Changelog

ON THE RADAR

Server-side accounts and score storage, with user settings saved to the same account so scores and preferences can follow players across devices.
Further tuning and expansion of the existing Cadet, Pilot, and Ace difficulty tiers, with more distinct mechanics, hazards, obstacles, and surprises.
Optional cinematic story intro with scrolling mission text, music, and atmospheric visuals. Concept only; details remain to be agreed.

v4.5

Codename: Collision Course

Combining: Restored reinforcement spawning from level 2, with earlier arrivals under rapid fire and direct approaches behind surviving enemies. Sustained contact allows larger combinations; a short merge cooldown and eight-block limit keep the field varied. Opening levels move slightly faster.
Hunter Flights: Varied rear-row placement, Hunters in reinforcements, and increased counts by difficulty. Occasional packs of two or three Hunters sweep in from the side and join the formations, sharing each level's enemy allocation.
Steady Pace: Fixed gameplay timing keeps enemy and ship movement consistent across display refresh rates, including when touching the screen to fire.
Local Records: Cadet, Pilot, and Ace tabs browse difficulty boards without changing Game Options. Any starting level can qualify by earned score, with starting and reached levels shown. Existing saved records are preserved; each difficulty has distinct default callsigns.
Audio: Preserved the 50% baseline and softened the upper volume range to a maximum combined +6 dB boost for clearer playback on phone speakers.
Interface: Reinitialize restores all six utility buttons and uses a red speaker outline. Changelog opens in a modal so music continues. Information panels share a consistent width, and difficulty selection no longer adds status text that changes the Options layout.

v4.4

Codename: Threat Response

Hunters: Distinct merging enemies launch briefly tracking torpedoes through their formation. Amber eye warnings and a delayed incoming alert signal danger; shooting down a torpedo awards 50 points.
Pilot Ranks: Cadet, Pilot and Ace offer distinct formation, attack and movement balance with 6, 5 and 3 starting lives. Hunters arrive at level 6 on Cadet and level 4 on Pilot; Ace starts with one, adds a second at level 4 and reaches four at level 8. Records are separated by rank.
Game Options: Saved Master, Music, Ship and Effects sliders with a 50% baseline, stronger upper range, peak protection and Reset to Defaults. Access options from the home screen or pause menu; title music is slightly reduced for bass-heavy peaks.
Test Arena: Public practice tools use real gameplay to test levels, scores, lives, shields, pickups, enemies and merging. Repeat restores the previous setup; test runs cannot write Local Records.
Clearer Signals: Overheat warnings pulse amber, then bloom into larger white text at center and evaporate. The white message identifies a warning or ship loss. System Override opens with three amber pulses and launches the selected level directly. Reduced-motion alternatives are provided.
Interface: Clearer star and nebula backgrounds, six home utility buttons, cohesive panel borders and text actions, rank symbols, simplified Local Records and concise field-manual instructions.

v4.3.1

Codename: Fair Signals

Fair Local Records: Only runs started at level 1 can enter the leaderboard or personal best. Higher System Override starts remain playable as practice and show their final score and level without a save option.
Record Integrity: Track the starting level for the whole run, enforce eligibility in saving and qualification, and preserve older scores separately because their starting levels are unknown. Retain the existing callsign and label record levels as reached.
Clear Rules: Updated Records, System Override, How to Play, and README with eligibility and legacy-archive behavior.

v4.3

Codename: Shield Protocol

Lives Feedback: The lives display and glow are green at three or more lives, amber at two, and red at one or zero, updating after damage and bonus lives.
Records Continuity: Starter entries now fill unused leaderboard slots after real scores are saved, keeping five rows visible on mobile and standard desktop layouts. Each placeholder remains labeled and excluded from saved records.
Shield Progression: A second cyan pickup upgrades an intact one-hit shield to violet three-hit protection at any level. Later pickups restore one charge, up to three. Remaining arcs and violet-to-blue-to-cyan colors show damage; lethal overheating still bypasses shields.
Supply Balance: Kept random shield/nuke selection, with a guaranteed shield after two consecutive nuke drops. Preserved each earned 5,000-point milestone, limited falling pickups to one, and spaced releases by ten seconds of active play. New drops wait during transitions and respawns, and avoid the extreme edges.
Shield Clearance: Tightened the force-field ring and glow to keep it clear of the energy perimeter.
Audio Organization: Moved the downloadable original opening-theme WAV into assets/audio alongside the other recordings and updated its documentation.

