SkillGrid v1.1beta released!

saimo · Post by **saimo** » Sat Mar 12, 2022 1:50 pm

Italy, March 12, 2022 — RETREAM is delighted to announce the release of SkillGrid v1.1beta! Like all the RETREAM games, SkillGrid can be downloaded freely, with the kind request of offering some help to the victims of Putin's attack to Ukraine.

This version enhances the game greatly, as documented by the huge changelog below. It has been held back for a long time by a problem of the bootable version for the Amiga CD³² (which is why it is still a beta). The owners of such machine can help. For details, please see the readme file in the package.

SkillGrid
website · YouTube

RETREAM
website · Twitter

RGCD
website · Twitter

Changelog

v1.1beta (12.03.2022)
1. Fixed the asteroids activation (they could activate also after a reset of their timer, e.g. when they were postponed and, in the meanwhile, a milestone was reached).
2. Fixed the milestone handling (it replenished the shield and the charge in those extremely rare occasions when the ship had just been destroyed, preventing the game over to execute).
3. Fixed the assignment of points when the MUSIC MODE cell was caught while the Boltspitter was active (25 instead of 5 points were awarded).
4. Fixed the audio decompression routine (due to forgetfulness, 1 byte was not changed in one of the two routines involved; that caused noise during playback, but "luckily" the effects with SkillGrid's own music were not audible; in fact, the bug was discovered when the PRESS PLAY ON TAPE edition was made; also, due to INTREQ.AUD0 being used for multiple purposes, the very last tiny chunk of one-shot music was not played).
5. Fixed the dynamic selection of audio channels (under some rare circumstances, it could steal a channel from music).
6. Fixed the rendering of the halt sign (it processed 18 lines instead of 6).
7. Fixed a data file (it contained about 3 kB of useless data).
8. Fixed the (potential) malfunctioning caused by hiscore saving when the game booted from CD on an Amiga CD³² configured to have nonvolatile.library save data on a device other than NVRAM (i.e. when there is a volume that has Prefs/Env-Archive/Sys/nv_location defined). See also the notes below about hiscore saving.
9. Fixed/improved/updated the manual (in particular: in one place it erroneously said that the scrolling speed is halved when the Skull activates, which is false; it failed to mention that the TURN cells award 25 points in music mode).
10. Changed the BRAKE cell type from bonus to undefined (as it has a negative effect when time is running out, given that it delays the appearance of cells, and thus also of the TIME cell); graphically, now the cell has a yellow border.
11. Changed the BOOST cell type from malus to undefined (as it has a positive effect when time is running out, given that it accelerates the appearance of cells, and thus also of the TIME cell); graphically, now the cell has a cyan border.
12. Replaced the 30 seconds grace period at the beginning of a game with progressive introduction of the various cells types (this makes for a gentler introduction for beginners and allows to improve/maximize the spaceship power and thus be ready for what will follow).
13. Added the TRIPLE BEAM cell.
14. Changed the look of caught cells so that they appear disabled (instead of flat-filled).
15. Tweaked the transparency of cells when asteroids, Mothership, Skull and music mode are active to preserve their double-color look even if painted in a single color.
16. Fixed one pixel of the POINTS BONUS cell.
17. Made background layer more vivid (but still not obtrusive).
18. Changed flash color when the Boltspitter activates from green ($00ff00) to orange ($ff8000).
19. Improved the sprites: modified the palette to make sprites more vibrant and distinguishable; added 8 new UFO sprites; reworked spaceship, Boltspitter, Morthership and Skull graphics; reworked game start, pause and game over writings/icons.
20. Improved the music: changed a few volumes for a better mix; compressed the bass instrument a little bit; increased the S/N ratio by means of the changes above and by reducing some peaks (without causing any distortion); lowered by an octave the bass instrument in the "danger" tune; improved the compression algorithm for a better compression ratio; made the decompression routine faster; assigned to the Boltspitter the same tune of the other bosses; assigned the "danger" tune (previously assigned to the Boltspitter) to asteroids and missiles.
21. Improved the sound samples: removed clicks from a few of them; shortened a few of them; reworked the explosion sound; added the "charge low" speech warning.
22. Added cycling writings (including hiscore) to the title screen.
23. Touched up the graphics of 'M' and 'W' everywhere.
24. Improved the controls: replaced [REWIND] with [FIRE2]/[BLUE] so that also a normal 2-button joystick can be used; added support for [FIRE2] also to the installable version (which is crucial for running it on Amiga CD³² consoles that do not have a keyboard); added keyboard support (i.e. now the cursor keys act as joystick directions and [SPACE] as [FIRE1]).
25. Improved file loading so that, when the game is not running from floppies, the SkillGrid?: assigns and the launcher script are no longer needed.
26. Trashed AmigaOS on the Amiga CD³² to gain the RAM necessary to run the game (which requires more RAM than before, and unfortunately at boot the Amiga CD³² kernel steals quite a lot of RAM); as a consequence: removed the possibility of quitting to AmigaOS; hiscores are saved exclusively to NVRAM (i.e. Prefs/Env-Archive/Sys/nv_location is ignored); implemented direct EEPROM access routines to save the hiscore to NVRAM (still, the NVRAM slot is allocated legally and nothing is touched outside of it; as a positive side effect, saving is now much faster). [This feature is disabled - see the beta release notice.]
27. Improved hiscore saving: restricted it to just when a new hiscore is made; reduced by 6 bytes the occupation in the Amiga CD³² (tiny) NVRAM.
28. Worked on the CD ISO image: minimized buffers (to gain RAM); laid out files/directories in a manner that will hopefully make the loading faster on the Amiga CD³²; added readme.txt to the root directory; added printable package artwork and documentation.
29. Made the startup and cleanup code more robust and more likely to succeed in low CHIP RAM situations.
30. Made various speed and memory optimizations.
31. Adapted the game to 3 floppies (unfortunately, due to the additional data, it cannot fit in 2 floppies anymore).
32. Added a strategy guide.
33. Improved the readme.txt files.
34. Worked on icons: added icons to all the user-relevant files/directories; redrawn / touched up the icons; made all icons 72 pixels tall; removed paths from the default tools where appropriate.
35. Updated/improved the installer.
36. Removed the "wd" bits from the files on floppies.
37. Reworked the package artwork.

