Version history

Jump to version: 2.00 | 2.01 | 2.02 | 2.03 | 2.04 | 3.00 | 3.01 | 3.02 | 3.03 | 3.04 | 3.05 | 3.06 | 3.07 | 3.08 | 3.09 | 3.10 | 3.11 | 3.12 | 3.13 | 3.14

Changes between version 1.00 and 2.00

• The RISC OS 4 and StrongARM compatibility changes originally made by SFpatch have been incorporated into the code in a neater fashion.
• Sound pitch bend can now be enabled or disabled in the game's !Run file, for those who wish to experiment with this.
• Proper error handling has now been incorporated into both the main code and the two support modules.
• Introduction re-written to include fades and other palette effects on RISC OS 3.5+. Can now be skipped neatly.
• The teletype introductory text has been updated to reflect the new release number and publisher. The release 2 team are included in the credits.
• All animation/update timing has been fixed to be mode-frequency independent.
• An extended range of detail levels and auto-speed detection is now available.
• Improved handling of held mouse buttons and keypresses in the shop and mission map.
• The 'view target' cursor now dynamically changes to reflect whether or not a remote view is available from different map positions. The exit from the remote view is now handled properly.
• A new cross cursor now used to highlight location briefings on the map.
• The screen buffering in the shop has been re-written to avoid the flickering of the credits display reported by some people.
• Your HUD will no longer target objects which are out of missile range of your fighter.
• The multicoloured hills (E35), the tree in the ocean (M01) and the mis-spelt banner (E01) have been corrected
• Some of the mountain colours have been altered to be more natural than the original bright green.

Changes between version 2.00 and 2.01

Improvements:

• New title picture
• The textual prompts given for key redefinition have finally been reversed, so that "Climb" really means down and "Dive" really means up.
• Less load on the callback system, leading to better performance (notably music speed) on slow computers.

New bugs:

• The map's remote target view facility behaves unexpectedly, sometimes showing a view in a completely senseless direction.

Changes between version 2.01 and 2.02

Improvements:

• General overhaul of configuration and control, with currently visible effects being support for both analogue and switched joysticks and a new weapon-cycle function that is tied to the middle mouse button.
• Various data now loaded from file rather than pre-assembled into code - small text characters, sprites and map symbols. Now checks the (decompressed) size of data files before loading them, and warns if this exceeds the allocated buffer size.
• High scores and configuration are now loaded from file on start-up, and automatically saved to file when updated. They are stored in Choices$Write on machines with a !Boot structure, or else in !Star3000.Choices. Can easily revert to defaults by deleting files in these directories.
• Vague hand-waving support for SFeditor-style multi-levels directories, through Star3000Levels$Path.
• Changes to mesh and blinds screen wipes (both intro and main code) to further reduce load on callback system.
• Securely tied pointer shape to pointer colours. This stops it being momentarily black before purple when mission screen is first visited, and being black in the shop if haven't yet been to mission map (e.g. bonus on level start).
• Animated tiles no longer miraculously spring back to life having been totally destroyed by ground hits. Increased number of animations on all maps, and resolved inconsistencies in animations data files.
• Now easier to use cheat codes, since specific cheat activation/deactivation messages are displayed instead of just "PASSWORD INCORRECT". Plays jolly tune first time cheat code entered.
• Totally overhauled sound module SFX_Handler, which now supports 16-bit sound, SharedSound (listen to MP3 music whilst playing!), stereo effects and variable polyphony. Proper memory allocation - music and sound data now loaded from file rather than precompiled into module (uses dynamic area on OS 3.5). Finally no more problems with thruster noise pitch-bend (hooray!)
• Fixed buglets where SFX_Stop was being called with bad parameters and bad volume was being stored for incoming missile warning. These were thrown up by the new SFX_Handler parameter checking.
• Now uses David O'Shea's DeComp module from FednetRes rather than the old internal FDComp module.
• Officially registered the application and module names with RISCOS Ltd, and changed SFX_Handler module to use officially allocated SWI chunk and error numbers.
• General improvements to keypress/mouse click handling in menus.

