Alpha Update 02.04.09

[Chuck]

Not much to report which is good.  I've been cleaning up the code for the last month.  I've cleaned out a lot of test code, things that aren't used anymore, and I've even squeezed a tad more performance out.  Don finished the hardware designs and boards should be here soon.  One thing fun I did, and am continuing to do today is a stress test of the system.  I start Nucore, run the game for a short bit, exit and repeat.   I added a test mode so I can do this infinitely.  I had done about 400 iterations as of 4:00pm today.  By tomorrow I will hopefully have done a couple of thousand.  This is really just to test long term reliability of the software.  I think we will probably start the beta phase in a week or two.

[Creech]

Sounds good Chuck. When you say iterations, what does each iteration do? Does it run through all the modes?

[Chuck]

An iteration is loading the roms, setting up the emulator, running the game for a short period, and then shutting down which also updates files.  It's really testing our code to make sure we write files properly and keep track of everything properly on a long-term basis.  The Alpha testers and I have let the game run for days without shutting it off and had no problems.  I wanted to make sure no problems would creep up after a few thousand plays.

[ajlaird]

An iteration is loading the roms, setting up the emulator, running the game for a short period, and then shutting down which also updates files.  It's really testing our code to make sure we write files properly and keep track of everything properly on a long-term basis.  The Alpha testers and I have let the game run for days without shutting it off and had no problems.  I wanted to make sure no problems would creep up after a few thousand plays.

Good solid thinking there - it's a pity MS don't try the same!!

[pinnies4me]

I keep saying it Chuck, but the work you are doing to keep the P2K range alive is simply outstanding mate.

[Chuck]

3849 iterations and not one problem.  I had to stop it because it was still running.

Thanks Nick, we really appreciate the support.

[Creech]

Well done Chuck! So what are shooting for as a go-live date?

[pinnies4me]

3849 iterations and not one problem.  I had to stop it because it was still running.

Thanks Nick, we really appreciate the support.

Of course, in my experience the failure is usually at iteration 3,850 .....

[ajlaird]

An iteration is loading the roms, setting up the emulator, running the game for a short period, and then shutting down which also updates files.  It's really testing our code to make sure we write files properly and keep track of everything properly on a long-term basis.  The Alpha testers and I have let the game run for days without shutting it off and had no problems.  I wanted to make sure no problems would creep up after a few thousand plays.

Good solid thinking there - it's a pity MS don't try the same!!

Probably poor form to quote myself - but just recovered from Vista crashing out. I can still read the disk all my data is on, but it stopped booting up properly, then from logging in properly. Ended up reinstalling on a new disk.

Your software sounds so much better!