Messages

1

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Rare SCI Games

« on: March 25, 2023, 06:25:55 PM »

I've discovered this guy and we've been talking quite a lot recently, I'll help him validate/complete his already impressive collection with my own fluxes. This is probably today's best ongoing effort for a complete database and validated original dumps and images of all Sierra games:

https://archive.org/details/20220303_20220303_0527

He's also actively developing an image checking/cleaning/manipulation tool that may be useful to you and your own fluxes, Collector: https://github.com/Digitoxin1/DiskImageTool

If you (or anyone else) have your own set of fluxes or original images files missing (or needing validation) and would like to contribute, feel free to hit me up I'm also on his Discord that is advertised on the archive page. He's also fluxing beyond Sierra and has many other collections on archives: https://archive.org/details/@digitoxin

It's a sublime preservation effort of original media in unaltered form! Of course that's a bit different from what you are doing @Threepwang with the fan translations and all, but a very important cause nonetheless

2

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Sierra Version Tool

« on: March 11, 2023, 04:24:01 AM »

Great, thank you! Of course will let you know what I find and process the games I already reported so we can test the whole thing.

3

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Sierra Version Tool

« on: March 08, 2023, 11:50:02 AM »

Wow, really cool! Here's my very own quick&dirty hack of a Shuttle XPC for very similar kryoflux purposes, that I affectionately called the PreservationStation^TM 

I only use DTC to generate .IMA + raw streams, would you mind expanding on the additional features of your GUI? I can guess/figure out some of it from the screenshots, but would love a more detailed explanation. As I just started going through properly capturing my collection as well, maybe it is worth trying to adhere to the standard you've created for yourself?

4

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Sierra Version Tool

« on: March 08, 2023, 02:31:38 AM »

Hehe Threepwang, as discussed privately my end goal and only drive is preservation. So this will all get available. I also have your elusive LSL1VGA 2.0/1.000.510

I am still organizing my stuff and figuring out how I want to go forward. I may want to spin a specific "Sierra preservation project" out of my current efforts.

5

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Sierra Version Tool

« on: March 07, 2023, 12:01:17 PM »

Yes it is there, it's King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella / 1.003.006 / 0.000.409. I was surprised as I've rarely found games that were not mentioned at all in HRW's list but didn't check really more than that before posting.

I believe it should be the earliest known release with the "bad" graphics?

Great idea for the reporting mechanism to streamline importing new games!

6

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Sierra Version Tool

« on: March 06, 2023, 12:15:11 PM »

Makes sense about the notes. I think the "Used in" change is a great idea that avoids any confusion

I have edited my post and expanded on the SQ2 that is missing so you have the full table, could have thought about it myself. Also checked and confirmed the real SQ4 date.

Just let me know if you need anything else, that was just a first try, and we can improve on that. If you come up with something different for reports, a template or anything else that makes it easier for us, I'll be happy to adapt and make it useful.

More reports to come as I have more time to process them. Today I found my KQ4 SCI version+interpreter is NOT documented in HWM...interesting. I think that's a first

7

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Sierra Version Tool

« on: March 06, 2023, 05:14:27 AM »

Many thanks for the insight on your tool's innards, much appreciated!

So here we go with a few SQ reports to start - these are all from my own original boxes and full releases, no collection/budget/kixs release etc...
Hope my format is clear and self-explanatory enough. Let me know if you need anything or how I can help further.