New bugs:

• The ECM key auto-repeats if you hold it too long.
• Actual game speed doesn't correspond to that shown in the Configure menu .

Changes between version 2.02 and 2.03

• Fixed longstanding problem where lingering mouse click to exit remote target view was counted twice (more often than not showing another remote view).

Changes between version 2.03 and 2.04

Improvements:

• Reinstated support for the 8-bit sound system, which is used as a last resort in the absence of both SharedSound and 16-bit sound hardware.
• Fixed a very long standing bug concerning collisions between parachute drops and non-player objects (thanks to Ian Hamilton).
• Added 'reverse stereo' option for those who (like me) have their speakers the wrong way round.
• Improved algorithms for calculating stereo separation (uses a sine/cosine panpot) and polyphony scaling go some way towards alleviating problems reported with quiet 16-bit sound output.
• Added joystick button detection to intro code and other 'wait' screens, and support for joystick navigation of the main menus and mission screens.
• Re-attached game speed limiter so that it actually corresponds to the menu setting (broken in 2.02 and subsequent versions). Also, downgraded 'medium' speed from 33fps to 25fps, since 33fps appeared too fast on StrongARM machines. 33fps is still available as the 'fast' speed setting.
• Fixed very ancient bug where player's engine colours strobed grey/colour when thrusting and firing simultaneously.
• Configuration of SFX_Handler module is now done prior to running the introduction, hence it is possible to quieten the intro music or disable it altogether.
• Implemented slide-type pitch changes in the sound module (e.g. SFX_Pitch type 1). These had been absent since SFX_Handler version 2.00, and make an audible difference to the game music tracks.
• Removed anomalous data and blank sheets from the music tracks. Some weird noises had been revealed when simultaneous fx and music were allowed in the previous version of the sound module.
• Potentially significant bug fixes to the program environment handlers: The error and exit handlers no longer assume the validity of User-mode R13, and the error report screen mode is now compatible with RISC OS < 3.5.

New bugs:

• Fighters launched from a big ship may immediately collide with it (especially rotating space stations).

Changes between version 2.04 and 3.00

Improvements:

