Golden Sun Recompiled 0.7.1

New

• Custom Battle Arena backgrounds. The receptionist has an Arena tab after Bosses. Preview the battle scenery and choose where to fight. The Broken Seal offers 25 backgrounds and The Lost Age offers 37. Default keeps the usual scenery.
• Overworld Retreat. Enable Better Field Psy and cast Retreat on the world map to travel to a town you’ve already visited. Available in both games, including while sailing in The Lost Age.
• Custom music by area and battle theme. Use F1 → Music to find an area or battle theme, pick a track, or shuffle individual entries or the whole soundtrack. You can reset choices individually or all at once. Each game saves its own choices, and the feature works with the original soundtrack and the remastered music mod.
• Walk as anyone. Outside battle you walk as your party leader, so reordering the party changes who you see on the field. Pick a specific character in F1 → Game → Walking character, or choose Original character for the usual behaviour. Available in both games. Other characters don't have every field animation the main hero has, so they use their walking animation for moves like pushing or climbing and may look a little odd at times.
• David’s OG GBA Colours. A new colour preset for both games under F1 → Video → Colours.
• Quit confirmation. The game pauses and warns you about unsaved progress before quitting. You can turn off the warning separately for each game.

Technical Improvements

• Fullscreen and trackers. The launcher and both games remember fullscreen. On Windows, the Djinn and Treasure trackers stay above fullscreen play. On Linux, they draw inside the fullscreen game so they stay visible when you change their options. They return to their saved desktop positions in windowed mode.
• Display and audio preferences. In-game shortcuts now save window scale, volume, and FPS display preferences.
• Music search. Typing in search takes priority over game shortcuts. Escape leaves the search field before closing the menu.
• Lower-resource builds. The launcher’s Use fewer system resources option caps the build at 50% of CPU capacity and 50% of installed RAM. It also applies when you choose Build both. On Linux, this option requires systemd 254 or later with user CPU and memory controls.
• Launcher and build reliability. Both games share build progress, cancellation, and retry handling. The launcher checks installed game libraries for damage and detects when shared changes require both games to rebuild. Older builds without a recorded checksum need a one-time rebuild. Fixed a Windows link failure in The Broken Seal.
• Save conversion prompts. The prompts follow the selected game language and explain that conversion transfers in-game saves only. F-key savestates stay with their original language.
• F12 captures and reports. Both games use the same capture controls. Loading a savestate clears the previous capture notice, and bug reports identify any files they couldn’t include.
• Shared rendering and build tools. Both games use the same sprite rendering and masking rules, and share more of their Windows build and packaging code. Replay checks now catch single-channel colour changes and missing comparisons.

0.7

New features!

Both games now support English, Spanish, Italian, French and German.

• Pick a flag under each game in the launcher. The two games can use different languages, and each language needs its matching ROM.
• The added in-game settings, F1 menu, trackers and custom-battle questions use the game's selected language too. Build and save-conversion questions in the launcher follow the flag for the game you're building.
• Each language keeps its own saves and savestates, so switching flags keeps your progress separate.
• Fixed translated settings slipping back into English when selected, and labels running out of room in the original menus.

Bringing your English save along

After building a new language, the launcher can offer to copy your English in-game save across. It keeps the English original, won't replace an existing save in the new language, and remembers if you say no.

This only transfers in-game saves. F-key savestates do not transfer between languages. Your old states stay with their original language. When you load a converted in-game save, your characters return to the nearest sanctuary.

Djinn Tracker

A little window to help you keep track of who's still missing, in both games. Turn it on in the launcher's settings or under F1 → Game.

• Djinn are grouped by element, with a count for each one.
• Djinn you've found show their picture. Missing ones show as question marks; point at one to see where to look.
• If you'd rather see everyone, turn on Djinn Tracker: show all Djinn. Missing Djinn then keep their name and picture, dimmed.
• Click an element's heading to fold it away. The tracker remembers which sections you've folded.

Treasure Tracker

Both games also get a checklist of treasures, grouped by location. Turn it on beside the Djinn Tracker in the launcher or under F1 → Game.

