fRaBs  updates
Main - Updates - Single Player - Deathmatch - Level Editing - FAQ - Credits - Links

This file catalogues all of the changes between fRaBs and the registered
version of Abuse, as well as various logs of updates, additions, gameplay
testing, deathmatch testing, and other modifications.

7/10/00 - Version 1.9

- Changed the arrangement of the documentation. If this isn't
  the best Abuse documentation there is then I suggest you make
  something better. :) I'm proud of it.

7/09/00

- Finally finished up the HTML documentation for fRaBs.

7/07/00

- I've been working on Pong levels, the new documentation, and a
  special directory called /maps, filled with JPEGs of every level
  in fRaBs, and then some. So far there is 10 new Pong levels
  made by me.
- Still no resolution to the legs error. Until that is fixed, my
  new level will remain unreleased.

7/03/00

- Thanks to Zoneman for finding a nasty error in fRaBs where upon
  getting the POWER_UPs the player's legs didn't change. I have
  this problem partially fixed at the moment... only now upon
  obtaining the SHOULDER_LAMP, the player has no legs!
- I did this by moving lots of code directly into the
  lisp/people.lsp file, and there is a backup called peoplold.lsp
  in the same directory. Also, addon/aliens/powerups.lsp has been
  changed, with the old file renamed to powerold.lsp... hope I
  can fix this soon!

7/02/00

- Pong level making is easy! I made 5 nice levels in about half
  an hour. Very neat stuff. I'll write a short briefing on it.
- At the moment I'm collaborating with Profound to make a couple
  new objects for Pong that will allow for a string of levels...
  right now it only plays one at a time, but this can be changed.

7/01/00

- Added abuse.txt in /docs, by Duong Dai Nguyen. There is a very
  detailed tutorial on level design, as well as other things. I
  may go through and add/modify some of the listings to account for
  new ai_types and whatnot. I shouldn't have lost this file so long
  ago... it's a useful tool, and I still learn things from it.
  Swiped from the shareware version 1.05.

6/30/00

- Check out addon/pong/ for a fun little pong game. Swiped from the
  shareware version 1.05.

6/29/00

- Tried to fix the 'Aliens' issue, by changing their little green
  acid shot to aitype 50, but I don't think I modified the LISP
  correctly. Now they don't shoot anything at all! Maybe it's best
  that way...
- Started doing some major tweaking to the Alien code... I want to
  try and make them a bit more 'fair'. Changed default hit points,
  and speed settings today...

6/28/00

- Ooh, with the addition of the new addon by Leon, the Aliens from
  the Aliens Abuse addon now seem to want to shoot those zip-zappy
  lasers. This is a bit of a problem...

6/26/00

- Updated Leon's addon material and edited /addon/leon/4frabs.lsp to
  include his new foreground tiles.

6/25/00

- Added in Leon's new ant addons from his great new levels. All of it
  is in addon/leon, including the original levels, which can be run
  via leon.bat and l-edit.bat.
- Moved the bad_guy_list and the object_destroyable_list to the bottom
  of abuse.lsp. Kept the older, existing ones just in case the seperate
  addon is run instead of the entire fRaBs objects.
- Updated single player readme on new Ant AI.
- Tons of new objects in this update. I don't know how I will ever make
  a document to describe each and every one of these... eventually I
  need to though.

6/21/00

- Began work on Kokushi Salamander. It will be a shoot-em-up spaceship
  game, similar to Gradius, using the Abuse engine. :) Profound is
  doing the main bit of code, and I'm creating/ripping the artwork. I
  have been on a shooter stint, with the Konami classics, and I thought
  one day that I could do a project like this for Abuse. Stay tuned...

6/20/00

- I did some deathmatch testing on Kahn with EitanTal. I had a 56k modem,
  and he had ISDN, and the results were slow, probably because of me...
  we averaged about .5 fps. I'd imagine 2 ISDN lines on Kahn would
  get much better performance... the game's native rate is 15 fps. I am
  in Alaska, and he was in Israel... my TCP/IP test with Ed wasn't as
  good in terms of performance, and he had DSL.
- Missed a few of the art/tints directories in changing the file names
  to lower case. Fixed.
- You may have noticed that there were constant updates from the 13th of
  June to the 17th. This is a record number of updates for fRaBs, and it
  can be attributed to the fact that I don't have a job. :)

6/17/00 - Version 1.75

- The Deathray and the Twisted Minds addon are now incorporated into
  fRaBs! This makes for a whole new seperate addon, as well as better-
  flowing single player play in the regular game.
- Added a couple of Leon's objects, save for a couple things related
  to the ways in which ants die. These are the ANTHOLE and the SENSORBEAM.
  The first one makes a new ant for each one that comes out of the crack
  and dies, up to a maximum. The second is a nice bit of decor. Read
  leon1.lsp in addon/leon for more info and check out my sample level,
  sample.spe, in the same directory.

6/16/00

- Doh! There was a broken level exit in Level07.spe because I moved
  Level08 to Level21. Fixed.

