July high scores!



First place for July goes to Blurr, congratulations for your top score and new personal best of 190,476,485.

Harnulfson comes in with a close second of 186,6997,535, also another personal best.

Finally Yancy Fry places third place with a their personal best score of 36,474,095.

Thank you to all the familiar players as well as the new players this month. Congratulations and stay safe out there!

Cheers!

Chad (kiates)

June high scores are here!



Flu Orid is back! Not only taking the lead position for the month with there incredible score of 596,174,085, but reclaiming the all-time first position on the global leaderboards once again!



2nd place this month goes to Harnulfson with a score of 104,237,145 who's become a regular on the monthly leaderboards, rising higher and higher each time.

3rd place, and neck and neck in the fight for 2nd, goes to long time Twin-Stick Control Style player Blurr with 101,908,730.

Give a big congratulations to the top players this month!!

Cheers!

Chad (kiates)

It's time to announce the top scores for the month of May! I would also like to give a big thank you to all those that took the recently released update for a couple of rounds!




1st place goes to long time player Flu Orid with an astronomical score of 400,382,820. Welcome back, and great to see you in the monthly leaderboards again!

2nd place goes to Harnulfson with a score of 57,317,495. It was just last month that Harnulfson's top score was a solid 9M. Congratulations on the big jump over the last 30 days or so!

3rd place goes to Blurr with a score of 56,983,750. Neck and neck with Harnulfson. Blurr was also 3rd place last month with just over 6M, and using the modern twin-stick control style none-the-less. I mention this, because that control style has different ship and scoring characteristics to go with the more direct automatic thruster control it provides.

Congratulations to all!!

Oh, one more thing....

I've been thinking about putting some modest prizes up for a competition... some Solaroids shirts and soundtrack cards, but maybe a few other perks depending on the participation. Let me know in the comments if this is something you would be interested in participation in, or if this is a horrible idea.

Cheers!

Chad (kiates)

Greetings and welcome alpha fighter pilots; whether your are a medal laden veteran pilot, a new recruit cutting your teeth, from Earth, or from one of the furthest corners of the known universe.

I hope you've been priming your trigger fingers, as the Nexus Galactic as deployed several important milestone updates to whet your appetite for unmatched precision controlled skill based combat across the solar system.

Probably the biggest features added are CRT emulation capabilities, and an almost complete rendition of Vector mode.

CRT effects including scanlines and phosphors are now available.



Vector mode now has additional monochrome palettes in addition to the full color Solaroids palette.



Each aspect of the simulated XY Vector display can be tweaked to your taste and combined with other options like Bloom, Background Opacity, Stars, and CRT effects to simulate a variety of looks.



Many more tweaks and adjustments have been made to improve the experience. See the full list below.

This update comes on the eve of Solaroids Steam anniversary date of May 26th.

Cheers!

Chad (kiates)

Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.

Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.

• Background and bloom amounts automatically adjusted based on theme (Vector/Raster).
  
• Backdrop stars now tied to Background transparency. You can now eliminate all raster based stars in addition to the backdrop, if you want for a more pure Vector mode experience.
  
• Increased power-up capsule size for easier visibility.
  
• Colorized additional graphics in Vector mode.
  
• Particles for smoke, sparks and explosions now match the theme when in Vector mode.
  
• Key representations are now 100% vectorized.
  
• Added Background option category.
  
• Added Emulation option category. Holding the two current modes/themes for now, but more planned still.
  
• Add Vector option category to control the palette and beam parameters when in Vector mode:
  
  • Vector Palette - Choose from the Solaroids multi-color vector palette, or classic favorites that reproduce the look of classic Asteroids®, and Asteroids Deluxe®.
    
  • Intensity - Adjust the intensity of the beam.
    
  • Focus - Adjust the focus of the beam for ultra precise focus, or wide and vibrant.
    
  • Shimmer - Adjust the shimmer effect to your liking and photo-seizure susceptibility.
    
  • Jitter - Old Vector XY monitors weren't always the most accurate things and were often particularly finicky. Adjust the precision of the beam.
• Add CRT option category to apply CRT emulation effects:
  
  • CRT Mode - Turn CRT emulation on/off.
    
  • Scanlines - Turn on scanline simulation.
    
  • Scanline Intensity - Adjust how intense the scanline effect is.
    
  • Phosphor Pattern - Old monitors has much more visible RGB phosphors, turn this on to heighten the retro feel of older color monitors.
    
