InstantPlay Exploit (image by sk8m8trix)

Today James Rhodes posted a comment on the YYG GLOG stating that he has constructed a GM game which demonstrates a vunerability in the way InstantPlay handles game launching. It allows the GM executable to silently install a Firefox plugin with no confirmation. This apparently should be an easy fix: the InstantPlay plugin need only change the way it handles the game’s launching.

It should be interesting to see how long YoyoGames takes to patch this, considering the seriousness of the vulnerability.

Announced today on the YoYo Games glog was the upcoming private beta program for the highly anticipated Mac version of Game Maker.

The testing will start out as a closed private beta that users can signup for by e-mailing applebeta@yoyogames.com with their contact details, GMC and YYG usernames. The beta program is due to begin by the end of next month and it may be some time before a public beta or final version will be out.
The YoYo Games team is currently looking for those who have a Mac running OS X Leopard, Windows only users need not apply. As for hackintoshes and emulators, it couldn’t hurt to try but I doubt there will be any promising results.

Sandy Duncan also commented to say that although the Mac port should run well on UNIX based systems such as those running BSD, there are no current plans to provide support for UNIX or Linux at this time.

James Rhodes from roket-games.com has released a Firefox-only “InstantPlay” plugin much like Yoyogames.com’s InstantPlay. This one has the capability to run any Windows application (not just Game Maker games) and allows you to embed a play button on any web page.

Installation is quick and smooth, and the progress indicator on ‘buffering’ games far less obnoxious than YYG’s, but one still has to wonder about the security implications of a plugin that allows arbitrary binaries to run with a single click.

A previous InstantPlay alternative is the Java-based GMBed (v2.0 beta released July ‘08). Covac Software also published GmX, an ActiveX-based system, which has had no apparent activity since ‘07.

This is our thanks to everyone who contributes to this site. The following is a point tally for each user’s contributions (September through October):

gpetersz    x
noobfarm    xxxxxxxx
Caniac        xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (1st - 69)
conman124    xxxx
Elmernite    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (2nd - 34)
RhysAndrews    xxxx
Lethal255    x
PHL        x
Matthew_H    xxxxx
PickleMan    x
msr        xx
Timoi        xxxxxx
Joerdgs        xxxxxx
Jax        xxxxxxxx
Revel        x
Nailog        xxxxxxxxx (3rd - 9)
CE Gamer    x
IsmAvatar    xx
Tom Russell    xxx
NotTellingRi..    xxx
darkshado    x
Monkeyman    x
Rusky        xx
KKG        x
legocrazy1    xxx
Sandy        xx
Supercarson7    x
Ex-GM Addict    xxxx
Rock        x
Sharedxs    x
Zbox        x
Cab        x
Luis Reis    x
xot        xx
NakedPaulToast    xxxx
Matt        x
Chronic        x
MME        xx
Blijbol        xxx
GearGod        x
Somelauw    x
Tepi        xx
Qwertyuiop23    xx
mrsmes        x
Snail        xx
Chaz        x
gamez93        xxx
Lapixx        x
NAL        x
M&M’s        xxx
DtD Software    x
gmjab        xx
Fede-lasse    x

Congratulations to Caniac who will have his choice of about 30 prizes on the Prizes page!
Note: Although Caniac won the last prize (August), due to the combined September-October prize, there was no prize awarded last month and hence he was given the opportunity to win this month’s prize. Plus we feel he deserves it, he earned 2x more contribution points than any other user! That’s great work

Special Mention to Elmernite who got second place and everyone else who contributed!
*Point tally includes both comment and news tip submissions

If you would like to donate toward the prizes, please see the about page.

It’s that time of year again… mid-terms. Those pesky tests that take away all your time from everything else important in your life. The good thing is, I’ve managed to find a few minutes to write this up while I take a break from studying. Of course if anyone wants to contribute articles on behalf of GMNews, feel free to e-mail them to postMyGMNews@scorptek.net.

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The first thing I wanted to talk about is the improvements to YoYoGames.com. There are certainly some nice additions to the site like better organization of games and softer colours that don’t strain the eyes as much. On the other hand, as Mark Overmars pointed out on the official YoYo Games glog, the site has been running quite slow since the changes were made.

Yesterday some tweaking to the database and cache settings were carried out and the server does not seem to be responding as sluggish anymore, with any luck this has solved the problem completely.

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Something else in the news is the stir of trouble Caniac instigated on the GMC this week with his comment “It’s a pity that all the staff is so delinquent,” followed later on by “yeah, I wash [sic] I was a staff member” and “I despise all staff members that do not visit the forums.” Normally we are not one to point fingers, but Caniac himself sent us a news tip regarding the post that brought attention from Moderators and Administrator’s across the board.

Of course many other members had their fair share of comments, including NakedPaulToast who added “I’m not laughing at you, I think your behaviour is numbingly imbecilic, but I’m not laughing at you.” A separate user ‘Carnivac’, who has a very similar name to Caniac, was concerned that some users may mistakenly think he was behind the negative criticism toward the staff.

