A new update has been released for EasyRPG Player , the open source implementation of the RPG Maker 2000/2003 engine , two popular development tools used to create retro-style role-playing games (RPGs).

This update, coming just two months after version 0.8.1, focuses mainly on fixing a serious ZIP file encoding detection issue that was occurring on Android and homebrew platforms.

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Since many games distributed in ZIP archives use legacy encodings instead of Unicode, automatic encoding detection is essential.

The bug, caused by a technical error in the handling of ASCII characters on some CPU architectures, such as ARM, caused all strings to be incorrectly discarded, compromising functionality.

To avoid similar problems in the future, the team has strengthened the testing infrastructure, integrating ARM machines running different versions of Ubuntu into the GitHub pipeline.

In addition to this urgent fix, the update introduced improvements in several areas. In the game Genkido , an issue prevented the protagonist from moving onto a square occupied by a barrel due to an error in the handling of event passability.

The bug, related to an incorrect interpretation of events with ID 0 as characters instead of tiles, has been fixed, making the tile correctly traversable.

The Maniac Patch added new terms to customize messages about experience, levels, items, and learned skills, offering more flexibility in formatting for different languages, though it does not reach the full feature set of RPG Maker 2000 .

Additionally, changes to EasyRPG ‘s Set Interpreter Flag command now save variables to the save file, making them local to the interpreter of the running event, fixing an unintended behavior from the previous version.

Another issue fixed was map events cloned or destroyed via the Clone / Destroy Map Event command not being restored correctly when loading a save.

While the fix still does not restore the event name, this limitation is due to the choice not to update the liblcf library in patch releases to simplify the process.

In the string variable debug scene, pressing SHIFT now shows the variable name, with a [J] indicator for JSON strings, which can be formatted more readably using the “Pretty Print” option.

In the battle system, a crash in Die Reise ins All for RPG Maker 2000 caused by removing a party member via an event command followed by an enemy attack has been fixed.

Another issue in the game Wolfenhain was the animation of the boss Zyklop, which was not rendering correctly due to an error in the X-axis inversion for mirrored animations. Both bugs have been fixed, improving the gaming experience.

As for settings, the screenshot scaling factor and logging disabling are now saved in the configuration file.

Screenshots include a timestamp in the file name by default, with an option to disable it, and a new feature allows you to automatically take screenshots at regular intervals, useful for documenting bugs or archiving games.

On the Android front, EasyRPG Player now supports SDK 36 (Android 16), implementing features such as “Edge-To-Edge” for a more immersive visual experience and “Predictive Back” management, with the addition of support for the dark mode, much appreciated by users.

For homebrew platforms, such as the PlayStation Vita , a launch issue caused by an incorrect compiler optimization, which consumed too much stack space, has been fixed.

Additionally, Flatpak support now properly handles directories with spaces. On the build front, minimum requirements have been updated to CMake 3.18 and SDL 2.0.14, reflecting the end of support for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Changelog

Encoding Detection Fix : Fixed a critical bug in ZIP file encoding detection on Android and homebrew platforms, which caused issues with legacy encoding archives. Also fixed a similar issue with LZH archives not loading properly. ( #3394 , #3401 )
Improved testing infrastructure : Added ARM machines with different Ubuntu releases to the testing pipeline on GitHub to prevent hardware-dependent errors, such as the encoding issue caused by incorrect handling of ASCII characters on non-x86 CPUs. ( #3404 )
Event passability : Fixed a bug in the game Genkido that prevented the protagonist from moving onto a tile with a barrel, correcting the handling of events with tile ID 0, now recognized as passable tiles. ( #3366 )
Maniac Patch : Added new terms for experience, level, item, and skill messages, improving formatting flexibility for different languages. ( #3371 , contributed by florianessl )
Set Interpreter Flag command : Flag variables are now saved in save files and local to the event interpreter running, fixing an unintended behavior. ( #3379 , contributed by florianessl )
Cloned/Destroyed Events : Improved restoring cloned or destroyed events in saves, although the event name is still not restored due to liblcf limitations. ( #3411 , contributed by florianessl )
Debugging string variables : Added display of the string variable name on SHIFT and a [J] indicator for JSON strings, with “Pretty Print” formatting option. ( #3398 , contributed by florianessl )
Handling translated text files : Fixed a bug that prevented redirection to translated text files when a translation was active, by optimizing the directory search order. ( #3398 )
Battle System : Fixed a crash in Die Reise ins All for RPG Maker 2000, caused by removing a party member followed by an enemy attack. Also fixed a rendering issue with the Zyklop boss animation in Wolfenhain , with support for mirrored animations. ( #3415 , #3417 , contributed by florianessl )
Screenshot Settings : Save scaling and logging settings in the configuration. Added timestamps to screenshot names (optional) and the ability to automatically take screenshots at regular intervals for documentation and archiving. ( #3405 , # 3406 , contributed by florianessl )
Android Support : Updated to SDK 36 (Android 16) with “Edge-To-Edge” implementation and “Predictive Back” management. Introduced dark mode for a better user experience. ( #3373 , #3408 )
PS Vita Porting : Fixed a startup issue caused by incorrect compiler optimization by optimizing stack usage. ( #3397 )
Flatpak Support : Fixed support for boot directories containing spaces. ( Packaging #19 , contributed by trostboot )
Build Requirements : Updated to CMake 3.18 and SDL 2.0.14, with optional support for SDL3. Autotools is deprecated and will be removed in the next major release. ( #3391 )