Hi-res PET hardware = VIC-20 development system?

[ral-clan]

Hi, I found this video online about this piece of hardware for the PET:

The HAL PCG-6500 is a programmable character set generator and sound device for PET/CBM computers, developed by HAL Laboratory in Japan. It was distributed in the USA by Systems Formulate Corporation of Palo Alto, California.

The video is here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PPSXKz59PE

The interesting thing is that this was developed by HAL laboratories in Japan - the same company that did the initial series of arcade ports for the VIC-20 under contract to Commodore. The three games shown (Galaxian, Rally X and Mole Attack) have exactly the same bitmap graphics (pixel for pixel) as those developed for the VIC-20 by HAL laboratories (allowing for character width differences). I'm talking about the Japanese versions of these cartridges...of course we know that for worldwide distribution Galaxian was renamed Star Battle, and Rally X was renamed and altered to become Radar Rat Race.

I wonder which games HAL developed first - the PET or the VIC - and which were ported to which system afterward?

[Vic20-Ian]

Rally X shows a presentation date of 1981 so I guess that Galaxian and Mole Attack are the same year.

All are playable in Gamebase Pet

[ral-clan]

Oh neat! I didn't know Gamebas PET could emulate hi-res hardware.

[Vic20-Ian]

The carts all load fine but I cannot seem to play the game with no numeric pad on my laptop today.

[polluks]

The carts all load fine but I cannot seem to play the game with no numeric pad on my laptop today.

I use num lock to activate my numeric pad

[Vic20-Ian]

Not a feature on Surface Pro