feb 23rd 2003

auto speed throttling!
Works fairly well except a few levels are a tad too slow.  Will hopefully
fix these in future releases.  In order to properly fix these levels, they
will have to be disassembled and modified, which is a huge pain in the cheeks.

Speed throttling is automatic and appears to work on everything from an 8088
to a Pentium III 800MHz.  (no more + and -)!

Added delays during level loading and initial screen drawing to better emulate
original PC version.



dec 28th 2002

Added support to exit gracefully when the level datafiles are missing.




jan 2nd 2002  ver 0.10

What a great way to start a new year by fixing a couple ugly bugs!
Fixed some memory management issues that kept level 11 in particular from
working properly.  Moved the stack around and modified its size and now the
main .exe is 1/2 the size it used to be.  rawk.

Level 30 now no longer hangs when it switches to the 2nd screen.  Probably
the same problem that level 11 had.

In the year that I've slacked off working on this update, I've located the
original author of the code, Jake Richter, who was unable to provide me with
the true source code for jumpman, but did manage to dig up source to another
of his games entitled "Fleet Sweep".  A lot of the graphics and sound routines
are identical between these two releases, so I will be copying source from
fleetsweep and reorganizing jumpman, which should help with the commenting
and figuring out how the game works!  Jake also gave me full permission to
distribute the source for both games, so I'm now legit.  (except for getting
permission from IBM.  ha! like that'll ever happen.)


nov 9th 2000
fixed level 25, mystery maze.  My fault, was debugging and didn't restore.
no other code changes aside from major comments and variable naming.

Started heavy work on disassembling levels.  Created level01.asm finally
which can be modified, recompiled, and played.

soon to be made into an automated disassembler and editor.


apr 10th
hiscore table now works.
if hiscore.dat doesn't exist in current directory, it is created.
added ctrl-Q support to main menu screen.
fixed level 25 (mystery maze) stupid bug.  Verified all 3 versions work.
added a bit more delay to the sound made by the bullet when it fires
fixed code so it'll compile under tasm or masm.


mar 27th:
sorry I've been unable to do anything until recently.
Nothing major in this release, just fixed the rest of the end of level tunes
and started work on the hiscore table.


feb 29th:
fixed weird jump bug where the player landed on top of the girder every other
time.  If you've played any of the earlier versions of this, you know what
I'm talking about.  I believe that proper gameplay on most levels is now 100%.



feb 21st:
fixed level 10 "hotfoot" lockup problem when jumping.
fixed the bug where the game started up again after all players were used.
more comments.  I believe that level 25, mystery maze is the only level left
that has lockup issues.

               
feb 18th:
more comments; things are starting to make sense now.
started prelimary work on level editor
fixed grand puzzle I hangup.
most levels are now 100% playable; I think only level 10 (hot foot) and 25
 (mystery maze) are hanging the system now.




feb 06:
fixed odd graphics left behind during gameplay
fixed level 5 "invasion" hangup when pressing space bar.
fixed 1 of 4 music selections for end of level.  I'm too lazy to fix the rest.
fixed speed issue of "stars around head" after player dies.
more comments




jan 22nd-jan30th
increased stack size again.  couldn't load level 3 without it.
fixed a lot of the sounds and opening music
fixed delays for startup and inbetween levels.
figured out & commented a lot of the graphics sprite data.

changed/fixed keys:
        ctrl-s  toggle sound on/off
        ctrl-q  quit program
        ctrl-r  restart game 
        esc     pause/start game
        + and - increase/decrease delay


jan 21st
fixed a couple level loading bugs:
1st one always loaded a level that was 1 off from the title in beginner mode.
2nd bug kept levels from loading if the input value was a hexadecimal number.
  my generic hex2ascii routines needed to be hex2dec2ascii.  (duh)
  All levels should now load up, although this is slightly untested.


jan 20th
cut the size of the stack segment by a few k.  I still don't know what size
  will actually be correct.
added + and - to adjust speed delay during gameplay.



jan 18th
reenabled INT 9 keyboard routines since they work better than mine. ;)
lots of variable names resolved
full player control including jump now works with the new (old) int 9 handler
no longer trashes screen when moving up and down.
game is actually playable!  although it quits after 1 level. time to celebrate.
several higher levels lock up when loading.  


jan 17th
reenabled INT 1C code to countdown bonus timer
got player to move left and right without garbage on the screen.
up and down trashes the screen
modified keyboard routines and killed jump functionality in the process!
game is now playable under windows
sound is beginning to work.  doesn't pause at end of funeral dirge before
  starting new player.
skips the circling dots when player hits bottom of screen.
web page created.  screenshots grabbed.
still not playable yet, but damn close.
hardcoded slowdown routine.


2nd week jan 2000:
most levels seem to load and display properly.
changed keyboard interface to not revector INT9
quitable via the ESC key.  (will change later)
game does not work under windows.
bullets fly and kill you.  messes up screen.
no sound

1st week jan 2000:
load level data from file, not disk
displays player to the screen


new years:
got level to display on screen.
crashes shortly thereafter


xmas break 1999:

ripped code from floppy diskette and created a .COM to disassemble.
first sourcer file is a big mess.
begin commenting and tracing.  get opening text displayed, then graphics.






