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penta: MAME ROM Information.

History:

Penta (c) 1982 Zaccaria.

Penta the Penguin is the eponymous star of Penta the video game. The basic layout of Penta is akin to that of Namco's legendary 'Pac-Man'; featuring, as it does, a top down, single screen, maze-like arrangement. Penta's enemies, the Sno-Bees, are also similar to Blinky, Inky, Clyde etc. - the ghosts that pursued Pac-man; not least because Sno-bees also come in four different varieties, each represented by a different colour.

One aspect that distinguishes Penta from the Namco classic is that the Maze itself is a wholly interactive environment. Each section of wall is represented as a block of ice, which can be pushed onto the Sno-bees to destroy them. The Sno-bees themselves will destroy the ice blocks as they move around each level, so speed is of the essence. Some of the blocks are 'Diamond blocks' which cannot be destroyed, and can be re-used by Penta.

The outer wall of each level can also be utilised; if the player pushes against the wall when a Sno-bee is next to it, The Sno-bee will be temporarily stunned; allowing Penta to move in for the kill.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Z80 (@ 3.02 Mhz)

Sound Chips : Namco 3-channel WSG (@ 96 Khz)

Screen orientation : Vertical

Video resolution : 224 x 288 pixels

Screen refresh : 60.61 Hz

Palette Colors : 32

Players : 2

Control : 4-way joystick

Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

This game is an Italian bootleg of "Pengo".

- SCORING -

Smashing an ice block : 30 points.

Smashing an ice block with a Sno-bee inside : 500 points.

Walking over a stunned Snow-bee : 100 points.

Killing a Snow-bee with an ice block : 400 points.

Killing 2 Snow-bees at once with one ice block : 1,600 points.

Killing 3 Snow-bees at once with one ice block : 6,400 points.

Lining up the three diamond blocks with none of them touching a wall : 10,000 points.

Lining up the three diamond blocks with one or more touching a wall : 5,000 points.

Completing screen in under 20 seconds : 5,000 bonus points.

Completing screen in 20-29 seconds : 2,000 bonus points.

Completing screen in 30-39 seconds : 1,000 bonus points.

Completing screen in 40-49 seconds : 500 bonus points.

Completing screen in 50-59 seconds : 10 bonus points.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* The last remaining Sno-bee on the screen will try to escape. If you do not kill it before it reaches one of the corners it will disappear.

* The indicator at the top of the screen tells you how many Sno-Bees are remaining on the level, including those still in ice blocks.

* At the start of each level some ice blocks will flash. This indicates that there is a Sno-Bee inside and you can destroy the ice block to kill the Sno-Bee before it emerges.

* When you kill the last Sno-bee you have a couple of seconds before the level ends. Use this time to crush an ice block for an extra 30 points.

* Concentrate your efforts on lining up the diamond blocks. The 10,000 points are the biggest single score in the game, and stunning all the Sno-bees is also a valuable side effect. You can then kill them easily by pushing ice blocks onto them rather than running over them (400 points as opposed to 100).

* Try to kill more than one Sno-bee at a time, as two or more together are worth more points than killing them individually.

- SOURCES -

Game's rom.

Arcade Retro Lounge; http://tips.retrogames.com/

MAME Info:

0.01 [Nicola Salmoria, Sergio Munoz, Allard van der Bas]

Artwork available (pengo, penta)

WIP:

- 0.141u3: hap fixed Player 2 cocktail graphics are offset in Pengo.

- 0.139u1: Atari Ace removed global variables from NAMCO sound core.

- 0.138u1: Tafoid added DIP locations to Pengo.

- 26th July 2008: Mr. Do - Funny story. Tormod sent me a BUNCH of instruction cards a long time ago. You've probably been seeing them added in every so often. Well, around July of last year, I had completed a whole bunch of them, but then had a computer crash, and they ended up on the "spare" hard drive by mistake. I found them again going through a cleanup. So thanks to Tormod, this week we have Penta.

