Bug Report and Versions
Nobody's perfect, and my JavaScript programming skills (or lack thereof)
pretty much guarantee that this simulator is going to have some bugs. If
you want to report one to me, email me (see my
Home Page for email info). PLEASE - before
sending that email, read this page to see if the bug you're reporting is one
that I already know about. And if you're going to send an email anyway,
be as specific as possible. Tell me EXACTLY what was going on in the
game when the bug occurred - where the ball was, if it was moving up or down,
the row and column it was in, if it was hitting a block, etc. Try to
reproduce the bug a few times so you know exactly what's going on. Any
emails that just say "I was playing the game and it suddenly froze" are
going to be ignored. I already know it does that - I need to know the
exact circumstances that cause it.
JavaScript programmers - any help anyone can provide in solving any of
these bugs would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks.
Blockbuster Bug List
Initial release: May 11th, 2007
- Game freezes - on very rare occasions, the game will occasionally stop dead
in the middle of playing a ball. Sometimes after missing a ball, the game
won't let you start the next one, even though you have balls left. These
"freezes" were fairly common when I first "finished" the program, but have
gotten rarer and rarer as I knocked various bugs out. But it still
happens occasionally, I just can't find any specific set of circumstances
that makes it happen every time.
- Incomplete paddle - the paddle will sometimes, very briefly, look
like it is missing a pixel. Usually in the middle, and usually when the
player is coming back from the information screen between balls. I've
tried everything I can think of to fix this, but it still happens. Since
it doesn't affect gameplay much (if at all), I'm not going to waste any
more time trying to fix it. If it happens to you, just move the mouse and
that should cause the paddle to be redrawn, fixing it. Turning the "vapor
trails" option off also seems to fix the problem.
- NOT A BUG - No sound - Where are the beeps and blips I remember
from the original game!?!? Well, unfortunately there is no easy way to
replicate them using JavaScript. So the game is without sound. This is
NOT currently considered a "bug", but if I ever get the motivation I might
try to add sound. If any clever JavaScript programmer would like to take
on the task, be my guest. I can send WAV files if needed. And, of course,
send me the results if you get it working so I can put it up here.
- NOT A BUG - Score wrapwaround - if you got the score over 999 and it wrapped back
to zero, congratulations. That's not a bug, it's intentional. There
is only enough space on the screen to display 3 digits. I'm
guessing that's how the original game worked too, but I never got
anywhere close to 999 points (I haven't gotten past 200 with the
simulator yet either). Note that if you get past 1000 points, your
score will be shown with an extra zero, i.e. 5 points normally shows
up as "05", but if you have 1,005 points it will show up as "005".
If anyone goes over 999 points and it causes a bug, let me know. I
didn't test that part of the program thoroughly because it'll
probably never happen. Even if you break 999 points and don't find
a bug, feel free to email me and brag about it.
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