• Treasures are ticked and dimmed once you've taken them, with counts for each place.
• The place you're in opens automatically when you arrive. Other places can be folded away.
• Chests only hides other pickups. Contents shows what each treasure holds, if you don't mind knowing before you open it.

Both tracker windows can be moved and resized. With OpenGL you can drag them outside the game window; with Direct3D they stay inside it.

Choose your Battle Mode opponents

You can now put together your own fights in both games' Battle Arenas.

• The receptionist offers to let you choose your opponents: how many, which monsters, and whether they fight at their normal strength or match your party.
• A monster list with battle pictures lets you see what you're picking, with a separate page for bosses and a review before the fight starts.
• An unfinished save offers opponents according to your progress. Clear Data opens the full list.
• The list only offers combinations that fit the game's battle formation.
• Fixed crowded custom fights corrupting other sprites, and large monsters such as Kraken losing half their artwork. Their picker pictures now show both halves too.
• Custom battles also work with the translated ROMs, including the extra questions and monster picker.
• Leaving the picker with no monsters selected cancels the conversation. With monsters selected, the receptionist asks whether to fight that selection. Declining ends the conversation instead of asking you to keep adding monsters.

Choose Battle Mode opponents is on by default. Decline the offer to choose your own opponents for the usual random fight, or turn the option off in the launcher.

Enemy HP bars

Both games have an optional Enemy HP bar under F1 → Game. While choosing a target, a small red bar and HP number show how much health that enemy has left. It follows your selection and disappears when you finish picking. Off by default.

Fixed issues

The Lost Age

Jupiter Lighthouse

• Jupiter Lighthouse's beacon now reaches the top of the wider view.

Battles and Psynergy

• Supernova's explosion sparks now carry on past the original screen.

World map and ending

• Fixed the bottom corners of the wider view wobbling while flying the ship.
• The black bars when entering a town now close across the whole wider view.
• The ending's world-map flyover now shows the proper surrounding map during its zooms, instead of wrapped strips.
• Lighthouse flashes in the ending now spread and fade across the wider view without repeating the circular glow at the sides.
• Mt. Aleph's gold glow now carries into the extra space around the screen, instead of turning purple there.

Music mods

• The opening before Venus Lighthouse now uses the remastered First Book Extended recording, with its own loop.

Both games

• Long settings descriptions now scroll neatly inside their box in all five languages. Short descriptions stay still.
• F1 remembers your chosen menu size and position when you shrink the game window. Returning to a larger window or fullscreen restores that layout.
• Reduced repeated checks during play, improving Turbo, especially in The Lost Age's battles. Its speed still depends on the scene and your PC.
• Corrected the Venus Lighthouse loop using the loop points supplied by JusteD. The same correction applies when The Lost Age uses that recording.
• Remastered music now quiets for item and inn jingles and comes back up afterwards, following the game's own volume changes and fades.
• Savestates with invalid sound or save-memory values are now rejected safely, keeping the running game intact.
• Extended the map-unpacking safety net to a second unpacker involved in a reported Lost Age crash. The original cause is still being investigated; this adds protection and better evidence if it happens again.
• The player builder checks its files before clearing its work folder and refuses to clear unrelated folders.
• Windows packages now use one shared compiler for both games, rather than keeping two copies.

Thanks again to Vincent Dortel, aka JusteD, for the remastered soundtracks and his help getting the loops right.

Known issues

• Loading a savestate made at a different screen size can still garble graphics. Change between Original, Wide or Extra Wide and back to redraw the screen.
• TLA: some spell effects and most summon effects don't fully make use of the added margins.
• TLA: Raging Flood still causes a little slowdown.
• TLA: the ending still has a horizontal line during a lighthouse flash.
• TBS, Linux: one report of missing or misplaced people during the Vale boulder scene hasn't been reproducible on our test systems. If you see it, please send an F12 capture and your exact system specifications (Linux distribution, CPU, GPU and graphics driver version).

0.6.1

Smoother frame pacing for both games, and more fixes since 0.6, mostly for
The Lost Age's wider view.

Smoother frame pacing

Both games now hand each frame to your screen at a steadier rhythm.