• The program code is now compatible with 32-bit RISC OS, and should therefore run natively on the Iyonix PC.
• Now runs under the RISC OS Window Manager, allowing you to return to the desktop at any time to continue with other work. You can even play the game in a window whilst other applications continue to run in the background!
• Sadly, the introduction has been scrapped.
• The configurability of the game using the desktop interface is greatly extended compared to using the old configure menu; for instance all keys and buttons can now be redefined. Many existing options such as volume and mouse sensitivity can be set with increased accuracy.
• Friction on steering can no longer reverse direction of a ship, and reduction in manoeuvrability at speed should now work correctly with negative speeds.
• Mouse control auto-centring is now an option. This had always been present, but in a broken form.
• Configuration is no longer saved whenever it is altered; only when the user specifically requests it.
• Keyboard input is now fully buffered, which makes the game's interface more usable, especially under heavy processing loads in the desktop.
• Stereo sound is no longer 'flat'; it now varies appropriately as the camera view looks up or down. Also, the accuracy of distance-to-sound calculations has been improved (except for slow computers that have stereo sound disabled).
• The shield warning siren can no longer sound on more than one channel, since the former behaviour occasionally resulted in strange noises.
• When outputting through the 8 bit sound system, the music player (which runs on interrupts) now uses the Scheduler rather than starting notes directly. This should eliminate the possibility of interference with DMA buffer fills.
• When out of visual range, the player no longer misleadingly appears as a red cross on the HUD.
• Now forces the camera view to the player when he dies, as well as forcing the tracking camera view. (Previously only the latter happened, which could be confusing.)
• The device claim protocol is now used to claim and protect the game's exclusive use of the sound system, unless SharedSound is detected.
• Aerial mines and parachute drops can no longer pass straight through hills and ground objects.
• The shop picture is not necessarily rendered from the last camera position, if this is no longer a valid view point. (Previously views from above the ceiling of enclosed levels were not uncommon.)
• You can no longer do remote target views while the scanner system is down (e.g. no map). This was formerly an ingenious way of finding targets that were supposed to be hidden!
• Overhauled the game manual text, and converted it into HTML form to allow better formatting and the addition of links and illustrations. Added missing section from original printed manual.
• Tightened up the disabling of controls when the game is paused or the player dead. For example it is no longer possible to trigger ECMs while dead!
• The sound module now refuses to die if our 16-bit linear handler has been superseded, in order that any subsequent attempt to restore our handler does not fail. Also, we now attempt to restore the previous 16-bit handler upon exit.
• Restored the fineness of the original music fade out; the volume of all notes is updated every beat rather than just new ones being affected.
• Disabled parachute drops on enclosed levels. Previously they had been appearing high above the ceiling!
• Fixed 'feature' where the mission timer was suspended while the player's ship was critically damaged, rather than actually dead. Also, the timer is now stopped after mission completion, which prevents inappropriate 'hurry up' messages.
• Countdown to activation of defences is now disabled except during games, so there is no longer any possibility of a 'defences active' alarm going off during the menu war backdrop.
• Menu backdrop war now works properly on enclosed levels, since the combatants are no longer invariably reincarnated at ceiling height.
• On RISC OS 3.5 and later, mouse flight control now bypasses the kernel and talks directly to the mouse driver. This frees it from screen mode dependence and the unjustifiable influence of the configured mouse pointer speed.
• Fighters can no longer fly through their hangar or parent ship indefinitely; collision detection is only disabled during launch.
• Enemy ships will no longer consider switching their attack to the player when he is already dead.
• Ground objects and hills no longer appear to float above the horizon when the view is close to ground level (sky was being drawn too low).
• Hangars no longer launch ships to attack the player's ship after it has been destroyed.
• Harmless bits no longer go bang when they hit objects. Added bang for ship collisions with hills or impervious objects. Ships colliding with ground objects now bang louder than bits or lasers.
• The shop button on the map screen is now shaded when unavailable. Can no longer toggle view or radar buttons when those facilities are unavailable (e.g. scanners down). Radar button now emits same beep as others.
• Big ships no longer crash noisily into any bonus coins in their path. Lasers also pass straight through floating bonus coins; I think this makes the game much less annoying, but it is configurable.
• Added a missile launch whoosh sound effect for SAMs.
• Instead of converging on the dead player, chasing fighters now reverse their attack and scatter. This prevents them smashing into the ground and/or each other. Also, fighters looking for a new target no longer consider the dead player as a possibility.
• Fighters chasing others, flying in formation or evading objects are no longer willing to go dangerously close to the ground (or, on enclosed levels, the ceiling).
• Cycle-select weapons function for mouse or joystick buttons now allows selection of super weapons (if any) as well as the standard 3 weapons. Also, weapons for which supplies are exhausted are now skipped.
• General attempt to improve the obstruction avoidance A.I.: Fighters no longer consider climbing above the ceiling on enclosed levels, and are now willing to go below z=0 on space levels. Introduced a bias in favour of the current direction of evasion, to prevent indecisiveness about which way to go. The projected movement vector is now checked more thoroughly, and closer obstructions now have priority over far ones.
• Can now do camera views of enemy fighters launched from hangars or big ships; previously only those ships present at mission start could be viewed.
• 16 bit sound handler no longer pauses all notes and pitch changes when the overall volume is muted. Instead, added optimised (but correct) fill code for the case where the combined overall and channel volume is 0.
• Any displayed mission or location briefing is now restored on exit from the shop or a remote target view.
• It is now configurable whether the game uses 4 or 8 channels of sound; this should alleviate likely poor interrupt latency with 16 bit sound on slow machines. Also, supplied an alternative sound module that uses SharedSound's callback facility.
• Under OS 4 automatic screen cleaning is disabled, and any cached changes are forceably flushed to screen before displaying the shadow bank. This may slightly improve performance, and also eliminates the possibility that a half-drawn picture is momentarily displayed.

Recent bugs fixed:

• The map's remote target view facility now behaves rationally (broken in 2.01 and subsequent versions)
• The ECM key no longer auto-repeats (broken in 2.02 and subsequent versions).
• Fighters can no longer collide immediately with a big ship that they were launched from (broken in 2.04).

