Cave Story Officially RELEASED for WiiWare

Re: Music!

Looping is really easy with trakked formats, they are made of a series of "patterns" (note sheets) that play in a certain order. You can specify what one the song should return to after finishing playing the last one in the composing program. (There's of course no such thing as dynamic looping, but some DLLs allow you to change the position the song plays from, which might be handy for that).
Anyway, trakked music seems perfectly adapted to make chiptunes for games, so that's why I use it for my serious projects (and F-Zero MIDIs for my side projects ).

But now I'm the one that goes offtopic.
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Seen that Nicalis' page is down? When googling I saw some word about that DecreasedCrab hacked the forums and that's the reason, but there wasn't enough information to make me beleive it 100% true, it was more like a guess to the reason.

Tracked music? From my reading, that sounds like that that's MIDI. What I meant to ask was a little different. Aside from formats like MIDI and ORG, how hard is it to loop a a compressed/uncompressed audio format, such as WAV or OGG, from a point other than 0:00? Or is it really the same thing?

Oh my, DC is still angry at Nicalis and/or the community there? I won't believe it until I see it...

 

Isn't .midi kind of like a really fancy .org file?

Uh, not really...

Unless I'm mistaken, midis contain all the information necessary to play themselves, whereas orgs are just a packet of bytes.
Course I'm prolly mistaken.

Also not really... they're the same concept, in that they store a representation of notes without storing any audio data. A MIDI file could easily be converted to sheet music by a program; an audio file, not so easily.

So then, a .midi file is like a .org file, except that the instruments are stored in standard/universally used data on sound cards instead of in a specific program's .exe file?

Not necessarily; a MIDI can be played using any instrument set the program chooses. If it wants to bypass the built-in MIDI instruments and supply its own, it can do that. Even so, there is a standard list of instruments for MIDI; for example, 1 (I believe) is a grand piano. It might sound different in different instrument sets, but it'll still be a piano. So usually a MIDI file is written for a standard set of instruments.

Tracked music? From my reading, that sounds like that that's MIDI.

No, MOD is not MIDI. I don't really know anything about the format, apart from that it is a certainly multitrack format.

 

So in summation, Cave Story Wii could be read in assembly language. Thank you, we may now move this discussion to a thread that is actually about assembly. I want to read about Cave StoWii when I see this thread is updated, not read about assembly stuff I only vaguely understand.

 

Thank you, we may now move this discussion to a thread that is actually about assembly.

We probably should, I'm kind of peeved that Lace/CM/andwhy/me(I carried it on a bit too) keep talking about this here.

So admin/mods/people-in-charge, care to move the offtopicness to somewhere else?

 

I have no idea if it was ever confirmed that DC did it, but the information you have refers to the *old* forums they had, where somebody abused a flaw in the system that allowed you to edit any post.

Side note:
Just this morning, I surfed some TIGsite from where I got the link to Warning Forever. There was a link to Cave Story Wii, and clicking made some pop-up show up warning for malware. First I tried using Task Manager to close it (closing all my IE windows and wiping out some long text message I hadn't sent), selecting to "restore previous session" made the pop-up ressurect but not my text... Groan. then I tried clicking its close button (making an official-looking "scan" pop up, stating that my computer was infected by 1000 or so badwares)... This time I terminated the process using the task manager and started from scratch. I think it was some ad trojan trying to fool me into downloading a fake antivirus (luckily, I'm on a public computer, but I had my USB inserted when stuff happened so I don't know if I dare to plug it into my own computers for some time...)

Anyways, might this fake(?) malwares have a connection with Nicalis being unaccessible?

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EDIT
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OK, now the blog is once again accessible, but not the forums. AND NOT A WORD FROM NICALIS MENTIONS THE DOWNTIME. I'll check out and see what I can find out about the malstuff.

 

Ew, Internet Exploder? I hope you don't use that one as your primary browser at home, Yal. (same thing happened to me when I was using Chrome, though closing was no problem; ran a Malwarebytes check and found nothing)

No news about the ordeal, aside from the previously mentioned Twitter feed from Nicalis...