• The game runs at 60 frames a second, so a new frame is due every 1/60th
  of a second. Before, the game showed a frame first and only then waited
  out the rest of that time. A busy frame (a big spell, lots of people on
  screen) could then arrive a little late and a quiet one a little early,
  even though the game kept its usual speed overall.
• Now the game does all the work for a frame first and waits until just
  before showing it, so frames reach the screen at even intervals however
  much is going on. Movement and scrolling should look smoother, especially
  in busy scenes.
• The game's speed doesn't change, and nothing about how it plays changes
  either. Fast Forward works as before.

The Lost Age

Mars Lighthouse

• Fixed the cloud ripple and the banners at the edges of the wider view,
  and a stripe along the top row of the cloud wave.
• The dragon's fire now shows in the wider view too, instead of stopping at
  the original screen.

Prox

• Snow in Prox now falls across the whole wider view, not just the original
  screen.
• Fixed the colours of the snow in the Djinn menu.

Great Gabomba

• Fixed the slowdown during the Great Gabomba ritual.

Battles and Psynergy

• Haures's black shards are no longer cut off at the original screen edge.
• Eclipse's summon graphics now stay drawn in the wider view as they move
  around.
• Fixed the screen tints when casting spells in the wider view.
• The camera now behaves properly when you cast Psynergy in the field.

Everywhere

• Weather now keeps showing behind menus.
• Fixed flickering while walking on stairs.
• Fixed some camera moves that never actually moved the camera.

The Broken Seal

• Fixed black boxes in the sky over Tret.
• Casting particles now look right with battles sped up to 2x.

Both games

• Fixed sprites that sit entirely in the wider view, outside the original
  screen, not being drawn.
• Fixed graphics in scenes where the game changes screen mode partway down
  the screen.
• Saving is now safer: your save file is only replaced once the new one has
  been written in full, so a failed save can no longer leave you without
  one. The same goes for savestates.
• The F1 menu now fits itself to the size of the window.
• The music mod guide now says it plainly: music mods are FLAC only. The
  tool for finding loop points is now included for anyone making their own.

Known issues

• Loading a savestate made at a different screen size (for example Extra
  Wide, loaded in Original) can still garble graphics, such as Felix turning
  into a mess of lines. Changing the screen size between Original, Wide or
  Extra Wide and back redraws the screen and fixes it.
• TLA, music mods: the opening scene before Venus Lighthouse keeps the
  original music.
• TLA: Raging Flood has the wrong shape, gets cut off at the edges and
  causes slowdown.
• TLA: an effect in Great Gabomba can show bits of text instead of its
  proper graphics.
• TLA: Supernova doesn't fill the wider view yet, and some other summon
  graphics still have smaller issues at the edges.
• TLA: the beacon light at Jupiter Lighthouse stops short of the top of the
  wider view.
• TLA: an apple in a snowy tree can show as junk at the edge until it
  reaches the original screen.
• TBS: the scenery around Kolima's pond doesn't follow the water as it
  drains.
• TBS: we've had one report of a crash while changing the view size. If you
  can make it happen, please send us a report.

0.6

A new feature for both games, and a long list of fixes since 0.5.3, mostly
for The Lost Age's wider view.

New: music mods (FLAC support)

Both games can now play your own music in place of the original soundtrack,
for example the remastered Golden Sun soundtracks by Vincent Dortel aka
Juste-D.

• Put the album's FLAC files in Music/TBS and Music/TLA next to
  the launcher. Each song then plays the matching recording instead of the
  game's own music. Sound effects stay as they are.
• Every song loops where the game loops it, at the exact spot in the
  recording, so it carries on without a jump. A song that ends in the game
  (like the ending theme) plays once and stops.
• The Lost Age plays its own album, and The Broken Seal's recordings for the
  songs it borrows from the first game, such as the victory fanfare.
• The first time the launcher finds a music folder, it asks whether you want
  to use it. You can change your mind later with "Enable Music Mod" under the
  cogwheel, or in game under F1 → Audio, where it switches straight away.
  Both are greyed out when no music is found.
• Fades, pausing and volume work as with the original music. Fast Forward
  doesn't speed up the recordings. If a file is missing or can't be read,
  that song plays the original.
• Not every track has been listened to in game yet to make sure it loops
  neatly. If you find one that loops incorrectly, please let us know which
  song and where you heard it.

