0.1 beta 9

0.1-beta-9 (2023-10-17):

• Gameplay:
  • Slowed the game down some.
  • Nicer music scale when tallying bonus points.
• Levels:
  • Four more levels
• Title:
  • Level creator credits
• Misc:
  • WIP [deactivated] splash screen flame effect

0.1 beta 8

0.1-beta-8 (2023-09-26):

• Misc:
  • Stand-alone (non-disk) XEX version with support for reading/writing settings and high score to a FujiNet device's App Key storage
  • Added 2019-era design doc scribbles.
  • Added some documentation to the "fonts" folder.
• Building:
  • Removing intermediate title screen images during release.

0.1 beta 7

NOTE: Due to some optimizations (see below) the game seems to play a bit faster than before. I'll tune things as I continue working on it.

0.1-beta-7 (2023-09-21):

• Gameplay:
  • Pushing joystick into a valve no longer causes it to toggle open/close quickly. Release joystick, then push into the valve again to toggle.
• Splash:
  • Added a splash screen (disk version)
• Title screen:
  • Pause [Select] key repeat when wrapping back to level 1
• Help screen:
  • Page breaks every horizontal rule (section break).
• Building:
  • "tools/release.sh" checks Makefile version vs README.md
  • WIP - Optimizations: (h/t https://github.com/ilmenit/CC65-Advanced-Optimizations and Irgendwer @ AtariAge)
    • --static-locals (instead of using the stack (slower))
    • Replaced a bunch of int (habit!) with char
    • Replaced enum constants with #define-ed ones
    • Avoid multiplication when doing shape look-up and placement (shape_at() and set_shape() now use a look-up table)
    • Replaced some "+= 2" and "-= 2" with "++" and "--" twice.
    • Improved Display List construction (some use of memset() or static arrays)

0.1 beta 6

0.1-beta-6 (2023-09-16):

• Gameplay:
  • When a worker dies, there's a short grace period
    until the game will allow another worker to die.
  • Ability to slide along obstacles when pushing diagonally.
  • Ax indicator moved from top right to top left; using icon.
  • Exit counter moved from top left to top right.
• Help screen:
  • Help text word-wrapped at 38 chars (instead of 40);
    improves readability if you [C]opy "D:README.TXT,E:" from DOS
    with Atari OS's default left-margin of 2
• Two more levels

0.1 beta 5

0.1-beta-5 (2023-09-13):

• Gameplay:
  • Lose 3 workers and the game ends.
• High score table:
  • Top-10 high scores labeled (1...10)
• Help screen:
  • Added numbering & indentation to documentation
• Bugfixes:
  • Score deductions (e.g., crate destruction) with a very low score (e.g., 000000) could cause score to wrap around to a crazy high value.

0.1 beta 4

0.1-beta-4 (2023-09-04):

• Gameplay:
  • Exit countdown (when pushing into door) dropped from 5 to 3
    (h/t Will)
  • Hint to player to push door to initial exit countdown
  • Bonus tally timing made consistent (regardless of score added)
  • High score initials input at end of game
  • High score(s) recorded (top-10, saved to disk, in disk version)
    • Saving to sector 720 for easy extraction on TNFS servers
      for FujiNet high score functionality
    • Enabled high-score storage support in the ATR disk image file
• Title screen:
  • High score table screen (disk version) (access via [H])
  • Improved [Select] key repeat for level select
• Help screen:
  • Ability to page backwards
• Character set (font) improvements:
  • Added missing connectors on some corner pipes
  • Stylized more punctuation.
  • "EOL" symbol for high score initial entry
• Under the hood:
  • Level data is compressed

0.1 beta 3

0.1-beta-3 (2023-08-25):

• Disable attract mode.
• Score deduction when crates are destroyed by fire, too (not just ax).
• Added an explicit "BLANK" shape const, to avoid hard-coded zeros (0).
• Reorganized/updated instructions on title screen. (h/t rdefabri & Beeblebrox @ AtariAge forums)
• Character set (font) improvements:
  • Stylized "&" and "!"
  • Better large fire; avoid touching sides
  • Nudged valves & brick walls
  • Smaller door & crates (avoid touching sides)
• "tools/release.sh" checks Makefile version vs 'git tag', echos a bunch of info about the release process

0.1 beta 2

Changes:

• Gas leaks don't appear instantly, giving you a chance to walk through them if using one joystick (where you cannot walk while spraying). (h/t phigan & JLsoft on AtariAge forums for reporting)
• Stick setting & latest level saved as config file on disk (ATR) version
• Finished doc'ing functions & routines with source code comments

0.1 beta 1

First beta version of the game. Only four levels. No high score support. ZIP file contains source (as seen in Git repo) plus stand-alone XEX and ATR disk image versions. (The latter includes built-in help text.)