Many thanks Chris!
spt -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chris Pile Sent: 20 March 2007 19:47 To: [email protected] Subject: SAM Defender - Updated and Improved! Hi SAMsters, I've updated SAM Defender! Why? Well, basically I did all of the things I *should* have done back in '98. Things that have been annoying me for years! Below are a list of the things changed, plus any new features and also a link to where you can get this - finally (probably!) final - version! ===================================== List of things changed to match the arcade coin-op: * Hyperspace is now a 25% chance of death on re-entry - was 50% before. * Homing enemies do not home to the hyperspace re-entry position - they did before! * Landers appear in groups of five, as they always have. When you shoot the last Lander in the current world state, the next available group is warped in immediately. Before, you could have an empty world while the counters for the next group timed-out. So, now its never an empty world! :-) * Climbing Landers that once carried a humanoid (which you've now shot!) that reach the top of the screen will now warp in at a random world X position. Before, they would warp in at the same world X position they disappeared at. * Hunting Landers will now pick a new humanoid target if their current target gets captured or destroyed. Before, if their target vanished they would hunt blindly over potential victims and *never* pick them up... Total pants! * Humanoids are now scattered randomly over the planet surface. Before, they were put at a uniformed distance apart - depending on the number of humanoids in the world. * Enemy shots now have a little randomness to their ultimate destination. Before, every shot was deadly accurate to the player's ship. * Swarmers - their logic has received a major overhaul. Before, they fired in any direction using the same shot-logic as the rest of the enemies. They also flew around the player like a swarm of bees. This was bollocks - nowhere near the same as the coin-op original, and something that's annoyed me for years! The coin-op Swarmers will *only* fire when they are flying *toward* the player - they also use a different shot style and sound. This means you can let Swarmers fly past you, quickly turn and chase them in the knowledge that they won't fire at you - providing you keep close to them. They only change direction when they go beyond a certain distance from the player. In SAM Defender it wasn't possible to use this chasing "trick"... But it is now - as Swarmers now mimic the coin-op. :-) * Upon player death all screen contents are preserved - including any warping enemies and explosion fragments. Before, all fragments and warpers were erased due to the way their engines worked. Not good - and not like the coin-op! Fixed! :-) * Baiters and Mutants now mimic the coin-op more closely - slight changes to their logic. * Background stars now twinkle faster - a closer match to the coin-op's twinkle speed. * Some sound priorities rearranged, to closer match the coin-op. Even though the sound is still shite! ;-) ===================================== List of (internal) things changed from the last version: * Faster and more random random number generator. * Faster processing of the linked-list used to handle the world entities. * Optimisations of the sprite engines and scanner dots engine. * Cleaner final stage to the merging "Defender" logo on the attract mode. No empty block! * Coin-op timing for the appearance/disappearance of the "500" sprite during attract mode. * General removal of redundant code - such as... * Removal of light-pen detection code. I doubt this was needed - how many had a light pen! * High-score table is now 8-slots, and contains the same initials and scores as the coin-op. ===================================== List of things removed from the last version: * Initial "Persona" logo. * Rotating "Digital Reality" logo As both of these were seen once only - at initial game boot-up - their code and data have been removed, saving around 8k on the final program size! ===================================== List of things added to this version: * Coin-op style "rug" test-pattern during initial game boot-up! As per coin-op power on! * Coin-op style "INITIAL TESTS INDICATE UNIT OK" message! As per coin-op power on! * An "ALL TIME GREATEST" high-score table! As per coin-op. * Saving of the "ALL TIME GREATEST" scores to non-volatile RAM if you have Edwin Blink's Dallas real-time clock interface. The coin-op saved the "ALL TIME" scores to NVRAM. * Saving of your control key choices to NVRAM too. See the "readme.txt" file in the Defender .ZIP for information about SAM Defender's NVRAM saving capabilities. ===================================== So, there you go! Some improvements and changes I've been meaning to do for years! If you carry an image of SAM Defender on your website, or if you bundle it in any compilations Etc., then please replace the current version with the one found here: http://www.yz.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/kf/defender.zip Please note, this is not likely to remain a permanent link - so please carry a copy of this .ZIP on your own site. Also, the .ZIP's on World Of Sam and NVG's FTP should be replaced with this version. Here's a quick way to tell which version you have: * Rotating RED "Digital Reality" logo = the original 1998 release, complete with bugs! * Rotating GREEN "Digital Reality" logo = improved version, released around 2001. * No "Persona" or "Digital Reality" logos - instead, replaced by a coin-op style "rug" test is the very latest version. Much improved, optimised and closer to the coin-op. As ever, with major changes, there could be bugs! :-O So, please let me know if anyone finds anything they think shouldn't be happening! Finally, have fun! Chris.