The music isn't part of the game download. Juste-D's remastered Golden Sun
and The Lost Age soundtracks are available as a ready-made music mod, loop
points included. Unzip it next to the launcher and you're set.

• Download the music mod
• Juste-D's original albums
• Juste-D on YouTube
• Make your own music mod

Many thanks to Vincent Dortel aka Juste-D for the remaster, for letting us
share it, and for his help with the loop points.

The Lost Age

Jupiter Lighthouse

• The tops of the push pillars and of the lightning-rod block now show near
  the edges of the wider view.
• Fixed the clouds by the rooftop smearing, a black bar above them, and junk
  at the room's left edge.

World map and sailing

• Quakes on the world map (such as after Jupiter Lighthouse) now shake the
  edges of the wider view too. This isn't fully fixed yet: some glitches
  may remain.
• Islands at the edges keep their own climate: snowy ones stay snowy, green
  ones stay green, and they no longer flicker when you sail across a snow
  border.
• The Select map screen now shows more of the map around it, instead of a
  frozen view of the sea.
• Walk Speed now also speeds up flying the ship.

Lemuria, Sea of Time and Atteka

• Lemuria's clouds now continue neatly into the wider view.
• Stepping off the Lemuria dock stairs no longer swings the camera away.
• The water in Atteka's inlet now fills the wider view.

Alhafra

• Moving water at the edges of the wider view now keeps moving during
  dialogue.

Gondowan Cliffs

• Fixed garbled scenery outside the original view.

Aqua Rock and Gaia Rock

• Water and beam of light effects are now properly drawn in the margins.
• Fixed a black square the size of the original screen appearing in a cave.
• Fixed a shrine platform showing up late at the edges after the camera
  moved.
• Gaia Rock's distant scenery now fills the whole wider view.

Shaman Village

• The tornado in Shaman Village now reaches the top of the wider view, like
  the ones at Air's Rock.

Cliff tops

• The sky on the cliff tops now fills the whole wider view.

Battles and Psynergy

• The Eclipse summon is no longer cut off at the old screen edge. Other
  large battle sprites near the edges benefit too, though some smaller
  issues with summon graphics remain.
• Fixed the edges of the wider view when using items in battle.
• The letters on summon tablets now carry on past the original screen
  instead of being cut off. Other field effects placed the same way benefit
  too.

Everywhere

• Going back to the Original view no longer leaves people striped or
  Psynergy icons missing.

The Broken Seal

• The opening storm in Vale now rains across the whole wider view, top to
  bottom.
• Flint's shadow now follows him into the wider view.

Both games

• Fixed garbled graphics after switching the view size.
• Fixed slowdowns caused by the game writing the same warning to its log
  over and over. Most noticeable in The Lost Age when learning Psynergy,
  casting Burst, and in some battles.
• The launcher asks once about music mods and has the new "Enable Music Mod"
  option (see above).

Known issues

• Loading a savestate made at a different screen size (for example Extra
  Wide, loaded in Original) can still garble graphics, such as Felix turning
  into a mess of lines. Changing the screen size between Original, Wide or
  Extra Wide and back redraws the screen and fixes it.
• TLA, music mods: the opening scene before Venus Lighthouse keeps the
  original music.
• TLA: Raging Flood has the wrong shape, gets cut off at the edges and
  causes slowdown.
• TLA: an effect in Great Gabomba can show bits of text instead of its
  proper graphics.
• TLA: slowdown during the Great Gabomba ritual remains unresolved.
• TLA: Supernova doesn't fill the wider view yet, and some other summon
  graphics still have smaller issues at the edges.
• TLA: the beacon light at Jupiter Lighthouse stops short of the top of the
  wider view.
• TLA: an apple in a snowy tree can show as junk at the edge until it
  reaches the original screen.
• TLA: we've had one report of a crash after about 40 minutes of play.
  If it happens to you, turn on F1 → Crash log and send us the report.
• TLA: walking can occasionally stutter. We haven't been able to reproduce
  it yet.
• TBS: the scenery around Kolima's pond doesn't follow the water as it
  drains.
• TBS: we've had one report of a crash while changing the view size. If you
  can make it happen, please send us a report.
• We're still looking into performance for both games, including Turbo
  speed in TLA.

