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PooShooter: Toilet Invaders, yes it's a real game and we all had a bit of a chuckle when we saw Valve noted it fixed in a Proton changelog recently. CodeWeavers, Valve's partner on Proton development, have a blog post up talking about why it was interesting to solve.

As I've said in the past, fixing up issues even in tiny games can have a big effect elsewhere. It's not always the huge exciting flashy AAA names that need fixing, as problems affecting multiple titles can be hiding anywhere — even in a 2D game about a "Bum fighting against vengeful Toilets". Side-note: writing this might be the highlight of my day, not many jobs get you to talk about a buttocks fighting toilets. I should talk about this the next time someone asks what I actually do…

Magnificent looking isn't it?

CodeWeavers' quality assurance team noted an issue with PooShooter: Toilet Invaders having a black screen with Proton, although it reportedly worked with earlier versions. Things got weirder when they couldn't get it to work with any Proton version, even when they manually removed previous Proton files that might be sticking around. However, it did work when they used the "Delete Proton Files" option directly on Steam Deck in the developer menu.

Eventually they fixed the black screen rendering issue, which should also fix up some other titles but it also highlighted an issue with how the Delete Proton Files feature worked. As it turned out Valve had a bug in the Steam client where it wasn't removing files with filenames that had a colon (:) in them. Thanks to the work involved in fixing this tiny weird indie title, a bug that could have been causing numerous issues elsewhere was found — nice. It's also slightly hilarious that a game about bums and toilets, helped find an issue with a colon. Ah, simple pleasures. The jokes could write themselves at this point.

So the next time you need to clear some Proton files on Steam Deck just think - it's like flushing the toilet. Nice and clean.

You can read the full blog post here.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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17 comments
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Pengling Jul 14, 2023
HAHAHAHAHAHA! Reading this post was the highlight of my day! The only bum-note was that the word "blog" in the headline didn't get changed to "bog".
Purple Library Guy Jul 14, 2023
Quoting: PenglingHAHAHAHAHAHA! Reading this post was the highlight of my day! The only bum-note was that the word "blog" in the headline didn't get changed to "bog".
Well, particularly since I understand that was the original derivation.
slaapliedje Jul 14, 2023
This seems to be the perfect combination; play some Pooshooter on the Steam Deck while dropping bombs!
Gramini Jul 14, 2023
I'm curious. IIRC these Proton files are the virtual Windows "environment" (eg. the simulated C: drive). That means that the files in there would also be present on a Windows system. But Windows doesn't allow colons in file names. So how exactly were those files created in the first place?
denyasis Jul 14, 2023
Quoting: GraminiI'm curious. IIRC these Proton files are the virtual Windows "environment" (eg. the simulated C: drive). That means that the files in there would also be present on a Windows system. But Windows doesn't allow colons in file names. So how exactly were those files created in the first place?

Likely by the system. Easiest example would be "C:". I'd figure the files are used by the system while not directly by the windows program that's trying to run.
iwantlinuxgames Jul 14, 2023
QuoteIt's also slightly hilarious that a game about bums and toilets, helped find an issue with a colon
Marlock Jul 14, 2023
iirc there's a couple files in proton prefixes which include c: in their name, along a large portion of files under a c: folder path
TheSHEEEP Jul 14, 2023
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Quoting: iwantlinuxgames
QuoteIt's also slightly hilarious that a game about bums and toilets, helped find an issue with a colon
Captain's logbook, startdate...
StoneColdSpider Jul 14, 2023
What a "shitty" looking game....... Plays like utter "crap" too......
Pengling Jul 14, 2023
Quoting: StoneColdSpiderWhat a "shitty" looking game....... Plays like utter "crap" too......
And the protagonist is a literal arsehole, too!
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