PAC MAN THEME POLL

[Arkhan Asylum]

OK.  The PCE Retrocade Pac Man clone is turning out badassedly.

However, it needs a theme that is not Pac Man

General idea of each:

Dinosaurs::  You are an egg eating dinosaur.  The pellets are eggs.  The power pills are meat, and the ghosts are raptors who are pissed that you're eating their eggs.

Cat/Mouse: You're a Rat (mice aren't BAMFs like rats), pellets are crumbs of food! power pills are cheese! Ghosts are cats!

Fish: Kinda like dinosaurs only you're fish... You're a fish, you eat littler fish, the power pills are shrimp, and the ghosts are sharks, who are obviously bigger than you!

These are the ideas so far .  I personally like the dinosaur one.

If you have something suggestion wise, post it here!  Lets see what we get out of this.

[_Paul]

Sci-Fi Tanks (like Metal Stoker). Do it like Pac-Man in reverse where you place the dots (mines) instead of picking them up. Power pills (flags) give you a shield to ram the enemy tanks.

Indana Jones style: You're an adventurer picking up gold and being chased by mummies in an Egyptian pyramid setting.

Monkeys: Anything with monkeys is instantly cool. Jungle setting.

Tron-style: You're an antivirus program that needs to collect code and update your definistions (power pills) to destroy the viruses that are chasing you.

Hedgehog: Being chased by cars.

Lawnmower: Instead of collecting pills, you're mowing the lawn.

[Arkhan Asylum]

well, Keep in mind the gameplay is basically done and as much as i like the tank idea, itd require rewriting the game, rofl.


I am digging the raiders theme, and the tron theme.  I added em to poll

My only reservation about the Tron theme is that I think we may have exausted the "tron"ing with Insanity!

can you elaborate on the monkeys?  This kind of theme might be covered with Jungle hunt

[_Paul]

well, Keep in mind the gameplay is basically done and as much as i like the tank idea, itd require rewriting the game, rofl.

Really? All you need is to reverse the tile graphics for the pills (so your pill tile looks blank and your blank tile looks like a pill) and it's done, surely?

[Arkhan Asylum]

oh. I misunderstood what you meant.  I should has a sleep soon.   Been up too long!
 
So you basically just drive your tank around and LEAVE dots behind, pick up the shields, and then ram the other tanks?

HMMMM.

*added to poll*

[_Paul]

More brainstorming:

Night Club: You're a drunk, wandering around popping 'E's while avoiding the narcs.

Conception: You're an egg trying to avoid the sperm while picking up morning after pills. Once they catch you you are fertilized and cannot continue. Collecting super condoms protects you momentarily.

Pirate vs Ninjas: You're a pirate and you're being stalked by Ninjas. Collect the dubloons around the ship - a skull and cross bones summons a ghost pirate shield.

Freshly Squeezed: You're an orange and must avoid the orange squeezers as you travel around the kitchen.

[Arkhan Asylum]

jesus! thats one hell of a storm going on in your brain!

That pill poppin one sounds hilarious.  I wonder if it would be PG-13 enough to distribute... >_>

[_Paul]

What would be nice is if you have something or some character that ties the whole compilation together, like an Aetherbyte man or something that you could use as a mascot.

[TheClash603]

I want death metal!

[SignOfZeta]

That depends on how much the game resembles actual Pac Man. If you're going for the same atmosphere of non-sensical dystopian future hell, then I think just having weird sounds like the original is best. Maybe some really monotonous grinding Detroit Techno.

EDIT: Whoops. I thought you meant just the theme music!

I guess I vote for Tron.

[jboypacman]

As far as the themes go couple of these have been done before....

Fish-Pesco: A Atari 2600 homebrew

Cat/Mouse-Mousetrap: Arcade game ported to the Atari 2600 and Colecovision

Now there as been so many Pac-Man clones done like Ladybug,Bank Heist,Aliens and K.C. Munchkin and i really enjoy all of them but would like to see you do something like K.C.'s follow up game K.C.'s Crazy Chase which almost seems to combine elements of Pac-Man and Centipede.

The Dino ideal would be pretty interesting too and what ever you decided i hope you have between level intermissions like in Pac-Man.

[Arkhan Asylum]

There will be level intermissions.  It'd be stupid to not have em.