Golden Sun Recompiled - 0.5.3

Fixes since 0.5.2. Mostly The Lost Age, mostly the wider view, and mostly
things that should have stayed where they belong.

The Lost Age

• Fixed the camera refusing to follow you in some rooms in the wider view.
• Fixed sprites flickering in Izumo.
• Some of the people standing outside the room no longer hang around in the black
  next to it. They've been sent home.
• Fixed the game freezing during the intro on startup.
• Gaia Rock's vines no longer jump around while they move.
• Fixed black bars beside Gaia Rock's background.
• Fixed landmarks on the world map showing garbled graphics.
• Rain now fills the whole wider view wherever it falls, not just the
  original screen. Rainbow Water stays where it belongs. Mostly.
• Jumping pads and the sparkles travelling between them now show properly
  in the wider view.
• Champa's sunlight now carries on neatly into the wider view instead of
  breaking up at the edges.
• Fixed Cyclone's blue ring hanging around after the spell when Better
  Field Psy is on.
• Fixed the draining water in the pool spilling over the pillar and
  walkway at the edges of the wider view.
• Trimmed some of the work behind TLA's slowdowns. Not solved yet; see
  Known issues.

The Broken Seal

• Hopefully fixed long pauses in the Djinn menu. Couldn't reproduce locally.

Both games

• Heat haze, mist and sunlight now continue into the wider view by
  recognising the effect itself, instead of a list of places we'd already
  fixed by hand. New rooms with the same kind of effect should just work.
• Fixed a possible crash when quitting.
• Crash reports and F12 captures now hold more of what we need to track
  down problems. They don't record anything extra while you play.

Known issues

• Loading a savestate in a larger view than it was created in can still
  cause garbled graphics across the screen.
• TLA: some map scenery outside the original view at Gondowan Cliffs still
  looks garbled.
• TLA: Raging Flood has the wrong shape, gets cut off at the edges and
  causes slowdown.
• TLA: an effect in Great Gabomba can show bits of text instead of its
  proper graphics.
• TLA: slowdown during the Great Gabomba ritual remains unresolved.
• TLA: snow scenery can appear a frame late in the wider view.
• TLA: sailing scenery remains around the edges when opening the map screen.
• TLA: we've had one report of a crash after about 40 minutes of play.
  If it happens to you, turn on F1 → Crash log and send us the report.
• TLA: walking can occasionally stutter. We haven't been able to
  reproduce it yet.
• TBS: rain doesn't fill the wider view during the intro.
• TBS: the scenery around Kolima's pond doesn't follow the water as it drains.
• We're still looking into performance for both games, including Turbo
  speed in TLA.

Golden Sun Recompiled - 0.5.2

More fixes for both games and the launcher since 0.5.1.
I've also listed the sprite memory fixes that weren't explained individually
in the 0.5.1 notes.

The Broken Seal

• Seamless mode now lets you choose where to save the Clear Data, with
  confirmation before overwriting a slot. Choose another slot to keep your
  playable save; The Lost Age imports the Clear Data from your chosen slot.
• Fixed a cave flickering at the top of the world map when it should have
  been below the screen.

The Lost Age

• Added "Update from The Broken Seal" under F1 → Game. Choose a TBS save
  file, its Clear Data slot and the saved TLA slot to update before the
  reunion. Your current game stays intact, and a backup is kept. Load the
  updated slot to use the new transfer data.
• Fixed the crash when opening the world map.
• Fixed some missing scenery around Gondowan Cliffs in the wider view.
• Fixed Felix and the moving crate in Kibombo losing access to the extra
  sprite memory when their animation changed, briefly showing bits of text
  instead of their proper graphics.
• Fixed the scenery turning the wrong colours around the Djinn menu.
• Fixed extra copies of Drench appearing around the edges of the wider view.
• Fixed the water stopping short at the edge of the wider view while on
  the ship's deck.
• The Walk Speed setting now applies to sailing too.

