Avault’s Top Casual PC Games of 2011 article was just released, and Midnight Mansion HD made the list! I quote:
“Retro remakes are rarely noteworthy enough to merit inclusion in an awards article, but this adventure-platform release is a real exception.”
Click here to read the rest of the roundup!
If you own the Mac App Store version of Midnight Mansion, you have likely noticed that with the recent 1.0.2 update to the game that was posted to the Mac App Store that you can no longer play Episode 2 mansions from within Episode 1, nor can you play Episode 1 mansions from within Episode 2.
This is because such “linking” is against Mac App Store policies, and somehow they didn’t catch this when the game was first submitted to the Mac App Store. I was required to remove this linking to be able to post any updates to the store.
If you are frustrated by this behavior, you can, for now, get around this limitation by using the ActionSoft version of the game. If you download the game from www.actionsoft.com, it should detect that you’ve launched purchased copies of Episodes 1 and 2 on your computer, and it should run fully registered. And this version contains both episodes in a single program.
Note that this workaround may not always be possible. Apple will be introducing a new feature called “sandboxing” to a future version of MacOS X, which may prevent applications from sharing data with each other. But for now, this method works to let you play both Episodes 1 and 2 from within a single program.
If you do not own the Mac App Store version of Midnight Mansion HD, none of this applies to you.
Midnight Mansion HD for Windows was just updated to version 1.0.1, which makes the following fixes:
- The game now works properly on Windows systems where English is not the default language. There were issues with entering registration codes, saving games, and more on non-English systems formerly.
- The game now works on systems with older graphics cards. Formerly at start-up a message would appear saying something to the effect of “Sorry, the graphics card in your computer is too old to run Midnight Mansion HD.” The game now runs on these systems too!
- Fixed an issue where the game would sometimes behave as if it was not registered.
- Other misc fixes.
If you own the Mac version, this version does not apply to you.
Windows gamers, rejoice! Midnight Mansion HD is now available for Windows XP, Vista, and 7. And, what’s more, the same registration code you purchase for one version will work on the other, too! Purchase for Windows, and also play on your Mac, or vice-versa.
If you had envious neighbors who watched you play on your Mac, and wished they could purchase their own copy of the game but never could, because they didn’t own a Mac, they too can now join the fun. And, what’s more, the same HD mansions work on both Mac and Windows. So Windows users can download and play the same mansions Mac users have been creating and playing since 2005.
What are you waiting for? Download the Windows version today.
Some of you may have experienced trouble when entering an expired code into the game. When it offered to update it for your automatically, this would always fail, ever since I released Midnight Mansion HD. Well, today I discovered the problem. I had modified the Code Update form on the ActionSoft web site so it displayed a nicely-formatted name and code. I did this a few months ago. What I didn’t realize, however, was that this new formatting goofed up the in-game code update.
I fixed that today, and in-game code updates now work smoothly again. 
You can thank the Windows development for this discovery. I found this problem while working on some finishing touches of the Windows port of Midnight Mansion.
Speaking of which, the Windows port is coming along really, really quickly. I expected it would take several months — turns out I ought to be finished next week! That is, ready for public beta testing, at least. I can’t believe it has gone this quickly!
Three weeks ago, I began the process of porting Midnight Mansion HD to Windows. So far, I have been astonished how quickly the process has gone. I had about 90% of the game compiling and running on Windows in two weeks! Today probably 95% of the game is up and running. There are still a number of things left to do, some of which may take a while (particularly testing), so the game’s release is likely still 2-3 or more months away, but so far it has been really fun seeing how quickly and easily the port has gone!
Some of you who have purchased codes (or gotten free Episode 2 codes) for Midnight Mansion HD have emailed me wondering how to enter the codes into the game. Whoops! I guess I didn’t explain this very well. It’s under the “Buy Now” button on the title screen. When you start up the game, there is a Buy Now tab in the lower-left corner of the screen. Click this, then you will see an “Enter Code…” button. This is where you can enter a code for Episode 1 or Episode 2.
For the version distributed on www.actionsoft.com, both Episode 1 and Episode 2 are in a single download, although each is unlocked by different codes. Hopefully this helps clear up any confusion for all of you entering codes into the game! Thanks, and happy gaming!
Midnight Mansion HD can now be downloaded and purchased directly from ActionSoft, without the need to purchase via the Mac App Store:
If you are an owner of the original Midnight Mansion, you can get a free registration code for Episode 2 by using this form:
Free Episode 2 Code Upgrade Form
The ActionSoft version of the game contains both Episodes 1 and 2 in one download, so both can be unlocked, depending on what registration code you purchase. The version is also compatible with the version you can purchase from the Mac App Store, so if you purchase one Episode there, and another on ActionSoft, both will link just as you’d expect.