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Lastly, Brian LaClair (also known as noobfarm) from Vermont, USA has sent in some tips for getting your games to run smoothly on linux boxes using WINE:

In the past few weeks I have been experimenting with the program known as WINE on Linux. WINE is an interpreter for Linux and Mac that allows the user to run .exe (Windows executable) files on a non-Windows operating system.

In the last few versions of WINE, game executables and Game Maker itself have become supported under WINE to some degree. Here is a short list of how to make your games work well with WINE:

1. Limit use of advanced draw functions
Basic GML draw functions (e.g. draw_text()) should be fine to use

2. Avoid using background images
Instead, try using sprites to display images behind other objects

3. Use the .WAV file format for sounds and select the “Use Multimedia player” option
*Note: This may slow down the game while the sound is playing on many computers, so sounds should be avoided in general if possible/practical. Consider an option for turning sounds on/off

4. Make your game full-screen (otherwise it may not be drawn correctly)

Following this guide should make your games run smoothly with WINE. You should experiment on your own with the game you are trying to make compatible with WINE to achieve the best results.

Award winning Game Maker Game ‘Caveman Craig’ by Rhys and Tim Andrews is now going commericial with a ‘Special Edition’ update.

The new edition features:
- An entirely rewritten game engine with greatly improved performance
- Tons of new bonuses like a mini game, pet dinosaurs and meteor strikes
- Prioritization of tasks (for fruits and meats)
- Twice the ground length to work with
- New dinosaur threats & hunting strategies
- New remastered sounds and graphics
- And a lot more

The ‘Special Edition’ is being sold for $4.99 USD and you can get a CD copy for an extra $10
Note that no sales tax has been added and depending on your federal, state or provincial laws you may be legally obliged to contact your government and remit sales tax when you purchase this game (same rules apply for all other online sales).

Check out the official site here!

In Sandy’s latest post on the official YoYo Games glog, there has been some discussion about the on-going Mac version of Game Maker that was first expected to be released as a beta way back in March.

According to Sandy, he has an alpha version of the software running on his mac right now and it’s ‘going very well.’ Apparrently there are still a few bugs that need to be worked out with the Lazerus team before its release, but Sandy hopes that it will be available soon (as a beta), possibly as early as next month. He does however say ‘don’t quote me on it’, so no guarantees at this point.

As we understand it, the Mac version will be identical to the Windows version of Game Maker in every way except that the former will lack support for third party extensions and DLLs as these run only on Windows. What this means is most games built to run on Macs will run fine with the Windows counterpart, but some games built for Windows that do use the extensions and DLL functionality won’t run on macs. There is no information at this point on whether an equivalent functionality will eventually be built-into the program for mac users.

It is also unclear whether each GM program will allow you to create binaries for both Windows and Mac or whether you will need to physically have a Mac and Game Maker for Mac to create a Mac version of the game (or vice versa). The licensing of the software also has not yet been revealed, there is still speculation as to whether the purchase of 1 license will grant use of both GM for Windows and Mac or whether users will have to purchase each software package separately.

According to the YoYo Game’s glog, the YYG website has been updated and tweaked to include a new homepage, new improved play pages, and a shorter, easier way to upload games.

The new site however, is still in beta testing. Sandy Duncan does not yet know for sure when the new site changes will be made public, but is optimistic that the new features will be available before the weekend.

Two users commented to suggest that the new YYG game upload service should be set to ’standard’ mode by default whereby users can still download the game and are not forced to use Instant Play. Timoi points out that originally the idea may have been to keep the games secure, but now that the decompiler has been updated to handle Instant Play games, this is no longer the case and it makes no sense to force Instant Play as the only option.

Tom Russel released the 4th issue of his well known GM Magazine today. Compared to previous editions, this release is visually friendly, but don’t be fooled - it is still heavy on the text. With an almost unbelieveable 90 pages of a content, the magazine is almost like a book.. so you will likely need to schedule some time off if you want to read through the whole thing.

Nevertheless, the magazine is still interesting and even includes an interview with former GMNews writer, Mark Carroll. The PDF of the magazine can be downloaded here. In my opinion, it is quite amazing how just one person is able to put together something of this magnitude and quality and I think Russell deserves a pat on the back for that.

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Also in the news (although slightly dated news); YoYo Games has announced that it will merge its Wiki with the more content full GMPedia operated by the GMKing team. This will no doubt improve the exising Wiki which is almost hanging on by a thread and until now hasn’t had many updates since its first appearance.

InstantPlay tab of the decompiler.

This morning an update to the GM Decompiler was released, this time with the ability to decompile InstantPlay games and extract GM7 extensions from games. The update also defeats some methods devised for protecting games from the old decompiler (typically using a hex editor to tamper with the PE).

InstantPlay decompiling automatically detects games you have used via InstantPlay, which are stored in a folder under My Documents. Users are presented a list of games detected and the rest is automatic.

Version two of the infamous decompiler is by the same author (Clam), and includes the same vengeful message about GMK encryption (which was designed to defeat third-party projects).

GMNews and Scorptek do not endorse copyright infringment. This news posting is for informational purposes, and links to the decompiler will be deleted.