COULD DO ------------------------------- Could add magnify pixel effects to attractor repulsor bricks. New types of backgrounds. Fire and flame effects to explosions. Border nodes could be bumpers and light up, once all are lit on a side you get a major bonus. Add more types of characters to hit, maybe on mid side of border. Multiball should split in same direction as source ball. Add ball gun power items with different spread patters: flower, stream, row, dual stream. KNOWN ISSUES ------------------------------- PC - If joystick button is locked down (happens if you hold a button down on the Saitek P3000 and unplug the battery) the game constantly throws up reset game dialogs in the GAMES screen if its button 7. PPC - On some slower devices (200mhz and Toshiba e335) after entering Play > Play then quiting to the main menu it renders really slow, like 1-4fps when it should be 11-12fps, it has done this since 1.0a as far as I know, doesn't happen on other devices though, and the slow rendering only happens in the main menu and it goes away after a few Play then Quit iterations. PPC - When the game is installed on some add on storage cards (such as CF or SD) it will generally load more slowly, this is a drawback of the device, storage card, and memory bus. PPC - When the game is installed on some add on storage cards (such as CF or SD) it may generate file or resource loading errors, this is easily fixed by installing the game in Main Memory (NOTE installing the game into Built In Storage may be very slow and is not recommended). PPC - On iPaqs with 2000 OS when the game is running and the device is turned off then back on, the screen may not update correctly and you will see graphic anomalies for 0-2 seconds. RELEASE NOTES ------------------------------- v3.2 - 6/1/2006 MAC version working. Changed GAMES screen confirmation dialogs to use games internals. v3.1 - 3/1/2006 PPC - Fixed square screen device control, the game should now start up in portrait mode by default. PPC - Fixed controls when OS display is already rotated to landscape. PPC - Decreased spacegas density. PPC - Fixed level addon pack loading. Fixed sound loading errors which was causing delays during game and level loading. Fixed sound effects playing during level creation animation. v3.0 - 2/21/2006 Increased the time you have a gun from 1min to 2min, and the blaster time from 100s to 200s. PPC - Reduced the games install size from 7 MB to 3 MB for the VGA version, and 4 MB to 3 MB for QVGA. PPC - Fixed Windows Mobile 2005 VGA compatibility problem. PPC - There is no longer a QVGA and VGA version, the same install will work on any device. PPC - The game now minimizes when a reminder or other application is activated. PPC - Removed info and buynow buttons and help link since they were causing lockups on some devices. PPC - 25% BIGGER ACTION - Added a new feature called Zoom Play Area which will make the brick/ball area bigger using up almost the whole screen. Only on QVGA. PPC - Any screen resolution is now supported, including square screens. PPC - You can now play game in portriat mode. PPC - The default sound sampling rate is now 44khz. PPC - Increased starfield star size on VGA devices. PPC - Removed the request for translations dialog box. PPC - Added a shortcut in the games directory to the Acky's Manual help file. PPC - You can now use 0-9 a-z A-Z keys when customizing controls. PPC - Fixed controls problem when the OS was set to a screen orientation other than portrait. SP - Removed text and buttons from PLAY screen to fit. SP - Changed LEFT/RIGHT controls on play screen to select the package. SP - Added dialpad pad controls, buttons 4 1 2 3 6 control the absolute position of the paddle on the screen, holding down keys simultaneously tweaks the position for 9 unique positions. v2.1 - 11/24/2004 - Pocket PC version released v2.1 - 10/29/2004 - PC version released ------------------------------- Fixed paddle and ball interaction, ball was being reflected down in some cases when hit the edge of the pad. Ball control should be much better now, allowing to the tip control so you can reflect the ball more horizontally now, note you can't (and never could) hit a ball so it is travelling 100% horizontally, because if a ball were allowed to go completely horizontally it could get stuck at the top of the board after colliding with a brick or another ball. It is still possible to hit a ball downward and lose it when hitting it with the edge of the pad, but this should only happen when the x axis of the ball at contact is below the x axis of the paddle. Fixed bug loading language file where on non supported language systems game would return error. Now loads English if default language doesn't work. Acky on the side is now twice as slow on easy and normal difficulty settings. Reduced POINT BONUS to 5 items per bonus, it was too hard for most people to get XP mode, also increased bonus to 20X. When submitting stats online the progress is now shown in the GAMES screen. Added Game ID to GAMES screen in case it is needed when logging into the stats page. Fixed bug when playing custom level Try Again would load up current package level and not custom one. Music no