 

You know, while nicalis.com/blog works, the entries are still gone and everything besides that one page.

 

Ugh. Injection attacks are pure evil.

 

Ugh. I hate things like that. Unfortunately, those fave AntiVirus things are everywhere online. And 99% of the time, it's not the browser's fault. As long as you have an Antivirus at home, (Norton, AVG, Avast! etc.) You should be fine.

I don't really see how talking about how CS Wii is composed is really off-topic. I think it could be in either category. Oh well...

 

I don't use any browser at home since I don't have an internet connection at home... And I've got norton, who keeps telling me to get a connection so I can update it since the virus definition databases are (roughly) 2600 days old.

Well, I tried repeating the whole procedure on another computer in the same room, and nothing appeared. I guess the defences of the computer entity I used was old, or something. Do you find it probable that bad stuff has appeared inside by USB? I had it attached to upload a few images and stuff, but didn't unplug it at once after finishing... You know, the USB is the only way I could bring an new antivirus home, but if it's infected...

It's kinda Moment 22 over here.

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Anyways, I saw something called "Nicalis.com" which used flashy (not neccesarily Flash) animations and was completely free of useful information. Mentioned "NightSky" and "Cave Story" but nothing about La-Mulana. Now, might this be Nicalis' old page, or did they just abandon the blog that was supposed to gather all DM fans and have them buy the game?

 

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Anyways, I saw something called "Nicalis.com" which used flashy (not neccesarily Flash) animations and was completely free of useful information. Mentioned "NightSky" and "Cave Story" but nothing about La-Mulana. Now, might this be Nicalis' old page, or did they just abandon the blog that was supposed to gather all DM fans and have them buy the game?

Well, actually, the site's news feed had a lot of stuff about La-Mulana. Except it hasn't updated since last July.

 

Are we talking about the same site? I do not mean the blog, but another site that didn't look like it's gotten updated this decade. Think it was "nicalis.com".




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Anyway, off-topic, some opinions about my USB? I know nothing about computers, despite my cute looks. I know how to handle a browser and a forum, and how to use Game Maker, but that's that. I've actually never terminated a process tree! Só I'd like to get some risk-analysis-basing info or opinions. Is it probable that the fake(?) malware alert saved stuff onto my USB, or did it probably target C:\ ? Could Nicalis or D-Crab be responsible or was it just a random encounter?

 

Well, I tried repeating the whole procedure on another computer in the same room, and nothing appeared. I guess the defences of the computer entity I used was old, or something. Do you find it probable that bad stuff has appeared inside by USB? I had it attached to upload a few images and stuff, but didn't unplug it at once after finishing... You know, the USB is the only way I could bring an new antivirus home, but if it's infected...

After revisiting Nicalis' blog recently, I have yet to run into the spamware again. My guess that it's a random happenstance that you'll get hit. To avoid this altogether, you could use Firefox with the NoScript addon (of course, this blocks EVERYTHING on a website unless given the green light on some or all elements)

As for the USB being infected. It's possible, but not likely. Unless your browser files are on the USB drive itself, it isn't likely that the USB is infected. Of course, I'd run a malware/antivirus check on it, just to be sure. (on another public computer, perhaps?)

Anyways, I saw something called "Nicalis.com" which used flashy (not neccesarily Flash) animations and was completely free of useful information. Mentioned "NightSky" and "Cave Story" but nothing about La-Mulana. Now, might this be Nicalis' old page, or did they just abandon the blog that was supposed to gather all DM fans and have them buy the game?

Yeah, Nicalis.com is actually their main page. Of course, they haven't given the site any love as of late, so it's quite outdated. I've been pestering them during the development of Cave Story about this, but they haven't flinched yet... (and yes, that entire page uses Flash, to my dismay) I doubt they'll abandon the blog, as they've been active with it in every now and then. Their main site, however, is questionable.

...but that comes later. Now is to re secure the site from them dumb infections.