TLA sprite memory fixes

These were already included in 0.5.1, but deserve a proper mention:

• Increased the sprite memory available for characters in the wider view,
  leaving more room for menus, portraits and effects.
• Fixed cases where running out of sprite memory caused Pound to look
  garbled, menu icons or portraits to go missing, and dialogue to become
  corrupted.
• Fixed garbled sand effects and dust puffs showing the wrong graphics.
• Fixed corrupted battle sprites caused by fighters using the extra memory
  meant for field characters.
• Fixed character graphics briefly becoming corrupted when opening or
  closing menus.

Both games

• Keyboard, controller and hotkey bindings now carry between both games.
• Added an Alternate controller binding under F1 → Controls, allowing the
  D-pad and control stick to work at the same time.
• Added Soft Reset under F1 → Hotkeys, configurable for keyboard or
  controller and unassigned by default. It restarts the current game while
  keeping disk saves; unsaved progress is lost. After a Seamless handover,
  it returns to The Lost Age's own title screen without repeating the transfer.
• Restored asynchronous GPU readback: frames are queued rather than always
  waiting for an immediate copy from the GPU to the CPU. This is intended
  to reduce CPU/GPU waiting; a speedup on slower graphics cards hasn't been
  measured yet.
• Improved how the picture updates when resizing the window or switching
  between menus, spells and the world map.

Launcher

• The game selector now shows the version number.
• ROMs can be imported regardless of their filename, but must still be
  .gba files. They're checked to make sure they're the right ROM unless
  you enable "Skip the ROM check".
• Linux's KDE file picker now has an "All files" option.

Known issues

• Loading a savestate in a larger view than it was created in can still
  cause garbled graphics across the screen.
• TLA: some map scenery outside the original view at Gondowan Cliffs still
  looks garbled.
• TLA: Raging Flood has the wrong shape, gets cut off at the edges and
  causes slowdown.
• TLA: an effect in Great Gabomba can show bits of text instead of its
  proper graphics.
• TLA: slowdown during the Great Gabomba ritual remains unresolved.
• TLA: snow scenery can appear a frame late in the wider view.
• TLA: sailing scenery remains around the edges when opening the map screen.
• TLA: occasional startup and loading pauses are still under investigation.
• TBS: rain doesn't fill the wider view during the intro.
• TBS: the scenery around Kolima's pond doesn't follow the water as it drains.
• We're still looking into performance improvements for both games,
  including Turbo speed in TLA.
• TLA: we've had one case in playtesting where the animation when getting
  a Djinn stuttered. We haven't been able to reproduce it yet.

Golden Sun Recompiled - 0.5.1

New: Colour Vision Settings (Both Games)

• Added two new colour vision correction options under F1 > Video > Colour Vision!
  • Deuteranopia: Helps with red-green colour blindness.
  • Tritanopia: Helps with blue-yellow colour blindness.
• These shift colours that are difficult to distinguish into ones that are easier to tell apart. They also work alongside any other colour settings or screen filters you're using!

Sprite Memory Improvements (The Lost Age)

Turns out, being able to see more of the world also means seeing more people than the GBA ever expected. Who would've thought?

• In wider views, the game could run out of sprite memory, causing things like disappearing menu icons in Madra, broken dialogue portraits, or even garbled text and sprites.
• We've added a second page of sprite memory for field characters when playing in wider views, which should prevent these issues!
• Save states now properly preserve this extra memory, while older save states remain compatible.
• Also fixed an issue in both games where actual sprites could disappear when passing over the spot where the game stores its unused sprites.

Graphical Fixes (The Lost Age, Extra Wide)

Been doing quite a bit of testing in TLA, and I've squashed another bunch of graphical bugs along the way.

• Psynergy Menu: Icons should no longer randomly disappear.
• Air's Rock: Mist now properly fills the margins without leaving black stripes behind.
• Air's Rock: The entrance tornado now extends all the way into the margins.
• Pillars: Fixed pillars drawing over each other in the bottom margin.
• Yampi Desert: The haze now extends into the margins.
• Djinn Menu: Cleaned up some weird stray shadows.
• Caves: Fixed visible seams in the haze near the edges.
• Ports: Water animations now continue properly into the margins instead of freezing.
• Tremor: Fixed the camera suddenly jumping when the room expands.