  • Phosphor Pattern Intensity - Adjust how intense the RGB phosphors. A little goes a long way with this one.
• Supports Steam Remote's virtual touch-pad with configurations for Classic, Hybrid, and Modern control styles.
  
• Supports Steam Remote Play for local multiplayer over the network.
  
• Many many performance optimizations and engine improvements as I port the code base to less powerful consoles and mobile. Every platform benefits.
  
• The OST is now separate and can be purchased/activated separately.
  
• Updates to platform libraries (FNA, SDL, etc).
  
• High score tables now hidden while in option menu.
  
• Add Exit option category with options to:
  
  • Resume - Close the option menu and resume the game in addition to Esc/Back.
    
  • Forfeit - Forfeit the current players session.
    
  • Title Screen - Forfeit all players and immediately return to the title screen
    
  • Exit to System - Exit completely out of the game. No rage quitting!!
• Exit option category also replaces the former pop-up dialog when pressing Esc/Back for more options and better consistency.
  
• Options that are not available due to the setting of other options, are now "muted/grayed-out" until they have been activated.
  
• The current option is highlighted better.
  
• New Reticle option under the Gameplay option category. Allows you to adjust whether the reticle shows other Players, the Ammo/Heath bars, both, or no addition information other than enemies/power-ups.
  
• New per player Reticle Size option under the Player option category. Can be used to turn the reticle complete off for the die hard, or adjust the size when playing on different screens or different player "bio parameters". As an added bonus, if the reticle is turned off for a player, that player will not show up in the other players reticles making it a bit more difficult to seek out your friends/foes.
  
• Added a delay countdown when resuming the game. Gives you a little time to remember what horrible situation you left yourself in when you panic hit pause.
  
• When editing visual related options, the game is shown, non-darkened for easier tweaking of the many visual aspects of the game, from bloom, background/star visibility, reticle, CRT, or Vector parameters.
  
• New Positional Audio setting to adjust positional audio based on your speaker setup. Leave it on Surround to play as before with Left/Right + Top/Bottom mapped to Front/Back, tune to use just Stereo Left/Right, or turn off positional audio all together.
  
• CONNECTION CONTROLLER messages will now fade out completely (after a few minutes of controllers being disconnected).
  
• New Mouse Rotation option under the Player option category. I the Hybrid (single-stick) control style, allows you to rotate with relative mouse movements (horizontal/vertical) instead of the mouse position on the screen. Trackballs or spinners should work, though haven't been tested yet.

• Fix thruster scaling issues in Vector mode.
  
• Fix power-up icons missing in some prompts in Vector mode.
  screen.

• There are still a few things in Vector mode that need to be finished up. Namely controller and controller button graphics, the Ammo/Heath bars, and the Level indicator.
  
• Borderless window option is only implemented for Windows right now.
  
• Disconnecting an external audio device being used by the game may cause a crash/freeze on Linux/OSX.
  
• Some options and more recent prompts are English only or machine translated right now. If machine translated, they are indicated with an asterisk (*).

Another month of Coronavirus... and another month of Solaroids high scores!!



1st place goes to JëbiÐìah this month with a score of 38,401,650. This beats their all-time best last December of 27M.

I've been busy porting Solaroids to other consoles, and mostly playing on another system lately, but had a moment to play a run on Steam and achieved a solid 30M score this time.

Rounding out the top four this time making up for my entry, we have...

3rd place goes to Harnulfson with a score of 9,4762,010.

4th places goes to Blurr with a score of 6,308,155.

Congratulations and stay safe out there!!!

Track me down on Discord!

Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.

Sign-up

Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.

Cheers!!

Chad (kiates)

What a crazy and scary time we are in across the world! I hope everyone is staying safe out there during this global phenomenon that is the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCov) outbreak. We have very little "known" exposure in our small university community in Idaho, USA. But we locked down weeks ago as a city, and as a household.

Glad to see folks had a little time to still launch an attack against the high score tables of Solaroids despite the sobering background of the virus spread. Anyone want a virus theme to take out frustration on?



1st place goes to morg556 this month with a score of 342,642,665 which is also their best all-time high score in the global leaderboards.

2nd place goes to rethdakair with a score of 4,508,085.

3rd places goes to John Lemon with a score of 3,317,035.

Congratulations and stay safe!!!

Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.

Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.

Cheers!!

Chad (kiates)

Yesterday closes out the 2nd month of 2020, and with that another set of top scores. February this year closed out with a full 29 days thanks to it being a leap year. It's nice to see some regulars playing a few rounds in what has typically been typically a slow time of year for bringing in new players. Many thank yous to you folks, you really keep me motivated to press on.



