Application: Secret Maryo Chronicles
Category: Games
Description: Secret Maryo Chronicles is a Jump and Run game like Super Mario World, with lots of levels, clear images and great sound and music.
What I did to this game:
UPX'd all exe and dll files
Ran all the PNG files through OptiPNG
Included the Music add-on
Converted all the music .ogg files from 128 kbps to 96kbps.
Secret Maryo Chronicles Portable 1.5 Development Test 3 41.4 MB, 63.7 MB installed
Release Notes:
Development Test 3:
- fixed an issue with the main program where you can't move when entering the 4th World.
Development Test 2:
- small update to fix the feature for it to keep your changes to resolution settings until you change pc's
1.5 Development Test 1:
- updated SMC to version 1.5
- disabled image caching, thanks to Fluxy from SMC
- now uses the data directory only instead of copying files to and from AppData, thanks to Fluxy from SMC
- changed to run windowed by default and will keep your changes to resolution settings until you change pc's
Testing later this weekend
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
It didn't launch windowed for me (res of 1280x768, chose 800x600 in dialog).
Also, this game RULES!
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
hm... it seems when i pick a different resolution from the time before it doesn't go windowed. i'll try to figure that out today.
I love this game so much, you rock my socks. The sounds when he dies it me favorite part. I'll give it a test when i get a chance.
I'm working with supertuxkart, my way to save space on files I don't know is to tar.gz them and have the launcher extract them.
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
IMO, you should leave the OGG files in their original state.
- UPXing files just squeezes them so they're smaller, but have the same functionality.
- Using a PNG optimizer just removes "fluff" from the file that doesn't impact the visual quality of the file at all. It's not like saving a file as a jpeg at 75% quality as that's a reduction in image quality.
What you're doing by saving at a lower bitrate is actually changing the quality of the file. Let the user reduce the quality of the file if they want to save space that bad. PortableApp developers should not change the "user experience" at all. UPXing and PNG optimizing don't impact user experience, OGG re-encoding does.
That's my 3¢
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
well i don't think i should leave the music files alone since they're 30MB total, but i will consider converting them from the original 128kbps to 128kbps VBR which will save like 10MB (94kpbsVBR saved 15 MB). i was also thinking about leaving the original game sound files alone because someone told me they thought VBR used more cpu. personally on my laptop at least, the music the way it's at now sounded pretty good.
If you're gonna save that much space, it may be worth it. John even removed the sounds in Sudoku.
P.S. Where's the Sudoku update? It's really confusing me.
well the music isn't even included with the main game download. it was in a separate pack, but i didn't feel like you got the full experience with no music. btw i think i've almost figured out the problem ryan mentioned (it doesn't always work right for me too).
I know you used PNG Optimizer on the PNG files in this app, but I ran them through four different optimizers and saved an additional 1.1MB
You can get the optimized PNG files here: http://renttopwn.com/files/Portable/SecretMaryoChronicles.7z
Also, you can get rid of a lot more files:
the entire \App\SecretMaryoChronicles\data\makefiles directory
\App\SecretMaryoChronicles\data\Makefile.am
\App\SecretMaryoChronicles\Makefile.am
\App\SecretMaryoChronicles\configure.ac
\App\SecretMaryoChronicles\autogen.sh
The last four files are used on Linux, not Windows.
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
thanks! i did all of that and fixed the previous problem and am uploading right now
Cool...I took the 7-zip file down since you have the files now.
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
Dev Test 2 is now up, see main post for changes. i also still would like some more feedback if i should have the music at 128kbps or 96kbps. i personally can't tell any difference on my laptop speakers.
Edit: Also how come when you try to close the messagebox with the x, it returns the same option as if you clicked the third button. i'm using the messagebox plugin. mby it's just a bug in the plugin
it is just for fun ... so 96kbsp is enough
Hmm, file hosting seems to not be working. Maybe mirror it somewhere?
EDIT: N/M, it's working again.
I'm thinking about taking out the messagebox and having it automatically select a resolution based on the current resolution of the computer. i'm not sure whether to keep it how it is, have it launch windowed at the same resolution as the computer or launch at a resolution one setting less than the computer. opinions?
I'd set it to launch windowed at a resolution 1 setting less than the resolution of the monitor. Great work on this app.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
it is just personal decisions and likes but I always prefer full screen and the same resolution than my screen...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
well mby i should have a 2 button message box to either launch windowed at 1 less than the current resolution, or launch fullscreen at the current resolution. does that make everyone happy?
that'll work. Thanks Travis for working all this out.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
yes, I think that should work...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
Dev Test 3 is up now. it took a bit of work but i think i got it working good. See main post for changes
The way you pick the resolution doesn't work so hot on widescreen monitors.
My 20" widescreen's native res is 1680x1050. The program picks 1280x1024 as the res which makes part of the window appear under the WinXP TaskBar (which I have "locked" and "always on top").
If there's a way to bump it down to the next lower res, that would be good.
I also recommend to change the line in the dialog box to add the bolded words:
"SMC will take up to a minute to start up."
