Nową wersję przygotował autor oryginału, czyli Jon Williams. W ramach prac nad konwersją na konsolę Atari 5200 wprowadził wiele zmian, które przeniósł teraz do nowej wersji na małe Atari. Tak w ogóle przy okazji poprosiłem go, aby przygotował również dla A8 nową poprawioną wersję "Major Blink" (2018), uwzględniającą ulepszenia z wersji na A5200.
Informacje o zmianach i podpowiedzi: ->link<- Fragment:
Timeslip was originally released on the Commodore C16 in 1985 and was followed by the Atari A8 version some months later (in 1986)
The C16 original version had to run in 16K so had no room for a proper front end or many options. The Atari A8 version was a ‘quick’ conversion which added the front end and made some changes to the feel of the game. For example, the addition of a window of horizontal movement allowed the player to speed up the action by moving to the far-left limit.
The game is split into three horizontally scrolling Zones each containing 12 Time Orbs and a Zone clock which runs up to 12:00. Destroying all Time Orbs in a Zone allows you to set the Zone Time to 00:00. The mission is completed when all three Zones have been zeroed. You have 24 hours to complete the mission. To complicate things, after every collision the main clock is reduced by a number of minutes dependant on the current skill setting. After 5 collisions there is a Timeslip which randomly upsets the Zone Times.
Updating the A8 version has allowed me to change the way the game works in a few key areas.
• In the original, all three Zone Times were affected by the Timeslip – this made it unfairly hard to complete the game. The new version prevents any zeroed Zones from changing.
• There was no real ‘ending’ to the original game … you just restarted at the next skill level. The new version adds bonuses based on the current skill – including one for the amount of time remaining. The high score and best time for each skill level is retained and shown on the front end. This gives players a reason for replaying the game.
• Scoring is now based on the current skill. This change, in addition to the new bonuses makes the scoring much more representative of the skill setting.
• There was no code adjustment for NTSC as there was no way for me to test this back in 1986. When I started the conversion it soon became clear that the faster frame rate meant it was even more difficult to complete the game. A few areas of the map were incredibly difficult to get past. This version has a few minor map changes where necessary.
• I’ve added a small amount of inertia to the joystick control to improve the player control. Vertical movement was particularly tricky to get used to. Having said that … it does take quite a lot of time to get used to controlling the player in such a restricted map.
• There’s a new Practice Mode which allows continuous play until the Zones are zeroed or until you get fed up and exit. However, there’s no update to score or main time.
• The original game had a ‘countdown’ to starting a Zone. The addition of a ‘latching’ system now means the Fire Button can be used. This makes staring a Zone much quicker.
