Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 4218
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 13/05/2004
Subject: Re: Versioning / Avoiding infinite death
soa1000 wrote:
>Yahoo! Groups put their insertions at the end of messages, never in
>> [ http://www.du.org/jetset/ ]
>
> Is this supposed to be in your post, Andrew, or is it some sort of
> insertion by Yahoo!Groups?
the middle.
I found the link in a Google search for "alpha release" "beta
release" "gamma release", as I wanted to check that my terminology
was consistent with standard computer-science terminology for
versioning. The above link was the first page I found that provided
a good explanation of versioning-terminology (although that page's
definitions of delta-versions and minor revision-numbers seem
mutually redundant).
While we're on the subject of versioning, I'd like to define a few
more terms, in particular the distinction between _revision_ and
_variant_:
* REVISION: A version that supersedes an older version. Usually only
an ultra-completist would want to keep old revisions, although as we
saw with Role Reversal, it was useful to compare Revisions D and E
of Maria vs Some Bastards in order to determine the change needed
for an upgrade. Old revisions become relevant when variants are
based on them without being upgraded to the latest revision.
* VARIANT: A version that exists in parallel with other versions,
rather than superseding them. All our games are variants of the
original MM or JSW, and perhaps of other variants (see
http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Jsw/taxonomy.html ).
* TRANSFORMATION: A variant that results from applying a
transformation-algorithm to another variant, e.g. MMtoJSW, JSWtoMM,
MirrorMM and MirrorJSW.
JSW64 is a prime example of the need to say either "revision"
or "variant", rather than just "version" which is ambiguous. JSW64
currently has six variants (V, W, X, Y, Z and '['), and we've
already seen several revisions, resulting in a two-dimensional array
of versions! And the array goes three-dimensional when we consider
JSW64:MM and JSW64:Dragon32 as variants of the variants.
Question for John Elliott: What is the difference between a Version
and a Hacklevel of JSW128? Why the two numbering-schemes?
Thanks for bringing Ian Collier's "avoid infinite death" hack to our
attention (http://jswremakes.emuunlim.com/Authors/Smith/jsw.htm -
Z80-version with megatrainer).
Under this patch, each room specifies a single start-position for
after you lose a life; unfortunately this does not vary according to
where you entered the room, so it would be unsuitable for Promised
Lands as well as undermining the design of rooms which should be
crossed in more than one direction. This patch is no substitute for
fair game-design and thorough playtesting.
--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/
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