What's changed

Fixes and changes to Lorenz, newest first. If you reported something and I've fixed it, it should be in here.

• 9 October 2026Fixed in hard mode: after you corrected your pins, the tape punched on the old ones stayed up, so a right setup looked wrong and readings of that tape cost points. The old tape now goes as soon as a pin changes, a reading of a tape off the wrong pins is free, and I've given back what it took. The odd double exclamation mark is gone too.
• 9 October 2026The modes are now Normal, Hard and Realistic. Hard is the whole job, pins and reply included, but you prove each step once: set one chi wheel (or the chi and motor wheels) and the rest flick in, type the first 5 characters right and the rest fills in. Realistic is all by hand, with no marks or word counts until the whole reading is in. Old hard scores and streaks carry over.
• 9 October 2026Realistic now walks you through it: read the QEP, set the pins, set the start positions, run the tape, with buttons to step back and fix things. The pin strip shows the pattern sheet, so there are no dots and crosses to read, and the 3D machine no longer crops the motor wheel numbers. Turn on and Turn back are now Step forward and Step back.
• 9 October 2026When you set pins face on, a strip above the wheel shows the rim unrolled, with the pin at the top under a pointer and its neighbours either side, so you can see and tap them in a line.
• 9 October 2026New Realistic mode: hard mode, but you set every wheel's pins yourself, face on, from the day's pattern sheet. It has its own score, streak and points. Pin setting has moved out of hard mode, and rounds you already played keep their scores. Panels can now be hidden too.
• 9 October 2026The Visual demonstration now runs on the machine, above each set of wheels, and the wheels step with it. Hard mode also has an optional wheel pattern sheet: set the day's pins by hand as well for 250 more.
• 9 October 2026Hard mode now ends with a reply: you encipher a short answer and punch it, and it's scored on its own. There's also a reading aid: copy a row's holes and the cheat sheet lights up the matching line, so reading the tape is quicker but still by hand.
• 9 October 2026New teleprinter speed, Visual demonstration. It shows each character going through the chi and psi wheels, bit by bit, before it's printed.
• 9 October 2026Hints now cost points instead of score. Points are shared with Skywave, and you earn them by reading the daily, the hard mode message and practice rounds. Wrong readings still cost score. There's also a light mode, which follows your device until you pick one with the sun and moon button.
• 9 October 2026Hard mode now works in practice too.
• 9 October 2026Fixed the hard mode answer check. Changing the messages at lunchtime made it check your reading against the wrong message, so correct answers failed. Today keeps the message it started with, either message is accepted today, punctuation no longer counts, and any points the bug took are given back when you next open the round. Sorry about that.
• 9 October 2026New messages that read like army and High Command traffic, figure shift D and J now shown as Who are you? and bell, clearer wording about what the machine was, and the chi wheel model button now sits under my note.
• 9 October 2026Added hard mode: the QEP number on the tape, a dated book with five pages, and the answer only on punched tape, read with a cheat sheet. It has its own score and streak.
• 9 October 2026You can now download the Lorenz machine STL to print your own.
• 9 October 2026Fixed the smudged figure so it always sits on the right line of the book.
• 9 October 2026Today's line in the QEP book is now highlighted.
• 9 October 2026Added a footer link to Skywave, my other game.
• 9 October 2026First version: the daily intercept with the QEP book, twelve wheels in 3D, the teleprinter tape, practice with random settings, encipher, and chi only mode for the printable model.

Spotted a mistake? Email me: hello@dexmlabs.app