Tilt-a-tron v0.9.9

Firmware 0.9.9 and the manager app, rebuilt to match. The watch itself installs from a web page, no download needed: https://partiallyfrozen.github.io/tilt-a-tron/. A watch already on 0.8.0 or later updates from its own SETTINGS.

New since 0.8.0

• RADAR, the eleventh game: a sea battle on a radar scope. Place your fleet by touching the ships, press and hold to aim, lift to drop, and the sweep comes round to say what was there. One bomb each, and the enemy's cross-hairs wander before it fires.
• SLEEPY STAR is rebuilt: the rings are dials you drag, like a combination lock, the laser stays put, and the star is a star.
• STARFALL: a chase down a trench, through blast gates, with mines, in levels. Its ships are sprites of our own, and anyone can put their own on.
• SKATER GIRLZ is rebuilt on Canabalt's mechanics and steered like a wheel; tap again in the air for a trick.
• ECHO is a touch game and nothing else; the winning pad lights, and there is no last round.
• A power menu. Hold PWR for six seconds: SLEEP, SHUT DOWN or RESTART, and the watch says which it is doing. A three-second boot animation says it is starting.
• RESTART GAME in every game's menu, and it means a fresh start.
• Wi-Fi sends about twice as fast, and says why when it does not start.
• An emulator: play and test a game on a PC, built from the console's own sources, and film what is played. See tools/emu/README.md.

The manager app

The desktop program that puts games on a Tilt-a-tron and takes them off again. It has not changed since 0.8.0; these are the same builds with the new version number.

You have	Take	Then
Windows 10/11	tiltatron-manager-v0.9.9-windows-x64.exe	Double-click it.
macOS (Apple silicon)	tiltatron-manager-v0.9.9-macos-arm64.tar.gz	tar -xzf it, then see the note below.
Linux x64	tiltatron-manager-v0.9.9-linux-x64.tar.gz	tar -xzf it and run ./tiltatron-manager.

Each is one self-contained file, about 40 MB. Plug the watch in with a cable that carries data, wake it, and the app finds it.

These builds are not code-signed, so each system will say so once:

• Windows shows "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, then Run anyway.
• macOS refuses to open it. Clear the download flag first: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine tiltatron-manager
• Linux needs permission to use the serial port. On most distributions: sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER, then sign out and back in.

SHA256SUMS.txt lists the checksum of every file.

Want to write a game? It is a folder of plain C, an icon and one script: see Write a game.

Known

• Sending files to the watch over USB is slow (about 9 KB/s). A game takes a couple of seconds; a large theme takes half a minute.
• Dragging between the manager's panes has been tested far less than the buttons that do the same thing. If a drag misbehaves, the buttons will not.

Tilt-a-tron v0.8.0

The first public build of the manager app: the desktop program that puts games on a Tilt-a-tron and takes them off again.

The watch itself installs from a web page, no download needed: https://partiallyfrozen.github.io/tilt-a-tron/

Download

You have	Take	Then
Windows 10/11	tiltatron-manager-v0.8.0-windows-x64.exe	Double-click it.
macOS (Apple silicon)	tiltatron-manager-v0.8.0-macos-arm64.tar.gz	tar -xzf it, then see the note below.
Linux x64	tiltatron-manager-v0.8.0-linux-x64.tar.gz	tar -xzf it and run ./tiltatron-manager.

Each is one self-contained file, about 40 MB - that is what it costs to need no .NET runtime installed. Plug the watch in with a cable that carries data, wake it, and the app finds it.

These builds are not code-signed, so each system will say so once:

• Windows shows "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, then Run anyway.
• macOS refuses to open it. Clear the download flag first: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine tiltatron-manager
• Linux needs permission to use the serial port. On most distributions: sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER, then sign out and back in.

SHA256SUMS.txt lists the checksum of every file, if you want to check what you downloaded.

What it does

• Shows what is on the watch beside your library - a plain folder of .tat game files in your documents. Drag a game from one to the other, or drop .tat files in from anywhere.
• Nothing is lost on the first click. Taking a game off the watch moves it to the library, and the copy is read back from disk before the watch's file is deleted. Deleting from the library itself asks twice.
• Installs and removals show up on the watch without a restart, and your scores are still there when a game comes back.
• Sends themes, and backs up everything on the watch.
• Given arguments it is a command-line tool: list, library, add, install, save, uninstall, send, remove.

Needs firmware 0.8.0

This release goes with firmware 0.8.0, the first in which every game is an installable package:

• Ten games, all removable and installable: Breakout, Marble Maze, Grand Prix, Sky Jump, Tilt-a-tris, Sleepy Star, Pin Drop, Starfall, Skater Girlz and the new Echo.
• Every game has its own icon, on the watch and in the app.
• Only one game is held in memory at a time, so playing all ten in a sitting no longer runs the watch out of it.
• Sleep holds while the watch is plugged in: the screen goes dark and stays dark.
• A new watch says SETTING UP while it installs its games, instead of showing nothing for half a minute.

Want to write a game? It is a folder of plain C, an icon and one script: see Write a game.

Known

• Dragging between the panes has been tested far less than the buttons that do the same thing. If a drag misbehaves, the buttons will not - and please open an issue.
• Sending files to the watch over USB is slow (about 9 KB/s). A game takes a couple of seconds; a large theme takes half a minute.