GnomeKiSS (latest version: 2.0) by Nick Lamb
(version 1.6: gnomekiss-1.6.tar.gz, gnomekiss-1.6-1.i386.rpm)

A viewer for the Gnome desktop, with a very thorough cnf debugger and a number of PlayFKiSS-compatible options. Apparently, it will work under MacOS X (the source code includes a portability fix). This player, last tried out at version 1.6, is now at version 2.0 and installable from Linux distribution repositories (in this case for Ubuntu and Linux Mint), so there's no more need to compile from source or look for rpms. The viewer can't open LZH files unless lha is installed (found in any repository). Installing the file from a repository means that it is automatically added to the Gnome menu under Games, although it can still be opened by typing "gnomekiss [--help]" in the console. It also has a man page now.

For compatiblity with PlayFKiSS, GnomeKiSS has a default palette for cels that need a kcf but haven't been assigned one; this is an option that can be switched on an off. Because of the confusion around drop() and catch(), version 2 also has a setting whether to trigger these for fixed objects, as well as settings to make the parser case-insensitive and to manipulate speed and timers; all compatibility settings with the old Windows viewers.

A handy button in the toolbar is the "unfix" clip (as seen in version 1.4; version 2 has no explanation under the toolbar buttons) which unfixes any fixed cel; useful when testing a set.

GnomeKiSS has strict error checking, and produces a list of what it considers errors when a set is opened, such as "ambiguous cel". It accepts ambiguous cels, however, and treats them in a fairly standard way.

Archive support: yes
FKiSS: 3
CKiSS: yes
Enhanced palette: yes
Bugs and idiosyncrasies:

Bug in version 0.8: when changing to a palette group, if that palette file's group is empty, the viewer displays the colours of the last filled palette instead of the first. Fixed in 1.6.

GnomeKiSS handles all paletted and non-paletted cels alone and in combination, but there continues to be a bug when changing to a palette group even in version 2. It has something to do with changecol() changing to an already active palette; this seems to abort changecol() and any action under it. Changing to an active palette may happen when I manually choose palette 3 from the Colors submenu (where the selected palette group is not necessarily the active palette group) when the palettes don't have a palette group 3 and so default to palette group 0. Then I click on a cel that has the action "changecol(0)". It doesn't work the first time; I have to click it twice. This is hard to reproduce, but can also have effects like not changing page when "set(x)" has a changecol(y) under it when palette group y is already active.

Like most players, GnomeKiSS ignores all but the first instance of a cell for (alt/un)mapping, but collision does apply to all instances. So if object #1 (first instance of bottle.cel) collides with object #2 (first instance of cap.cel) this triggers collide(), but if object #10 (second instance of bottle.cel) collides with object #20 (first instance of cap.cel) this will also trigger collide(). The same applies to apart().

This could be the right way to do things, but different viewers handle it in different ways: if a cel that was clicked on, altmaps or unmaps so it is no longer under the mouse pointer, but the mouse button is still held down, this triggers (fix)drop() - but not release(), which only happens when the mouse button is released. However, and this may be due to how Gnome handles mouse input, release() will also fire after a while, even though the mouse button is still held down.

GnomeKiSS doesn't support end() and doesn't seem to support debug(). It does support notify() by opening a window for each message, so if there are two or more notify()s, you don't see one window that has to be closed to see the next one, as in PlayFKiSS, but two windows overlying each other, the latest on top.

GnomeKiSS does support viewport() and windowsize() - and how! It doesn't apply these commands to the KiSS playfield, but to its own window, which may start resizing and jumping all over the place. Do not use these actions with this viewer!

Sets with more than one CNF are a bit of a nuisance to open, as the "open file" dialog will show all files in a set, not just the CNF. If there is only one CNF, that file's name will appear in the "selection" field, else it's a matter of scrolling.

I didn't get GnomeKiSS to play MIDI files, but I think that's a problem with Linux Mint as there was a message about dsp not working the first time I started GnomeKiSS. Windows viewers have the same problem with newer versions of windows, since the old way to play MIDI files doesn't work any more.

Click here for screenshots.