Please note: the version on ActionSoft is a 1.0.1 update to the game that fixes a lot of bugs. Once you run this version, the original 1.0.0 version will not launch. (Meaning, if you currently have a Mac App Store version on your computer, that version won’t launch after you run the ActionSoft website version, until Apple posts my 1.0.1 update.) This isn’t really a problem, because the ActionSoft version will allow you to play anything you purchased via the Mac App Store. But just be aware that after launching the 1.0.1 version, you won’t be able to run the old 1.0.0 version.
Today I submitted 1.0.1 updates for Episodes 1 and 2 to the Mac App Store. Since Apple has to approve updates (and generally this has taken 3-4 days in the past) it will be a few days before the updates become available, but once they do, quite a long list of bug fixes and new features will be available:
- GamePad support!
- Game now displays properly fullscreen if the display is “tall” instead of wide or normal aspect ratio.
- Fixed bug where Hint House wouldn’t be playable on some systems (case-sensitive formatted drives).
- Fixed bug where Midnight Mansion HD would not launch on Japanese systems.
- Hint House is now playable from Episode 2 even if Episode 1 has not been purchased.
- Fixed game so it no longer fails to load a mansion if there is a ‘Pict’ folder when the mansion is exported with room preview picts that the level builder uses.
- Fixed bug in shipping version of Episode 2 (Mac App Store) that caused House of Baron Garneau to quit with an assertion error when started on hard difficulty (see above “Pict” fix.)
- Game now returns to Episode 2 map screen if you beat an episode 2 mansion.
- Fixed tile shadows so they are ONLY drawn for brick (wall) tiles, ladders, poles, and vines, conveyor belts, and a few other things — but NOT for background tiles — even those drawn in higher layers. Previously, shadows were being drawn for layer 0 tiles that were drawn in higher layers to “hide” things behind them. This no longer happens.
- The gold/silver bricks no longer cast shadows when they are “off” (i.e. a dotted line).
- Fixed bug where game could crash when reading certain signs. (For instance, the sign in the custom mansion Art Minds Mansion, room 1406.)
- Game Over and Beat-The-Mansion music no longer play if sound effects are turned off.
- Pushing Esc on the “Enter your name for a high score” dialog now dismisses (cancels) the dialog, instead of entering the Esc character in the Name field.
- “Enter your name for a high score” dialog remembers your last-entered name for that profile. (Or uses the profile’s name if you haven’t entered a high score yet.)
- The OK button in “Enter name for high score” dialog is disabled if the name field is empty.
- Optimized Midnight Mansion HD’s graphics engine even more, eliminating slowdowns in individual rooms and also resulting in faster redrawing of the in-game map screen as you scroll around.
- If Midnight Mansion HD’s framerate ever drops below 55fps right after you enter a new room, the game will do two things to raise it: first, it will remove all coin/key glows and sprite shadows. Usually this is sufficient, even in the most processor-intensive rooms. However, even if that is insufficient, it will reduce the frame rate to 30fps and enable frame-skipping. The difference is almost unnoticeable to the player, other than an initial slowdown for about 1 second after entering the room, and the sudden disappearance of glows and sprite shadows.
- Fixed problems where game wouldn’t look for the Midnight Mansion HD Custom Mansions folder in the correct place (or wouldn’t even *create* it in the correct location) in some instances.
- Fixed open saved/suspended games so they work even if the original mansion is a .zip mansion.
- When saving a game while playing a mansion in .zip format, .zip is no longer part of the default filename for the saved game.
- Movies (replays) are no longer saved with a .zip extension in the filename if the original mansion was a ZIP. They also work properly when replayed now (before they couldn’t find the mansion file).
- Fixed bug where game would go fullscreen immediately after you entered a high score with “Submit online” checked, making it difficult to see where you ranked in the web browser’s list of online high scores.
- Balanced sound effects volumes — some 3D-positioned sound effects, like skull spider footsteps, were too soft.
- Balanced music volume again.
- Game window cannot be resized smaller than 640×480. (So that the in-game map screen does not mess up drawing.)
- Hopefully fixed the “screensaver activated when entering name for a high score” issue on some setups. (When coming out of fullscreen.)
- Fixed bug where, if you minimized Midnight Mansion’s window, clicking on the application in the dock wouldn’t bring it to the front. (Had to redo how I was creating the menu bar.)
- Removed “Dynamic Shadows (slower)” option from Options.
Today I’m working on further optimizing Midnight Mansion HD’s graphics engine. Some users have reported slowdowns in some rooms, which means I need to eek more performance out of the game. While Midnight Mansion HD already has a lot of optimizations built in, I have ideas for another way to optimize things that should solve the problem. However, that idea is rather complicated and will take some time to implement.
In the mean time, I’ve been experimenting with other changes, and have so far bumped one room that was running at 30fps on my system up to 47fps! Things will get even better when I add the more complicated system to optimize tile drawing in layer 6, but for now, even just these small changes have resulted in rather nice performance improvements!
