Summary
Highlights
The video celebrates Scratch's 15th birthday by reviewing Scratch 1.4, the last version of the 1.x series, released on July 2, 2009. It notes that the basic layout is similar to Scratch 3.0.
In Scratch 1.4, clicking on a sprite or stage reveals a squared area for work. Sprite controls are at the top, allowing renaming and setting a 'draggable mode'. The video demonstrates a unique rotation style that visually rotates the sprite in a fun, albeit not always precise, way.
The painting editor in Scratch 1.4 is a separate interface. Drawing a square and setting distinct border colors and sizes requires multiple steps, highlighting how much easier painting is in Scratch 3.0.
The video showcases the 13-year-old sound and sprite libraries. Many sprites from 1.4 are still present in 3.0. It notes that importing sprites was cumbersome, often resulting in duplicated sprites that needed manual deletion.
Scratch 1.4 had unique tools like scissors for deleting blocks and a 'stem tool' (duplicate). Users could drag and delete blocks directly or right-click. The video also mentions a 'grow sprite' and 'shrink sprite' tool, and the absence of an undo option, only undelete.
Scratch 1.4 lacked an 'events' section, with 'screen flash clicks' and 'space click' acting as head blocks. It featured a 'forever if' block that combined functionalities of separate 'forever' and 'if' blocks in 3.0. The video highlights a 'mosaic effect' that could change by 25 and questions why this cool effect was removed in later versions.
The right-click menu in 1.4 included 'cleanup blocks' and 'save picture of script'. A standout feature was the ability to directly swap operators by right-clicking, which is more tedious in 3.0. The video praises 1.4 for its efficiency in block swapping and saving code as an image directly to the website.
Scratch 1.4, despite its age, still functions well and, in some aspects like block swapping, outperformed 3.0. The video concludes by suggesting that some features from 1.4 should be reconsidered for future Scratch versions, like 4.0.