==============
HISTORY (2004)
==============

May 30 -
* Updated the game to v0.64 and released the game publically (2nd time)

May 28 -
* Added Kevin Kofler's German Readme translation

May 27 -
* Fixed a bug in the new Link connection routine

May 26 -
* Fixed a glitch in external tracks where a bike wouldn't jump on the top jumps if it was 
directly followed by a dry patch or a top blockade (reported by Levimak)

May 25 -
* Fixed a few strings which were too long in the German translation
* Updated the game to v0.61

May 24 -
* Incorporated and checked over Kevin Kofler's German retranslation

May 23 -
* Integrated Mathiniste's German translation into the current source
* Improved the routine to establish a Link connection.  From now on, both calcs do not 
have to be running the Excitebike program when the first calc enters Multiplayer.  They 
don't even have to be connected with a cable.  Several people have had trouble trying to 
figure out why linkplay wouldn't work when entering Multiplayer on one calc before starting 
the game on the other.
* Modified the new linkplay routine to recognize and be compatible with the old link 
connection routine
* Updated the game to v0.60

May 22 -
* Began work on a new project, Sumo Wrestling!

May 18 -
* Fixed a rare graphics glitch in the Track Editor, where if you had the Background cheat 
enabled, part of the background would be drawn and part of it would not when scrolling

May 15 -
* Uploaded the game (v0.55) to www.ticalc.org

May 13 -
* Added one string in French I forgot to include

May 7 -
* French translation is integrated into the updated source for easy maintenance/updating of 
both the English and French versions
* Updated game to v0.55

May 2 -
* Game and Readme are translated to French by 240-185

May 1 -
* Fixed a Linkplay glitch where the bike's vertical coordinate was not adjusted between the 
two screen size types
* Fixed the Linkplay Pause screen, which was broken after a few other fixes

April 27 -
* Fixed several small bugs and glitches

April 25 -
* Fixed a rare bug where a bike could get stuck Overheated
* Added a Multiplayer mode where the first person to cross the Finish Line wins, as opposed 
to the default mode where the person with the fastest overall time wins
* Added a Background Texture cheat.  It is not part of the default game because it slows 
the frame rate too much, but it does look pretty cool

April 23 -
* Updated to v0.53 and released the game at Ti-Gen for beta testing

April 21 -
* Fixed a bug with the Moon Gravity cheat which caused the calc to crash if you jumped 
completely off of the Terrain screen

April 17 -
* Fixed a glitch where ESC wasn't recognized in the Get_Input routine
* Added support for Kern0 ESC+ON breaks (and other types of unexpected errors)

April 16 -
* Minor size optimizations (53755 bytes as of now)
* Fixed a minor Link Bug with the Pause Screen
* Excitebike 68k v0.50 Public Beta Testing begins

April 8 -
* Added a visual countdown before the start of a race

April 7 -
* Added a few more cheats, and now a message is now shown, unlocking a random cheat after 
every race that the user's time is less than 50 seconds on Track 5
* Lightly encrypted the cheats

April 6 -
* Added support for Linkplay in the Post-race summary screen
* Began implementing the original NES Excitebike GameShark Cheats

April 4 -
* Reformatted the external track structure to allow for easier loading/saving of best times

March 31 -
* Fixed several bugs with the track editor, as well as one with the saving of external track 
best times

March 29 -
* Fixed a bug with the Saving of external track best times

March 28 -
* Added a screen which allows the user to browse through and clear Track Records
* Added a flag, which is set when a bike passes over a blockade by tilting backwards, which 
restricts the bike from tilting backwards again until the user releases the Left Key (or the 
bike crashes/jumps/stops/etc)

March 26 -
* Fixed several things, mainly with the track record code
* Minor updates to the program's Readme
* Slowed down the bike's ability to accelerate

March 21 -
* Fixed a bug with the function DrawTerrain_Clipped8_OR_R which caused a crash on the 92+/
v200 versions of the game.  Much thanks to Lionel Debroux

March 20 -
* Added complete support for saving/loading of Default and External Track Records

March 19 -
* Improved and fixed some newly added code in the Track Editor

March 18 -
* Fixed a bug with the clipped Terrain on the Ti-92+/v200 versions which caused the game to 
crash every time, halfway through a track

