Golden Balloon 1.0.5

Golden Balloon 1.0.5

Released 2026-08-06.

Golden Balloon 1.0.5 is a fix release. It closes the six reported problems
listed below, repairs Return to Launcher and the diagnostic log on Windows,
corrects launcher layout at small window sizes, and adds an opt-in setting that
stops the gameplay camera from entering walls. No game data is included.

Recommended settings are unchanged from 1.0.4: WebGPU, Restored, frame
limit Original, motion smoothing Off, gameplay cadence Original.
Existing preferences are preserved when upgrading.

Reported problems fixed

• Course names show correctly again. Fossil Canyon and Pirate Lagoon
  rendered as a single letter or as nothing in Track Select and Adventure, and
  the track names in the post-Wizpig 2 credits were affected the same way. The
  level-name table was allocated at half the size it needed on 64-bit builds.
  (#10)
• The giant character portraits are back in Smokey Castle and Fire
  Mountain, so you can tell which corner is yours without trial and error.
  The same fix restores the boost shockwave plume and Star City's rainfall,
  which were also drawing nothing. (#9)
• Intro shrubs reach the ground instead of floating with a repeated top.
  (#11)
• PAL: the strip along the right edge of the screen is gone, and the track
  map is no longer cut off at the bottom. European ROMs compose a taller
  surface than the renderer was assuming, and the port was clipping the world
  at the viewport edge where the console clips further out. NTSC output is
  unchanged, byte for byte. (#12)
• Taj no longer freezes during his own balloon award ceremony. Playing as
  Taj had truncated the animation set the ceremony actor shares with him. Taj
  also keeps his boost on zip pads now, and his Time Trial finishes are no
  longer discarded silently. (#13)
• Return to Launcher returns to the launcher on Windows instead of closing
  the whole application, including when the install path contains a space.
  (#14)

Other fixes

• mdkr64.log is no longer empty. Launched from Explorer the app has no
  standard output to capture, but the file was rotated and truncated anyway,
  so every run left an empty log and destroyed the previous one. There is now
  something to attach to a bug report.
• The launcher's About destination is no longer clipped at common window
  heights, and the gold Play button keeps its lower edge at 800x600.
• Changing an unrelated setting no longer rebases a cadence or presentation
  choice that came from a preset or from the launcher.
• Audio recovery after a stall no longer clicks, and a stall part-way through
  a fade no longer leaves the fade stuck.
• A restart-scoped settings change that fails to stage or start now says why.
• Track Select no longer exposes a bare column at the right of its backdrop on
  wide displays.
• In the browser, two tabs open at once no longer overwrite each other's saves.
  The first tab owns the save store; a second tab plays as a spectator and says
  so, with import, edit, restore, erase, and drag-and-drop disabled. Exports
  still work in every tab. The page also works offline once loaded, and a
  cached page can no longer mix an old and a new build.
• Bounds and lifetime fixes across level text, audio, collision, ghosts,
  Controller Pak note names, particles, and the decompressor. Eighth place's
  racing line now matches what the original hardware actually did, wall recoil
  works again for planes and bosses, and a computer-carried egg is no longer
  drawn frozen.

New setting: keep the camera out of walls

Settings → Presentation → Camera obstruction turns on a camera that no
longer slides into terrain, doors, or other solid geometry. It keeps your racer
in view and works in every viewport and split-screen layout.

What the game is steering is untouched. Only the picture moves, so kart
handling, race results, ghosts, and saves are all bit-for-bit what they were —
the same race replays identically whether the correction is on or off.

The setting has two values: Authored (original camera), the camera the game
has always written, and Keep out of walls. Authored is the default while the
correction is being polished. A change applies on the next launch, is remembered
with your other preferences, and no presentation mode changes it for you.

Known limitations

• WebGPU is the recommended renderer. OpenGL is a diagnostic option, and the
  Remastered look is still in progress.
• Motion smoothing is a preview. It smooths the picture only — the game itself
  still runs at its original pace — and scrolling surfaces such as waterfalls,
  water, and lava can shimmer or step during camera motion. Off is unaffected.
• The desktop app supports keyboard and gamepad navigation, visible focus,
  scaling, contrast, and reduced motion. Screen readers are not supported yet.
• On Linux, load a ROM by drag and drop or by typing its path; there is no
  native file picker yet.
• The macOS app is not notarized. If macOS shows an unidentified-developer
  warning on first launch, use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open
  Anyway.

For implementation details, see CHANGELOG.md. Open work is
listed in ROADMAP.md.