Crack'ed 9-11-88

This is a mid to late level WIP for Crack'ed called the 'Ranch Screen Milestone' in the notes.  The game is starting to look more like the later versions now but still has a ton of bugs and differences.  The most interesting of which is that the title screen has what looks to be the beginnings of a two player mode.  The title screen has two eggs on it with only one being highlighted.  This two player mode is mentioned as being 'in progress' in notes found with the source code for the 1-1-89 version, but it appears to never have been implemented.  Another interesting thing about this prototype is that the amount of eggs refreshes itself between levels making it impossible to lose even on Insane difficulty.  This was most likely done for playtesting and debugging purposes.

No physical copy of this version has been found, but the rom was compiled from code found on an Atari ST development system.  Because this version was still under development it doesn't follow standard Atari 2600 4K bankswitching and will only work on Atari ST development flash card plugged into an Atari 7800 (which was the standard 2600/7800 development system at the time) or a version of the Stella emulator that supports the 24K developer mode.

Please note that the date presented here is not the actual date the prototype was made but rather the date in which the files were written to the development kit hard drive.  It's possible that the two dates are the same or very close, but there is no way of knowing for sure.

Differences

The title screen flickers for a bit at the start

The title screen text and logo are a lighter shade of yellow

The eggs are yellow instead of gold

The skill level options are all the same color

Instead of six eggs slowly counting up on the title screen there are two eggs with one being highlighted.  This is the start of an unimplemented two player mode.

There's a no sound when you shoot

The demo is broken.  The crosshairs either moves to one edge of the screen or gets hung up on a nest.

The demo for the Subway Mania level is missing

The owl enemy looks different

The eggs on the end of level tally screen tally up very slowly

The eggs on the end of level tally screen are a a dark yellow instead of gold

The Rooster Ranch level is called The Ranch and has a different logo on the level name card

There are no score or eggs left counters on the Rooster Ranch screen

There are no color gradients on the Rooster Ranch screen

The amount of eggs refreshes itself between screens rather than carrying over making it impossible to lose even on Insane difficulty

The tally screen always displays five or six eggs regardless of how many were actually left

The screen bounces slightly more often to the kernel being more unstable

It may be impossible to get a game over

The game is easier overall with enemies not stealing your eggs as often

 

The start of a two player mode	Different owl graphics
Very different Rooster Ranch name screen	All the info is missing at the bottom
What are those things?  Little dragons?	You always get five or six eggs

 

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