Everything a player would notice, newest first. Dates are UTC. The game is a work in progress and this page says so: where something is being built but is not in the game yet, it says in progress.
Fly there
The map now has nine numbered pins - Athens, Sunnyside, Lindsay Place, Terra Cotta, City Hall, the plaza, Le Manoir, the Village, Valois. Open the map (Tab, or the MAP pad), pick a pin with its number or a tap, and the banner tells you how long it'll take and what time you'll get there. Pick it again (or Enter) and the bike rides the real route there by itself at four times the speed, the town streaming past, easing off at the end so you arrive at an ordinary pace. The clock keeps running at its normal pace, so a flight costs its real minutes: the Village from Athens is about three and a half of them. You earn nothing on the way - no points, no streets, nothing picked up - and a street you only flew down doesn't count as ridden; the place badge still pops when you get there. The map and the pager work mid-flight without stopping it; a steer or the brake ends it wherever you are. Not with a pizza in the bag (finish the delivery first), not on foot, not with a Gigi's rider or a dog on you. Two badges for flying, the first and the tenth. If the map feels crowded on a small phone, the nearest pin to your tap is the one you get.
Rent Mega Man 2 at the dep
There's a video-store rental tag lying somewhere in town - from your second evening, not every night, one at a time. Ride over it and it's yours: the chit that hung on velcro in front of the box on the rental wall. Bring it to the dep at 110 Walton (face the door, press E) and $2.99 rents you the game overnight. The first one is always Mega Man 2; after that it's whatever the wall had in October 1989 - Super Mario Bros. 2, Zelda II, Contra, Double Dragon, Blades of Steel, Ninja Gaiden. The cartridge sits on the shelf in your room that night. It's due back at the dep the next evening: the pager reminds you, and every evening you're late costs a dollar, up to five. Four badges, no points. Nothing to play - it's 1989, the game is at home, and you're out delivering.
The empty lots fill in
About 2,800 more houses. Wherever the old directory skipped a number between two houses on the same side of a street, there was grass. Now there's a house: a plain block with a simple pitched roof, no garage, no detail. That plainness is on purpose. These are houses nobody has confirmed. We know the numbers either side, so there was almost certainly a house there, but not what it looked like. If you know one of them, the corrections form on the map is how it becomes a real house. They are never delivery addresses. Phones get them too.
Gigi's window opens
Gigi's Pizzeria in the Village now gives out runs of its own. Ride down to the Lakeshore, face the takeout window and press E: Nico at the window hands you a Gigi's pizza for an address nearby, with a $1.50 fee on top of the tip when it's delivered, and you bring the bag back to the window for the next one. Athens pages don't follow you down there - the window closes with the streetlights, like Athens does. The town remembers which side you rode for: the night after your first run for Gigi's, George has heard about it, and he has a few things to say. New badges for moonlighting, for riding both sides in one evening, and for becoming a Lakeshore regular.
Things to find on the road, and things to wear
Coins at the kerb. Fourteen a night - quarters and the odd loonie - lying along the kerb line where the car doors open, eight of them in Athens's own pocket and six out in the town. Ride over one and it clinks into your pocket. A can of Jolt on the boulevards, two a night: drink it and the bike goes about fifteen percent faster for twenty seconds. And six things to find and wear: the Athens cap you start in, an Expos cap left at the 201 stop by the Plaza, a Canadiens toque under the arena's sign, a jean jacket at the Pits, a Lindsay Place jacket on the field below Dead Man's Hill, and a Gigi's cap the kid at the window hands you after five runs. Press X (or BADGES) for your collection: the new Wardrobe row shows what you own, and a click or tap puts it on. Other riders see your cap - and you see theirs.
Gigi's riders take to the streets
Three Gigi's riders are out on the Lakeshore all evening, green jackets, a pizza box on the rack, riding real runs between the window and the doors. Carry a pizza into their part of town and one of them may ring his bell and race you to the door - he's a touch slower than your sprint, and he only knows the streets. Beat him for points and a badge; lose and he's leaning on the fence when you get there. Carry an Athens pizza through their turf and they may give chase: as fast as you on the straight, and if he gets level he swings across your line - hop it or stop dead. Take a cut-through or a bike path and he can't follow. Ride for Gigi's and they ring the bell hello instead. Seven badges, from your first win to being cut off.
