Messages

1

SCI Development Tools / Re: SCI0: SCI0 Interpreter with added PKWare DCL Implode compression (comp_method=3)

« on: July 20, 2026, 05:57:12 PM »

Pretty neat, what's the compression ratio like? Imagine if Police Quest 2 was on just one disk etc... that would have been a game changer (literally!) back in the day.

Are there any SCI0 games that push the limit of the hunk memory?

So here is a comparison with my game. Its at 7.66mb right now but I still have to add all the music resources. So I think I'll be hitting 9.5mb when finished. Way too big. LOL

Code: [Select]

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
│                           Version                            │  Size (measured)   │         vs raw          │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ Raw/uncompressed (game-o/RESOURCE.001)                       │ 7.66 MB (7.30 MiB) │ ?                       │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ Original SCI0 LZW/Huffman (MAKEVOLS, doc figure)             │ ~5.20 MB           │ ~1.40:1 (28.6% smaller) │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ New DCL Implode patch (compress/RESOURCE.001, current build) │ 3.91 MB (3.73 MiB) │ ~1.96:1 (48.9% smaller) │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┘
I did achieve better compression using RAR on the raw/uncompressed resource file, but in my case I not only wanted to save space on floppy disks I also want to save space on the hard disk as some of the older systems have very small hard disks. So I think the payoff of loosing 5kb memory, less hard disk space and number of floppy disks is the "happy medium".

2

SCI Development Tools / Re: SCI0: SCI0 Interpreter with added PKWare DCL Implode compression (comp_method=3)

« on: July 09, 2026, 09:32:10 AM »

Hi guys,
The patch costs the game zero heap and about 6KB of hunk, which matches how Sierra's own SCI16 engine handles this (it keeps the whole DCL work buffer in a far hunk Handle with zero near-heap use).
Hope that helps.

3

SCI Development Tools / SCI0: SCI0 Interpreter with added PKWare DCL Implode compression (comp_method=3)

« on: July 05, 2026, 06:16:13 AM »

Hi guys,
On my quest to save hard disk space for my project after many hours of pulling my hair out I've managed to get a working version of the SCI0 Interpreter with added PKWare DCL Implode compression (comp_method=3) and only using a 6kb of memory footprint. Maybe someone else could do this better using less memory?

### Memory footprint (decompressor in SCIV.EXE)

4096-byte dictionary window : 4096 bytes
Fixed decode tables         : ~1800 bytes (compile-time constants)
State overhead              :  ~200 bytes
TOTAL                       : ~6096 bytes (~6KB)

I've also written a makevols.exe that compresses each resource with DCL Implode. Both are attached if anyone wants to test them.

4

SCI Syntax Help / Re: SCI0: GoToIfSaid ?

« on: May 22, 2026, 09:49:45 AM »

ok thanks. I'll have a play around with this.
Regards.

5

SCI Syntax Help / SCI0: GoToIfSaid ?

« on: May 22, 2026, 05:43:20 AM »

Hi guys,
I was reading through the SCI0 changes/updates file and saw this. Does this work in SC? What syntax is correct as TurnIfSaid and GoToIfSaid are not accepted?

Code: [Select]

9/22/89 Pablo: GOTOSAID: The end of "not close enough".

TurnIfSaid is a new version of Mark Hood's procedure for making ego
face whatever was mentioned. For example if the user types "look chair"
ego will turn in place to face the chair before getting a response.

GoToIfSaid is similar but, as the name implies, it moves ego to a
specified point or object vicinity before reprocessing the Said event.

These procedures are only useful if sortedFeatures are in use. Grooper
and avoider are used to turn and move.

* This takes up ZERO bytes if you don't use it.

6

SCI Development Tools / SCI0: SNDBLAST.DRV Patch

« on: May 01, 2026, 10:36:32 AM »

Hi guys,
I was having issues getting the SNDBLAST.DRV working with newer Soundblaster cards, like the SBPro and SB16.  I saw that the SNDBLAST.DRV hardcoded IO: 220, IRQ:7 and DMA:1

I've written a couple of assembly programs to tackle this. One that that detects a Sound Blaster cards configuration and another that will write those settings to the SNDBLAST.DRV.

This is handy if you want to embed wav files into your SCI0 Sound files with NRS addwav.exe and use a SoundBlaster card that is not configured to the hardcoded configuration. This would lockup SCI0 when playing back.

Let me know if anyone has any issues.
Regards.

