Version 3.0 Released!
Introducing Version 3:
Hello everybody! I'm really excited to announce the release of Version 3 of Marble Blast Portable. I've been doing a ton of work on this version, and I think you're going to be really happy with the results – I know I am! I've made a lot of changes and added several new features. I'll go into detail about each below.
Small Initial Download
One of the biggest issues with making a portable computer game is file size. Games are big, and unfortunately, there's no fixing that. To make a game portable, you need to include every file that the non-portable version has. If the non-portable is huge, the portable version will be huge as well. That was the problem with versions 1 and 2 of Marble Blast Portable. Every game was included with every download. This made an extremely large download of over 950MB. It's just not practical to have you download that big of a file every time I release an update. With the release of Version 3.0, you won't have that problem anymore. The initial download size is only 7.5MB! How, you ask? Read on.
Introducing Components!
When I included every game with Marble Blast Portable, the program was over 950MB in size. If I were to add another game (Say PlatinumQuest comes out and I add it, for example), Marble Blast Portable would've been over 1GB to download with every release. That's WAY too big! That's why I'm introducing the brand new component feature of Marble Blast Portable! It is, in my opinion, the best solution for the file size problem.
I’m no longer bundling games with the initial download of the Marble Blast Portable launcher program. When you first download it, you get the launcher’s interface and nothing else. You have to add the games you want on your own. I’ve created a virtual container for each different game, which you can download and add to the portable whenever you want. On top of that, each game is now completely optional – you choose which ones you want to download and take with you. Let’s say you want Marble Blast Platinum and Emerald, but no others. That’s no problem! You simply don’t download the components for the other games.
Adding a component is super simple. The file you download is named “[Game].R[Version].game,” where [Game] is the game’s name (Marble Blast Gold, for example), and [Version] is the release number for that component (.R1.game is release 1, .R2.game is release 2, and so on). Just move the downloaded file into the “Components” folder (included with the launcher), and you’re all set to play!
Since the games themselves are rarely updated, you won’t need to download new releases for components very often. The components that are uploaded right now will be compatible with all future launcher versions. So if a Marble Blast Portable update is released, you only need to update the 7.5MB launcher program. You will only need to update a component if a game itself is updated (Let’s say Platinum 1.2 comes out for PC. This is a case when a component would be updated). If I ever decide to add a game to Marble Blast Portable, you won’t need to download your components all over again. You’ll only need to download the new game’s component and update your launcher program.
Hopefully this wasn’t too hard to understand. I’ll eventually be uploading a video to YouTube showing how to add or update components, but for now, if you have any problems understanding all of this, just let me know and I’ll help you as best I can.
And Finally, a New Interface
If you couldn’t tell from the user interfaces of the last two releases, I’m a fan of fancy-looking programs. But after I used Marble Blast Portable on several netbooks, I came to the conclusion that the old interface, which used several large icons placed around the same window, just wasn’t practical. I’ve completely redesigned the interface in version 3.0, and I like the result. The window is much smaller now. There should be no problem using it on tiny screens. I made this change by moving all games into a dropdown menu, and only showing one icon at a time. Also, I’ve added a much-requested feature to the interface – a close button! Finally, there’s no more splash screen before the launcher opens, since several people requested that I remove it. Hopefully this new interface is still just as easy, if not easier, to understand.
Download!
In order to keep the list of downloads from being hard to find, It will only be posted on the first page of this topic. Please refer to the first post in this topic, on page 1, for a list of downloadable files.
Enjoy!
-Aether