before you trigger the second fruit....otherwise you don't get the second fruit.

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Originally Posted by permafrostrick

the key is having enough time after getting the 1st fruit that you also get the second. you have to make sure you give time for the points display for eating the first fruit disappears before you trigger the second fruit....otherwise you don't get the second fruit.

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That's not the reason you don't get the second fruit.
In my 23 sec 9th key pattern, the 2nd key doesn't appear about 50% of the time.
Nothing to do with the 5000 points still being displayed, coz they're long-gone.
Quite a shame coz it was such a nice easy quick & safe pattern! :(

Maybe it's to do with that bonus-timer subroutine which produces varying numbers from 1 to 4 in a sequence of digits (or something like that) - Don Hodges figured out that that's what caused my 'disappearing key' in that one 9th key (regular speed) pattern i had a while back. Lemme see if i can find that thread...

Ah, here it is:
http://www.classicarcadegaming.com/foru ... l#msg16641
Don's answer is reply #27 on page 2.