*Very* cool. Thanks for your work Chris!
On 20 Mar 2007, at 7:47 PM, Chris Pile wrote:
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.