Unpacker Crash (Both Games, Potential Fix!)

I think I've finally found what's causing that annoying unpacker crash that's been haunting this project.
Basically, the game has two routines that share the same spot in memory. Sometimes, a return address left behind by one routine could cause the other to jump into completely the wrong code. Which, unsurprisingly, doesn't end particularly well.

• The game now detects when that code has been replaced and avoids returning to the old address.
• The safety net introduced in 0.5 is still there, just in case!

I'm calling this a potential fix for now, since the crash has always been annoyingly difficult to reproduce. Hopefully this is the actual culprit and we can finally put this one to bed.

Linux Crash Reports

And finally, a fix for Linux users!
Apparently, when the game crashed on Linux, the crash reporter thought it'd be funny to crash too. The result? A nearly empty report that was about as useful as you'd expect.

• Crash reports now save all the important information before anything else can go wrong.
• This should mean that if the game crashes, we'll actually have something useful to investigate!

Not the most exciting change in the world, but it'll make tracking down Linux-specific issues a whole lot easier.

0.5

Important

VERY IMPORTANT:
THIS VERSION REQUIRES YOU TO MAKE A NEW FOLDER, THIS LAUNCHER IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE OLD STRUCTURE, DUE TO THE MERGING OF GAMES.

NEW

The Lost Age Support (Experimental)

• Added preliminary support for Golden Sun: The Lost Age!
• Personally tested up to Air's Rock to make sure all settings work and graphical glitches are kept to a minimum.
• I'll continue playing through TLA to test the remaining parts of the game.
• Please note: Support is still experimental! You may encounter crashes, performance issues or graphical glitches, especially in areas I haven't tested yet.

Seamless Mode

• Added Seamless Mode for playing through both games without manually transferring saves.
• Starting a new game in The Broken Seal now asks if you want to enable Seamless Mode.
• Finishing The Broken Seal with Seamless Mode enabled automatically imports your clear save into The Lost Age and starts a new game.
• Already have a save in progress? Seamless Mode can also be enabled through F1 → Game before finishing The Broken Seal.

Save Transfer

• Starting a new game in The Lost Age now asks if you want to import a save from The Broken Seal.
• Select a completed The Broken Seal clear save to automatically transfer your party data into The Lost Age.
• A clear save is required! Regular saves from an unfinished playthrough cannot be transferred.
• Save transfer is performed when starting a new game in The Lost Age.
• No more Gold Passwords!

New Launcher

• Completely redesigned the launcher.

Skip SHA Checking

• Added a Skip SHA Check checkbox to the launcher settings, allowing patched ROMs to be loaded.
• Added following a player request. Patched ROM compatibility has not been tested, so your mileage may vary.

ENHANCEMENTS

Walking Speed

• Walking speed settings now also affect climbing and walking on ropes.

Even More View!

• Expanded the available view sizes, allowing you to see even more of Weyard!

New Aspect Ratios

• 3:2 (Original): Original GBA aspect ratio.
• 4:3: Traditional display format.
• 16:10: Widescreen format.
• 16:9: Widescreen format.
• Window Size: Stretches the game to fill the window. Requires disabling Sharp Pixels in the F1 menu.
• Minimal Sharp Pixels: Previously available in the F1 menu, now also selectable as an aspect ratio option.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Important technical details

