Pac-Man vs Ghosts League Bonus Features


This league allows you to develop AI controllers for the classical arcade game Ms Pac-Man. You can submit a bonus Java code for either Ms. Pac-Man or for the ghosts! The competition is brought to you by Philipp, David, and Simon from the University of Essex. Keep up to date on Facebook.

Ms PacMan vs Ghosts Starter Guides and Bonuses

Ms PacMan is an excellent example of a simple and yet sophisticated game, that will make your gamer senses tickle. Your controller, which will have to provide a direction at every game tick (40 milliseconds), will then compete against all the controllers submitted by other competitors to determine the most effective strategy.

The goal of this competition is to determine the most effective Ms Pac-Man and Ghost controllers. We have created an efficient implementation of the original Ms Pac-Man arcade game in Java; your controllers will interface directly with the game engine.

You can play the game here. All controllers submitted will be pitted against one another. The goal for Ms Pac-Man is to maximize the game’s score (by eating pills, power pills and ghosts) while ghosts should try to minimize the game’s score (by eating Ms Pac-Man). The full set of rules of the game may be found under Rules.

We have created a series of quick starter guides. First, you should register and upload the starter packages. Then download and run the software. Finally, check out the third guide to get a basic understanding of how the code works. Additional information may be found under Tutorials.

  • Registration
  • Run Software
  • Start Coding
  • Submissions
  • Non Sticky Bonus Guides

Non sticky bonukset in Pacman game

How Does Non Sticky Bonus Feature Work in Pac-Man?

Non sticky bonukset are benefits that you can usually get from online casinos. In Ms Pac-Man, the classical arcade game from the ’80s that is one of the best-known video games ever made, these kinds of bonus types are not available. On the other hand the simple and yet super exciting game comes with other features that can be seen as bonus features. You see, in the Ms Pac-Man vs Ghosts competition, you are asked to create computer programs (controllers) to play the game as either Ms Pac-Man or the ghosts.

Ms Pac-Man is an arcade game that cannot be found at online casinos. On the other hand there are many different slots that are created in a way that reminds you of this classic game. For these slots you can use multiple casino bonuses, of which non sticky bonus offers are the best ones. They are offers that you can first accept but after playing a while, decide not to use after all. This makes Ms Pac-Man styled slots easier and more fun to play!

Will online casinos at some point have their own versions of the legendary Ms Pac-Man? This depends on multiple factors, of which the licenses and copyrights are most likely the most important ones. If for some reason the creators of Ms Pac-Man wish to see their game as a slot version as well, then there might be one released pretty quickly.

How To Begin With Started Guides

Here we have instructions on how to start.

1. Sign up

Register by clicking here. You will need to wait for approval before you can log in (please check your emails).

2. Download

Download the starter packages and unzip them in a convenient location on your computer.

3. Log in

Log in to the site using your user credentials.

4. Upload controller

Click on upload and choose the type of controller you want to upload. Then select the appropriate zip file.

5. Results

You can now check the status of your controllers in your profile. You will appear in the rankings as soon as the first game involving your controller has been played.

Software

Here you can find all the software required to enter the competition. The starter packages contain sample controllers you can upload straight away to get into the rankings. They also serve as an illustration of the functionality of the game; they are also included in the software release (as StarterPacMan.java and StarterGhosts.java).

The software will be updated over time to address bugs and other issues (please email us if you find any errors or would like to request additional features). Please make sure you always have the latest version of the software. Any future changes to the software will be minimal and should not affect the design of your controller.

This zip file contains two further zip files, MyPacMan.zip and MyGhosts.zip. You can submit these straight away to get into the rankings. These files are also included in the software you can download below (as StarterPacMan.java and StarterGhosts.java in pacman.controllers.examples).

The software includes all the code and files required to execute the game and develop the controllers. Have a look at the quick starter guides to see how the code may be used using an IDE such as Eclipse. You can also have a look at the tutorials for further information about the software and sample controllers. Finally, we have created JavaDoc documentation for the most important classes.

Tutorials

We have provided a number of tutorials to help you get started coding your controller. We will add additional tutorials as time goes by.

The game is played asynchronously in real-time: every discrete game tick, the game uses the moves supplied by the controllers to update the game state. Then, the game waits for 40ms for new actions to come in, after which the game updates again. At each game tick, the controllers have 40 ms to respond. The controllers are given a copy of the current game and the time the move is due.

Each controller can then query the game using its many methods to compute an appropriate response. It is the responsibility of the controller to respond in a timely manner (this is one of the challenges of the competition).

If a controller returns a move on time, the game will use that move to advance the game. If the move happens to be illegal, the game tries to replay the previous move or chooses a new legal move randomly. If a controller does not replay on time, the game tries to play the previous move or, if that is not possible, chooses a legal move randomly.

The controller will receive a new copy of the game state for the remaining time of that game tick to compute a new move. In other words, if a controller takes 60ms to respond, it will have roughly (2×40)-60=20ms in the next game tick. If a controller does not reply over several game ticks, the game keeps replaying previous actions.

Rules of the game

The game consists of four mazes (A, B, C, and D), which are played in order; when maze D is cleared (i.e., all pills have been eaten by Ms Pac-Man), the game continues with maze A and so on until the game is over. Each maze contains a different layout with pills and power pills placed at specific locations. Ms Pac-Man starts the game with three lives; an additional life is awarded at 10,000 points.

The goal of Ms Pac-Man is to obtain the highest possible score by eating all the pills and power pills in the maze (and thus advancing to the next stage).

Each pill eaten scores 10 points, each power pill is worth 50 points. Ms Pac-Man’s quest is opposed by the four ghosts: Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (green) and Sue (brown). At the start of each level, the ghosts start in the lair in the middle of the maze and, after some idle time, enter the maze in their pursuit of Ms Pac-Man.

Their goal is to eat Ms Pac-Man and each time this happens, a life is lost and Ms Pac-Man and the ghosts return to their initial positions; the time spent by the ghosts in the lair decreases as the player progresses to higher levels.

There are four power pills in each of the four mazes, which, when eaten, reverse the direction of the ghosts and turn them blue; they may now be eaten for extra points. The score for eating each ghost in succession immediately after a power pill has been consumed starts at 200 points and doubles each time, for a total of 200+400+800+1600=3000 additional points.

Any ghost that has been eaten re-appears in the lair and emerges soon after, once again chasing Ms Pac-Man. If a second power pill is consumed while some ghosts remain edible, the ghost score is reset to 200; if the level is cleared while the ghosts remain edible, play continuously immediately to the next level.

The more advanced the level, the shorter the ghost edible times become, making the levels progressively more difficult; at an advanced stage, the ghosts do not turn blue at all (however, they still change direction). When the edible period runs out, the ghosts start flashing blue and white. The player (or agent) needs to be careful at this stage to avoid losing lives. When all the pills and power pills have been cleared, the game moves on to the next maze.

Teaching

We are very happy for the Ms Pac-Man vs Ghosts framework to be used for any non-commercial purposes such as teaching.

We are also happy to help so please do get in touch with us if you have any queries. We are planning to make the server software available shortly to make it easier for teachers to use this framework in their classes.

In return, all we would like to ask for is that you let us know if you are using the software so that we can link to the appropriate source (e.g., course webpage) below. Also, we are always open to suggestions so please get in touch.