Removed the Select switch functionality which was unused. Changed score font back to original font which is easier to read on poor TV displays.
| Title Screen and Final Gameplay Adjustments v1.31 | August 1, 2001 |
| Difficulty switch settings added: Left switches between
normal- and over-sized drivehead. Right switches between smooth and track-to-track
motion of the drivehead. Added title screen with color cycling of the
SCSIcide logo.
Removed the Select switch functionality which was unused. Changed score font back to original font which is easier to read on poor TV displays. |
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| Sound and Updated Graphics v1.20 | July 26, 2001 |
| Graphics
updated for score font, drivehead, and data bits. Colors updated for
optimal TV display and to avoid confusion between bits. This is difficult
to do given the variation in color of different television sets.
Added sound effects for the following events: Correct data bit read, incorrect data bit read, and missed data bit. Ambient sound represents a hard drive spinning and increases in pitch every level to reflect increased drive speed. |
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| Paddle Control and Gameplay Optimizations v1.10 | July 8, 2001 |
| To
start a new level, hit the fire button on the paddle. Select switch
functionality is enabled to support multiple game variations. When the
game is over, the hard drive head will disappear from the screen.
Optimized routines to precalculate color and match order of data bits to reduce flicker. Changed scoring system to something that make sense. |
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| First Playable Version v1.00 | June 22, 2001 |
| The
Bit Counter has been increased to 10 bits (to correspond to the 10 tracks
of the hard drive). After 10 bits have been read, the level increases.
The horizontal positioning and color order of the data bits are randomly
selected for each level. Each data bit travels at the same speed, but
the speed increases every other level. The drivehead and score change color to reflect the next required bit. If an incorrect data bit is read, score decreases. The Latency Buffer decreases when the required data bit is missed. The buffer refills and bonus points are given after each correct data bit is read. When buffer runs out, the game is over. |
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| New Display Kernel and Horizontal Motion of Data Bits | May 9, 2001 |
| Added moving data bits (one per track, left to right).
This demo shows the possible horizontal speeds of the data bits (ranging
from slow to dizzyingly fast). As the bits reach the right side of the
screen, they will wrap around to start again at the left. Many thanks to Piero Cavina for allowing me to modify his PCMSD1.1 demo display kernel. |
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| Data Latency Buffer and Bit Counter | March 26, 2001 |
| Added a Data Latency Buffer (left) and Bit Counter (right). For test purposes, moving the joystick up will increase the Latency Buffer and change the color of the score and Bit Counter. Moving the joystick down will decrease the Latency Buffer and increase the Bit Counter. Removed the SCSIcide logo (hopefully there will be a title screen instead). |  |
| New Playfield and Hexadecimal Score Routines | March 2, 2001 |
| Modified the playfield kernel to draw tracks. Added a 6-digit hexadecimal score display. This demo increases the score by $FF every frame to test the score handling routine. Added a SCSIcide logo at the bottom of the screen. |  |
| Initial Playfield with Joystick Control | January 4, 2001 |
| Used Nick Bensema's "How To Draw A Playfield" as a boiler plate to display the initial playfield. Examined lots of other sample source code and documentation to get a feel for the nuances of 2600 programming. This version also has vertical movement of the drivehead using the joystick. |  |
| Initial Playfield Drawing Mock-Up | December 2, 2000 |
| After discussions, it was decided that a linear concept would lend itself to an easier design. To the right is a mock-up of the intial playfield as drawn in Adobe Photoshop. Looks a bit like Freeway. |  |
| Initial Atari VCS Game Concept | November 18, 2000 |
| As originally posted
on the Stella
Development List, the game is based loosely on the operation
of a hard disk
drive. The player controls the hard drive head using the paddle
and is required to read particular data blocks. The concept is reminiscent
of Kaboom!
and Milton Bradley's Simon. This area of the web site will detail and follow the progression of the game from concept through completion, including versions of commented source code and compiled binaries. |
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