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
hm... that would require me deciding how much of a difference in pixels to require a smaller size. How many should it be, 50? 100? I used it on a widescreen too, and personally i like the game at a large size like that, but i'll change it if that's what everyone wants.
The "next lower res" is unplayable for me since part of the window extends off the screen.
What I think you should do is slide up the settings by one so if I have a 1280x1024 monitor, it picks 800x600 (not 1024x768). This will display the full window on the screen and power users will find the options to change the res to their liking in short order. Noobs will not have to deal with part of the window appearing under the taskbar or off screen. You could put some info in the help.html file about adjusting the display settings.
Side Note: If I were to play this for real, I'd pick "full screen" anyways...I'm just being picky so windowed mode starts up right for that guy/gal out there in accounting looking to play this at work.
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
thanks for all your help suggestions, but i think i'm going to just have it make sure it has at least 100 px difference, as going down 2 steps in my opinion is too small. 100px difference will display completely on the screen and nobody would complain because they wouldn't know there was a choice to begin with.
No matter if I use window or full screen mode... it always gives me "Run time error!" and close the App.
Windows Vista Home Premium, AMD64 x2, NVidia GeForce Go 6100 2Gb RAM
And, after removing other, help and appinfo, the App had 90 Mb...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
wow, that's a big bug. i have no idea how it would grow to 90 MB unless it's caching the images in the app folder for some reason. Does anyone have any ideas on what could have happened? i'll try to get a vista virtual machine going sometime to try it out.
I tried it on Vista Home Premium x32 and it ran fine. can you give me some details on what happens? do a fresh install and tell me what extra files are created and the exact error message please so i can try to fix it.
Downloaded: 35.875 kb (35.0 Mb)
Installed: size: 54.4 Mb
size on disk: 60.8 Mb
On Double-clicking the portable exe: http://oso.shroom.net/taller/Untitled.jpg
No matter if I choose full screen or windowed: http://oso.shroom.net/taller/Untitled2.jpg
And finally: http://oso.shroom.net/taller/Untitled3.jpg
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
ok, it looks like the game launches and vista has problems with the game. now can you please see if the original game will run with no problems? if it does then it may be problems from all the compression i did. you can get a zip file of the original game here http://sourceforge.net/projects/smclone/ it will just leave a smc folder in your app data that you can delete. Thanks a ton for testing all of this!
Just let me go back home
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
The original zipped program gives the same run time error, I think the problem is with the 64bit thing...
(Is like Kompozer, it doesn't run on my C, only NVU)
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
I´m at my sister´s PC, It´s something called Via Samuel 2 with Windows XP SP2, the game runs... it takes centuries to load, but it runs...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
I tried the game both in Windows XP (PIV 2Gb RAM) and Windows Vista (Core Duo, 32bit, 2Gb RAM) and in both cases it worked ok and fast...
I think the problem us with the 64bit stuff...
I'm going to try the normal install version tomorrow morning (it is midnight here ATM)
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
yeah, thanks a lot doing so much testing! i'm hoping it's just a problem with the original game itself.
if someone else can please confirm that this program doesn't run their x64 computer, i'll add a messagebox and abort for x64 platforms.
Dev Test 4 is up. I still need someone besides Aciago to test this on a x64 machine to see if it's all or just his.
go for it...
EDIT: Just exactly the same problem, no difference...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
yeah, test 4 didn't do anything to fix your problem since it's a problem with the original game. i was just asking other people to see if the problem lied with all x64 pcs or just yours
Been starting to research this 64 bit issue - seems like the game compiles and runs just fine on Linux x64 systems so the problem doesn't seem to be cross platform.
If this is happening on the installed version as well, please come over to the SMC forums and post a bug. Our code guy didn't have any idea as to why it might be happening, but doesn't have a 64 bit system to test it on. With it posted over there, we can get more eyes looking for a solution to the problem.
well like i said it may not be all x64 systems. i'm going to try to find a friend with one to test this out later. i would get on your forums, but secretmaryo.org seems to be down.
I'm on it right now with no difficulties.
Definitely test it out if you can - I'd be interested to see if it is happening elsewhere.
ok nevermind, i think there's something wrong with my internet. for some reason about half the sites i'm trying to go to won't come up and the other half work fine.
I couldn't help it - I really shouldn't have tried it while I was at work, but I was just too excited to see it run portable!
Nothing left on my machine and looked/worked great. Question: the cached images - are those just deleted at the end when the program is shut down?
One of the things I'll discuss with the other developers is seeing if there is a way to build in an option to disable texture caching in the next version - that'll help it start up a little faster and might eliminate the need for the windowed/full screen dialog at startup. Caching was put in to help the game run faster on slower/older machines, but I don't know how useful it is when running portable.
Version 1.5 should be out in the next few weeks, btw, once we get a couple of graphics problems worked out.
yeah, i have it back up saved games and config.xml but everything else in the AppData folder is deleted. A version without caching would be awesome for the portable version, hopefully you can do that so the user won't have to wait so long on every launch. cool can't wait to see 1.5!
Man, how did I miss the original posting? Must have been while I was sick with the flu. I was planning on starting work to on make SMC portable - I'm one of the developers / artists for it and we've been talking on the forums about getting this into PAF. I will download it right now and spread the word over at the forum. Thanks!