Post by **Predseda** » Sat Mar 12, 2022 5:09 pm

Thank you saimo, I will give it a try for sure! If only that version with custom music jingles could be ever made available....

saimo · Post by **saimo** » Sat Mar 12, 2022 5:27 pm

Now that the game is free, a few days ago I actually asked PRESS PLAY ON TAPE if I could distribute that version, too. I haven't received an answer yet.

Post by **Predseda** » Sat Mar 12, 2022 7:25 pm

I am afraid they do not exist anymore

saimo · Post by **saimo** » Sat Mar 12, 2022 7:39 pm

Is that a guess or actual news? I see that their latest post of Facebook dates Dec. 18, 2021. There hasn't been much activity there and on their website and YouTube channel, but no negative sign either.

Post by **Predseda** » Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:06 pm

It is my guess. I wanted to visit their concert before covid, but they are not performing for years. I do not have a facebook, though.

saimo · Post by **saimo** » Sat Mar 12, 2022 9:13 pm

I'm not on Facebook either, but their page is publicly accessible. Their latest videos on YouTube are not that old, so I don't think there's reason to worry

Post by **Predseda** » Sun Mar 13, 2022 10:17 pm

I wanted to "buy" your game again, although I already have deluxe box, but it seems I can only download it for free, because I am you itch follower

saimo · Post by **saimo** » Mon Mar 14, 2022 12:14 pm

Nope, it isn't because of that, but because I made it impossible to pay/donate for all my games: instead, I kindly ask to offer help to the victims of Putin's violence

Thanks for the good intention!

Post by **Predseda** » Mon Mar 14, 2022 1:45 pm

Aha, I though I will send you some money for the game and you will donate them to some choosen charity. BTW Amiga Bill played your v1.1 last night live in his stream and also - on my recommendation - The Cure.

saimo · Post by **saimo** » Mon Mar 14, 2022 1:58 pm

Ah, I see. No, I'm not collecting any money, but I just leave users to offer help the way they prefer.
Thanks for telling me about the stream! He had actually told me he'd play the game, but then I totally forgot

Also, thanks for requesting the demo!

saimo · Post by **saimo** » Sun Apr 10, 2022 8:56 pm

@all

Wanna see how the PRESS PLAY ON TAPE Edition of SkillGrid v1.2 looks and sounds like? Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-CSu78Vqe4

@Predseda

I already know what you're about to ask

Post by **Predseda** » Mon Apr 11, 2022 9:07 am

saimo · Post by **saimo** » Tue Apr 12, 2022 2:09 pm

Predseda wrote: ↑Mon Apr 11, 2022 9:07 am

Guess what...

Amiga Forever - Power & Beauty

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