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Bug of the moment 2007-07-22


I installed Jazz Jackrabbit 2 in Windows 2000 to investigate into the nature of one of the level tunes (turns out that I had a messed-up rip of one of the tunes). Anyone who remembers Microsoft Office in early Win32 will remember that the gradient title bar idea was an Office innovation, where Office applications would draw custom titlebars on what looked like otherwise ordinary windows.

I have no idea how Windows permits one to go about redefining title bars (or rearrange taskbar buttons for that matter) but Jazz Jackrabbit 2 appears to have taken the incentive to do so also:

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 with a custom gradient title bar with inner shadow

Here is a reference title bar as a control:

The Jazz Jackrabbit 2 title bar is of course drawn differently for inactive windows:

The title bar is drawn paler when the window is inactive

If you start the game, or let it drop into a demo, however, something odd happens. The window starts out fine:

The game in demo mode with a regular custom title bar

If you then switch to another window, the game then uses a tile from the tileset for the title bar background, with the same gradient and inner shadow overlaid:

The title bar now has a repeating level title drawn behind the custom gradient

On completing a level, the title bar will be reset to its normal modified state. Under further testing, this tileset drawing seems to also stop happening after a level or two.

The strange part is that the title bar colour is, nevertheless, derived from the Windows theme colours:

If the gradient is derived from the Windows theme colours, how does a tileset tile end up in there?


Posted 22nd July 2007 – Comments and questions?