Just realized that I've been working on this project for over a year now. Kind of scary, but then again, Ratcatcher took at least three years. Of course, Ratcatcher was my first 5200 game so there was a lot to learn.

I've completed the the new physics system, as least as far as basic rock movement is concerned, The new system is much more physically accurate and just looks a whole lot better. The old approach had 16 different rock speeds (I think), this new one has 100.

I've also made a small change to the aiming system, one I've been thinking about for a long time. Originally, you aimed the rock along the front hogline. The problem with this was that there were only about 5 or 6 aim points that were viable, the rest would just throw the rock off the sheet.

The new aiming point is much further out, as displayed in this screenshot:

This allows a much greater range of aim points, and also fixes some issues with "extreme" aiming that I really didn't want to fix otherwise, so everybody wins!

PLANS FOR PORTLAND

I will be (as always) attending the Portland Retro Gaming Expo for a few hours on Saturday. I really want to have a minimally playable demo of this game that I can bring to the show. What do I still need to do? Here's a handy checklist:

• Fix the curl. The curl code is still married to the old physics system and needs to be totally redone.
• Get collisions working right. There was never a truly functioning collision system. The meager one than was there needs to be modified for the new physics code, and needs to actually do something realistic.
• Sweeping. This is kind of an "extra credit" thing, but I have some ideas on how to do sweeping and the new physics system will help a lot with that.
  

So, that's it. Two or three things, but they're not small things. I reckon I'll being the game to Portland even if I don't hit these targets, but I think these goals are totally realistic.