- 0.115u4: Lord Nightmare fixed Pengo to explicitly use the SN76489 now that it behaves differently from the SN76496. Changed Z80 CPU1 clock speed to 3072000 Hz.

- 0.113u1: Fixed rom names in clone Pengo (set 2 not encrypted).

- 24th December 2006: Mr. Do - Thanks to the loan by Vintage Arcade Superstore and top-of-the-line restoration by Addy, we have Pengo bezel.

- 0.94u4: Shimapong fixed ROM loading in clones pengo3u, pengo4 and penta.

- 0.93: Added clock parameter to Namco sound (96000 Hz).

- 0.91: smf fixed Pengo (was broken in 0.90u4).

- 0.88u4: smf added clone Jr. Pac-Man (Pengo hardware).

- 0.88u2: Gerald fixed rom names in Pengo (set 4).

- 0.87u2: MASH added clone Pengo (set 4).

- 0.73: Added clone Pengo (set 3 not encrypted). Changed parent description to 'Pengo (set 1 rev c)'. Fixed rom names in Pengo (set 1 rev c).

- 0.60: Added clone Pengo (bootleg).

- 0.37b12: Changed VSync to 60.606060Hz.

- 0.34b1: Added sound and color proms ($0, 20). Changed description of clone 'Pengo (set 2 unencrypted)' to 'Pengo (set 2 not encrypted)'.

- 0.33b7: Tim Lindquist added clone Pengo (set 2). Changed parent description to 'Pengo (set 1)' and clone 'Pengo (alternate)' to '(set 2 unencrypted)'. Renamed (pengoa) to (pengo2u).

- 0.31: Gerrit Van Goethem added high score saving to Pengo (alternate).

- 0.28: Rewritten the decryption routines in Pengo [Nicola Salmoria]. Merged Pengo and Pac Man vidhrdw [Nicola Salmoria].

- 0.27: Thanks to Gary Walton, speed in Pengo should now be closer to the original [Nicola Salmoria]. The unencrypted versions of Penta and "pengopop" are no longer supported because they are just hacks, not coming from a real board. The *original*, *encrypted* versions are now supported instead. They are exactly the same, the only difference is that they are encrypted and come from real boards. The names now are: "pengo" original Pengo with "PopCorn" music, "pengoa" alternate version (earlier) with different music and no slow screen draw and "penta" the bootleg called Penta.

- 31st July 1997: Gary Walton dumped Pengo (set 1 rev c).

- 0.26: Added clones 'Pengo Popcorn Music' and 'Pengo (alternative version)'.

- 0.15: Brad Oliver deserves a prize for being the person who, alone, has discovered more bugs than everyone else put together. This time the bug was illegal memory acesses in games using 224x288 and 288x224 modes (Pengo, Pac Man, Rally X).

- 0.13: Nicola Salmoria added high score saving to Pengo.

- 0.02: Added clone Penta (bootleg 1982).

- 0.01: Nicola Salmoria added Pengo (Sega 1982). Game is playable with accurate colors and sound. Control: Arrows = Move around, CTRL = Push, F1 = Skip level and F2 = Test mode. Very special thanks to Sergio Munoz for the precious information about the Pengo sound hardware and colors.

LEVELS: 99 (endless)

Other Emulators:

* FB Alpha

* JAE

* Raine

* Sparcade

* VAntAGE

Recommended Games (Maze Pengo):

Pengo

Dacholer

Dommy

Guzzler

Kick Boy

Mr. Jong

Rock Duck

Scrambled Egg

Pirate Ship Higemaru

Rumba Lumber

Toypop

Kitten Kaboodle

Meikyu Jima

Yam! Yam!?

Poizone

Three Wonders - Don't Pull Puzzle

Mr. Kicker

Romset: 50 kb / 14 files / 27.8 zip

MAME XML Output:

<description>Penta</description>

<manufacturer>bootleg</manufacturer>

</input>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</game>

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