Chibi-Robo! PC 0.1.1

Chibi-Robo! PC 0.1.1

Fixes and polish: the game has its own icon, the window opens centred, and freeze and exit handling are more robust.

What's new

• A new icon, an original robot pictogram drawn for this project (nothing from the game): executable, window and taskbar, shortcuts, installer and uninstaller.
• The uninstaller can also delete your saves and settings, only if you tick the box (unticked by default) and confirm.
• The game window opens centred, with its title bar visible (#44).
• A freeze report should no longer be able to freeze the game itself (#36); the game closes much faster on a heavily loaded computer (#35).
• Direct3D 11, the last-resort graphics backend, now draws the US version correctly (#38); without any usable GPU the game falls back to Microsoft's software renderer (slow; only checked by hiding the GPU with a test switch).
• Clearer messages for missing or damaged game files and when switching an installation between US and PAL.
• Also closed: #39 (test tooling) and #45 (research on the basement music, no code change).

Download

1. Download chibi-robo-pc-setup-0.1.1.exe (31.6 MB, 31 628 452 bytes) and check it against SHA256SUMS.txt (certutil -hashfile <file> SHA256). SHA-256: 05fddc0d0ad8b36da4807d1cf3eb1d3952e807c51097543ad94cbcd341701a90
2. Run it and choose your own disc image (US GGTE01 or PAL GGTP01, uncompressed .iso / .gcm). No game data is included. Step by step: https://github.com/Armandpro12/chibi-robo-pc/blob/main/guide/installation.md
3. Already have 0.1.0? Run the new installer over it (your saves and settings are kept).

Known problems

• Intermittent crash at the start of 3D rendering, seen about once in 400 launches before: none in 2 400 launches now (1 200 per version), which does not prove it fixed (#11).
• Repeated crashes at the same instruction on one player's machine, cause unknown (#28).
• Most video cutscenes are not compared with the original yet (#34).
• The installer does not accept compressed images (.rvz, .ciso, ZIP...).
• All open issues: https://github.com/Armandpro12/chibi-robo-pc/issues

Not tested yet

• A clean Windows (including Windows Sandbox), Windows 10, other graphics hardware, a PC without a GPU.
• Two screens (window centring); playing through the whole game; listening and playing by a human.
• The installer wizard and uninstaller with real clicks (checked only on a hidden desktop), the "delete my saves" box on real folders, the Programs-list entry and shortcuts after an update, and how the icon looks to a person (checked by screenshots).

If the game crashes, share only the crash-*.txt report, after reading it:
https://github.com/Armandpro12/chibi-robo-pc/blob/main/guide/reporting-crashes.md. More: the
README. Unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Nintendo
or skip Ltd.

Chibi-Robo! PC 0.1.0 (phase 1, Windows)

Chibi-Robo! PC 0.1.0 — first release (phase 1: faithful native port, Windows)

A native Windows port of Chibi-Robo! (GameCube) made by static recompilation of the game's PowerPC code. Nothing
is emulated at the hardware level. This release contains no game data: the installer asks for your own disc
image (US GGTE01 or PAL GGTP01, uncompressed .iso / .gcm; other formats must be converted first).

Install

1. Download chibi-robo-pc-setup-ab94655939f7.exe and check it against SHA256SUMS.txt (certutil -hashfile <file> SHA256).
2. Run it, choose your disc image, choose a folder (a new or empty one), and wait: the installer checks the image,
   copies it into the folder (about 1.5 GB installed in total) and installs per user, without administrator rights.
3. Start the game from the Start menu. A setup menu opens first (window size, fullscreen, render scale, graphics
   backend); the first launch may take a little longer (about 1-2 s measured here) while shaders are compiled.
4. Uninstalling removes only what the installer put there. Saves and settings stay in your user folder
   (%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Chibi Robo PC\ and %APPDATA%\Chibi Robo PC\).

What was checked (by the project, on one development machine)

• Windows 11, NVIDIA graphics, Direct3D 12 and Vulkan.
• Automatic comparison against native reference runs, for both versions: boot, title screen, new game, loading and
  saving a game: images, sound and save files identical to the references.
• Scripted play: the prologue up to and including the birthday party, the first save, leaving the Chibi-House with the
  first module load and unload, and the credits video, on both versions; a scripted 50-minute game session from a
  late save (US) and a 30-minute one from a new game (PAL) without a crash.
• Compared with Dolphin on the key scenes (images of the boot screens, title screen, menus, loading, party, living
  room, backyard; sound of the title screen, party, living room, backyard). Known differences are listed in the
  ROADMAP.
• The installer: install, refusal of a wrong image, reinstall, uninstall (saves kept) and simulated failures,
  tested on this machine with silent installs, on both versions.

Not tested yet (please be careful)

• A clean Windows (including Windows Sandbox), Windows 10, other graphics hardware (AMD, Intel), a PC without a GPU
  (there is no software-renderer fallback yet), the installer's interactive wizard and the Programs-list entry.
• Playing through the whole game: only the beginning is covered by automatic tests. Other areas, the mini-games and
  most video cutscenes have not been compared with the original.
• Listening to the sound and playing with a gamepad were not done by a human yet.

Known problems

• Intermittent crash at the start of 3D rendering, seen about once in 400 launches in stress tests (issue 11): a
  race inside the graphics library was identified and reduced, but the fix is not proven.
• Two crash reports from one player's machine, at the same recompiled-code store (issue 28): cause unknown, not
  reproduced.
• Direct3D 11 draws the US version wrongly (issue 38): the game never selects it unless Direct3D 12 and Vulkan both
  fail.
• A hang or crash report written while the game loop is blocked can itself stall (issue 36); the process can take
  minutes to exit under heavy CPU load (issue 35).
• The installer does not download or accept .rvz, .ciso, ZIP or other compressed images.

Reporting a problem

Open an issue at https://github.com/Armandpro12/chibi-robo-pc/issues with your Windows and graphics driver version
and what you did. If the game crashed, attach only the crash-*.txt report from the crashes folder in your user
folder, after reading it (see the README, "Crash reports": the other files of a report hold game memory and must not
be shared). Never attach game files or your disc image.

Licences

The project's own code is GPL-3.0. The recompiled game code inside the executable is derived from the original game
and is not licensed by this project. THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.txt (inside the installer, in the install folder) lists
the licences of the bundled libraries (SDL3, Dawn, Aurora, Dear ImGui, the Visual C++ runtime and others). This is an
unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo or skip Ltd.

Source: https://github.com/Armandpro12/chibi-robo-pc (the executables were built from commit ab94655; the
installer from commit c4a4b94).

Files

• chibi-robo-pc-setup-ab94655939f7.exe — the installer (31.5 MB).
• SHA256SUMS.txt — SHA-256 of the installer.
• payload-manifest.txt — the files the installer can install, with sizes and SHA-256.