March 17 -
* Improved the HUD support speed-wise
* Fixed many bugs with the TI-92+/v200 versions

March 15 -
* Fixed several minor bugs
* Greatly improved the Post_Race function to notify the user of their progress

March 14 -
* Moved the Default Compressed Levels back into the main Excitebike File
* Added a standard for the Ranking system
* Updated to TIGCC v0.95 Beta 6 which fixed the COMPRESSED_FORMAT_RELOCS support to cut 
another ~1,300 bytes off of the program's size.  It also added support for the new TI-89 
Titanium through a new type of launcher
* Improved the (previously choppy) in-game Blinking Text

March 8 -
* Added a standard way to show Blinking Text (such as the Overheat and Lap Time Messages)

March 7 -
* Fixed a very old glitch where Computer bikes would pop up onto your screen out of nowhere 
when near the end of a Track
* Put the Global variables pointer (used extensively throughout the program) into a Register 
for a size cut of ~3000 Bytes!

March 6 -
* Finished up the game's Readme

March 5 -
* Added and tested the loading of new externally compressed Default Tracks (1 through 5)
* Fixed a few (rare) Glitches with the Bike Crashing code

March 4 -
* Created an external 'File Dropper' program to compress and save the Default Tracks 
Externally

March 3 -
* Added full support for the Wheelie at the end of a Race
* Greatly improved the RLE Compression/Decompression Ratio by adding another compression 
check

March 2 -
* Started adding support for Tracks having Best Time Records

February 29 -
* Added the ability for Bikes to do flips with certain button combinations :)  This is the 
only change in Gameplay from the original NES Excitebike because I would like to keep the 
project as close as possible to the original
* Started work on the game's Documentation
* Wrestling season is over with so I will have Much more time to program.  I placed Sixth 
in the State of Wisconsin in the 119 pound weight class this year!

February 26 -
* Converted the Post-Race graphics and added the Post-Race Summary Screen
* Added a Pause Screen
* Converted the Fifth and Final original NES Excitebike Track

February 25 -
* Worked on the Link functions.  Played the first successful two-player link race.  Working 
on the linkplay for Excitebike only took about a half hour because most of the same 
premises I just took from Ice Hockey 68k's Linkplay (which took me forever to work out!)
* Mud hit detection glitch fixed

February 24 -
* Minor Glitch fixes
* Major update/changes made to the Track Editor.  It is now a little less like the 
original and a little more user-friendly.  Now the currently selected terrain blinks

February 22 -
* Started adding Multiplayer support

February 20 -
* Added the option of Scrolling Backwards in the Track Editor

February 19 -
* Fixed a few bugs with the Menu Changes
* Fixed a glitch in the Monster Ramp Hit Detection

February 18 -
* Added Menu Functionality to accomodate for the possibility of more than Six External 
Levels
* Converted the Fourth original NES Excitebike Track

February 15 -
* Many small Optimizations/Fixes
* Added dynamic Vertical Camera shifting -- Sounds fancy, doesn't it?  Now, when the 
camera bike goes offscreen on a jump, the camera will follow it up
* Converted the Second and Third original NES Excitebike Tracks

February 14 -
* Added a Scrolling Information Screen

February 12 -
* Converted the original (NES) Excitebike's first Track to Excitebike 68k's format

February 11 -
* Loading, Saving, Compression, and Decompression of External Tracks all now work 
perfectly
* Added the 'Monster Jump' and 'Monster Ramp' Terrains and corresponding Hit Detections.
They're 3x larger and 10x more complicated than any of the other types of Terrain, 
so they are Monsters :)
* Fixed a few Errors in the Error Handling function

February 10 -
* Sped up the game (~8 fps) by changing the way the HUD is handled
* Fixed the buggy RLE compression algorithm

February 8 -
* Added Compression/Decompression of External Tracks

February 5 -
* Fixed the buggy loading of External Tracks

February 3 -
* Added basic loading of External Tracks

February 2 -
* Fixed some minor bugs with the new Track Editor
* Added saving of External Levels (No compression yet, though I will probably use 
RLE)

February 1 -
* Added the majority of the Track Editor Code

January 31 -
* Started adding the different Game Modes
* Various Size and Speed Optimizations