Longstanding bugs fixed:

• The player's ship no longer drifts inexorably sideways at the very start of a mission.
• Big ships can now launch ATA missiles, as was originally intended.
• Fighters launched from ground hangars now taxi turn correctly and take off along the runway, instead of just climbing unsteadily away from their hangar.
• Newly added objects no longer fall foul of dangling collision references. Typically this manifested as missiles blowing up at launch.
• Corrected collision detection between ships and lasers. If many ships overlapped at the same latitude (especially if one was big) then lasers could pass straight through their target. This was most commonly noticeable when attacking satellites and usually fatal for the player.
• Incoming SAMs are now reported on your HUD - previously only the warning siren sounded.
• Fighters no longer continue to attack the bonus coins left behind when their target is destroyed, instead of finding a new target or rejoining formation.
• When the ship being viewed is destroyed the camera no longer locks on to one of the bonus coins left behind, spinning wildly.
• Upon completion of a mission pyramid the menu backdrop war is now correctly re-initialised, and the player gets a chance to enter a high score (because the score is reset upon starting a new pyramid).
• The hills no longer get bigger every time a game (or the menu backdrop war) is initialised without a new ground map having been loaded!
• Cloaked ships are no longer shown on the small map (they never were on the main map), since they are supposed to have "a radar footprint the size of a small pea".
• The ships plotted on the small map no longer flicker during scroll, arrows no longer randomly appear and disappear next to map grid markings, and an error in the zoom x8 map plotter has been fixed.
• The polygon plotter now draws right up to the top of the screen rather than leaving a one line gap.
• Attacking ships no longer head for bad coordinates when their target is destroyed, there are no potential targets nearby and the player is dead (or, in the case of friendly ships, when his formation is full).
• The ceiling texture map renderer now draws the bottom screen line correctly when the horizon is below this point.
• On bonus levels, it is no longer the case that the first wave of parachute drops reach the ground simultaneously and many simply disappear.
• When the player's ship crashes fatally on a bonus level it is now destroyed - rather than simply exiting the bonus level shortly afterward.

New bugs:

• Number of lives displayed upon starting a mission is wrong if changed due to a bonus or purchases in the shop.

Changes between version 3.00 and 3.01

• Added workaround for a problem where attempting to enter full screen mode on an Iyonix PC resulted in an 'Unknown OS_ScreenMode reason code' error. For users of version 3.00 this problem may be fixed by patching their copy of the game.
• Lack of a screen mode suitable to run the game should now result in a 'Screen mode not available' error rather than corrupted display in an inappropriate screen mode.

Changes between version 3.01 and 3.02

Improvements:

• If internal data files cannot be found during initialisation, the game no longer reports misleadingly errors such as 'Not enough memory' or 'Insufficient room to load file'.

New bugs:

• Initialisation is not aborted if there is insufficient memory to load the 'TexData' file or the configuration or high scores files are too big.

Changes between version 3.02 and 3.03

• Game is no longer automatically suspended upon losing the input focus unless the player is actually in flight (i.e. not when viewing the mission map, ship status or other screens).
• Mouse clicks on the game window are now ignored if the SHIFT key is held - this is handy for restoring the input focus without side effects.
• Uses Wimp_Extend 11 to read scroll bar sizes (for sub-windows of Choices dialogue box) on versions of the window manager that support it.

Changes between version 3.03 and 3.04

• Machines running RISC OS 3 or 4 no longer require an updated version of the Shared C Library from Castle Technology Ltd and a version of the floating point emulator that supports LFM/SFM instructions.
• Removed code to manually reset the standard dialogue boxes upon Cancel click. We now rely on the Toolbox to implement this (although so far only the Scale module does so).