v4.2

Codename: Deep Signal

Playfield Atmosphere: Added varied stars and faint, slowly drifting nebula wisps, with randomized replacements and clear space around the ship.
Energy Perimeter: Replaced the flat danger line with a glowing energy barrier and localized enemy-pressure ripples, preserving its collision position and warning colors.
Ship Audio: Removed the constant background hum, added ship idle audio, and replaced recorded thrusters with a softer synthesized whoosh triggered by fresh movement input to address mobile crackling.
Music and Feedback: Added light gameplay ambience, an original start-screen composition that begins after interaction, and a level-completion sound.
Audio Controls: Simplified the start screen to a music toggle. In-game controls offer Mute All, Mute Ship, and Mute Music, with consistent mute states.
Edge Overheat: Each level permits one safe return to center. Later overheats return the ship to center and destroy it, bypassing shields. Added compact warnings and hull heat cues, and kept the ship inside the playfield edges.
Terminal Interface: Unified Records, How to Play, and Changelog styling and upper-corner close controls. Refined menu spacing, mobile tagline and controls, restored the Initialize pulse, and removed Briefing.
Records and Instructions: Added clearly labeled retro starter scores, compacted Records on desktop and mobile without deleting saved scores, and updated How to Play to match current controls, shields, audio, and overheating.

v4.1

Codename: Drift Sync

Local Records System: Added a browser-saved high score archive with callsign support, a Records utility button, a dedicated records modal, and an in-menu personal record panel.
Viewport Recovery: Reworked live viewport-height syncing and post-rotation layout refresh behavior to reduce iPad / Safari first-load drift and orientation desynchronization.
Landscape Responsiveness: Tightened short-landscape modal scaling and spacing so tablet landscape remains playable without globally forcing rotation lock.
Pacing Normalization: Introduced wide-viewport speed normalization so broader playfields maintain closer movement and projectile pressure across screen sizes.
Pressure Curve Tuning: Rebuilt early formation sizing around a target enemy-count model and increased early enemy firing pressure so the simulation begins to pick up within the first 3-4 levels.

v4.0

Codename: Tri-Core

CSS Architecture Refactor: Decommissioned monolithic main.css and deployed a modular stylesheet system: core.css (base layout, variables, resets), interface.css (UI components and HUD elements), and mobile.css (responsive and device-specific overrides).
Maintainability Upgrade: Improved long-term scalability, debugging clarity, and performance tuning by separating foundational styles from interface logic and mobile behavior.
Rendering Optimization: Reduced cross-browser style conflicts caused by cascading overrides in the legacy single-file CSS structure.
Known Issue: Audio playback may be unstable or non-functional on newer Amazon Echo Show devices pending compatibility review.

v3.2

Codename: Crazy Days

Icon Unification: Rebuilt Pause/Play controls to use stroke-based SVG geometry, matching the aesthetic weight of the Home and Restart buttons.
Accessibility Overhaul: Implemented full ARIA labeling and title tooltips across all HUD and Utility controls for screen reader compliance.
Touch Optimization: Enforced consistent 48px+ touch targets on mobile for Utility buttons.
System Stabilization: Applied "Hard Reset" CSS overrides to eliminate browser-specific button alignment shifts on Firefox and Mobile.
Asset Standardization: Synced all icon scaling to 24px for uniform visual hierarchy.

v3.1

Codename: Airgap

Asset Independence: Migrated Orbitron typography to local storage; severed connection to Google Fonts.
Briefing Protocol: Integrated mission objectives and privacy data into an in-game overlay; decommissioned external Intel page.
UI Enhancements: Deployed "BRIEFING" control to the settings bar with active-state visual feedback.
Core Standardization: Unified header architecture and metadata across all system error pages and logs.

v3.0

Codename: Breakaway

Migrated to own standalone site for improved performance and reliability.
Fixed broken and outdated links from the previous folder-based setup.
Updated navigation from the Game Hub to point to the new game domain.
Cleaned up asset paths for CSS, JavaScript, and media files.
Improved favicon, manifest, and error page handling.

v2.0

Codename: Red Horizon

Level 99 Completion Fix: Resolved system freeze at Level 100 transition.
Unified End-Screen: Victory sequence now uses the primary modal architecture.
Visual Redesign: Victory screen updated to Red "Terminal" theme with Orange accents.
Text Updates: "SIGNAL LOST", "MISSION HALTED", "LIMITS REACHED".
Stability: Fixed UI crash caused by missing DOM elements.
Navigation: Standardized return paths to base terminal.

v1.5

Codename: Control Array

Menu Overhaul: Restructured primary interface into a consolidated vertical flow.
Utility Row: Introduced a 4-button horizontal icon array for Help, Level Select, Changelog, and Games.
Visual Consistency: Utility buttons now share the high-precision square aesthetic of the gameplay HUD.
Changelog Integration: Added direct access to the system log from the main terminal.

v1.4

Codename: Frontline

Menu Restructure: Restored primary "INITIALIZE" action to full-width layout for improved accessibility.
Navigation: Relocated "GAMES" access point directly beneath the primary initialization trigger.

v1.3

Codename: Vector Prime

SVG Migration: Replaced font-based Unicode characters (Home, Restart, Pause) with inline SVGs for better scaling and boldness control.
Vertical Layout: Reoriented HUD control buttons into a vertical stack on the right side of the screen to optimize horizontal play space.
Menu Expansion: Expanded the main menu "Initialize" button into separate "Start" and "Games" access points.

