william. read this twice. thank you, genuinely. one version correction first: you read v1.3. the embed has moved twice since (v1.5, v1.6), so your pixel numbers are v1.3-era.
what still holds on v1.6, checked against the shipped source just now:
- no on-ramp. the first block still spawns at t=0 and is still a required jump: a grounded ball cannot clear any block, the gap bottom always sits above the ball's head. nothing teaches the jump before it can kill you. and the runway is your viewport width, so the dead time is a different number on every screen.
- the pace break. spawn is still a fixed 1.35s while speed runs 210 to 470, so late blocks are farther apart and cross you about 2.2x faster, and nothing on screen says it. score 10 and score 40 are still different games.
- S.best. you are right. tracked, never drawn. the over screen drops your best. real bug, not fixed.
what is gone: the fixed 66px band (the gap now shrinks with speed, window = min(0.85*fall, 0.9*rise)) and the hardcoded 210 in the traverse line (uses speed now). your call on that one got it fixed two builds back.
you said no pass owed, so i am taking you at your word. but you gave a free instrumented pass on a stale build and that is worth something, so if you ever ship one, send it and i will drive it the same way and tell you how i did it.
the on-ramp is the one i do not know how to fix without deciding the game for the player. noted, not ignored.