longer plays when entering the editor, this was causing long load times on some PPCs. Added error output when language file is corrupt. PPC - Increased GAMES exit button size. PPC - Stats are limited to batches of 20. v2.0 - 9/20/2004 ------------------------------- MAJOR LEVEL UPDATE: More than 80 levels have been updated to make them faster to play and hopefully more fun. Some levels were taking an average of 10+ minutes to finish which is just nuts, all levels were intended to be 4 minutes max. Tweaks included adding more power items, blasters, and removing difficult brick patterns. One culprit was the laser shot bug, where it wasn't destroying bricks with one hit. Also the new Brick Blaster feature should help destroy those last few pesky bricks. Ether was also sprinkled about to help ensure a more even supply. Added Brick Blaster feature! Now when there are fewer than 5 bricks remaining you can use a portion of your ether to destroy them. This is useful if you have a brick remaining that is taking too long to hit. Added all new awesome music tracks from Dj Keys including Aquateq, Vally of Trance, and Land of Gods. Added new players now start with 50% of all gems. Added another bonus to getting XP mode, all gem tanks are filled upon entering XP mode. Added new message and buy and info buttons when demo is completed. Added translation links to help file. Added more next and previous level buttons which move current level by 10. Added Brick Blaster help dialogs and fast gameplay button help. Added arrows on sides of menu to change options up or down with mouse, yes this is the most advanced feature yet ;) Added Language setting for changing language in Settings > GamePlay menu. Added package screenshot generator which can create an image with all your levels in it. Fixed bug with level sequencer for creating your own package. Fixed bug when ball collision was on it would reset the balls speed to normal when ball may be fast or slow. Fixed bug in editor when loading or saving a level it would bring up the in game settings menu. Fixed bug aftering finishing a custom level, Continue button would display if another is played. Fixed bug where sometimes tooltips would still be on screen after exiting level. Fixed bug where game would pause after replaying a level. Fixed translation files note about machine translation to be better formatted. Fixed bug when after clicking to play a custom level file dialog would be under game window. Updated disentigrate effect to be quicker to get out gameplay area sooner. Updated enabled stats display by default (to get more people interested in stat board). Updated finishing the game now doesn't reset you to level 1, so now you can replay any level to gain higher scores or better times. Updated laser gem usage so now a laser shot uses 20% instead of 25% Updated gem conversion (getting a gun when you already have it) so now zapper,gluon,laser adds 50,50,40% to your gem tank. Updated the German translation with all new text thanks to Ralf Weber. Updated all demo levels with a few more power items and brick types. Updated sequence of Gemstone and Numbers to add more variance early on in the game. Removed tracks 1234 Rock and Invasion of the Furbles after reviewer feedback. Removed pad up/down items in demo levels. PPC - Fixed bug when loading a custom package, wasn't showing up in play screen and wasn't loading levels correctly. PPC - Fixed bug where machine translation dialog would trip up the game from starting on non-English devices. PPC - Added warning when users installs HIRES version on QVGA device. PPC - Fixed isotope244.com text drawing over level stats in demo. PPC - Added support for PPC Phone button mapping. PC - Removed right/left click at end of level to retry or quit, now use buttons. PC - Optimized blitting option now available for very slow computers. v1.0e - 8/25/2004 ------------------------------- PPC - Fixed bug in submitting the stats. PPC - Fixed laser shot not destroying multi hit bricks with one shot. PPC - Fixed engine compatiblity with iPaq 3800. v1.0d - 8/23/2004 ------------------------------- Fixed a problem with moving bricks where in some instances they can move outside of the playable area. Fixed time formatting problem when submitting statistics. Fixed localization for Up text in Customize Controls panel. v1.0c - 8/16/2004 ------------------------------- Fixed an issue where you wouldn't be able to replay a level on a higher difficulty level because of ball ether usage requirements. Changed view statistics dialog to ask if you want to go to webpage. Fixed sound effect not being set while changing the option. PPC VGA - Update to VGA icon. STATS - Updated tables to include XP mode and difficulty setting. STATS - Updated filtering by platform PC and PPC. v1.0b - 8/10/2004 ------------------------------- PPC - The bonus substat bars (small white lines) are now solid white so they are easier to see. PPC - Fixed Settings > Graphics > Drawing > Orientation option, shouldn't support portrait modes. PPC - Fixed bug when Settings > Graphics > Drawing > Optmized Blit was off. PPC - On iPaqs when the device is powered off then on the game doesn't update the screen completely. PPC - Fixed bug when Owner name was blank the game wouldn't save correctly because of the player name. PPC - Fixed view stats button so now the dialog pops to front of screen. PPC - Added platform ID to stats submission. PPC - Decreased loadup time by optimizing string table loading. PPC VGA - Fixed bug when loading hi resolution datafile. PPC VGA - Game now works under 2003 SE without SE_VGA utility! (e805 tested only) thanks to Stephen Rutkowski for extensive testing. PPC VGA - Game now works under 2003 when My_vga utility is used (e805 tested only). Renamed New Ball in controls to New Ball / Shoot. Changed high contrast drawing for ball so now its better outlined. Added pause after closing tooltip when ball heading down and on bottom half of screen. Updated the Dutch translation with all new text thanks to Koen Bijvank. Removed machine translation warning message for Dutch. Music tracks are now only changed between levels to prevent gameplay pauses. Added more data caching on start and games screens to decrease load time. Fixed a bug when deleting a saved game the current game list wasn't updated correctly. v1.0a - 8/3/2004 ------------------------------- Fixed bug where create sparkles on ball creation happens in center even when ball is following paddle. Fixed bug where last bonus message would hang around when there were no balls. Fixed right tractor bitmap on pad, wasn't chroma keyed correctly. Fixed bug with gui tooltip dialogs not sizing correctly. Fixed sound bug when bullet hits a multi-hit brick. Changed slow/fast pad visuals to a blue or red tinted pad, removed sparkles. Fixed gas colorizing. Optimized bonus, liquid, ball, and starfield particle effects. Fixed bug where on slow systems the power items would not draw just after morphing. Optimized draw and update routine. Moved all all strings to a datafile for localization to different languages. Updated font rendering to include all ASCII characters for localization. Optimized font usage to reduce memory requirements. Fixed potential bug where could allocate a lot of memory because of particle effects. Changed bonus font so it's easier to read. Removed 2 fonts for decreased memory, but all fonts are updated with extended character sets so its about even. All fonts support localication now. Added -language command line parameter to load custom language files simply make a new language text file with all the correct string resources (see the Englist.txt file) and put it in the languages directory. Added menu option to turn off auto help dialogs while playing. Added translations for Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish The following are only in the Pocket PC version Increased performance of sqrtf and length math functions. Added optimized blitting for only updating a portion of the screen. Added optimized blitting for landscape1,2 and portrait rotation. Added direct control interface for stylus. Removed defaults SPACE and ENTER key controls. Added clipping of bonus and effects to play area. Added optimized smaller fonts. Added clicking scoreboard will pause game and exit. Added clicking tanks will create/cancel ball and shot. Added optimized attractor and repulsor graphics for PPC. Added direct stylus control on bottom half of screen. Added resource and code for VGA PPC support. v1.0 - 6/2/2004 ------------------------------- Fixed bug where music would resume if the game was minimized then restored while the game was paused. Removed "You must be online" messages since they would say you aren't online when you are. Enabled Tell a Friend in the game. Brick help now appears before the introduction conclusion dialog (thanks beta tester). Fixed bug when gem is converted and you have no balls tank would overflow. Fixed a few gramatical errors in the auto help. Fixed auto help when losing a ball for the first time, now the message only comes up if you lose your last ball (thanks beta tester). DEMO Added website URL text in game DEMO Added end game animation of features of full version DEMO Removed most non-demo resources in demo build (levels, power items, music) DEMO Playing a custom level is only available in the full version DEMO Added buy button on main screen DEMO Added buy button on player screen DEMO Added buy button in game when paused Added System Requirements and Troubleshooting sections to help file. Added info about level sequencing to help file. Added rest of bonus information to help file. Added rest of power items to help file. Added gem images to help file. Added icon, brick, and stats info about editor to help file. Added bonus indicator image and explanation to help file. Added difficulty table to help file showing what each difficulty setting changes. Added short description of settings menu to help file. Added player screen info to help file. Fixed tooltips so they don't pop up when window doesn't have focus or mouse goes off window. Removed S,SB,XP notes from auto help about XP bars since they aren't explained in the tooltips. Added game setting to customize all keyboard controls. Added setting to swap mouse buttons for notebook/laptop touchpad users. Added mapping for center mouse button when playing now pauses game, so