Changes between version 3.04 and 3.05

• Fixed bug that caused the application to be being paged in as often as possible even when configured to run slowly, thus reducing the time available to other tasks. Also the game would not have run properly if started after the centisecond timer had gone 'negative' (six weeks from machine reset).
• The Choices dialogue box now always opens centred on the screen instead of simply being brought to the front if already open.
• Made provision for internationalisation of system variables for Castle's proposed help system.
• For consistency pressing F12 will now cause the main window to lose input focus whether or not the game is suspended.
• Various file loading problems that were ignored now abort initialisation with an error (broken in 3.02 and subsequent versions).
• Fixed longstanding bug where detail map could not be scrolled to eastern and northern extremities by clicking on global (small) map. Also fixed over-aggressive clipping of target crosses & object dots on map.
• Fixed minor bug where 'Ship status' instead of 'Toggle HUD' was erroneously displayed by the Choices dialogue box as the action associated with a mouse or joystick button.
• Updated G.A.G.'s ResFind utility (used internally) from version 2.01b to 2.12.
• Internal changes to use more Toolbox interfaces in preference to directly calling the Window Manager, improve division of code between source files and take advantage of ObjAsm's provision for literal pools.
• Appropriate error is now reported if pointer shapes file not found (rather than 'Not enough memory').
• Long intervals between game updates are now capped at one second so that timer-driven animations do not skip excessively after multitasking has been suspended (e.g. due to a Wimp error report).
• If the key definition window is given the input focus unsolicited then the previously highlighted icon is now selected. This eliminates problems after the input focus is borrowed (e.g. for a transient dialogue box).
• Unclaimed key presses are now reliably passed on to other applications. Previously this only happened when the game or key definition window had the input focus.

Changes between version 3.05 and 3.06

• Fixed bug where attempting to enable sound from the Choices dialogue box without the SharedSound module loaded caused either a fatal 'branch through zero' error or a succession of non-fatal 'SFX error' messages (depending on whether sound was enabled upon initialisation).
• Fixed bug where changing the number of channels whilst sound was enabled triggered the device claim protocol, unless SharedSound was loaded. This manifested as a spurious error 'Cannot claim use of the sound system' followed by several 'SFX error' messages.
• Fixed bug in SFX_Handler module where the stack pointer would be corrupted (with unpredictable results) if an error were returned by SWI OS_ConvertHex8 (which is used by SFX_LoadTrack and SFX_LoadSample).
• Fixed bug where mouse control over the pointer position was not restored upon entering the mission map if the pointer reappeared outside the game window.
• The status of the internal speaker is now monitored continuously whilst displayed in the Configure menu. This provides more accurate feedback; not all machines have an internal speaker or allow software control over it. Errors from SWI Sound_Speaker are now suppressed.
• Added a pause of several seconds (which can be skipped by the user) to prevent the title screen and version number from vanishing immediately.
• Errors during initialisation are now consistently treated as fatal.

Changes between version 3.06 and 3.07

• Number of lives displayed on mission start should now be accurate (broken in 3.00 and subsequent versions).

Changes between version 3.07 and 3.08

• Internal changes to treat graphics coordinates as 16 bit rather than 32 bit. Should not have user-visible effects.
• Optimised instruction ordering within the SFX_Handler module, which should particularly benefit X-Scale processors. Latencies reported by ARMalyser have been reduced from 487 (10.3% of estimated total cycles) to 344 (7.5%).
• Improved the quality of music fade out; the amplitude of all channels is now scaled simultaneously and proportionally, instead of clipping the amplitude of the loudest channels first.
• Improved the accuracy with which note amplitude is specified when sound output is via an 8 bit voice generator (uses 7 bit log volume with SWI Sound_Control).
• Added a header to the transient utility that is used to ensure that enough memory is allocated for the game's double-buffered full screen display. This is for compatibility with the latest versions of RISC OS 4.

Changes between version 3.08 and 3.09

• No longer attempts perspective division on coordinates that are behind the camera. (Previously multiplied X and Z coordinates by indeterminate values read from outside a lookup table.)
• Corrected the speed of glissandos to match early versions of the SFX_Handler module (this effect was accidentally reimplemented at half speed after the sound player was rewritten to support 16 bit sound).

