by “Cajun” David Richard
I have to admit, Andrew is a fine programmer. Although some of the programs we have in our product line do have a problem or two, my job in the tech. support department is rather easy. There is simply not much to keep track of. Many of the problems we find in programs are fixed promptly, and all I have to do is tell folks who call in with problems to upgrade to the latest version. I should be careful, Hector may take over my job...

Many of you are waiting for upgrades for Swoop and Apeiron. This month’s Eek-a-bug takes a look at these two programs, and why the updates have been delayed.



Apeiron
The latest version of Apeiron is 1.0.1. If you do not have this version, you’ll soon discover that when you try to quit the game, version 1.0.0 will crash your machine. Let us not wonder why, let us simply upgrade.

There are a few other things we’re fixing in Apeiron. One is the infamous Sprinkly Shield Bug, and the other is the Mode32 bug. I will briefly describe each of these bugs, and also inform you about something new that we have discovered that may delay the Apeiron update a little longer.

The Sprinkly Shield bug will happen at seemingly random times. But what is actually happening is that the program is having trouble with the crazy thrashing that can occur when you are invincible. In order to avoid this, thrash nicely.

The Mode32 bug is a bug that will cause the ’pede to plummet down to the bottom of the screen as if it has hit a poison mushroom. This happens when the ’pede goes to make a turn. Instead of going back and forth, like it’s supposed to do, it heads straight down as soon as it hits a wall. You can get around this by turning 32-bit addressing off.

We have discovered that this bug goes much deeper than we first thought. Originally, folks with older Macs that need the Mode32 extension would have this problem. But it turns out that the newest Mac’s, the PCI or 604 based Macs which run System 7.5.2 will also show similar characteristics of the Mode32 bug when running Apeiron. The problem is at this point there is no work around.

What we need is one of these fancy new machines to fix this problem. Now if we can only get one donated...



Swoop
The Swoop upgrade will be released soon. We are incorporating new code into the game that will begin a Swoop High Score Contest. So start practicing.

Here is a list of changes that are included with the 1.0.1 version of Swoop:

Brightened up many of the graphics, usually by 5 to 20%.

Modifier keys (that’s Shift, Control, Option and Command) can now be used to control the ship. Go to the “Controls” screen to change your key preferences.

The player’s ship now has much better collision detection, and is far less prone to being hit by close aliens and bullets. As a result of this new code, a bug (of the programming persuasion) which could kill off two of your ships at once has been squashed with extreme prejudice.

Some problems with changing the sound volume fixed up.

Memory management improved.

Running in 24-bit memory mode should no longer be a problem (good news for some older Mac configurations).

Some bugs in the scoring code fixed up.

Blasts (those bombs that fragment into several pieces) are now much more deadly (The little pieces kill you if you run into them now). The good news is that the blasts are much less frequent.

Drawing problems on monitors greater than 14" have been fixed.

Cursor is now hidden when you start a new game from the high scores screen (do that by hitting “N”).

The high scores screen now remembers the last name that you typed in so you don’t have to enter it all again.

A warning against the perils of using Virtual Memory has been added if VM is being used. This will only appear once though. How nice of us. :)

A whole bunch of other minor bug fixes and tidying up of code.

Look for the new version of Swoop soon. If you would like to be notified, you can get on our mailing list by sending eMail to AmbrosiaSW@aol.com.

On a final note. Ambrosia celebrated it’s 2nd Anniversary on August 9th 1995. But for many people, August 9th, 1995 was a day of sorrow. For all of you out there that have been touched in some way by The Grateful Dead, my heartfelt condolences are sent. A lot more died that day than a guitarist.


“Cajun” David Richard
Technical Services Manager
Ambrosia Software, Inc.