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Crazy Otto is the original hack that GCC developed. After they won their lawsuit with Atari, they called Namco America and told/warned them about the release. Instead of fighting GCC, they licensed it instead and asked them to make changes to the hack, which ultimately resulted in Ms. Pac-Man.HerrBerzerk wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 6:32 pm What is the history of Crazy Otto and what is so special about it? Never heard of it and it looks to me like just Ms. Pac Man with different sprites when I do a YT search...?
Thank you!
Only 3 PCB's were ever converted before it got changed to Ms Pacman, so chances of getting it that way are low.Chilli_Vibes wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 4:40 pm As far as I know, no known official GCC rom has ever been dumped.
That is interesting. Steve Golson, one of the original GCC devs, set up a prototype of the original circuit board in 2012 at the California Extreme Arcade & Pinball Expo. I believe people were allowed to play it, that is how someone made a fan-made version of Otto, by studying mobile phone footage he took of him playing it. It would be a real shame if Steve's board went the way of the dodo, unless he's still got original code, or even dumped the board himself. Without these dumps we wouldn't have had Atari's Akka Arrh, for example, which is now playable in MAME.macro wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 10:04 pmOnly 3 PCB's were ever converted before it got changed to Ms Pacman, so chances of getting it that way are low.Chilli_Vibes wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 4:40 pm As far as I know, no known official GCC rom has ever been dumped.
however one of the programmers has a copy of the development disk so that is knocking around and does have sufficient code to create a working version of the game. (and an incomplete copy of the graphics, but enough to make it work)
And that is the guy with the disk. he has the rom images on modern stuff, so they should be safe at least.Chilli_Vibes wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 10:28 pm That is interesting. Steve Golson, one of the original GCC devs
So it's been a couple year since this thread was written to - when I leave Super Attract mode on my Mister, I see Crazy Otto's attract mode on there a time or two - did we ever determine if this is the real Crazy Otto codebase, or just a homebrew approximation?
RoboDroptone2058 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2024 3:05 amSo it's been a couple year since this thread was written to - when I leave Super Attract mode on my Mister, I see Crazy Otto's attract mode on there a time or two - did we ever determine if this is the real Crazy Otto codebase, or just a homebrew approximation?
The 'real' one is lost to time, so by definition it's basically a graphics hack of Ms. Pac-Man.
I actually played the original Crazy Otto on MAME at the Portland Retro Game Expo two years ago. The creators of Ms. Pac-Man did a presentation and I chatted with them afterwards; one of them had the rom on his laptop and offered to let me play it (obviously, I said yes).
If I recall correctly, he wanted to release it publicly, but he hasn't yet because of legal reasons.
The code on the disk still exists and it does assemble into a runnable copy, although how it ties up to the versions he mentions is anyones guess!
example of code (from one of the assembler files)
Code: Select all
;**************************************************************
; THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS THE SOLE PROPERTY
; OF GENERAL COMPUTER CORPORATION. USE OF THIS DOCUMENT
; IS RESERVED EXCLUSIVELY FOR GENERAL COMPUTER CUSTOMERS
; AND PERSONNEL. REPRODUCTION OF THIS MATTER IN WHOLE
; OR IN PART IS FORBIDDEN WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN
; CONSENT OF GENERAL COMPUTER CORPORATION.
;**************************************************************
TITLE "FRUIT DRIVER"
;THIS CODE IS TO MAKE THE FRUIT BONCE ACROSS THE SCREEN.
;THE FRUIT ENTERS AT P0 AND GOES COUNT0 SPACES BEFORE GOING POOF!!
;IN A SMALL EXPLOSION. THE PATH IS TABLE DRIVEN.
;EACH MAZE HAS AN ASSOCIATED P0,COUNT0,PATH.I created a copy of mame with it in back in 2004 but was asked not to release it. A few people, including himself, have copies, but I have no idea if it will ever get a proper release.