How to fix the sound glitch in old Clickteam games

[Q-Nova]

If you've played any of the classic Clickteam games, like Mario's Mansion and Yoshi vs. Windows, on a modern Windows system, you may have stumbled upon the treacherous sound glitch. That is: When a sound effect plays, there is a chance that the game will enter a state where everything is super slow and whatever sound just played will play over and over for eternity. You could still play it from that point, but because it's so slow, it's nearly unplayable, not to mention really annoying!

For a while, I thought you could fix the glitch by placing the CNC DLL files with the game you're playing, but the glitch still showed its ugly presence! Since then, I've found two solutions that seem to do the trick for real; the mean old glitch has yet to show itself! So, you can either:

1. Right-click the game's .EXE file (i.e. "Mario's Mansion 2.exe"), click "Properties", then click on the "Compatibility" tab. From there, turn on compatibility mode and set it to an old version of Windows. (Windows 98/Me has been working well for me!) Now go play the game! The only problem with this setup is that if you have a saved game prior to making these adjustments, you may have to forget about the save file and start over. Or...
   
2. Run your favorite (or least favorite) old Clickteam game, then access the Task Manager (with Ctrl+Alt+Delete!). Locate the game's .EXE file within the Task Manager and right-click that one. On the menu, click on "Set Affinity...", and then uncheck all boxes except for "CPU 0". (If you uncheck "<All Processors>", "CPU 0" may be unchecked. If that happens, just check "CPU 0" again.) Click OK, and finally return to the game! I don't know if this one affects save data, but I would think it wouldn't. Let me know what the case is if I don't find out first. This is the method I'm currently using.
   

Hope this helps! Now you can enjoy the vintage MFGG classics without having to worry about Mr. Sound Devil throwing an unpleasant temper tantrum!

Now we need to find out a way to fix the brief pause that occurs when the music is about to loop. Or is that a natural function of Clickteam's old products?

[GeneralGuy]

Huh, I didn't even know this glitch existed. How long has it been a thing for? Thanks for the tip!

[Q-Nova]

I remember hitting this glitch when I played Toad Strikes Back back in like 2014 or earlier. Since then, I've stumbled upon the nasty bug in other Clickteam games on rare occasion, although in some games it seems to be more frequent, like Taco Wario: Neo Grande Battles. (In that game, you're almost guaranteed to get the glitch!) I've played these on Windows 7, although I think I remember someone playing TSB on Windows XP and the glitch popped up in there. Now that I discovered these tricks, however, I hopefully won't ever have to deal with that glitch again!

You're welcome!

Quillax Ship - Where you can download all of my cool, keen mods and super-marvelous fangames!

[Vitiman]

My god... I never even considered that it could be a multi-core processor quirk going on. Q-Nova has solved a 15+ year mystery about old Clickteam software, and it was regrettably way too long for it to be of any relevance to the greater population. Well, now we know going forward. I guess if nothing else, now people can finally play Taco Wario without complaining about the sound bug ruining their fun - I was contemplating rendering out a version of the game in a newer Clickteam product so that wouldn't happen, but as fate would have it the source is very possibly irreversibly lost! That's not something I ever want to reveal, but it's true. Perhaps it's for the best. I might still have a very early version of the unlocked source I sent to a friend during the Game Jam, but otherwise that thing is as good as gone.

Oof, sorry, went on a egocentric tangent there. But you have to realize, if anyone's going around clicking on threads about fixing TGF sound glitches on modern Windows, there's a very slight higher-than-average possibility that they'd be familiar with my dumb throwback fangame from a few years back. Good lord, 2019 was already a couple of years ago? I'm getting too old. Oh hey! Yeah, speak of the devil, looks like you namedropped Taco Wario before I did, so see? My point has been proven. So now you know.

Anyway, much kudos once again Q-Nova. These simple little tidbits might not drive MFGG's traffic tenfold like they should, dammit - but they make for valuable knowledge trinkets for those of us who care deeply about old fangames. Especially since some genuinely quality stuff like TSB (as you also took care to mention!) occasionally succumb to the dreaded glitch too. So it isn't all about playing "Yoshi's Magic Sunshine 2: Sailor Moon Crossover" from 2001, sometimes it's about playing the best of the best. You know, I oughta write that one down.

[Roo]

Wow, thanks! I did always wonder why the games seemed to work just fine back in the day.

Ye Olde MFGGe Jamboree | supra binyot lande | My Dumb Art Blog

[Q-Nova]

You're welcome everybody!

@Vitiman I should clarify that I didn't discover this method all by myself. Someone said it on a comment for some Super Mario XP video on YouTube. I believe this was also pointed out in some Clickteam site, if I remember correctly.

I'm sorry to hear that you lost the Taco Wario source! I would've loved to see that finished; I thought it was actually pretty neat! "Yoshi's Magic Sunshine 2: Sailor Moon Crossover" sure sounds like it would be an interesting fangame to see, though, if rather strange!

You're right that some of the old fangames are actually the best ever made! Aside from Toad Strikes Back, I played Super Mario XP for the first time a while ago, and boy, was I impressed! The engine is so stable and playable, the level design is tight and challenging, the bosses are well made, the art style is very cool, and the game doesn't even pause to start and loop the music! (I wonder if the latter has something to do with the fact that it doesn't use MIDIs but instead some other file format. Or is there some beautiful extension we're all unaware of?) And that game was made in 2001, in Click & Create! I'd love to see someone make a game of such similar quality with the same (or an other similar) tool today! Hey, some people still make games for the NES and Atari 2600 in this day and age, so why not a modern game made with TGF/CNC?

Quillax Ship - Where you can download all of my cool, keen mods and super-marvelous fangames!