Hi All,
Perhaps some of you would like to know that SAM Defender has been updated.
The update fixes a couple of obscure/rare bugs and also improves the 'close to
the original'
accuracy. These items have been nagging at me for a few years, so it was time
to fix 'em! ;-)
The following changes have been made:
BUG FIXES:
Fixed a problem that would sometimes leave the screen in a 'non-black'
state. This was
often seen when 'Game Over' occurred just as the planet exploded. The
'Game Over' screen
and the following 'Hall Of Fame' screen would have a random background
colour.
Fixed a similar problem on level completion. If you issued a Smart Bomb
during the final
few frames of a level you would sometimes see the 'Level Complete' screen
displayed on a
white (instead of black) background.
The above bugs were pretty trivial and didn't really affect the program.
Just dirty and
annoying!!
There was a major bug - but thankfully quite rare - that has also been
squashed. This
involved the '500' bonus sprite when catching a human. If a human had
fallen enough to die
on landscape impact but you flew into it at the exact time it hit the
landscape you would
not see the '500' bonus. Actually the human should be dead but instead
remained alive!!
The '500' bonus was being dumped off-screen, often in critical data areas.
This was a
potential crash-bug. Now fixed.
Also fixed a potential crash-bug, again related to dropping humans, where
the human could
get dumped below the visible screen area for one frame.
ACCURACY CHANGES:
The following were omitted from SAM Defender but are present in the arcade
original:
1 ... A 1.5 second breathing space at the start of each level.
2 ... Scanner dots remain visible in the scanner area when player ship is
exploding.
The first one was an oversight on my part, I just didn't notice it in the
original!!! The updated
SAM Defender now includes this breathing time.
The second was more tricky due to the way I originally programmed the
scanner routines. In
fact this error has bugged me since SAM Defender's initial release! It's
now fixed in the update.
When you die the scanner will still retain its display.
I've also removed the 'anti-emulator' code. With the accuracy of the
current emulators this code
was pretty much redundant! ;-)
The updated version can be downloaded from:
http://www.btinternet.com/~c.pile/index.htm where
you'll find Binary, DSK and TeleDisk versions.
I've changed the colour of the spinning 'Digital Reality' logo when the game
boots. This latest
version has a green DR logo. The old - original release - has a red logo.
This makes it simple to
check if you're playing the (hopefully) bug-free and more accurate version
instead of the original
release.
If you carry the .DSK or .BIN of this game on your site please update with this
latest release.
Hopefully I haven't introduced any new bugs with these changes. Please inform
me of any problems
you find.
Thanks!
Chris.