Is it probable that the fake(?) malware alert saved stuff onto my USB, or did it probably target C:\ ? Could Nicalis or D-Crab be responsible or was it just a random encounter?

Nah, it's malware for sure. It's a fake antivirus, however.

Again, the virus is likely to target the computer's hard drive/system files first before targeting the USB, but I would definitely check it out before putting it back in your home computer, just to be on the safe side.

I think it's more likely the network host Nicalis uses that got them infected. Sure, they could do it themselves, but why would they want to do that??? Don't know how reliable or accurate this page is on malware, but it's something, right?

 

Yeah, Norton won't do you any good if it isn't updated. You can scan your flash drive with an antivirus program, though. Typically, you just go to Computer ("my computer" in XP), right-click on the drive, and click "scan with (name of AV program)" or whatever.

www.nicalis.com doesn't look like it's been updated in ages. It would have had something saying that CS was completed if it ever was updated.

 

Your computer is probably safe as long as you didn't download that fake antivirus. Firefox has this useful ability to navigate links within the source code instead of the page itself. Since I was already hit by this I figured it couldn't hurt since the worst I could get by navigating the source code was some php generated cookies that I could easily clear 5 seconds later anyway.

The reason why some of you aren't getting the fake antivirus warning anymore is because it sets a cookie that, in combination with an if statement, stops the script from running again on that same computer until the cookie either expires or is deleted.

To be honest it looks like the only threat is to people foolish enough to download the fake antivirus file.

 

To be honest it looks like the only threat is to people foolish enough to download the fake antivirus file.

Unless your browser files are on the USB drive itself, it isn't likely that the USB is infected.

Hmm... I guess I can be on the safe side. For some reason, the ability to "scan for viruses" seem to have disappeared (it was gone some time before the current incident as well, but the first time I suspected viruses on my USB (turned out files just got deleted because I didn't eject it safely once) it was there)... Might be a side-effect from the time when I tried downloading an antivirus (from a reliable site) to get an "second opiníon" since I didn't trust the AV of the public computers...

I'll go for "safety in numbers" as always: if it isn't likely, it's probably not happened. Sincere thanks for the advice!

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Hmm... As for NICALIS, I remember that their new forums didn't have a Our Games board for La-Mulana. Only for NightSky and Cave Story. I honestly haven't read enough to understand how much Nicalis really pours into L-M, but it doesn't seem like they have a really important role / do not care enough.

It's going to be interesting to see wether they'll have an official reason for the downtime. They need to do something rather big to get back reputation among the DM fans... (Bugs, DLC from start, Goes forever between updates...)

 

It's going to be interesting to see wether they'll have an official reason for the downtime. They need to do something rather big to get back reputation among the DM fans... (Bugs, DLC from start, Goes forever between updates...)

Wishful thinking is good. (not to say Nicalis won't do this, but I'd like to see more activity before I go jumping with joy)

Hmm... As for NICALIS, I remember that their new forums didn't have a Our Games board for La-Mulana. Only for NightSky and Cave Story. I honestly haven't read enough to understand how much Nicalis really pours into L-M, but it doesn't seem like they have a really important role / do not care enough.

Hmm. That always bugged me myself. It's obvious that there's a LOT of love going on with the La-Mulana remake (check out their site), but I still don't know what Nicalis' role in the game is. Even Cave Story was blurry for a while before somebody said something.

***EDIT 5/9/10***
Huh. Next country to get the game is Australia, according to the Twitter feed. Patched music and all. (where's OUR patch?)

 

Next country to get the game is Australia

*points at location text*

 

Next country to get the game is Australia, according to the Twitter feed.

I thought that was just an answer to someone wondering if it will be released in Australia. Where does it say it's "next"?

 

I thought that was just an answer to someone wondering if it will be released in Australia. Where does it say it's "next"?

Ah, you're right. No idea if Australia will be next on the list. (didn't know the country is part of Europe...!)

Hope you don't mind if it turns out to be the last one on said list, andwhyisit.