now the whole game should be playable via only mouse. Changed ball interaction when sliding the pad left and right quickly, now it should act better and not hit the ball down when appropriate. Finished help file and ran through spell and grammer checker. Added menu setting to reset the current players stats logged online status so they can be relogged. Added dialog asking player if they want their stats logged online before viewing them. Stats are not logged online by default now. Added menu setting to automatically log stats online after completing a level. Added credits to game and help file. Optimized particle effects. Optimized liquid effects drawing. Added morph effect particle limit. Added option to turn off liquid disintegrate effect. Balls don't swath through particle effects if FPS is less than 30. Background objects aren't drawn if FPS is less than 30. Added feature to hold down right button while you have a blaster to keep shooting. Added try again features so if you don't complete a level you can either press the right button or 'R' to play it again immediately. Optimized level over message. Updated the levels which took longer than 6 minutes to complete to make them quicker. Updated beginning levels longer than 4 minutes to make them quicker. Wall, pad, and brick bonuses are no longer incremented with an electroball. Fixed brick sparkle animation color keying. Fixed bug where music would start over at the first track after pausing the game. Increased madball time from 5 to 15 seconds. v0.3 - 5/18/2004 ------------------------------- Reduced default music volume to 30%. Updated brick star indicator for when a brick has a power item. Added help for select player screen. Added help for first time players at level start. Added preview option to tell a friend form in game, changed OK to send. Added option for ball creation to follow the pad (off by default). Added gameplay menu with ball creation and collision options. Added option to turn off/on ball collisions (this should make it easier for beginners). Added ability to press the button again while creating a ball to reverse a ball create. Added new lightning effects on ball creation. Added ability to skip the level animations at any time by pressing the main action button. Ball no longer is created directly above pad position allowing infinite hitting of the ball vertically if you didn't move the pad. Added support for bmp screenshot taking using the F10 key. Added confirmation dialog when overwriting level file in editor. Added dirty flag for level editor so level changes won't be easily lost. Added help for each new brick type encountered. Added help for each new power item encountered. Added help for each type of XP bonus encountered. Added help for misc game events and simple game walkthrough. Removed random level and default ether and gem settings. Added popup animation to tooltip boxes. Added menu option to reset help dialogs status. No Saucer first 2 levels so user can used to game. No Acky first 5 levels. Saucer no longer appears when Acky is on the screen. Added click sound when you click on a help popup. Fixed package and level stats updating when adding a new game. Fixed auto help when creating a new game. Fixed bug where it wasn't saving the name of last game played. Fixed space gas bug, wasn't fading to black after a few levels. Made space gas more colorful and random looking. Fixed some image resource cache misses. Added very cool lightning effects to text on title screen which react to mouse location. Added scroll wheel controlling for menu selection. Removed a very small but annoying click from sounds of ball hitting brick and ball hitting pad. Added difficulty settings to GAME screen, you can change it per game now Easy, Normal, Hard, Pro settings. The settings effect the speed of the ball, speed of the falling power items, speed of the flying saucer, how much ether it takes to create a ball, and how much ether you get from liquid items. If the game is still to easy for you on Pro ;), hold down the right mouse button while playing to increase the ball speed even futher (beta tester comment). Fixed bug when replaying a level and the save stats dialog comes up, if you moved the dialog the gameplay would continue (beta tester comment). Increased the time you have the blasters from 15 to 60 seconds (beta tester comment). Fixed trophy drawing when level is complete when you have a lot of trophies (beta tester comment). Added tooltip help when mouse is hovered over bricks and power items in the level editor (beta tester comment). Decreased attractor and repulsor field strength, couldn't hit some bricks (do not clump repulsor bircks when creating a level). Added message dialog saying TAF and view online needs internet connection if its not active. Changed song order based on beta feed back (beta tester comment). Added message dialog before loggin stats about accessing the internet. Changed good/bad item indicators behind power items to look much smoother (beta tester comment). Increased slow and fast ball speed time from 5 to 10 seconds (beta tester comment). Increased slow and fast brick ball speed time from 0.5 to 2 seconds. Fixed bug where if you had