1. SQ2 v2.0C / Int. 2.917

[3.5"]
Sierra Version Tool: NOT OK
- Game Name: Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge
- Language: English
- Platform: MS-DOS
- Media: 2 x 3.5" diskettes
- Game version: 2.0C
- Interpreter version: 2.917
- Release date: 20-oct-1988
- Designer: Mark Crowe & Scott Murphy
- LOGDIR: B394EAAE1DFE4203378E02641178959C
- VOL.0: AB3E2F335B09306B0B9DFCD2A8ECD618
- OBJECT: 5024D50D42801AAEA7170A756218A7E6
HWM: OK
ScummVM: NOT OK (https://bugs.scummvm.org/ticket/14287)

[5.25"]
Sierra version tool: OK
HWM: OK
ScummVM: NOT OK (https://bugs.scummvm.org/ticket/14286)



2. SQ3 v1.0p / Int. 0.000.453

[3.5"]
Sierra Version Tool: NOT OK
- Game Name: Space Quest III: Pirates of Pestulon
- Language: English
- Platform: MS-DOS
- Media: 3 x 3.5" diskettes
- Game version: 1.0P
- Interpreter version: 0.000.453
- Release date: 22-Mar-1989
- Designer: Mark Crowe & Scott Murphy
- RESOURCE.MAP: 876445bb0085a62d5966f4153e2ddf52
HWM: OK
ScummVM: OK

[5.25"]
Sierra Version Tool: NOT OK
Same as above, plus:
- Media: 6 x 5.25" diskettes
- RESOURCE.MAP: 6dd8f59dd8a0c8131f34b159044e645e
HWM: OK
ScummVM: OK



3. SQ4 v1.1 / Int. 0.000.753 - 5.25" VGA English

[5.25"]
Sierra Version Tool: INCOMPLETE - See attached "SQ4_1.1_VGA_5.25.txt" file
- Media type: 6 x 5.25"
- Release date: RESOURCE.MAP 4-Mar-1991
- Interp Version is correct (0.000.753), the "0.000.200 (guess)" in Notes is wrong.
HWM: OK
ScummVM: OK



4. SQ5 v1.03 / Int. 1.001.068 - 3.5" English

[3.5"]
Sierra Version Tool: OK - See attached "SQ5_1.03_3.5.txt" file
- Minor detail: "From the Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier Collection" in Notes is wrong as this comes from my original game release (purple box).
HWM: OK
ScummVM: OK



5. SQ1VGA v2.0 / Int. T.A00.081 - 3.5" English

[3.5"]
Sierra Version Tool: OK - See attached "SQ1VGA_2.0_3.5.txt" file
- Minor detail: "From Space Quest Saga. Int:1.000.510 (guess)" in Notes is wrong as this comes from my original game release, and int guess is wrong too.
HWM: OK
ScummVM: OK

8

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Sierra Version Tool

« on: March 05, 2023, 04:14:49 AM »

Hello Collector!

I found this forum and your tool by pure search engine luck - exactly what I was looking for, amazing! And had to register just to thank you first of all

I'm an absolute Sierra fan and have a pretty deep collection of boxed games, that I'm currently in the process of fully documenting. I am also an active member of different software preservation projects and started collecting as many versions of the games as possible and have more at my disposal that I still need to go through, so your tool is an amazing help!

I would be glad to help improving your database along the way with my findings, if you're interested of course. I do have a few questions and feedback about the tool:

- What's the most convenient way for you to receive reports? In replies to this topic directly?
- Can you explain a bit more what your "database" is so I can maybe check a few things by myself first before making a report? I think I've read somewhere in another thread of yours that it's a mix between ScummVM database and other means. I am just surprised, because I already found both games that your tool recognizes but not ScummVM, and games that ScummVM recognizes but not your tool. Will give you more details once you let me know how you'd like reports. I have opened a couple of tickets with ScummVM with my findings, so hopefully I can also help them improve their DB.
- Can you describe a bit more what's the tool trying to do when it's automatically launching the included DosBox ECE? I guess it's trying to grab some info from the running game directly, is it a WIP because it seems to me not much is being written in the files it generates? I'd be interested to know more, and would suggest making this auto-launch an option?
- I would also suggest storing the files the tool generates outside of the game folder, maybe in the tool folder directly? As I am dumping my original disks I would like to keep game folders as clean as possible. Is it only version.txt and flags.txt that get written? If that's the case then it's easy enough to go and remove them after hand, so that's not exactly a big deal.

OK I think that's enough for a start, thanks again for making this and looking forward to your answer cheers!