Hold the press! It has been awhile, but this month we have a new all-time high score! I've seen them in the leaderboards in the past and have even reported on it here many months ago as they entered the top ranks. So with that... I give you a new global high score of 590,985,040 brought to you by げ!



If my bit of research serves me right, げ's Steam handle is a single Japanese character which is pronounced "ge" in romantic languages such as English. I can't hope to explain the meaning in the choice of Steam names, so perhaps Ge could enlighten us as to his origin story.

2nd place this month is held by long time player flu Orid with 176M, and previous 3rd place in the global top scores. 3rd place for the month goes to new player DarkBlooster with just under 69M.

Congratulations!!!

Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.

Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.

Cheers!!

Chad (kiates)

Off to a slow start in 2020 with plenty of room in the monthly leaderboards. I may need some help recruiting new pilots in the coming months while I finish up some pending updates!



It's nice to see long time player Flu Orid in the monthly leaderboard this time around, and taking 1st place with a semi-serious 34M score. morg556 who took 1st place last month, came in 2nd place this month with a score just shy of 24M. Weasel managed to "scurry up" and take 3rd place with 16M - sorry about the play on your name, I couldn't resist.

As I mentioned in a previous high score announcement, I'm working on several new updates. One of those is to introduce CRT style effects as an option in the game, that I hope will bring some additional nostalgia to old school players, or even the younger crowd that can appreciate what these old games looked like in the 80s.

In the theme of High Scores here are two more shots, with two of the work-in-progress modes active. This first one is a relatively simple CRT effect that simulates the phosphor pattern of an Aperture Grill (aka Sony Trinitron) along with scanlines. The intensity of each will be adjustable via in-game options.



Click on this thumbnail to view the full HD image.


The 2nd one is a more advanced CRT effect that still needs a lot of work, as the fonts are getting butchered at the moment. It will be able to simulate several phosphor patterns common for CRTs along with scanlines as well. As seen in the screenshot, it will also be able to simulate the curvature of a real CRT, which will be fully adjustable as well.



Likewise, here's a thumbnail you can click on to view the full HD image.


Please let me know your thoughts... Whether you like where this is going, or have additional ideas.

Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.

Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.

Cheers!!

Chad (kiates)

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great Holiday, had lots of rest, and had lots of fun too. It's monthly high score time!!



Lots of activity from new players taking advantage of the rock'n Holiday sales recently, and some familiar names from last month mixed in.

Congratulations this month goes to JëbiÐìah with a top score just shy of 27M, establishing there place early in the month, and holding strong. Several runners up came very close to topping first place. leonski goldberg with a close 2nd place of just over 24M, and alienmigboy not far behind and in 3rd place with just over 21M.


Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.

Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.

Cheers and as always Happy Blasting!!

Chad (kiates)

Happy Holidays! Hope you're all enjoying the beginning of the Holiday season here in the US as well as from various parts of the world. A shout out to those that played this November even with the Steam Autumn sale in full swing.



Congratulations this month goes to morg556 with a top score of 154.6M playing with the Classic control style! I myself managed to end up in the 2nd slot with a mere 17.3M. Rounding out the top 4 over 10 million were R'kik D'nec and new player Astelan both neck and neck around 14.5M each playing with Modern (a.k.a Geometry Wars) control style.


You may have wondered why no recent updates, so let me take a minute to ensure you that work does continue on the game. Solaroids is a side project of mine, and this year we took on the challenge to do some major remodeling on our house, some of which we are doing ourselves. This has taken up a lot of my extra time and slowed development considerably. For a while I didn't even have my main development area in my studio setup as that had to be completely taken down and moved temporarily into storage in order to re-surface the concrete in our basement. I'm glad to report that I'm typing this from that workstation, and it is "mostly" set back up after new concrete and flooring has been installed.

I do have a few updates that are at various stages of completion and I hope to be able to get some of them out soon.

The first is that I've increased the amount of content that works with the experimental Vector mode. Things such as keyboard prompts, explosions, and particle systems have been converted. Vector stars have also been added and options tweaked so that you can play it in a fashion that is more faithful to the original Vector machines if you choose, for example, without bitmap stars and backgrounds.



Additionally, I've begun the process to re-do the options menu to support a future "theme" system, and expose additional options for vector mode rendering. As a part of this I've started implementing some CRT effects for additional nostalgia. Here's a sample showing an aperture grille style effect and scanlines.




Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.

Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.

Cheers and as always Happy Blasting!!

Chad (kiates)