Points, badges, and a board that moves
Points now tick up the whole time you ride: a few just for being out there, more for every hop, every sprint, every street you've never ridden, and plenty for every pizza - more the faster it gets there, and double when you string three fast ones together. They sit beside your pocket, bottom left.
And there are badges - fifty-six of them, and most are easy. Your first hop. The bike path. The 201 honking at you. Seeing a dog. Finding Eddy. Riding down Saint-Jean. One for every part of town you get to - the Village, Valois, Sunnyside, the woods, Le Manoir. And a title that climbs with every pizza you deliver: Pizzaboy, Two-Slice, Junior Pizza Tech, and on up. Press X (or the BADGES pad on a phone) to see your collection, and Tab - the map now lights up every street you have ever ridden.
The top riders board ranks points now, and an evening is on it while you are still riding it - close the game at minute five and your five minutes count. See who's out there.
Your home, on a phone
Phones get their own way to choose a home: tap your street on the town map, then tap your house number. No typing. If the tap lands on the street next door, the streets nearby are one tap away. Skip keeps Athens as home, and the choice stays on your phone.
Phones play again
The home question that arrived earlier today covered the whole screen on a phone and kept the evening from starting: no steering, no pager. Phones and tablets skipped it for a few hours and started at Athens, until they got their own (above).
Ride home to your own door
The first evening now asks for your home, with number-and-street search over the verified addresses in the town. Choose one or skip to keep Athens as home; the choice stays only on this device and is remembered next evening. It speaks French when the game does, and fits a phone screen.
Lights in the dusk traffic
Moving cars now switch on warm-white headlights and red tail lights with the streetlights, so they remain readable through the dusk tint as they pass the illuminated bus.
Three hundred and fifty more doors, and the bus stop
About three hundred and fifty more addresses from the 1989 directory are now where they belong. The scan had walked past some street headers, so whole streets were filed under the street before them: Saddlewood's households had been living on Roundtree Crescent, Sunnyview's on Sunnyside, and the Trans-Canada's businesses on Terra Cotta. And a bullet printed tight against a house number had often been read as one more digit, turning 111 into 1118. Both are fixed at the source, so more houses stand where they did and more of them can order a pizza. On boulevard Saint-Jean, Fairview Lincoln Mercury, the Texaco, the Banque Royale, Apothoprix, the Calorie Counter and the Lanterne Verte are back at their own numbers, and so are the trucking firms on Reverchon and the daycares, the YMCA office and Northview school on Jubilee Square. And avenue Raimbault is back on the map, off boulevard des Sources: the directory had it all along, spelled RAINBEAU. The 201 now has a pole at every stop, a blue plate with its number on it, and you'll hear the air brakes hiss as it pulls up. Spot something in the wrong place? Tell us.
Le Manoir, and initials on a phone
Brasserie Le Manoir is back on boulevard Saint-Jean at the Hymus corner, where it has stood since 1972: the low brick hall, its lot, the sign on the mansard and the pylon by the road, the windows lit when the streetlights come on. The 1989 directory had it all along - the scan had read its number, 600, as "COO". On a phone the initials card now has its own letters to tap, so phone riders stop showing up as ?? on the board. And on Avenue Labrosse the centre line is back: the bike track down its middle had been painted over it.
Top riders, en français, and steadier thumbs
Every evening's take now goes on a board: your initials against what you made, on the end card and at /play/scores/. The whole game, and this site, now plays in French too - English stays the default; look for the Français link here, or the Français / English line in the game's own help (?lang=fr also works). And steering on a phone feels better: a small dead zone so the bike doesn't wander at rest, turning back from full lock answers as soon as you move your thumb, and a pedalling thumb can slide onto BRAKE and back without lifting.
On a phone
The left half of the screen steers and the right half pedals, with BRAKE and HOP along the bottom right, because the old pads were too small in the hand. A loading screen with the poster and a progress bar; the game can be added to the home screen; the music is a third of the size it was, so the first load is quicker. If the game says turn your phone sideways and nothing happens, a tap on that line asks the phone for landscape. Firefox on Android does not turn the game with the phone yet; Chrome does.
