The Binding of Isaac
The Binding of Isaac is developed by Edmund McMillen (one half of Team Meat, the duo responsible for Super Meat Boy) and Florian Himsl. Due to being programmed in Flash, it does not work on low spec GPUs such as those found on netbooks, unlike Super Meat Boy.
Version Differences
The full version of the game is availible on Steam and availible on the Humble Store. The version on Humble Store is superior as it is DRM-free, works in Mac OS X, Linux and Windows, and contains a Steam key.
The game was also a part of the Humble Indie Bundle Voxatron Debut.
Demo
A demo version is available on newgrounds.com in Flash.
Downloadable Content
One downloadable content pack has been released so far - The Wrath of the Lamb, released on May 28,2102. It is said to add "70% more content to the original, and contains more than 10 bosses, over 100 items, over 40 unlocks, a new final ending and more".
Edmund McMillen, the developer of the game, has stated on his Twitter that another content pack will be released in the near future.
Issues and Fixes
Steam Achievements Not Unlocking
On certain systems Steam achievements may fail to unlock and get registered.
A fan made fix 16px has been developed to solve this issue on Windows. It is not possible, however, to solve the problem on Mac without access to Windows.
Steam Achievements For Mac
For the achievements gained on a Mac to be unlocked in Steam, one has to copy and replace the so.sol files as outlined here. The file is located in:
~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#SharedObjects/''<Random String>''/localhost/
After extracting it, follow the instructions given in the aforementioned link. Finally launch the game and see the achievements unlock.
Alt+Tab Crashing
Does not appear to be a fix for this yet. Also happens when pressing Windows key.
Solution: press F, it toggles fullscreen.
Steam Community does not work in full screen
If you are playing the game in full screen, you will be unable to access Steam Community's Shift Tab overlay.
Save Game Data
The Binding of Isaac states that Steam Cloud is used. However, no save data or settings are actually synced. The game runs on Flash, meaning that progress and settings are stored in non-standard locations.
Save Game Folder Location
Save game file is named so.sol and is located in Flash local storage folder.
- Windows:
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects
- Mac:
%appdata%\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\[some random string]\localhost\
- Linux:
~/.macromedia/Flash_Player/#SharedObjects/[randomstrin]g/localhost/so.sol
- Visit the Website Storage Settings Panel to directly change the local storage size that Flash is allowed to use to at least 10kb.
- Programs such as CCleaner will clean this folder out by default. Make sure to add this folder as an exception.
- NOTE: As of the latest Steam patch, Issac saves all your files to its Steam folder. All data can be found for Windows at
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\the binding of issac
as myfile.txt and serial.txt (Mac users, help me out here)
Settings Folder Location
Settings file is named serial.txt and is located in the Steam installation folder under \common\the binding of isaac\.
- Windows:
c:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\the binding of isaac\
- Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/the binding of isaac/
- Linux: appears not to use a serial.txt file to save settings data.
Transfering Saves
If transferring save games to a new computer, the game needs to be run on the new machine at least once. Once Flash has allocated the location of the new local Flash storage, then you can overwrite this with updated data.
Controller Support
This game does not natively support gaming peripherals such as gamepads.
Hacking In Controller Support
The developers recommend somewhat light-heartedly that the players use, or google if they don't know it, a utility named JoyToKey. Please also check the controller category for more information.
It is recommended to bind left stick to move, right stick to fire direction, as in a standard dual-stick shooter.
System Requirements
Useful Links
- The Binding of Isaac Soundtrack - composed by Danny Baranowsky.
- The Binding of Isaac Wiki - useful information