itch.io

Compatibility info for Linux and Mac users: I've just finished replaying all of the games on Linux. I mostly used the HD versions that I purchased a decade ago, but I realised that although I definitely bought Submachine 10 I didn't have a copy of the SWF anywhere (although I did have the free web version), so I repurchased the latest EXE version of that specific game. I was able to extract the SWF without any issues using the Python script linked from this page.

I assume that the collection is still fully playable in the standalone flash player, although I have not tested this directly with these new builds (unfortunately I'd already played through my old copies of 1-9 when I found this page). These games have brought me a lot of joy over the years, so I will probably buy this collection soon and replay them again, using all of the new builds, and report back.

I was able to play through most of the collection using the latest version of Ruffle, with some exceptions:

1. Submachine 10 struggled visibly in some graphics-heavy sections and eventually crashed when I played it on a laptop with 8G of RAM (and Firefox open!). I then moved to a laptop with a lot more memory available, and it was fine, except...

2. Submachine 10 consistently crashed towards the end of the game when I clicked on a specific portal. I don't know if this is an issue with this specific version of Ruffle, or this new build of Submachine 10, or my specific graphics hardware or software. I was able to copy the save file from just before the crash from Ruffle to Flash, play that short section in the standalone flash player that I still have, then copy the save file back and play the rest of the game in Ruffle.

WARNING: the game only saves progress (in Ruffle) if you exit the program normally. If you play the whole game without saving and it crashes, you will lose all of your progress. I did this twice, because I don't learn from my mistakes, and then started quitting periodically to save.

3. 32 Chambers has a glitch in Ruffle which breaks the game. I played this whole game in the standalone flash player.

It's worth noting that Ruffle is an actively developed project with multiple contributors. While I was looking into these issues, I found a lot of reports of previous problems in the Submachine games which have since been resolved -- so these outstanding issues may also be fixed soon.

Ooh, thanks! I'd never seen that rotating menu before. I found two other places where you can place critter traps. I also saw the fish trap location but was also unable to use it.

How do we equip them, and what do the spots look like? I've added traps to my inventory a bunch of times (after buying them), but I can't find a way to use them explicitly and I haven't found any spots on the ground where they activate. I may be missing something obvious. :)

What's the best place to report bugs? I reported one in the Steam forum, but I actually got the game here (in the bundle).

Another possible bug: if I store more than the required amount of food for a stabled critter, it all gets consumed in a single day anyway. Not sure if this is intentional behaviour -- it would be useful to store a supply of food for several days in advance.

Apart from that, this is a cool game, and it's great that you made it available so early. I'm a recent arrival, but it must have been fascinating to watch it develop incrementally from the beginning. It's a valuable opportunity to collect feedback, and offers both non-programmers and people interested in learning programming insight into the amount of work that goes into this kind of project and how it develops over time.

Fantastic!

Edit: I successfully ran the game in Ubuntu 17.10.

There is a bug which is triggered when the game is run on a screen with multiple monitors, at least in my window manager (Fluxbox) and with my monitor layout (where the primary monitor on which the game is fullscreened is an external monitor larger than the laptop screen). The screen geometry is not calculated correctly, and the game screen is displayed oddly resized within the fullscreened window. Additionally, the game does not detect the position of the mouse cursor correctly -- everything is offset.

My initial workaround was to disable the external monitor. I then disabled fullscreen before I exited the game, and when I launched it again (with the monitor re-enabled) it remembered the fullscreen preference but the other issues were still present (in the non-fullscreened window). However, after playing around with the window I found that manually resizing the window causes everything to be redrawn correctly, and fixes all the issues. It is then also possible to fullscreen the game on the external monitor correctly.

For any other Linux users encountering the same issue:

1. F11 to exit fullscreen if necessary

2. alt-drag the window until you get to a corner or to the maximise button

3. Resize the window by dragging the corner or maximising. Now everything should be rendered correctly.

4. Now you should be able to resize the window however you like, or fullscreen it again with F11.

You may need to do this every time you launch the game, but you may be able to use the features of your window manager to automatically resize the window for you on launch. That is completely dependent on your environment. For example, in Fluxbox you can choose to remember various window properties, and this allowed me to create a persistent solution.

Ah, I see. In that case I'll see if I can get the Windows executable to run under Wine. Thanks!

Is this still a Flash game? Any chance of a bare .swf file, which could be played on Linux? I have previously been able to extract the .swf from the packaged Mac version and run it in a browser or with the standalone flash player, but there's nothing I can do with an IFF data file.