• Install into a new folder. Unzip 0.5 into an empty folder and select the same ROM file you used before. Saves stored beside that ROM are imported automatically. Do not unzip over 0.4.4.
• Both games build again on first launch. The engine moved, so the launcher shows Needs rebuilding for The Broken Seal and The Lost Age. The first build takes longer than usual. After that, only changed parts are rebuilt.
• One shared engine. Both games now run on the same engine copy. Fixes to the core, such as the unpacker safety net, the field renderer, F12 rewind captures and options, apply to both games at once.
• New program layout on Windows. Each game’s engine is now a plug-in (GoldenSunEngine.dll, TLAEngine.dll) started by a small program that keeps the old names (GoldenSunRecomp.exe, TLARecomp.exe). This lets Seamless mode keep a single window open when The Broken Seal hands over to The Lost Age.
• Seamless mode saves the Clear Data straight into the save file you are playing when the ship sails off, and then starts The Lost Age in the same window, which imports that save. The Lost Age must be built before you turn Seamless on. If a hand-over step never arrives, the black screen lifts after 10 seconds.
• Unpacker crash safety net now covers both games. The Lost Age contains the same decompressor that caused the old Broken Seal crash.
• “Skip the ROM check” is a new per-game launcher option for translations and hacks. Those ROMs are untested and unsupported, so use it at your own risk.
• Smoother start-up in The Lost Age. The sound library’s wait for the screen is now skipped like other idle loops. A rare freeze on a wait that can never end now gives up instead of hanging.
• Always on: frame rewind (F12 captures), screen filters and the unpacker catcher.
• Release safety: every file shipped is checked against both ROMs before the zip is made, so the release contains no game data.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Mars Star graphical glitch: The graphical garbling involving the Mars Star is still present.
• Unpacker crash: The unpacker crash is currently worked around by the safety net. You should be able to continue playing without any issues.
• Linux launcher: The Linux launcher may ask you to submit a bug report even when the game has been closed normally.

---

This project is made with help of AI. Please be aware.
Also, since it wasn't clear to a few users (thanks bug reports!) This is an early test release, hence it's not versioned 1.0 or higher. Thank you for understanding. :)

0.4.4

Sorry again for all the small updates

Another little release, and another rebuild when you start the game. We're sorry for the wait. We're still chasing the same nasty crash, and your bug reports are still the only way we can find it. Thank you to everyone who has sent one.

The unpacker crash: caught sooner

• The safety net now steps in at the first sign of trouble. A report from 0.4.3, sent by a player entering a town, showed the crash can play out a second way: instead of stopping early, the unpacker kept going, wrote past the end of the picture and over its own instructions, and the game closed before the safety net had a chance. It now notices the very moment the unpacker loses track, redoes the unpacking the slow and safe way, and the game carries on.
• Its report explains itself. The saved report now starts with a short explanation of what was caught and where, and it records the exact moment things went wrong, which is the evidence we need for the real fix. If you see CRASH CAUGHT REPORT SAVED, please press Send report when the launcher asks.

Known issues

• The unpacker crash itself is not fixed yet, only caught. It's been seen in the Vale storm opening, after Psynergy battles and when entering towns.
• The Mars Star looks garbled when you take it out in Sol Sanctum. Haven't found out why yet.

0.4.3

Faster on weaker graphics cards

• Drawing each frame is much cheaper. Thanks to joostg, who profiled the game on an Intel UHD 630 and sent a patch: the time spent drawing a frame there went from about 10.4 ms to 4.4 ms. Laptops and integrated graphics should see the biggest difference.
• The game no longer waits for the graphics card to finish each picture. It shows the previous finished picture instead, one frame behind, which you shouldn't notice. The world map, F12 captures and rewind still use the current frame, so saved pictures always match the moment they were taken.

Settings that stick

• Your F1 video settings are now remembered between launches: window size, fullscreen, V-Sync, smooth or sharp scaling, integer scaling, screen filter and the FPS counter.
• Custom colour sliders save reliably. Letting go of a slider always saves the picture settings, even if the value didn't change on release.

The unpacker crash: closer to the cause

• Thanks to a caught crash in the Vale storm opening, we now know the storm-opening crash and the after-battle crash are the same fault, and that it goes wrong at the same step every time, even on completely different data.
• The safety net still catches it, redoes the unpacking safely, and the game carries on.
• Its report is now sharper. It used to save its "first sign of trouble" snapshot too early, before the fault happened. It now saves the moment things actually go wrong, plus a new detail we suspect is the cause. If you see CRASH CAUGHT REPORT SAVED, please press Send report when the launcher asks: one report from this version could be enough to fix it for good.

Known issues

• The unpacker crash itself is not fixed yet, only caught. It's most often seen in the Vale storm opening and after Psynergy battles.
• The Mars Star looks garbled when you take it out in Sol Sanctum. Haven't found out why yet.