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Issues

Not implemented due to problems

Traveling platforms - Worked imperfectly, so didn't implement traveling between moving platforms, and didn't put in data past first few levels. Replaced with fading platforms.
Booby traps - Timing and animation issues, so didn't implement avoidance and death.
No falling - Timing and animation issues.
Birds, Rats & Flood door - Unexpectedly being trapped or dying seemed unfair.
3rd Pirate on a couple levels - Animation issues.
Settings screen.

Planned features that didn't make it

Most of these were not implemented due to lack of available memory and / or that they were impractical to implement.

Bonus levels from C64 version.
Map screen to show progress, connections between levels.
Different difficulty modes.
Part 2 of game in which ship was slowly flooding.
Ability to get weapons to kill pirates.

Other differences from the original

Exit level indicator.
Death & completion screen.
Turned off return to start upon death.
No secret game - not enough memory.
No changing level color palette.
No special timed end escape.
Treasure is randomly distributed
No animated portholes

Lessons learnt

It can be faster to rewrite than to fix
if it's not faster to rewrite try the simplest test possible and debug that!
Group timing based events together
Use same collision functions for NPCs as player
Don't use exact numbers use relative arrays
Account for elements and how they interactive beforehand
Replace temporary stop-gap code as soon as possible (or don't use)
Abstract movement to be able programmable for testing gameplay automatically

Real bugs

FIXED - Sometimes you seem to get stuck on a ladder
Sometimes you respawn after death behind a door
Pressing Z to reposition was introduced to address this

Not so secret cheats

On Level 2 to get to door 3 use Level 9 door 3
On Level 5 to get to door 1 use Level 20 door 1
On Level 8 to get to door 1 use Level 16 door 2
On Level 16 to get to door 2 use Level 15 door 2

Note: Door 1 on Level 4 & Level 19 are one way doors (to Levels 10 & 14). Door 3 on Level 11 is a death-trap door!

Hard coded cheats

Add to the end of gameinit()

To remove enemies - cheat[2]==1
To remove doors - cheat[3]=1
To jump to the next level using Z - cheat[5]=1
To fill in fading platforms - cheat[7]=1