Submission Text Full Submission Page
Score overflows 9,999,999 at level 836 after 11 hours.
Pac-Man has infinite number of levels. This movie shows what happens after the score goes beyond 9,999,999.
It's not played by human, but played by an AI written by me. All the levels since level 23 are exactly the same.
It's not a speedrun. The point of this movie is not for speed. Also, the first 22 levels don't contribute much in the whole 1000-level movie. So, I didn't optimize them much. Level 23+ are not bad.
The Pac-Man eats fruits since level 7. It doesn't eat fruits in the first 6 levels, because the speed is slow and the value of the fruits is low. The goal of the movie is not to minimize the number of levels. It's the similar reason why it doesn't eat ghost.
The length of the movie is 12:51:37.85. It's a bug that tasvideos.org says it is 5:08:39.15.
The AI is based on FCEUX. The movie can be played on FCEUX 2.2.2.
Interesting behavior of the AI
https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=243 Pac-Man eats the last point nicely.
https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=965 Pac-Man goes down just after the blue ghost turns back.

Samsara: Should've probably actually said I was judging, to be honest.
Samsara: For a run to be hosted here, it has to be as optimized as possible in every possible aspect, which this run clearly isn't. You said yourself in the description of the YouTube video you posted that your bot only outputs a working solution, not the fastest solution or the best solution. What we would want in this case is the fastest solution, a movie that achieves the goal of overflowing the counter in the shortest possible time.
I get the feeling you don't fully understand the purpose of the site as of now and that you weren't expecting that this would be judged as a speedrun, and that's fine. It's an honest mistake. We host speedrun records first and foremost, not just any run that is tool-assisted. In the future, I would recommend posting things like this in the general forums instead of submitting them to the site, as submitting them to the site means they will be judged as all other submissions are judged.
I'll have to reject this run, but I do hope you stick around and join the community. There's definitely a place on the forums to discuss the bot and this input file, and perhaps you can continue working to produce a much faster, submittable run someday.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4955: wcgbg's NES Pac-Man (Namco) in 5:08:39.15
Spikestuff
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I'm gonna see if I can splice this down to the 23rd maze, just so we don't have a max version, but I will also compare it to this to something I made a while back, when I get the chance.
Score overflows 9,999,999 at level 836 after 11 hours.
I've only gone 3 levels in to tell you this isn't top quality, you hit the orbs, avoid or fail to eat any of the ghosts, since you're going for highest score you should be going for the ghosts at all costs. Getting all 4 in one energizing go is 1,600 (by 4 is 6,400) is and if Pac-Man eats all four ghosts your points rack up to 3,000 (by 4 is 12,000), there's also 2,600 orbs a map. So, in theory (and prac.) 1 round = 21,000 points Another thing is the fruits, each fruit is 100 to 5000 points, now this is something I'm not going to add this to the final equation but here's the list: Cherry: 100 (1st) Berry: 300 (2nd) Orange: 500 (3rd/4th) Apple: 700 (5th/6th) Pineapple: 1000 (7th/8th) Galaxian: 2000 (9th/10th) Bell: 3,000 (11th/12th) Key: 5,000 (13th+) Without account for the fruits and only taking on the ghosts, to reach max score it would require to enter the 477th maze and rack up some points. You wouldn't need to go all the way to the 836th maze. With the fruits the number of mazes required will decrease. Vote is no, not entertaining. I won't splice to a 23 since this TAS goes for points. Source: http://www.pacmanmuseum.com/history/pacman-scoring.php Edit: Also, I may be mistaken on this one but I will point it out (I'll recheck this one), but for speed the minimal amount is either 13 or 14 mazes as you can copy and paste the same input from one of the two levels and it will carry over and work the same, I did this for a test and it went for a long time. Note: My math and information might be wrong on what I have posted regarding the ghosts, due to something I may have read incorrectly about eating all 4 ghosts in one go. Edit 2: A perfect game can be seen here which accounts for the fruit and the Ghosts using the Arcade (MAME) emulator: http://www.nrchapman.com/pacman/ Thank you xy2_ for pointing this one out, the NES version is a direct port, but doesn't have the infamous splitscreen like the original version. Edit 3: With the account of the Fruit/Items Maze 387 would be the last maze. Due to my forgetfulness on getting all the ghosts in one swoop Maze 718 is the alternate. I kinda forgot to account that Keys and Bell can show up twice but it does depend on a little couple of things, so 386/387 would be the final maze and the alternate would be maze 717/718.
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Score overflows 9,999,999 at level 836 after 11 hours.
#4955: wcgbg's NES Pac-Man in 5:08:39.15
Uh....something seems wrong.
Spikestuff
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jlun2 wrote:
Score overflows 9,999,999 at level 836 after 11 hours.
