Messages

196

AGI Development Tools / WinAGI Version 2.1.5

« on: February 09, 2021, 10:12:13 PM »

This version adds an option to decompile logics with message argument tokens (m1, m2, etc.) instead of literal strings. Also addresses two minor bugs found by pierrelapin (when opening words.tok files with no group zero words and views with bad description pointers).

Link is here: http://agiwiki.sierrahelp.com/images/6/69/WinAGI_2_1_5.zip

197

AGI Development Tools / Re: WinAGI 2.1.3 & Original Games: Errors and Warnings

« on: February 03, 2021, 07:09:47 PM »

Thank you for the bug reports! I wish you were around for the earlier beta tests!

Manhunter SanFrancisco, 3.02    7/26/89
03-févr-21: WARNING: Sound215 was skipped because it's VOL file (MH2VOL.6) is missing.
03-févr-21: WARNING: Sound216 was skipped because it's VOL file (MH2VOL.6) is missing.
Compile!

Warnings are informational only; they don't mean the game is broken or that WinAGI can't work with them. The warnings you see here are fairly common in Sierra Games. When Sierra built the DIR files, they often left old index information in for resources that they were no longer using. It's usually not a problem because none of the logics ever try to load them (at least not in any of the games I've examined). But the pointers are bad, and WinAGI is just informing you that they are there. WinAGI also deletes the bad pointers from the DIR files.

Mixed Up Mother Goose
WINAGI Crash when clicking on Words Editor icon ! (No Words in this game)
Compile!

This is a good catch. The WORDS.TOK file for this game has no words in group 0 (the words that get ignored). Which is fine; they are not required. But the editor expects them there, and when it tries to set up the form with the list of groups, it gets stuck when it can't find group 0. I'll get a fix out for this shortly.

Police Quest 1, 2.0G     12/3/87 (AGI STUDIO has no problem and the resource is readable)
View.036, error 513 in preview: can't read past end of resource
Compile!

Another good catch. This view has an invalid pointer for the View Description; it is set to a value that is past the end of the file.  WinAGI has always treated that as a fatal error, as attempting to load a view description with an invalid pointer can create problems. But for this view, the view description property is never used, so it's not really a problem. I will get a fix out that ignores this error and repairs the pointer automatically.

Space Quest 1, 1.1a 1986-11-1 (ok with other downloads but same version, AGI STUDIO can't read the bad version at all)
Logic.099, Error 688 at position 10 in preview mode:  Unable to decode logic (invalid goto position or if/then block
Logic.100, idem at position 197
=> refuse to compile... certainly a corrupted archive (another one works well)

If there is a bad logic, due to corrupted source VOL files, then WinAGI will correctly refuse to compile it. Maybe I am misunderstanding your comment?

Space Quest 2, 2.0f (2.0A OK and never contains Logic141 & Picture147)
03-févr-21: WARNING: Logic141 was skipped because it's location (131071) in the VOL file(VOL.0) is invalid.
03-févr-21: WARNING: Picture147 was skipped because it's location (196607) in the VOL file(VOL.0) is invalid.
compile!

This is the same as the Manhunter comment. WinAGI is just informing you that the DIR files have bad pointers in them. Most likely they existed at one time during development, but were dropped at some point. Sierra never bothered to update the DIR files. WinAGI automatically removes the invalid pointers when it imports the game.

For each entry, you add "Compile!" at the end. I think you mean that after importing, the game can be successfully recompiled? If the games can be imported and successfully recompiled, I'm not sure what the issue is. Other than the Space Quest corrupted game, are there any that don't compile? That'd be useful information.

If you know of any other significant issues, I'd love to get that information as well. While I don't want to spend a lot of time on the VB6 code, I will make fixes for significant errors.

Thanks again for the information,

198

AGI Development Tools / Re: Original AGI code?

« on: February 02, 2021, 10:57:10 AM »

I have also partially disassembled Sierra's original Logic compiler (cg.exe), which has helped me validate their syntax.

199

AGI Development Tools / Re: WinAGI Version 2.1.3 Is Available

« on: February 02, 2021, 03:11:12 AM »

Hello Pierre,

Welcome to our AGI community. It's a great place to discuss AGI related issues, and you can always count on the users here to help answer any questions you might have.

I'm sorry to hear you are having problems with WinAGI. All I can say is that I've done extensive testing on it over the last ten years or so, and I have successfully decompiled and recompiled every original Sierra DOS game with no errors. But there were a lot of different versions of each game released, and it's possible you have a version that I don't have that does cause errors when loaded in WinAGI. I don't think that's too likely though.

