Status Line

Devlog

• v3.0.1 hotfix posted
  February 15, 2025 by Christopher Drum

  1

  UPDATE: This appears to be a bug in Pico 8 itself; a workaround to that bug revealed a different bug. Fixing that exceeds the Pico 8 token allotment for the program. So I'm disabling scroll speed sett... Continue reading
• v3.0 Released! z5 and z8 support, full color display, timed input, games up to 512K, and more
  February 14, 2025 by Christopher Drum#interactive fiction, #pico-8, #z-machine, #zork

  This is a big release, not just for the engine but for its supporting services as well. Status Line v3.0 features Available Now! z5 and z8 game support plays games up to 512K in size (see Status Line... Continue reading
• v3.0 beta reached
  February 09, 2025 by Christopher Drum

  1

  #z-machine, #interactive-fiction

  We're close, folks. After a lot of spit-and-polish this week, I believe I'm at the point where I have "final" distributables of all Status Line executables, all Status Line Classics game file builds,... Continue reading
• 7-10 split? Fore!
  February 03, 2025 by Christopher Drum

  2

  The Pico-8 is called a "fantasy console," a virtual machine that is built to specifications which simulate limitations and restrictions of real, retro hardware. Many times these consoles take a bit of... Continue reading
• Infocom Purists - DO NOT READ THIS!
  January 27, 2025 by Christopher Drum

  1

  OK, now that the purists are gone, to everyone else who is left, here's what's happening with Status Line Classics v2. To coincide with the release of Status Line v3.0, I'm preparing ("porting?") a nu... Continue reading

  
• v3.0 alpha test progress report
  January 19, 2025 by Christopher Drum

  2

  Testing can be a tedious process, for sure. I need to play games, start to finish, that represent "genetic differences" in a variety of games. Genetic Differences Which authoring system was used? ZIL... Continue reading

  
• v3.0 alpha reached
  January 13, 2025 by Christopher Drum

  Another productive week with a lot of milestones and one rabbit hole that will pay off someday, but not today. Everything that was broken is working, and I believe I've hit the alpha milestone. Now it... Continue reading

  
• Big Effort, Small-ish Payoff
  January 05, 2025 by Christopher Drum

  2

  #z-machine, #pico-8, #interactive fiction

  Here in Japan, the company I work for has been on winter break since Dec. 28. With a 9-day break, I was ready to tear into the project and then I got the flu immediately. Haven't been sick in years; t... Continue reading

  
• ask pig about pig -> 162,000 ops
  December 29, 2024 by Christopher Drum

  3

  #Pico-8, #z-machine, #Interactive Fiction, #Infocom

  Great, great progress this past week on both the display system and optimizations. A few games were showing visual artifacts when drawing things in the status line area, and that is resolved. The more... Continue reading
• Battening Down Hatches
  December 23, 2024 by Christopher Drum

  2

  #z-machine, #infocom, #inform

  It's been a good week of significant progress and I believe (🤞) I've hit a significant milestone in compatibility. Three games in particular were giving me strange troubles, and all three are worki... Continue reading

  
• Progress Update on v3
  December 16, 2024 by Christopher Drum

  2

  This project is a struggle. I started from a mistaken premise, "v2.0 played z3 and z4 games start to finish perfectly. I'll just add the z5 missing features, debug those, and I should be in good shape... Continue reading

  
• v3 Development Started
  December 04, 2024 by Christopher Drum

  3

  #Pico-8, #Infocom, #z-machine, #Zork, #text adventure, #interactive fiction

  Status Line v3 I'm happy to say that development on Status Line v3 has begun. When I say "begun" I actually mean, "I've been working on it for a couple of weeks now and hit a milestone." "Spider and W... Continue reading

  
• Status Line v2.0 released! z4 support, multi-font display, custom Infocom classics, and the resurrection of Bureaucracy
  March 21, 2022 by Christopher Drum

  1

  #Status Line, #z-machine, #Infocom, #Interactive Fiction

  Status Line now plays z4 games (Status Line Classics editions shown) Trinity A Mind Forever Voyaging Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It Bureaucracy v2.0 Features z4 game support Custom, ha... Continue reading

  
• Status Line v1.2 Released
  February 12, 2022 by Christopher Drum

  Ever closer to z4 game support This update repairs a lot of things necessary to bring z4 game support to Status Line. For the initial versions, I cut a few corners here and there as part of my general... Continue reading

  
• Status Line 1.1 Released
  January 03, 2022 by Christopher Drum#z-machine, #Status Line

  First, a thank you I cannot thank everyone enough for the wonderful reception of Status Line 1.0. Twitter, Reddit, itch.io, Hacker News, IF Community, and Lexaloffle visitors have sent lovely messages... Continue reading