6/15/00 - Version 1.71

- Renamed every file except for the fRaBs171 dir itself to lowercase so
  that there's better Linux compatibility. If there are any problems that
  come up with this then email me.

6/14/00

- I decided to release fRaBs and add the BFG and my new cave level in
  a later version. There might not be much time between this release
  and the next, but it's been long enough as it is. :)
- Remember that although this version has quite a few new levels,
  most of the big changes are internal, with the new power up objects
  which I hope you level editors out there can take advantage of.
- Updated the single player documentation with help for the new levels
  as I'm sure you will need it. ;)

6/13/00

- Getting very close to a release. Implemented Eitan's easiest levels
  and all that is left now is the BFG and possibly my new Abuse level
  once I get it finished.

6/8/00

- Added in EitanTal's new levels, but they may need editing. This, and
  the delays with adding in the new BFG code will delay fRaBs even
  longer. I figure this is best though, unless you like downloading
  new versions of software every two seconds that it is released.
- Modified /lisp/people.lsp to fix an issue where any level-ending
  teleporter for Level22.spe ends the game. Now the end-game
  sequence will only be triggered when you complete Level99.spe and
  god knows if fRaBs will ever have one of these.

6/4/00

- Cleaned up some LISP references for possible Linux problems.

6/1/00

- Preparations for releasing fRaBs 1.7... there's gonna be plenty
  of new stuff in this version, in terms of levels and additions to
  the artwork and objects. Just a little more testing with the new
  objects in a simulated deathmatch and it will be ready to go.
- Now that the important Aliens objects are included, does anyone
  want to try and make an 'Aliens Abuse' episode of fRaBs? :)
- Input on how fast the new Aliens move would be nice... this can
  be easily modified if the general consensus is that they should
  move a little slower/faster.
- Did some slight updating to the documentation, with info about
  the new Aliens.
- Added Ed Snible's fRaBs icons, and some related files, to /icons.

5/24/00

- Finally! Added Aliens Abuse foreground, background, and relevant
  objects. And it all works perfectly! YAY! Now the SHOULDER_LAMP,
  the FACE_HUGGER, and all the ALIEN_DUDES work! :)

5/21/00

- Ed and I had our first TCP/IP test of fRaBs for GNU/Linux. It
  was slow and there were a couple LISP bugs, but we think they
  were due to our different Abuse setups, and the fact that I live
  in Alaska and he lives in New York. Overall though, things are
  looking promising for TCP/IP play, just as long as you're not
  playing someone halfway across the planet. :)
- Also, I've been contacted by someone who wants to do an Abuse
  port for PSX. Stay tuned.
- I've been planning to make some GNU/Linux packages for different
  distros, so look for these in the future. So far Redhat and
  Debian packages are on the horizon, but if there's the demand,
  then I'll make some others.

5/03/00

- fRaBs is working in Debian! Good news... but the palette is
  screwy. To be fixed.
- Added Level17.spe finally.

4/24/00

- To do... Finish testing fRaBs-linux and integrate new SPLs.

4/13/00

- A cool guy by the name of Ed Snible has been fixing up a
  GNU/Linux version of Abuse with TCP/IP support. We're in the
  testing phase... stay tuned. This is gonna rock!

  fRaBs + Linux + TCP/IP + Good Documentation = Bliss :)

- Changed Level00 so that bottom two teleporters to the left
  loop back into Level00 until I get those episodes completed.
- Added SFX to Limestone DM level. It sounds cool now.
- Network testing went really well, although my little brother
  beat me on the levels that I made. Go figure. I noticed some
  lag in Bugs.spe on the network though... too many objects?
  If someone can get 3-4 people or more playing 'Bugs' on a LAN
  and do some further testing, I'd appreciate it. :)
- Added an episode with some of my older levels... it's a three
  level deal that is situated off near the 'Abuse!' teleport in
  Level00. This is old news really, but the new episode isn't in
  any released versions of fRaBs.

3/24/00 - Version 1.51 (beta)

- Completed Limeston.spe (the new large DM level) and I think
  I'm done with making deathmatch levels. Now to get back to
  single-player.
- Modified /addon/deathmat/large.lsp
- Damn, another thing I forgot to add here... I finished a nice
  new single-player level a while ago... about a month ago, to
  be precise. :) Whoops.
- I'm gonna be able to do my own deathmatch testing this coming
  week. Woohoo! My own networked computers to play with!

3/20/00

- I'm back for the attack!
- Don't know why this tidbit wasn't in the readme earlier,
  but I've been working on the Underground Zone, another
  large DM level. It, along with other fRaBs stuff, will
  probably not be released until there's other significant
  changes to the game... i.e. more single player episodes,
  engine modifications. There's no point to releasing fRaBs
  every two days just to put in another DM level and update
  the one or two .lsp files that need updating.

2/21/00 - Version 1.5

- Released 1.5 with all new single-player mode, and
  4 new deathmatch levels. Single-player info has been
  relegated to separate readme files, deathmat.txt and
  oneplayr.txt, both of which are works in progress. My
  aim is to have more material for Abuse newbies and a
  full-fledged Abuse multiplayer step-by-step guide.

