Version 1.9.0 has been released!

Notable enhancements and bug fixes:

• Mountain alignment is now like the Atari version.
• Small mountain Wampus appearance looks like the Atari version.
• PAL speed game can be enabled in locale options. Thanks @goetholon, @asdfjkl!
• Alternate player color palettes can be selected in video options. Thanks @watcherxp, @papa_robot, @tomzet!
• Color intensity can be adjusted. Default value increased. Thanks @mgkimsal!
• Fixed menu controls for Steam Deck, Keyrah, and similarly behaving controllers. Thanks @papa_robot, @tomzet!
• Offline games are paused during main menu. Thanks @neonpeon, @paint_scum, @croc, @majorxp, @tas!
• Fixed incorrect store buy & sell prices at start of auction. Thanks @neonpeon!
• Control keys also function as keyboard player buttons.
• Windows builds include alternate GLES2 batch launcher. Thanks Dave Edgar!
• Fixed first founder low colony score bug. Thanks Mark Wrynn!
• Fixed sound spike when all planeteers are set as sellers at once. Thanks @papa_robot!
• Only one game instance can be run at a time. Thanks @tribble, @.9nines!
• Analog dead zone can be set in input options.
• Removed auction store has 0 (crystite) units message. Thanks @papa_robot!

Mountains

You might have not noticed it before, but the mountains in the previous version were distributed and aligned like the Commodore 64 version, meaning they were never in the last two columns. Mountains were not evenly spaced vertically--however, the mountain Wampus was. As a result, the Wampus should be easier to catch now. Go hunting!


PAL (European) Game Speed

In the options under Locale is the ability to specify NTSC vs PAL. This implementation is not entirely what you might expect:  time sensitive elements of the game will be slowed down (eg Land Grant, timers, walk speed) but much of the rest of the game will remain the speed (and pitch) of NTSC, including music. Let me know what you think.

Color Brightness & Vision Deficiency

In the options under Video is the ability to use alternate player color palettes which have been calibrated to better accommodate for the main forms of color blindness.

Some people expressed that the game was too dark. In the options under Video is the ability to adjust the intensity of color without washing out black. In addition to this option, the default brightness of the game has been increased by 40%.

Future

Wireless controller (specifically Bluetooth) latency has been mentioned as an issue, particularly during Land Grant--I have investigated it and deem it mostly to be a hardware independent issue; however, I have not abandoned it and continue to think about and experiment ways to improve upon input latency in the game altogether.

Work is already underway to realize Planeteer profiles and online accounts. With such, game history & scoring will be tracked. I have put a lot of thought into how to engineer a rating system that keeps with the spirit of the game, better ensuring friendly and successful colonies. I don't anticipate this will be released in version 1.20, but it's ongoing and already in the pipeline.

Over time the workflow of starting a game will be improved, both to accommodate modern online multiplayer expectations and improve upon its intuitiveness. Currently, it exists in a world that closely adheres to the original game. And I think the original game's interface was leagues ahead of other games at the time. There is room to modernize it while also keeping it's look and feel.