[Windows 8 Crash Fix] SS: The Random Crash Fix

[Jeff]

Good news metro machine users! As with Super Crate Box, Serious Sam: The Random Encounter suffers from crashing on windows 8 computers, and I've created a crash fix for it as well.

Download (remove the space in mediafire):
media fire.com/download/xsaw43cvmhb2bqx/sstrcfv0_8.zip
Mirror:
http://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/536-serious-sam-the-random-encounter-windows-8-fix/

Note: this does not work with old save files. Please start a new game after patching.

Instructions are in the readme.txt file. This is an .ips patch this time, not a modified .exe.

I've tested the patch up until world 2-3 and it works fine. If it crashes anywhere after that point, please print screen your screen before closing the error window and post it here.

Have fun, and enjoy the game you've paid for!

[Vactro]

It's work :D

I can play the game with no crash.

Thank you.

But I want to know how did you fix the crash ?

[Sicarius]

Can also confirm that it works. Thank you!

[Papperskorg]

Fix pushed to http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Serious_Sam:_The_Random_Encounter#Game_crashes_when_certain_sound_effects_are_played_.28Windows_8.29.5B1.5D thanks for the fix!

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Coca Cola:

Fix pushed to http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Serious_Sam:_The_Random_Encounter#Game_crashes_when_certain_sound_effects_are_played_.28Windows_8.29.5B1.5D thanks for the fix!

Awesome, thanks! I visit that wiki a lot, but I was going to wait for a few bug reports before writing about it.

[Kesseleth]

....
♥♥♥♥ing Jesus god yes! Finally! Thank you so much!

[Noxedwin]

Originally posted by Jeff:

[snip]

Confirmed that this works. It's sad how it seemed to take you such a short amount of time to roll out a fix that Vlambeer has been "struggling" for years to find the time to push out.

You're an absolute hero. I am stunned. This is proof that they just didn't care.

You should include a little hack in this to change the company slates at the beginning, to add your own identity to it. God knows you deserve it.
I can see Vlambeer pushing this solution as their own, like "hey guys, we finally did it, you need an IPS patcher, you can thank us and keep throwing money at us now".

Please change the IPS file to include some mention of yourself. People need to know, if even for two seconds, what you've done for us because Vlambeer wouldn't.

[Kesseleth]

♥♥♥♥ it. Sending an email to Vlambeer telling them what I think.

Tell me, OP, how long did it take you to create this crash fix?

[rockit]

Awesome. It works. Thank you.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Nox13last:

You should include a little hack in this to change the company slates at the beginning, to add your own identity to it. God knows you deserve it.

Please change the IPS file to include some mention of yourself. People need to know, if even for two seconds, what you've done for us because Vlambeer wouldn't.

My name's in this thread, so anyone who downloads the patch will know I made it. My intentions aren't to be famous or to vandalize the game, I just know how the crash works and fixed it.

Originally posted by Nox13last:

I can see Vlambeer pushing this solution as their own, like "hey guys, we finally did it, you need an IPS patcher, you can thank us and keep throwing money at us now".

They would probably just push a prepatched .exe instead of the patch itself =P makes more sense to me.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Discord Kantus:

Tell me, OP, how long did it take you to create this crash fix?

I fixed The Random Encounter within three days. Super Crate Box took only an afternoon.

I think Vlambeer is planning on updating their old games to be made with the new version of game maker, but that will take more time and effort than what I did.

[Kesseleth]

I just sent the following to [e-mail]. Let us hope they respond.



I legally purchased a copy of Serious Sam: The Random Encounter quite a long time ago, and I was quite excited to play it. However, I was dismayed to find that there was a bug that caused it to crash quite early on. This happened every time I attempted to run the game. I then looked online to find the solution to this problem. As it turned out, I was not alone.

In fact, a great many people had this problem. There is a pretty large thread on Steam devoted to it. There didn't seem to be a fix for it, unfortunately.

However, you, Rami, came to the rescue with the following exact quote:

"Hey there,

Oh man, thanks so much! We're actually fixing this as we speak, but it'll take a bit before it's tested and ready.

Regards,

--

Rami"

That fix never came. Instead, we got this other exact quote:

"Developer here. So there's good news and bad news!

The good news is that we can actually fix this problem after weeks of fruitless hunting for the problem. The bug is based in middleware -software that we use to play audio within the game that didn't work with Windows 8-, but recently a set of workarounds was found that can potentially resolve the problem.