v1.2

Codename: Home Base

HUD Refinement: Added Home navigation button to the top-right control group.
HUD Scaling: Resized control buttons to a more compact 34px for better gameplay visibility.
Visual Polish: Improved icon legibility; applied "faux-bold" styling to the Home button and widened the vertical gap in the Pause icon for better visual balance.

v1.1

Codename: Exodus

Relocation: Moved production environment to play.robertshare.com/signal-lost.
Compatibility: Removed Amazon Silk / Echo Show blocking logic; browser check disabled.
Input Fix: Restored touch movement functionality for large-viewport devices including iPad and large Android/Fire tablets.

v1.0

Codename: Prime Directive

Major release milestone: transition from pre-1.0 builds.
Architecture shift from single-page HTML landing page to a multi-page website.
Core site restructured into a full navigable web experience.
Multiple new pages introduced beyond the game view.
Global UI consistency pass across pages (layout, spacing, typography, interaction patterns).
Dedicated error pages added: 400, 401, 403, 404, and 500.
Unified Privacy / About page implemented.
robots.txt added for crawler control and indexing hygiene.
Changelog moved online and made publicly accessible.

v0.41

Codename: No Jeff

Added early Amazon Silk / Echo Show detection at script start.
Introduced incompatible device screen to prevent partial or unstable loads.

v0.40

Codename: Viagra

Fixed broken shield and nuke behavior.
Shields and nukes now begin spawning at 5,000 points.
Renamed “System Level Select” to “Level Select” for improved mobile fit.

v0.39.2

Codename: Rebirth of a Bachelor

Source code cleanup: Removed legacy inline version comments.

v0.39.1

Codename: Death of a Bachelor

Favicon asset set finalized (SVG + multi-size PNGs).

v0.38

Codename: Dim the Sign

Subtle light-bulb flicker effect introduced for subtitle text.
Unified styling for bottom links (Help / Level Select).

v0.37

Codename: One More Time, Johnny

Android outer glow clipping fixed via restored horizontal gutter.
iOS Help modal vertical spacing refined.
Center/home screen legacy placeholder text corrected.

v0.36

Codename: Unstuck

Fixed iOS Help / Instructions modal trapping issue.
Switched to svh-based sizing for Safari address-bar behavior.
Safe-area–aware padding enforced.
Flex-based centering replaced absolute positioning.
Small-height screen overrides added.

v0.35

Codename: Fine Print

Footer copy finalized.
Dynamic copyright year implemented.
Branding and legal text normalized (no layout or sizing changes yet).

v0.34

Codename: Ghost Signal

Title signal-glitch effect added.
Visual emphasis and motion tuning for title presentation.
Mobile spacing adjusted to prevent bottom control crowding.

v0.33.1

Codename: Help Me More

Help UI styling refined.
Help button alignment corrected.

v0.33

Codename: Help Me

Help / Instructions modal introduced.
Help button and interaction logic implemented.

v0.32.1

Codename: Warp Core

Warp Core visual overheat feedback added.
Ship core pulses red during overheat state.

v0.32

Codename: Redline

Title and subtitle updates.
“Engine Stall” renamed to Overheat.
Level 99 ending text and subline revised.
Default subtitle restored when returning to menu.

v0.31.1

Codename: Wozniak – Blue Removal

Removed secondary outer glow/frame to eliminate double-border effect.
Gutter sizing retained.

v0.31

Codename: SE Loveit

Added gutter and border/glow framing.
Canvas clipped to rounded frame.
Small-screen (SE-class) layout corrections.
Overflow prevention via relative sizing and border-box.

v0.30.4

Codename: Lockdown

Stable build.
iOS width fix preventing horizontal scroll and clipping.
Container locked to viewport.
Icon and font sizing polish.
Mobile text sizing synchronized.

v0.30.3

Codename: Rewind

iOS undo.
Reverted safe-area and scrolling changes that caused layout issues.

v0.30.2

Codename: Sandbox

iOS layout / safe-area fix attempt.
Reworked Pause / Restart controls and Level Select modal.
Replaced browser prompt() with in-game UI.
Ultimately a failed iOS fix.

v0.30.1

Codename: Endurance

UI spacing improvements for level select.
Status text renamed.
Progression extended to level 99.
UI polish: text size, alignment, and wrapping fixes.
Menu and game-over style consistency fixes.

v0.30

Codename: Aperture

Viewpoint fix.
Camera / playfield framing corrected across screen sizes.

v0.29

Codename: Warp Zone

Level Select introduced.
First implementation of non-linear progression access.

v0.28

Codename: Care Package

Supply Drop logic balance update.
Fixed drop tracker reset at level start.

v0.27

Codename: Neon Soul

Procedural Neon Vector Ship introduced.
Replaced raster logo with vector ship rendering.
Added banking rotation and status-based thruster visuals.

v0.26

Codename: Silent Running

No documented user-facing changes.

v0.25

Codename: Sonic Boom

Audio Engine class introduced.
Centralized and decoupled audio handling.

v0.24

Codename: Dark Matter

No documented user-facing changes.

v0.23

Codename: Ceiling

Enemy HP cap introduced to prevent runaway scaling.