As a friend pointed out, "Dot Eater: The Game" has been done to hell.

Mouse Trap (cat/mouse), Pakkacuda (fish),

The difference being, this has some elements not normal to pacman,

As soon as a theme is decided on by everyone, you will all get to see screen shots of it

[Keranu]

I vote Zelda (rip-off) style. Control Link, collect rupees, get chased by moblins, collect "master sword pelettes" to chase moblins with (or maybe even shoot them with), find hidden keys to open locked areas on the map.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I'm really liking the Tank idea, though, the dino idea is cool too.  I voted Tankor!  Hell, when it grabs a flag or whatever, you could have it transform into a robot!!  Maybe even have some limited blasters?  Could include a fake transformation sound(probably can't get away with the real thing).

[Arkhan Asylum]

LOL if only getting sued for Pac-Zelda wouldnt happen.  that would be great.


Having the Pac Man shift to a robot could be done. 

we will see what happens with the votes!

I'll probably run the voting for awhile while we work on some other stuff.

[Turbo D]

How about calling it Insanity Deathmaze: Arkhan Courage in Beta Zones. You could use that dude from insanity and have him collect batteries needed to power an escape pod that will take him to the next deathmaze. The power-ups could be acid or heroine, causing our hero to not feel the pain of his robot enemies....

ya, I voted dinosaurs (although there is that dinosaurs pacman on the nes: trog). I'm looking forward to this Aetherbyte release (especially the jungle hunt part), so keep up the good work.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I thought about reusing insanity for Pacman, and with a title like that who wouldn't want it! :-D.... but wouldn't that be like cheating everyone if its recycled (*cough*mediocre*cough*) graphics?   Maybe I can make that a hidden mode and swap out graphics, hehe.

unless everyone really wants that to be the theme. 

The 5 player deathmatch Insanity will be on there though :-D

Its looking like the tomb raidin' theme is what's sticking so far.

[Ceti Alpha]

TRON theme or bust.

[exodus]

voted for raiding of tombs!

[Arjak]

I voted for the Treasure Hunter theme, too. After thinking about it for a while, I felt that it was the most original idea for a Pac-Man theme.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I don't know, it just seems like the Tomb Raider theme would be too close to Jungle Hunt.  And personally, I wouldn't do that, for the same reason I wouldn't do an Insanityman game, since there's already the Insanity deathmatch on the disc(not to mention the recycling from Insanity itself might seem lazy to some).

[_Paul]

There's no reason an Indy style has to be jungle-ish. It could be raiding the temple of Atlantis, or inside a pyramid or something. You just have to be original with the graphics.

[Arkhan Asylum]

well as far as tomb raidering , it would def. be more pyramid egyptian doom than safari tikimen.  Mummies ftw.

Jungle Hunt was originally Jungle King, and that was Tarzan style anyways

[esteban]

I haven't voted yet, because, well, I want to think about it before casting a final vote. I really like sunteam_paul's long list of suggestions, though! Great stuff in there.

Am I lame for wanting a JJ & Jeff theme? You control a bird (or dog, player selectable) from JJ & Jeff that deposits little  "piles" whilst running through the maze corridors (akin to sunteam_paul's tank idea). JJ, Jeff, Kato and Ken are the "ghosts", cans of Coca-Soda are the pellets, etc... the intermission scenes feature everybody we love...

I would always play as the "bird", because it would be fun to fly around the mazes corridors...

I vote Zelda (rip-off) style. Control Link, collect rupees, get chased by moblins, collect "master sword pelettes" to chase moblins with (or maybe even shoot them with), find hidden keys to open locked areas on the map.

Do a Neutopia-themed version. Come-on, nobody will know.

Scorpits! Ghostcloths! Oh my!

This is my favorite one...

[Nazi NecroPhile]

I vote for Paul's tank theme, Esteban's Neutopia theme, or a Bomberman theme version (à la Hyper Pac-Man).

[oldskool]

K.C Munchkin was a great game. 

I voted on the Tron theme.  Really anything would be good, even the pacman theme is fine to me.

[FraGMarE]

They already made a Pac-Man style game on the PC-Engine... it's called 'Batman' 

[Arkhan Asylum]

They already made a Pac-Man style game on the PC-Engine... it's called 'Batman' 

lol..... wow