Since you're one of the SMC developers, can you shed any light onto why some users are experiencing difficulties with x64 systems?
Thanks for working on this awesome game.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
No, I can't - that's something I don't think we've seen yet at this point in the regular game. I'm posting over on the forum as we speak about this new portable version. I'll make mention of the problems to our resident code expert to see if he has any ideas. Off the top of my head, I'd wonder if the dependencies for the game are all compatible with x64 systems.
Travis, come over and make yourself known on the SMC boards.
This game works fine on my setup. No issues yet. Great play too.
Hope to see it on the applications page soon
Cheers
PortableApps.com Advocate
Version 1.5 is in final bug fixes right now - should be out very shortly with the new portability code added as well as some other fun new features. I'll keep you posted.
Hi, ...
V. [1.4 Dev Test 4]
I have test in Vista x64 SP1 Ultimate, French Canadian.
The = "SecretMaryoChroniclesPortable . exe", in the game root directory display the splashscreen, but close, and after do nothing, and the game dont open, but no error displayed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have able to play in x64 = Vista x64 SP1 Ultimate, French Canadian.
After installation, =
1)I go to " App \ SecretMaryoChronicles "
2)After = I doubleclick in the file = "Secret Maryo Chronicles.exe"
3) The game work, ...
Please note that i have a native 1440/900, screen. I dont see that video mode in your video mode selection.
-------
Sylvain
Please delete my korgul, user account, ... (I not use it)
Thanks for testing. possibly the problem is being caused because there are spaces in the exe name. i'll look at that some more even though it seems to launch fine on everyone else's pc. SMC 1.5 was just released so hopefully it will work fine for you when i release the new portable version
Korgul: take note that running the game executable directly bypasses the "portable" code of the launcher so you probably have "extra" files/folders on your computer now. Keep that in mind for future testing when you may notice them.
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
Hi, ...
Quoted from @bobsobol, from an other website = "http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=42430&page=6", and an other software that have the same DEP Compliance bug, ... than your Secret Maryo Chronicles Portable "Launcher".
= I have only change the software name, in that text below, ...
-----------------
Secret Maryo Chronicles Portable "Launcher", does indeed work on Vista 64. It doesn't work on any system which is checking it for DEP compliance.
There are two solutions to this.
1) The user can disable DEP either globally (which is a security risk) or just for Secret Maryo Chronicles Portable "Launcher", by adding an exception to the DEP list and browsing for the SecretMaryoChroniclesPortable.exe.
2) You can check the source code of his Secret Maryo Chronicles Portable "Launcher", to ensure it does not attempt to execute code from memory areas which the PE has declared to be data.
-------
Sylvain
Please delete my korgul, user account, ... (I not use it)
updated SMC to 1.5 and made some changes, noted in main post. it got a little larger but has tons of improvements
Note: If you updated the game data files, the compressed PNG files you downloaded from me are gone (overwritten). By chance did you send the compressed PNGs back to the devs to update the main game itself (which would rock BTW).
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
no i didn't, but they seemed to have optimized them already this time because i barely saved any space with OptiPNG with the -o5 setting
Tested on WinXP Pro - no issues, and nothing seems to be left behind. Looking good.
I just tried development test 2 under vista ultimate, and it works well, and leaves nothing obvious behind.
I think 96k is fine for a small, portable game.
Nihilism makes me smile.
Are we getting closer to having this as an official release? Just curious.
well i posted it as ready for official release the other day but there are quite a few apps that are also ready to go so it's just a matter of how fast the developer apps get pushed out. hopefully it doesn't take to go official; this site needs better official games than it has right now, and you guys from SMC have done a lot to help out on this one.
updated to Dev Test 3, fixing an issue with the main program where you can't move when entering the 4th World. if you have dev test 2 and don't want to update, you can hit the right arrow multiple times really fast to move or hit F8 and edit the overworld to stretch the walk line to the center of the circle.
Downloading - I will check it during my lunch. Thanks Travis!
I think this is a good inheritor of the mario mantle
PortableApps.com Advocate
I've been testing it when I can and I haven't had any problems yet. Mind you, I haven't made it to world 4 yet...I blame my Nintendo Wii for being too addicting
Just realized I never reported back on how Dev3 worked. Looks good here. Can't wait for this to release!
Working all good for me for a while now.
How long till official app?
PortableApps.com Advocate
Trav,
Version 1.6 just released this week. Thought you might want to know. Actually, if you want to send me an email, I might be able to help out with the portable version. Let me know.
Still working without any issues. Is this going to move onto Pre-release or have you (Travis) dropped the project.
PortableApps.com Advocate
no i didn't drop it; i love this game. i need to update it to version 1.6. i've kinda been putting it off but i'm going to update it sometime within the next few days depending on when i first get a block of free time.
Thanks
PortableApps.com Advocate
plz update
60\/\/ 2 /\/\3 4 1 4/\/\ 12007
bow to me for i am root
https://portableapps.com/node/16377
it works great thanks for the link!!!
60\/\/ 2 /\/\3 4 1 4/\/\ 12007
bow to me for i am root