7

SCI Development Tools / Re: SCI01 Template Game

« on: February 27, 2026, 01:59:11 PM »

Hi,
So I've been testing the SCI01 template EGA and the VGA one. I've found some issues. I'm Not sure if this is normal behaviour or I need to configure SC a little more?

1. When creating a new room from the menu in SCI Companion 3.2.4 (Kawa under Windows 10) it seems to use the SCI0 naming convention like gEgo, instance Rm and gXXXXXX etc.
2. When creating a new room its auto added to the game.ini but under the scripts explorer menu its not shown. Its only shown under the Scripts quick links. (The VGA SCI01 template does not have this issue)
3. When converting the template not use patch files, if I delete individual resource files like font.001 from the root game directory the template does not work. (The VGA SCI01 template does not have this issue)
4. When ever creating a new room these Warning appear:

Code: [Select]

Warning: (sci2.sh) Duplicate defines: 'TRUE'  Line: 4, col: 12
Warning: (sci2.sh) Duplicate defines: 'FALSE'  Line: 5, col: 13
Warning: (system.sh) Duplicate defines: 'NULL'  Line: 343, col: 12
Warning: (system.sh) Duplicate defines: 'notUpd'  Line: 366, col: 14
Warning: (system.sh) Duplicate defines: 'fixPriOn'  Line: 368, col: 16

Thanks,

8

SCI Development Tools / Re: Copyright state with games created in SCICompanion

« on: February 04, 2026, 04:11:28 AM »

Your game should still on on scummvm. Not sure what licenses are around that? Can you ship it with a commercial product?

I really would like to use MSDOS as the main OS, so SummVM is not an option at this point. Do your builds run on MSDOS?
I'm thinking if its possible to re-write SCIV.EXE so its a little different but 100% compatible that way get around the copyright issues?

9

SCI Development Tools / Re: Copyright state with games created in SCICompanion

« on: January 30, 2026, 04:33:36 PM »

It must be in the air

I did try and approach Microsoft to see if they hold the rights but I was not successful. Do we really know who owns the rights to the system code?

10

SCI Development Tools / Re: Copyright state with games created in SCICompanion

« on: January 30, 2026, 11:51:31 AM »

Yeah that's what I was worried about. Everything under the hood. Anyone know how Icefall Games is doing it. Phil seems to has his for sale on Steam.

I was going to try a Adventure / RPG style game. I've always loved those.

11

SCI Development Tools / Re: Copyright state with games created in SCICompanion

« on: January 30, 2026, 09:50:59 AM »

I believe it's the MT-32 ROM that would be a copyright concern, just don't include it. MT32.DRV and SCIV.EXE are in the SCICompanion template games, so I wouldn't worry about those.

Yeah, I've seen Roland actively requesting people to no include their roms in bundles.

Is SCIV.EXE reverse engineered or is it the original EXE compiled at Sierra? The driver .DRV files do look originals so they might be a concern.

I'm not worried with my LSL4 as will be Freeware but was thinking of commercially realising a new game/IP later on.

12

SCI Development Tools / Copyright state with games created in SCICompanion

« on: January 29, 2026, 12:47:09 PM »

Hi guys,
What is the accepted/legal practice for distributing original games made with SCICompanion? If you bundle with the drivers like mt32.drv etc and the sciv.exe would this breach copyright? I'm not sure who now holds the copyright for the drivers files and sciv.exe?

13

SCI Development Tools / Re: snd to wav ?

« on: January 16, 2026, 04:45:35 AM »

I just downloaded it. Its very cool. Just what the doctor ordered

14

SCI Development Tools / Re: snd to wav ?

« on: January 15, 2026, 05:35:40 PM »

<Robbo007 bows>..thanks

SV?
I've got code and tools all over my brain. Wine does not help...

15

SCI Development Tools / snd to wav ?

« on: January 15, 2026, 04:53:03 PM »

Hi guys,
Sorry if this has been asked. Is there a way to convert a .snd to wav or extract the .smp to .wav? I'm trying to extract the open and close door SoundbBaster sounds from 40.snd and 41.snd LSL5. The LSL5 source shows its formed of two parts?

Code: [Select]

;(40.snd (-p10)          ;sDoorOpen             matjsx
;        (seq\DoorO1.mid)
;        (savesmp\DoorO1.smp[mat])
;)
;
;(41.snd (-p10)          ;sDoorClose             matjsx
;        (seq\DoorC1.mid)
;        (savesmp\DoorC1.smp[mat])