New Template Game

[Collector]

I agree with your focus on SCI1.1. I think it could attract more new developers than SCI0.1 or SCI1 with bitmapped pic resources and discrete digital sounds.

[MusicallyInspired]

lol Like I said, I'm hopeless.

Seriously, I'll be glad to help wherever I can.

@gumby: Wow that's far more ambitious than what I was picturing. But if you can pull it off!

EDIT: One thing I thought of was tools for creating sound and patch resources for SCI1/SCI1.1. The tools we currently have (Soundbox, Syx2Pat, Bnk2Pat, Pat2Bnk, etc) all only currently work for SCI0. I know most people like to go the modern route and just use sciAudio, but.....yeah. Is this going to be considered equally as pointless as making a SCI01 or SCI1 template game?

[Cloudee1]

So which game are we looking at building the template game off of... SQ5 I am assuming since it is one that is already decompiled... But then I suppose there is also going to be some bits and pieces from other games (functionality) that we may also want to snag when it comes to finishing off a template game.

I'll admit, looking at the list of sci1.1 games, I haven't completed nearly as many of them as I should have. So I can't think of any examples right now .

[troflip]

Probably SQ5 or LSL6. I've been going with SQ5 since I'm a much bigger fan of the SQ games than LSL. But LSL6 has a slightly more modern interpreter - it handles 16-bit audio, I'm not sure if SQ5's interpreter does (or whether that's more a function of the sound drivers).

[Collector]

While I too like SQ5 more, 16-bit audio would be great. Even if the ability is in the driver often you cannot mix and match drivers between games. I'll see if SQ5 will accept the driver from LSL6. I assume you mean LSL6 floppy as the CD version is SCI2.1.

[troflip]

I was able to add a 16 bit audio sound to SQ5. Plop this 108.aud in your folder, and it should play when Roger exits the simulator. The quality doesn't seem very good though, maybe it plays 16 bit sounds as 8 bit?

[Collector]

For some reason it does not override the embedded aud, even though the RESOURCE.CFG is  pointing to the right place. It plays fine in SV, but is ignored in the game. It makes no sense. The only other time that I have encountered an SCI game ignoring patches is with some of the earliest versions of the very first SCI games like KQ4 and LSL2 before they added that feature. Could it be that your version has a slightly later interpreter that can handle it and mine cannot so it ignores the external aud? Mine is 1.001.068. I did try the SB driver from LSL6 and it worked, but still does not play your aud file.

[troflip]

haha, why does nothing ever work??
My interpreter is the same version as yours. I redownloaded it from this site, and replaced it and it still worked.

This is my resource.cfg:

Code: [Select]

videoDrv  = VGA320.DRV
 soundDrv  = ADL.DRV
 audioDrv  = AUDBLAST.DRV
 joyDrv    = NO
 kbdDrv    = IBMKBD.DRV
 mouseDrv  = STDMOUSE.DRV
 memoryDrv = ARM.DRV
 language = 1
 minHunk = 223k

What Windows OS are you using? (I'm windows 7). Maybe you need to "unblock" the file or something? I know exe's downloaded from the web are marked specially, maybe for some reason this file is too?

[Collector]

Win7 Pro here, too. Mine comes from my original floppies. I do have nearly all of collections, not sure what differences there are without checking. The only difference with the RESOURCE.CFG is mine has GENMIDI.DRV for the music and the patchDir is specified and the interpreter does recognize that flag. It makes no difference if I use ADL and remove the patchDir setting. There are no permission issues and it was not downloaded from the internet so nothing from the game was not flagged by Windows. I did remove the flag on the aud file, so that is not the reason. In the end, it probably does not matter as long as a SCI1.1 template game accepts the higher bit rate.

[MusicallyInspired]

It doesn't work for me either. I'm using the version from the Space Quest Collection Series. I hear other sounds but when the bridge simulator opens, there is silence.

[Collector]

I hear the default sound.

[MusicallyInspired]

Lol well isn't that nice and confusing. I'm also running 1.001.068. I should note that I don't have a patch director specified in the resource.cfg file.

EDIT: Just tried troflip's resource.cfg settings for fun. Same deal. Silence.

EDIT 2: I just realized I might not be playing with a pure copy. I have a file called UTILITY.EXE in my SQ5 directory. When run in DOSBox it extracts 5 files and overwrites them in the game folder:

INTERP.ERR
SIERRA.EXE
65535.MAP
RESOURCE.MAP
RESOURCE.AUD

Seems to be a patch and comes with the game in my collection version. I also have other extraneous files everywhere that aren't usually in there. I've been using the same folder for years and years so it could be defiled in any number of ways. Anywho, I took a pure copy of the game from my collection CD and extracted it. I didn't run the UTILITY program (I don't know if I had in the past or not) and put troflip's sound file in the game folder and now I can hear it. I don't know if the contents of that patch were the culprit for it not working on my end or not, but a pure copy of the game seems to run it fine.

[Collector]

That is just part of the floppy installer. Those files do not exist outside of the self extractor. Completely unnecessary and redundant for the CD. I had never noticed it before, but it s simply an oversight by the Space Quest Collection Series designers. There is also the LANGUAGE self extractor from the floppy installer. I was not hearing it because I was using the floppy release, which requires those files.

Curious as to what is causing it. I tried the LSL6 SB driver (which worked alright with the floppy release) and although it does not crash the game, it trashed the sound.

[Cloudee1]

Started going through the scripts of the decompiled SQ5... and getting them, hopefully, template ready.

Obviously there are going to be things that I come across that I can't decipher or simply don't know what to do with. A couple that I have come across have actually been exactly the same as our current template scripts with the only differences being the script number.

I am also assuming that (include "game.sh") will also need to be added to the script files...

[Collector]

What about the hep files? Are these automatically generated by the compiler or will the developer need to doing anything with them? Do they even have source files?