The stuff I’m going to release here is something I’ve worked on a year ago. Back then, v1.3.1 was the latest version of Icy Tower, and I’m sure that if I’d release it then, johanp would hate me as heck (remember how he reacted on Icy Tower Replay Editor?). But today, Icy Tower v1.3.1 is history. Also, IMO, Icy Tower is history in general (at least the desktop game, can’t tell anything about mobile/facebook as I don’t really know what these are). v1.4 mostly ruined the game – it became more static and ugly (no eye candy, images look stretched), harold’s got large ears and is not as cool as before, the game’s got lots of options, which makes it more complicated. Also, the official forum is not as active as it was before.
So, here it is…

A project called replay_checker:
replay_checker.rar (45.34 KB)

This small console program does the following: loads a replay, checks it for validity (including the hash), and then silently plays the replay to verify it’s validity, just like the official itr checker.
So, what’s so special about it? It’s completely open source!
The replay file format, the hash calculation method, and the Icy Tower physics (in fact it’s whole engine) – these are available to look at from inside.
If you are familiar with graphics programming, you can easily turn this replay_checker to a replay_player, or even write an Icy Tower like game, which is capable of saving compatible replays

P.S. You can download Icy Tower v1.3.1 here.

P.P.S.
bonus.rar (518.94 KB)

icytower13_sparse_floor.rar (274.73 KB)

icytower13_solid_floor.rar (271.07 KB)

Recently, a new version of TightVNC was released, and a portable version of it for U3 flash drives appeared.
That’s great, but what if you don’t have a U3 flash drive, or you don’t like the U3 system in general (that’s me), or you don’t want to use it on a flash drive at all?

Well, here is how you extract the program itself from the .u3p package for a regular use:
1. Download it here.
2. Use WinRAR or similar to extract the host folder from that file, which is in fact a zip archive.
3. Use the following command line parameters to use a local ini file instead of the registry for storing your settings:
winvnc.exe -runwithinifile .\winvnc.ini
vncviewer.exe -settingsfile .\vncviewer.ini

Now you can enjoy the portable version of TightVNC without a U3 drive.

But you must agree, that it’s not really handy to use a command line every time you want to run TightVNC. Well, I’ve patched winvnc.exe and vncviewer.exe and made them use an ini file by default. These are attached on that topic.

Finally I want to advice you to make a donation to support the project.

TightVNC_portable.rar (413.23 KB)