Trevor PaughSystems engineer
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Trevor PaughProject Chronicles
Project Chronicles/chronicles

Chronicles / Kongomax

The Eighties theme gets a horizon, and a road

Design

The neon grid stood up too steeply. It now lies flat and runs to a vanishing point, with a road down the middle, palms travelling beside it, and the hero's Insert Coin button gone. Same day: palms set moving with the grid rather than standing still, on a one-word ruling.

The Eighties theme launched with the classic neon grid, but the grid rose like a wall. The owner’s note asked for three things at once: fix the perspective, put a road down the middle, and remove the Insert Coin button and the credits line from the hero.

What changed

  • The ground. A perspective plane that reads as a floor, with the grid scrolling toward the viewer so the whole scene feels like it is moving outward and away.
  • The road. A dark surface down the centre with pink, white, and pink edge stripes and yellow dashes.
  • The palms. Silhouettes travelling along both sides of the road.
  • The hero. Insert Coin and Credits removed. The blinking “INSERT COIN TO VIEW” line on the hi-score board stayed; it is a joke that still lands.

The review found one defect: on screens wider than 1440 pixels the palms’ fade was visible at the edges. It was fixed and re-measured before the owner said “Merge”. Live the same day.

The polish pass

A second branch the same day raised the contrast of the bursts and settled a question about the palms. The owner was offered stationary palms or palms that travel with the grid. The whole answer was “1. Moving.”