[stella] Poker Solitaire/Squares build 025

[Phantom of the Opcodes <urchlay@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Things have been pretty slow in the stella world lately... what's everybody
up to?

I finally got a chance to work on Poker Solitaire/Squares some more this
weekend...

Here's what's new in this version:

- Changed name to `Poker Squares', mostly because `Poker Solitaire' is too
  darn wide to display as a title :)

- Added PAL binary. Looks OK on Z26, would someone mind testing on a PAL
  console & let me know if it works OK? (This is my first attempt at a
  PAL version of anything...)

- Game Select now acts as a toggle to switch between normal display and
  crib sheet. Debounce time is 16 frames. Sadly, this used my very last
  byte of free RAM :(

- Scrolling title during shuffling. This could look better than it does..

- Crib Sheet now uses strict 3x5 UPPERCASE font, with an extra pair of
  scanlines between rows of text. Also rearranged hands so they're listed
  in order by score, low to high. Thanks to Jake Patterson for designing
  the new crib sheet, although I modified his design some (inverse video
  for the scores, for one thing)

- Minor fixes to the fonts: A and Q cards look a little better, and the
  5, 6, 8, 9 in the score font were modified (can't decide if they look
  right or not..)

...at this point, I've used all 128 bytes of RAM (126 for variables, with
2 left over for stack, which I actually do use). I'm also down to around
100 bytes of ROM space free. I was considering adding a couple of different
game modes (sliding puzzle mode, with timed and/or move-limited variants),
but unless I want to use bank-switching, I don't think it's going to happen..
and even with 4 more K of ROM, I'd still be out of RAM. (No, I don't want to
use SuperCharger RAM. I want to write an Atari VCS game, not a SuperCharger
game)

So, set your TARDIS controls for the mid-80's.... if this game had existed
in '83 or so, as it is now, would you have bought it? Would you have enjoyed
it? Would you have felt ripped off? Would you have still played it 5 years
later?

I *really* want to `release' this version as 1.0... been working on this game
for months, and want to move on. But I want to get it to a point where, if I
never touch it again, it could be considered complete.

Opinions?

B.

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If a trainstation is the place where trains stop, what is a workstation?

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