Dirk Dashing v1.1 released!

[TroyHepfner]

My Game Company is pleased to announce the release of Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent! version 1.1 for Windows, Mac, and Linux!

We have taken some of the new features we have developed for the upcoming Dirk Dashing 2, and ported them back into the original game. We have also made a number of improvements and bug fixes to the game based on customer feedback. New in this version:

Dirk can now throw grenades while jumping
Dirk can now shoot the grenade launcher while jumping
Thugs now walk around on patrol, instead of just standing still
Save your game quicker by pressing F5 to go directly to the Save screen
Added a few cannons and made some minor tweaks to Chapter 1-4
Made some major performance improvements to the game engine
Fixed intermittent bug where Dirk can sometimes fall through platforms and ledges
Fixed intermittent bug where Dirk runs in place after picking up a folder
Fixed keyboard navigation of chapters on Part 3 and Part 4 screens
Fixed smooth scrolling on Mac OS X by enabling vsync (fixes shearing and tearing artifacts)

SDL upgrade: added support for multi-axis controllers like 3DConnexion's SpaceNavigator on Mac OS X
SDL upgrade: fixed joystick calibration issues on Mac OS X
SDL upgrade: properly fixed yellow minimize button on Mac OS X after quitting game in fullscreen mode

SDL upgrade: added support for the PulseAudio sound server on Linux and Windows
SDL upgrade: fixed joystick detection issues on Windows
SDL upgrade: fixed crash on Windows when video driver reports higher than 32bpp video modes
SDL upgrade: fixed restoring the Windows desktop after setting a 24-bit OpenGL video mode
SDL upgrade: fixed detection of X11 DGA mouse support
SDL upgrade: fixed hang or crash on startup on Linux if aRts can't access the hardware
SDL upgrade: fixed TEXTRELs to resolve some PIC issues (and issues with SELinux)
SDL upgrade: fixed joystick detection on Linux when a joystick was removedYou can download the latest version from here (http://www.mygamecompany.com/Products/DirkDashing/downloads.htm).

Note: games saved inside Chapter 1-4 with version 1.05 or earlier are no longer compatible. Games saved in all other levels should still work fine.

[Thurmond]

What a treat finding this in my inbox! I read your blog about the thugs walking around, and you're right. It adds so much to the game. The levels aren't quite so predictable now, cuz you never know where those guys are until you run across them. I also like that you can throw and shoot in midair - I always wondered why this wasn't in the game from day one. And adding the F5 key to Save was a major improvement! I can save my games so much quicker now. I'm gonna play through the game again to see how the levels play with all the changes. Thanks for the new features!

[surfingpenguin]

I agree with everyting Thurmond said. The F5 key is great. I can save my game in just a couple of keystrokes now.

The game also runs a lot smoother on my Linux laptop. It used to get bogged down sometimes inside the buildings, and the scrolling would get jerky. Not anymore! Now the scrolling is smooth as glass. Thanks!

[Duchess]

I agree with the others, the F5 key is so much faster to save my game. I also have to be more careful watching for the thugs - I'm not used to them moving around like that! The improvements you made to Dirk Dashing are wonderful! Can't wait for DD2!!!!!!! :)

[TroyHepfner]

For the Linux players: one of our customers who is running on Slackware reported that the new version of SDL that we built with (v1.2.13) requires libaudio.so.2, which she didn't have. She also reported that she substituted our SDL library with Slackware's SDL library, and it worked fine with our game (including audio).