The bad news is that we're completely swamped with our new titles, Nuclear Throne and LUFTRAUSERS. We're a two-man team, as you might know, and this fix would cost us a week, week and a half to implement, after which we have to spend some time wrapping that build up for upload. We're using Nuclear Throne as a test implementation - so if that game releases without major bugs for Windows 8, we'll work on implementing them here too. Hopefully, that will be somewhere in Q1 next year.

In the meanwhile, we'd like to super, super, super apologise for all of this. Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is a game that was released a while ago, and we didn't realise this thread was here. As always, feel free to e-mail me at [e-mail] with questions, remarks or responses. In the meawhile, I'll try and drop by here every now and then."

Said "dropping by" never happened. For that matter, neither did the fix. This quote was taken from your own comment, on that very Steam thread, in late 2013. It has not happened in Q1 the following year, or anytime the following year.

However, earlier today, would you like to know what was posted? A fix! Lovely! However, this fix commits the cardinal sin of not being made by Vlambeer; that is to say, we have not recieved a patch fixing this issue from the people who promised us a patch fixing this issue over a year ago. Instead, we recieve a patch fixing this issue from some completely unknown source who has no reputation they need to protect or money they need to earn from this issue. They chose to do this because they thought it would be nice. I even went so far as to contact the creator, Jeff, and ask how long development of this fix took. Their response?

I fixed The Random Encounter within three days. Super Crate Box took only an afternoon.

Indeed, they have also fixed Super Crate Box, another game of yours that has also had this issue. Another game of yours. With a game-breaking bug. That you did not fix.

Might I note that Jeff is not the developer of either game. You are. And you owe me-nay, you owe us the fix you promised over a year ago.

Discord Kantus

[Kesseleth]

Originally posted by Jeff:

Originally posted by Nox13last:

You should include a little hack in this to change the company slates at the beginning, to add your own identity to it. God knows you deserve it.

Please change the IPS file to include some mention of yourself. People need to know, if even for two seconds, what you've done for us because Vlambeer wouldn't.

My name's in this thread, so anyone who downloads the patch will know I made it. My intentions aren't to be famous or to vandalize the game, I just know how the crash works and fixed it.

Originally posted by Nox13last:

I can see Vlambeer pushing this solution as their own, like "hey guys, we finally did it, you need an IPS patcher, you can thank us and keep throwing money at us now".

They would probably just push a prepatched .exe instead of the patch itself =P makes more sense to me.

You deserve to vandalize the game. I don't suggest you put your name in the slates. I request you put your name in the slates.

[Noxedwin]

Originally posted by Discord Kantus:

Originally posted by Jeff:

My name's in this thread, so anyone who downloads the patch will know I made it. My intentions aren't to be famous or to vandalize the game, I just know how the crash works and fixed it.


They would probably just push a prepatched .exe instead of the patch itself =P makes more sense to me.

You deserve to vandalize the game. I don't suggest you put your name in the slates. I request you put your name in the slates.

THIS.
This is what I mean. You know on, like, ROMs that someone was able to rip off the cartridge, they bust the anti-piracy protection and leaves their name in the slates or on the title screen. Or they make a romhack and do the same.
I (and now Discord Kantus, it seems) suggest you do something like this. Like, no flashy 30 second intro, no pomp and circumstance, just a "These guys made this game, these guys published this game, these guys own the original SS franchise, and this guy made it work for you."

Originally posted by Discord Kantus:

I just sent the following to [e-mail]. Let us hope they respond.

Any response they make would just be bare-aѕѕed cheek. They really dropped the ball on this. It's absolutely appalling.
I mean, three days. Are you serious? It took a nobody (no offense, Jeff) three days to do what the owners said they would do and failed to do because they're obsessed with moving forwards without making sure things behind them work.

They're not going to live this down. If there's any justice on the internet, they're not going to ignore this fracas.

[arcani]

I know this is mentioned on the PC Gaming wiki, but it is worth mentioning here that any save game files BEFORE you apply the patch will not work. Not that you got far without it, but you do need to create a new game in order to use it. :)

[Jeff]

Originally posted by arcani:

I know this is mentioned on the PC Gaming wiki, but it is worth mentioning here that any save game files BEFORE you apply the patch will not work. Not that you got far without it, but you do need to create a new game in order to use it. :)

I'll add that to the first post. This game (and super crate box) both use the built in save mechenism from game maker. Instead of just saving importaint variables, it saves EVERYTHING, kind of like a save state in an emulator. So the old "ram" data doesn't match the new stuff. If I was a crazy person, I could try to dig out the importaint bits but that would take forever.