a blaster power item falling then lost your last ball, then catch the blaster you wouldn't be able to create a ball until you waited for the blaster to expire (now blasters are converted to gems if you get them while no balls are active). Added auto tool tips when mouse hovers over game object when in game and paused. Increased auto wall time from 10 to 20 seconds. Increased tractor and prediction time from 20 to 30 seconds. Increased pad bigger/smaller/faster/slower time from 10 to 15 seconds. Sequenced all levels arranged from 1-10 (demo) then increasing difficulty and varrying themes 150 total. Added level sequencer to game. Fixed bug where bricks would start animating before level init animation was complete. Fixed music causing game to stuter if it changes while playing, now pauses game if it takes longer than 0.1s. Added title screen music track, thanks Nimn One. Decreased menu font size. Fixed bug where input menu wasn't exiting back to settings menu on Esc key. Added help message about xp bars. Changed all Ackman instances to Acky. Added command line support for Package level Sequencer. Added difficulty to level stats. Fixed bug where correct level number wasn't being drawn after playing a custom level then playing a normal game. Added current trophy status in lower left corner of game border (and hover help). Fixed bug where if you had 0 zapper gems the cannon would be converted to zapper gems incorrectly. Updated online stats to included difficulty and game version setting (not viewable yet). Fixed bug where music would resume if the game was minimized then restored while the game was paused. Removed level feed back form from game. Now using NSIS installer which drops the full version install size by 500k UnInstaller removes PF\I244 dir if empty UnInstaller asks to remove Username\Application Data\I244 Appname dir which contains the games saved game files UnInstaller removes Username\Application Data\I244 dir if empty UnInstaller removes HKCU\Software\I244 key if empty Updated icon so now its a XP compatible icon, weee. v0.2 - 4/27/2004 ------------------------------- Added 51 more levels so now the total is up to 239, these levels feature more of the advanced types of bricks. Bricks now morph into power item when destroyed with a normal ball. Added good/bad (green/red) power item indicators to options, on by default for now. Level initialization is now much cooler with the addition of brick zooming and sound effects. Added awesome new animation at level start for space pad. The ball now moves slightly (7%) slower. Playing a custom level is fixed. Loading level in editor is fixed. Game over now says "Click to continue..." in all cases. Game over screen now says you need 20% ether. Music now stops when volume goes to 0. Music now pauses when game is paused and in game menu. Sounds weren't being preloaded when playing a custom level. Getting a blaster when you have no gems now converts the blaster into gems. Fixed level "Entry" to be less tedious. Fixed sequential bricks order, it was reversed in game as compared to editor. Fixed gems not going to their correct tank. Fixed sound problem where game sounds would continue to play when exiting to main menu. Moved editor and custom level menu links to Create menu. You now start with full ether and half gems on all levels in the beta for testing purposes. When sound and music are both off (set to 0) the sound engine is unloaded. Fixed bug where levelname wouldn't appear for first level you play. Fixed register dialog on Windows 98, game runs great on Windows 98 AMD 800 with 128MB memory in 32M, 16M, and 256 color modes. Added option to turn off power item morphing from bricks. Decreased attractor and repulsor bricks field strength. Added attractor and repulsor brick feild effect drawing. Fixed hang on exit which would happen rarely due to sound engine. The game now plays random song at start for the beta to ensure all songs are tested. New BETA questions Should ball move faster or slower by default? Would you like to have difficulty settings such as Easy, Normal, and Hard? Change name of game. What is your favorite music track? v0.1 - 4/13/2004 ------------------------------- Ensure playing a custom level doesn't mess up level stats Move custom level and editor menu links Add ability to replay level Add replay notification saying level will only be saved if you get a higher score or better time Change total score calculation Fixed ball collision physics Retool all levels (gems, guns, other new power items) Created 38 levels Created morph code Not log stats for levels which haven't been played Preload all sounds and graphics check all TODOs in code and stats code Bind F1 to bring up help file Stars show on unswitched bricks when they shouldn't (check ghost and others) When playing custom level, leve name is wrong Pad not showing up in editor (1st frame) Should play random levels Added gem tank notches to indicate shot usage Add back in shaded background behind in game menu Optimized spacegas colorizing by 4x to 20x Editor now uses less resources (removed background bitmap) Created saved games directory if doesn't exist Report error when can't save game Created install.