January 29 -
* Began implementing basic Menu support

January 28 -
* Several small bug/glitch fixes
* Fixed the hit detection of the Slanted Jumps
* Added a small TitleScreen

January 25 -
* Added Bike Overheating
* Started adding support for different BackGround Colors
* Bikes can now make each other crash by colliding their back wheel with another 
bike's front wheel

January 18 -
* Optimized ScrollLib.c and the Double Buffering for a speed gain and size cut

January 13 -
* Computer Bikes will now 'loop' around the Camera Bike - They will not race around 
the full track, they sort of teleport in one direction or another when offscreen, 
so the user will always have Computer Bikes around

January 11 -
* Added a HUD and started the Temperature/Overheating Code
* Added TICT's Beta Fast String Drawing Routines

January 9 -
* Added a bit of Computer AI to dodge Mud and Blocks

January 6 -
* Fixed some small bugs

January 4 - (Last day of Christmas Vacation)
* A Bike will now slow down if its Tilt is not centered upon Landing
* Started Integrating basic AI into the Game
* Fixed a Huge Bug in the way the Bikes are stored.  Before this, only the first 
Bike would work properly and memory was being overwritten for the others
* Corrected a Glitch where Bikes would not be drawn in the right order, depending 
on their 'depth' on the screen
* Corrected a bug where Riders would vanish if they were not on the same Lap as 
the Camera
* Fixed a bug in both the Crashing and Jumping Initiations
* Fixed a Glitch where a Bike's Graphic would get mixed up if the Bike was Jumping 
and there was hazardous Terrain underneath it
* Fixed a Glitch in the Crash Initiation, where a Bike could crash in the same 
spot repeatedly and get stuck there

January 3 -
* Added the rest of the Crashing Code.  Before this, the bike would just 
tumble, without throwing the rider off
* Fixed a bug in the Jumping Physics
* Optimized a few Routines

January 2 -
* Working on Perfecting Jumping Physics for each type of Jump
* Figured out that the cosine and sine functions were returning the values in 
Radians instead of Degrees.  Man, I'm stupid.  Now the Jumping works MUCH 
Better.
* Changed to using a small LookUp Table instead of using the sin and cos 
functions (Much smaller and faster)
* Converted some of the Miscellaneous Graphics

==============
HISTORY (2003)
==============

December 31 -
* Began implementing Jumping into the Game
* Added a Shadow under a Bike when it is in the Air

December 30 -
* Finally (after lots of trial and error) worked out a good Jumping algorithm 
for the Bikes

December 28 -
* Fixed a glitch with the Crash Handling
* Bikes can now Tilt Backwards and Forwards
* Fixed a bug with the Hedges

December 27 -
* Started work on the Bike Jumping Physics

December 26 -
* Added/Perfected much of the Terrain Hit Detection
* Bikes can now Crash and follow the path of the Terrain

December 25 -
* Merry Christmas :)
* Added Automatic Key Compatibility Detection for the Calculator Type, taken 
from my other game Ice Hockey 68k which I am also still working on.
* The Bikes can now turn and Accelerate
* Started implementing basic Terrain Hit Detection

December 24 -
* Fixed a bug in the CopyGrayScreens Routine
* Started implementing the Bikes into the Game
* Made a standard Format for the Bike structure
* Corrected a bug where the Bike's coordinates would not be updated when the 
Camera enters a new lap

December 22 -
* Converted the majority of the Bike Graphics

December 21 - (Christmas Vacation -- Lots of free time!)
* Optimized the way in which the Terrain Data is stored to save 5100 Bytes
* Added Hedges
* Integrated TI-92+/v200 Compatibility -- The larger screen size makes the 
track really look nice
* Finally decided on a nice Color Scheme for the Terrain (It was the 5th one 
I tried and it takes about two hours to draw and convert each one)
* Started converting the Bike Graphics

December 16 -
* Got the Scrolling working Correctly
* Have not decided on a color scheme for the Terrain yet

December 15 -
* Fixed the GrayTile_Clipped8() Function
* Still converting/testing which color scheme is best for the Terrain
-- Time Consuming...

December 14 -
* Started the ExciteBike Project!
* Decided on a Scrolling Engine to use
* Converted all Terrain Graphics (the first time)