Home, the radio's voice, the board, and stakes
The evening ends in your room: the ghetto blaster dubs tomorrow's tape from the library, and the Apple II on the desk reaches a bulletin board where other riders leave a line and play a door game. The radio has a voice: station idents, the news on the hour, and CKOI beside CHOM on the dial (F). And stakes: a dog that gives chase, a car door that opens, and a light and a lock to buy at the Athens door.
The rest of the map
Pointe-Claire Village stands up: St-Joachim from its real outline with the spire to 30 m, the windmill, the Yacht Club, the Pioneer, Lakeshore's main street and Gigi's; Sunnyside Park with its pools and the hill, the schools, Ed's Market and the Delmar; and orders that send you all the way to the Village, across the band at Saint-Jean, for a far rider's bonus.
Valois Bowling, inside
E at the doors of Valois Bowling: one ball at a time, a single timed press, ten frames scored the real way, 75 cents from the pocket once an evening, and the clock keeps running. The score goes on the end card.
A map of the whole town
Tab puts the whole town over the screen, every place you can ride to, with you are here on it. On a phone, the MAP button does the same.
Valois, and Terra Cotta's three places
Valois Bowling and Velos Pizzeria stand up, and the Valois tunnel has somewhere to go at its south end: a bench under a shelter on Lakeshore. In the Terra Cotta woods: the Pits, six dirt mounds to ride for nothing but the riding; the soccer field; and the camping clearing at the edge.
Corrections, and this page
This page, a map of the town as the game knows it, and a way to tell me what the game gets wrong: the form on the front page now asks whether you are sending a memory or a correction. There are two downloads as well: a kit for modelling your own house, and a package for noting corrections on a map. Inside the game, the controls (?) and the end of the evening carry one line: See a problem with the world? Submit a correction.
The game is open to everyone
/play/ no longer needs a password or a key. It still asks for an email before the first evening.
Music, and the radio
Two tracks made for the game, one of them under the opening card. F turns on the radio: CHOM 97.7 FM.
Other riders
Other people playing at the same moment ride through the same streets, with their initials over their heads. You choose your own two or three letters the first time you play.
Play on a phone
Touch controls: turn the phone sideways and ride with two thumbs. Phones get a lighter version of the town so it keeps up.
The first minute
A first evening now tells you what to do: a few hints at the moments they are needed, a beacon over the house you are delivering to, and the name of the next street at each turn.
Somewhere else he'd rather be
Scoopy's Ice Cream on Donegani is a place now. A friend waits by the door; sitting down for a cone costs you twelve minutes of the evening, and the order you are carrying does not wait.
Two more places stand up
The Pointe-Claire Shopping Centre and the civic complex - the pool, the arena, the library and the fire hall.
The dedication of Parc d'Athènes
The park on the ground where Athens stood was dedicated. Cards with the game's address went to everyone there.
The game on this site
For the first time, the game was playable here, in the browser, behind a password for the dedication, with two minutes of it filmed for anyone on a phone. Also that day: a wristwatch (the backtick key), the red mailbox at the Hastings end of the row, the woods that sound like leaves underfoot, cars parked in driveways, and a few hundred addresses the directory printed without a place, placed by their numbers.
Dead Man's Hill, and a busier town
Dead Man's Hill in the Terra Cotta woods: one committed run to the soccer field at the bottom, which only the right bike survives. The town filled up: more people at the stops and on the sidewalks, dogs, cyclists on the bike paths, and the lines painted on the main roads.
House numbers, George, and a guard on the form
A civic number beside every front door, so you can find the address. George as he was in 1989, and at the end of the night, George and Peter at the last booth. The bus leans on its horn if you ride in the road. The memory form gained a check that you are a person, after the first spam got through.
The ride you can hear
The bike, the traffic and the room have sound. George has things to say. Some orders now send you across the big roads. A two-minute film of the game, recorded from the game itself.
The evening
The game became an evening: a card to start it, a card at the end with what it came to, George behind his counter, and the jukebox at the booth, where you can read what people have sent in.
Traffic and people
Cars on the streets and people at the bus stops. The email on the memory form became optional.
Tell me what you remember
The form on this site's front page, and the rule that goes with it: everything is read by a person before any of it goes anywhere. The houses got their shapes, their driveways and their trees, and the room inside Athens was built.