#4955: wcgbg's NES Pac-Man in 5:08:39.15
Uh....something seems wrong.
2782446 frames which is 12:51:37.85
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
EgixBacon
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What the heck is going on here? Did I just warp three months into the future to April Fool's Day?
Spikestuff wrote:
I've only gone 3 levels in to tell you this isn't top quality, you hit the orbs, avoid or fail to eat any of the ghosts, since you're going for highest score you should be going for the ghosts at all costs.
Submission wrote:
It's not played by human, but played by an AI written by me.
Looks like someone just flunked CS class.
FanFiction|Youtube Still on Win7! Take that, Microsoft!
Post subject: Re: #4955: wcgbg's NES Pac-Man in 5:08:39.15
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I think it would be more entertaining to have a Pac-Man run that plays as fast as possible to the point where the game starts repeating itself (instead of doing hundreds of levels in a row).
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I cannot play the movie in the emulator Also time info showing the emulator and the submission doesnt match
What power need more strength, the power of creation or the power of destruction?
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Aww, I was hoping to see a TAS for the arcade version.
wcgbg
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Thanks for your review and comments. The point of the movie is not a speedrun. Instead, I want to show - it has more than 256 levels without split screen; - what happens after the score overflow; - it's played by AI, like http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/12/super-mario-solved. The length of the movie is 12:51:37.85. It's a bug that tasvideos.org says it is 5:08:39.15. god of destruction, what's the version of your emulator? You can watch the video of the first 836 levels at https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4 (modified)
wcgbg
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Spikestuff, The AI eats fruits since level 7. It doesn't eat fruits in the first 6 levels, because the speed is slow and the value of the fruits is low. The goal of the movie is not to minimize the number of levels. It's the same reason why it doesn't eat ghost.
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wcgbg wrote:
Spikestuff, The AI eats fruits since level 7. It doesn't eat fruits in the first 6 levels, because the speed is slow and the value of the fruits is low. The goal of the movie is not to minimize the number of levels. It's the same reason why it doesn't eat ghost.
So this runs aims for time, then?
wcgbg
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Speed is not the point of this movie, although I consider it. It's a tradeoff between the time of the movie and the complex of the AI. It don't want to make the AI too complex. It's not difficult to add a condition to check whether the level is above 7 and eat the fruit. But, it more difficult to eat the ghost than the fruit. Also, the first 22 levels don't contribute much in the whole 1000-level movie. So, I didn't optimize them much. Level 23+ are not bad.
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wcgbg wrote:
god of destruction, what's the version of your emulator? You can watch the video of the first 836 levels at https://youtu.be/bgsOBskl-eE.
Dont worry. I can see the movie file and it was just because it take a few time to play. Youtube link not work
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The youtube link is https://youtu.be/bgsOBskl-eE (wcgbg added a fullstop at the end.)
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Not for speed? This is a pretty poor choice for a playaround, imo. :P Also no vote because 12 hours long of mazes. x.x
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How does your AI work exactly? Do the ghosts move by RNG or is it determined by your x,y position? I don't think it would be impossible to make an AI that solves each maze for the shortest time.
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In the actual Pac-Man arcade game, each of the four ghosts has its own separate AI. I'm not sure if this was preserved for the NES version.
Spikestuff
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ais523 wrote:
In the actual Pac-Man arcade game, each of the four ghosts has its own separate AI. I'm not sure if this was preserved for the NES version.
The AI was preserved.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
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Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
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I agree with others. Running a game to overflow the score display is usually only good as a proof of concept. Generally, we would only have a TAS showing an overflow published if it is a side effect of trying to beat the game efficiently, such as from large time bonuses or amazing combos to rack points up fast. This run offers neither of these. Also, in the process, you are replaying the same small set of levels again and again. In fact, my emulator froze for half a minute just trying to load the input log you submitted. Like the others are saying, this game can be published only if you just play all the built in levels once each and then stop there.
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More importantly, play them quickly and efficiently, which were apparently not the primary goals.
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No vote. It's not even a speedrun.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
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om, nom, nom... *burp*!
wcgbg
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Thank you all for the comments. I will remove it as well as the Youtube video. I will publish it in another place.
wcgbg
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JFYI, I published it at https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4 It's almost the same video as the one I posted a few days ago. You can ignore it if you have watched it. Interesting behavior of the AI https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=86 https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=232 Partial overlap with the ghost. https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=206 https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=254 Almost full overlap with the blue ghost. https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=173 https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=753 Chase. https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=243 Pac-Man eats the last point nicely. https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=379 https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=433 Escape. https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=638 https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=423 Nice prediction of the ghost. https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=439 https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=633 https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=893 https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=956 https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=1039 Looks dangerous. https://youtu.be/qInnnZZhEu4?t=965 Pac-Man goes down just after the blue ghost turns back.