Build 26579121

DUNES: A REAL OIL FIELD OVER THE DUNES

• You now start in a dune hollow with nothing but desert in view and a golden scorpion in front of you. The oil rig is over the dunes ahead, the oasis behind you.

• The oil field is rebuilt: six nodding pump jacks, wellheads and flow lines, a 60 m pipe rack, a compressor house, a tank battery with spiral stairs, pickups and a crude tanker. It is lit at night.

• A big gas flare, 21 m tall: a narrow blue jet at the burner that widens into rising, breaking tongues of flame, with dark smoke downwind and a glow at dusk and night.

• The desert looks more real: wandering sand ripples, streaks down the slip faces, dry grass and scrub in the hollows, flat-topped acacias, a clear sky and a red dusk.

{IMAGE: 03_dunes_oil_field_flare.png}

NEW MINI GAME: 80 GOLDEN SCORPIONS

• 80 gold scorpion statues are hidden all over DUNES: on dune summits, in the slot, under the arch, round the oasis and on the oil rig, even on top of the drilling tower.

• Each one glows and swells gently, and a small gold glint shows from far away.

• A counter, confetti and saved progress. See the GOLDEN SCORPIONS card in MINI GAMES.

PERGE: DENSER RUINS, STEADIER LIGHT, MORE TO DO

• You now start on top of the left gate tower, 20 m up, looking down the court, the arch and the colonnaded street.

• NEW MINI GAME: 80 golden amphorae are hidden across the city: on column tops and towers, in the stadium, shops, theatre and baths, by the fountain and in the olive grove.

• Three wingmen take off from the gate court and fly up the street and back.

• Real-looking water in the street channel: the stone bed shows through, the sky reflects in it and it runs white over the little falls.

• Far more city: 120 ruined houses, shop rows behind both colonnades, toppled columns with their drums in a line, wall stubs and rubble.

• New trees: olives with gnarled trunks, real branches and sprays of narrow leaves, feathery cypresses and umbrella pines.

• Honey-grey limestone with eroded blocks and deep joints, carved beams over the columns, soil and dry grass on the ground, limestone slabs with wheel ruts on the street.

• From the air you can read the street grid, with farmland round the city. Dusk and dawn are golden.

• Fixed: columns no longer change colour as you fly towards them, the stadium tunnel floors no longer flicker, and objects no longer pop in at the edges of the screen when you roll or turn fast.

{IMAGE: 04_perge_tower_start.png}

CHECKMATE: THE GAME NOW OPENS HERE

• CHECKMATE is the first map you see. You start on a stone plinth at eye height and look down on the cafe table, where the little set plays the same game as the giant one behind it.

• Three wingmen take off from their pads beside you and fly a figure of eight over the terrace. They never get in your way.

• The ring of 64 columns is now Corinthian: fluted shafts on moulded bases, capitals of curling acanthus leaves and scrolls, and a cornice with tooth blocks and brackets.

• A life-size marble Discus Thrower stands by the start for scale: a real museum scan of the ancient statue.

• The pieces now replay five games of Garry Kasparov against the computer Deep Blue, from the 1996 and 1997 matches, one move every 8 seconds. The plaque shows each game and move.

• New starting music on this map: CLUTCH KICK.

• CHECKMATE now opens at night, under the Milky Way, which rises between the two armies.

• The giant pieces have turned bases and a fully round pawn, with grain and veins in the marble. The terrace is limestone and the sea mirrors it.

• Captured pieces now sink into the board, and every piece is solid marble underneath when it hops.

{IMAGE: 01_checkmate_night_milky_way.png}

CONTROLLER

• Fixed a slow drift after calibration, where the drone crept sideways or rolled by itself with the sticks centred.

• TAB → Controller → CALIBRATE STICKS has a new last step: flick both sticks and let go, twice. Please calibrate once after this update.

UNDER THE HOOD

• The game now frees a map when you switch to another one, so it uses much less memory over a long session.

Thank you to everyone who flies it and tells us straight what is wrong. Keep it coming.