Changes between version 3.09 and 3.10

• Various internal changes to use tables of data in preference to in-line code in the desktop front-end.
• Fixed a bug where the key transition buffer would be flushed whenever a task started that had a name partially matching "ShellCLI" from the start of both strings (e.g. "S", "Sh", "She", etc.) Instead, this buffer is now flushed whenever a mode change message is received (should catch termination of *GOS and single-tasking programs as well as the Task Manager's CLI shell).
• If the game has been configured to start up in full screen mode, but that isn't possible for any reason (e.g. screen mode not available) then the user is now offered the opportunity to continue instead of quitting. This allows the game to be reconfigured to prevent a recurrence.
• Fixed an incompatibility with RISC OS 6 which caused "No writable memory at this address" to be reported if the game started up in full screen mode. The title screen was being decompressed directly into the frame buffer but OS_ValidateAddress faults physically mapped dynamic areas (such as that used by the VIDC hardware video driver).

Changes between version 3.10 and 3.11

• Fixed a potential memory leak in the case where SWI OS_ReadModeVariable returns an error (probably never happened in practice).
• SWI Wimp_SetMode is now used to restore the desktop screen mode and palette upon return from full-screen mode, just like when a 'grubby' task exits. Previously, the game used custom code which wasn't full compatible with RISC OS 6 (window furniture was not always drawn).
• The colour translation table required to redraw the contents of the game window is now recalculated 'just in time' instead of whenever the game is notified that the desktop screen mode or palette has changed. This is more efficient because such notifications typically arrive in tandem.
• The palette for the game's native screen mode is no longer held persistently in memory whilst in the desktop environment.
• More robust in the case where SWI ColourTrans_ReadPalette tries to output more data than the previously estimated buffer size.
• If an error occurs during redraw of the game window (e.g. not enough memory for colour translation table) then the rest of the window will be filled with black and the game automatically suspended in fairness to the player.

Changes between version 3.11 and 3.12

• Fixed an obscure bug where the SFX_Handler module would overwrite the first instruction of its dynamic area handler with a NOP (instead of zeroing the private word) when tidying up after a failed initialisation. If this handler was subsequently called then errors such as "Illegal instruction" and "Reentrancy in ChangeDynamicArea" would occur.

Changes between version 3.12 and 3.13

• The sky renderer no longer relies upon low-order address bits being ignored in unaligned data accesses. (STM to an unaligned address may cause undefined behaviour, depending on the ARM architecture variant.)
• The routine which calculates the screen position of planets and stars no longer attempts perspective division on coordinates behind the camera. (Previously multiplied X and Z coordinates by indeterminate values read from outside a lookup table.)
• Fixed a bug introduced in version 3.11 where the action button which can be used to insert the current scale into the Choices dialogue box was not labelled correctly until the scale had been changed.
• Improved the key names for a UK keyboard that are used in the Choices dialogue box.
• Created a new 'Desktop' section of the Choices dialogue box and moved the 'Suspend when focus lost', 'Start in full-screen mode' and scaling options into it.
• Which input device should be used for flight controls is now configured using a set of radio buttons instead of separate option buttons in the 'Mouse' and 'Joystick' sections of the Choices dialogue box.
• The type of joystick (analogue or switched) is now configured using a set of radio buttons instead of a pop-up menu.
• There is a new option to show the average frame rate over the last eight frames in an external toolbar attached to the main window. A slider shows the ratio of the actual frame rate to the maximum allowed.
• Updated the game's pre-veneer for the runtime environment's error handler to avert 'No stack for trap handler' errors if an exception occurs within the portion of the gamecode that is not APCS compliant. This was necessary to accommodate recent changes in RISCOS Ltd's shared C library.
• Various data files are now loaded whilst the title screen is showing during initialisation instead of just-in-time when the game receives its first null event.

Changes between version 3.13 and 3.14

• Fixed unaligned data accesses in the assembly language routines which zero-initialise the table of keys pressed, plot sprites for the mission selection screen, and create bonus coins in the game.
• Fixed unaligned data accesses in the compiled C code by specifying the required arcane options when invoking the compiler.
• Variables of type short int are even more inefficient with the new compiler options, so I have substituted natural-width integers.

Designed by Christopher Bazley. All material relating to Star Fighter 3000 is © Fednet Software, 1994, 1995 Labelled with ICRA.