AvenellCY-1
Fiction

Avenell and the Cyclorama never existed. The hardware is real: specified, emulated and playable here.

The company, its people, dates, prices and sales are alternate-history fiction. On this site every in-universe statement sits under a red tally lamp. The machine is not invented: its specification, emulator, development tools and cartridges are real software, and every game picture is a frame a real cartridge drew.

CYC-1002Now playingIn the fiction: Avenell Playhouse · 1987

SHADEWORKS

Steer the stage lamps until every gel reaches its target shade.

SHADEWORKS, frame 1261, from the real cartridge.

Loading the cartridge (32 KiB)…

F5 Save F8 LoadEscape Power off

Saved states last for this visit. Sound starts with Power.

SHADEWORKS needs a keyboard or a game controller. On a phone or tablet without one you can read about the game here, but you can’t play it yet.

CYC-1002SoftwareIn the fiction: Avenell Playhouse · Canada, September 18, 1987

SHADEWORKS

Light-mixing puzzle: steer up to four lamps until every gel cell reaches its target shade; over-lighting wraps back to black.

The stage crew has hung the gels; now someone has to light them. Each puzzle is a small stage of coloured gels, each in a frame painted the shade it should glow. Move the theatre’s lamps, turn them up and down, and make every gel match at once, before the bulbs burn out.

Real cartridge SHADEWORKS is a real 32 KiB cartridge that runs on the emulator, and it plays right here in your browser.

The SHADEWORKS cartridge: a charcoal shell with a dark label showing a real frame of the game. A 3D render.
Real frames

Frames from the cartridge

  1. SHADEWORKS, frame 60, from the real cartridge.

    frame 60

  2. SHADEWORKS, frame 630, from the real cartridge.

    frame 630

  3. SHADEWORKS, frame 1261, from the real cartridge.

    frame 1261

  4. SHADEWORKS, frame 1891, from the real cartridge.

    frame 1891

  5. SHADEWORKS, frame 2521, from the real cartridge.

    frame 2521

Frames from the project’s golden-frame tests: the emulator plays the cartridge from power-on with a recorded input and must draw exactly these pictures.

1

How a gel gets its shade

Each gel’s frame is painted in its target shade, 0 to 7. The small window in its middle shows the light actually falling on it; when the two match, a check mark appears.

  • Ambient light lights the whole stage evenly. Some puzzles have it; you cannot change it.
  • Each lamp adds its power at its position, one step less for every step of distance. Its shape decides how distance is counted: diamond, square, octagon, or a band like footlights.
  • The shades wrap. Counted 0 to 7, then 8 is 0 again. Too much light turns a gel dark, and later puzzles need exactly that.

2

Controls and bulbs

Cyclorama padIn a puzzle
D-padMove the selected lamp one step
ALamp power up (0–7)
BLamp power down
CSelect the next lamp
STARTPause / resume

Every change to a lamp uses one unit of bulb life. If the bulb burns out, a spare goes in and the puzzle starts again; three spares last the whole game. Ten puzzles, from First Light to Opening Night.