2/20/00

- I was inspired today... made a new medium DM level in about
  3 hours that is circle-shaped... it uses running water from
  the claudio addon. :) It's the second level in the medium
  rotation now... /netlevel/Teardrop.spe

2/18/00

- More SPL fixes (Level08.spe)
- Still working on a new SPL and a new DM level... school's
  been bogging me down a bit though.

2/5/00

- Fixed some foreground tiles in the original SW levels
- Fixed some tiles and errors in both ACLPP levels

2/4/00

- Added a new level, redgrndm.spe, to the small deathmatch levels
  and modified /addon/deathmat/small.lsp to a different order. I
  don't plan on making any more small deathmatch levels, so this
  file should stay the same from here on out. This DM level has
  a 'new' feature: respawning flyers that cause random hell.
- Changed Level00 teleporter nomenclature.

2/2/00

- Modified some level names, added some new single player levels
  into the addon. The first three top teleporters are in some
  sort of working order.

1/28/00

- Totally rearranged included Shareware level's file names...
  and added a new Level00.spe. This new Level00 was designed to
  be very open-ended to including either new 'paks' of levels,
  or even just exits to single levels. What does this mean? It
  means that if you want your level(s) in fRaBs, just give me a
  note of permission and send the level(s), tell me the order
  you want them in, and they will be included into fRaBs.
- The new Level00 took only 3 hours and some rockin' music... :)
- Updated readme with Level00 schematics. Start sending in some
  single-player levels! :)

1/22/00

- Keep forgetting that it's really 2000, not 1999. Sheesh.
- Finally tried fRaBs on Kahn, but it was so slow that me and
  my cohort couldn't even get the game started. Oh well... if
  you're playing with someone geographically close to you, or
  on the same ISP, then the bandwidth might be feasible over
  Kahn, but I'm not sure otherwise. Once cable modems are the
  norm, and everyone has good bandwidth, then Kahn will be the
  way to go, but for now, it's probably not the best idea.
  Thanks to CHaKKaWaKKa for being my partner in crime for this
  test. I plan on trying again in the near future...

1/20/00

- Haven't played much Abuse lately. I have recovered my
  original copies of Claudio and Aliens Abuse in my off time
  however! What does this mean? fRaBs will include even
  more foreground tiles and objects, and now I just might
  have a chance of implementing the Aliens Abuse characters
  into fRaBs. Be prepared for some more foreground and
  background, enemies, and a flashlight power-up!
- Working on another level with the red aliens tiles...
  these are always fun. It's nice and horizontal, unlike
  many of my 'falling mine-shaft' levels.
- I got news from an Italian magazine that fRaBs will be
  included with their monthly magazine on CD! More news as
  it comes!
- Also, this month, Kahn, a program that allows IPX function-
  ality over TCP/IP, became freeware! This is a wonderful
  program, with a tight user-base. It's similar to Kali, but
  much better IMO. Learn more about Kahn at:

 http://www.stargatenetworks.com
 http://kahn.descent4.org

  This effectively allows Abuse to be played over the Internet
  for free! Thanks to 'Tiny' and the other ops for helping to
  spread the word about fRaBs and to everyone who helped me out,
  and seeing past my poor IRC skills to help the innocent newbie.
  :) Props to you guys!

1/2/00

- Fixed up DM level bugs, and made a new small DM level.
- Been meaning to include this tidbit in the readme... you
  can find Satan Paint in /art

1/1/00 - Version 1.3

- Released fRaBs, fixed email at the bottom of the readme.

12/31/99

- Almost Y2K... made new medium DM level in 3 hours.

12/29/99

- Added 2 New DM levels based on the BUGS level.
- Modified /addon/deathmat/small.lsp
    /addon/deathmat/medium.lsp
    /addon/deathmat/large.lsp
- Fixed a bug that left the claudio addon support out of
  the DeathMatch games. Whoops!

12/22/99 - Version 1.2

- Added 3 New DM levels.
- Modified /addon/deathmat/small.lsp
    /addon/deathmat/medium.lsp
    /addon/deathmat/large.lsp

12/10/99 - Version 1.1

- Added Claudio Bolzoni's free Abuse object set in
  /addon/claudio
- Modified /addon/claudio/claudio.lsp so that Abuse doesn't
  look for missing artwork. The original claudio.lsp can be
  found at */oldclaud.lsp
- Modified /abuse.lsp with updated enemy info
- Added /Edit.lsp with palette info (press P in the editor)

12/3/99 - Initial Version 1.0

- Deleted registered levels 5-21 in /levels
- Deleted all the original DeathMatch levels in /netlevel
- Deleted original documentation
- Deleted /addon/example
- Deleted all but two files from /music
- Modified /addon/deathmat/small.lsp
    /addon/deathmat/medium.lsp
    /addon/deathmat/large.lsp
- Added two new deathmatch levels and three new single
  player levels
- Modified the exit of /levels/LEVEL04.SPE to loop back to
  /levels/LEVEL00.SPE

Justin Cassidy
messiah15@dog.com