And yes, you do see a  lot of warnings when you decompile/recompile original Sierra games, but those are all there because of bugs or bad coding practices used in the original games. WinAGI is able to do deep analysis of the resources and logic code and exposes those flaws that other AGI tools gloss over or ignore. If you don't like the warnings, you can disable them by setting the error detection level to low. But you miss out on one of the best features of WinAGI (in my opinion) because it will help you find those subtle errors and bugs that are otherwise really hard to detect.

Regarding unrecognized resources, many of the original Sierra games had bits of old code, old resources and invalid directory pointers that got left in the game, even though they are never accessed. WinAGI is able to identify those 'orphaned' invalid resources so they can be corrected if doing a recompile. The errors are not caused by WinAGI- on the contrary, WinAGI points out what other tools miss.

I am not sure I understand your comment about message variables. The terms 'message' and 'variable' have distinct meaning in AGI syntax, so 'message variables' isn't a thing (translation error I assume?) I *think* you are referring to a decompiling option to hide inline display of messages as text strings; so when decompiled, you want to see this:

Code: [Select]

  if (said("look"))
    {
    print(m1);
    }
instead of this:

Code: [Select]

  if (said("look"))
    {
    print("You see nothing of interest.");
    }
If that's the case, then you are correct; WinAGI currently doesn't offer that as a decompile option. But it took me less than 10 minutes to add it. Unfortunately, I saw this post literally one minute AFTER I just posted a new version (2.1.4)!!! So I'll have to make another version, including installer, assuming this is the fix you want. If so, I can get that out in the next couple days.

 Support for delimited comments (/* ... */) was removed intentionally from WinAGI several years ago. There were two reasons for this. First, the original syntax used by Sierra did not have this feature; keeping the syntax as close to the original for nostalgia purposes is something that many in the AGI fan community feel very strongly about. Secondly, removing them greatly simplified the logic coding functions, and also provided huge performance gains when using syntax highlighting in large source files.  It's possible that support for them will be added back in when I move to C#, but most likely not. Time will tell...

Your comment about logics, views and sounds not being recognized, if true, certainly is a concern. But as I said, I have never had any issues like that in years of testing with original DOS versions of AGI games.

I encourage you to start another thread that includes the specific issues you are seeing. If you give me details, I may be able to tell you if it really is a bug that needs addressing, or if you are perhaps not using WinAGI correctly.

200

AGI Development Tools / Re: WinAGI Version 2.1.4 Is Available

« on: February 02, 2021, 01:11:06 AM »

Buggers. The toolbar handler uses the Key property of the pressed button to set the draw mode; I don't know how, but the Key for the absolute line button got deleted, so the button just gets ignored now. I have no idea what I did that caused that, because I haven't worked on that code in a very long time. It's an easy fix. I will try to post an update shortly, since the picture editor is not very functional without it. While it's not very efficient, you could use the trapezoid option to draw a temporary set of lines, then edit the coordinates to be the line you actually want. (use Ctrl+Ins to add new coordinates as needed).

 If you find any other major bugs like this, please let me know.

FWIW, I'm working in C# now, so other than fixes for things that are severely broken, there won't be any more updates to version 2. Maybe by some time this summer, I'll be ready to release a more modern version... with a lot of new bugs...

thx,

No problem! I'll be sure to share if I find anything else like that in my fiddlings. I'll be looking forward to both the Pic Editor fix and whatever more you got in store later down the line, makes me happy to see this program still being maintained after so long. 

I posted an updated install file. Link here: http://agiwiki.sierrahelp.com/images/3/37/WinAGI_2_1_4.zip

This takes care of the picture editor bug. Thanks for your help in finding this.

201

AGI Development Tools / Re: WinAGI Version 2.1.3 Is Available

« on: January 27, 2021, 10:47:58 AM »

I was fiddling with this a bit, and I noticed that in the Picture Editor, the button for Absolute Line does not function properly. You can click it and it will show Absolute Line selected but the tool will continue to be whatever it was previously. I'm on Windows 7, for what it's worth.

Buggers. The toolbar handler uses the Key property of the pressed button to set the draw mode; I don't know how, but the Key for the absolute line button got deleted, so the button just gets ignored now. I have no idea what I did that caused that, because I haven't worked on that code in a very long time. It's an easy fix. I will try to post an update shortly, since the picture editor is not very functional without it. While it's not very efficient, you could use the trapezoid option to draw a temporary set of lines, then edit the coordinates to be the line you actually want. (use Ctrl+Ins to add new coordinates as needed).

 If you find any other major bugs like this, please let me know.

FWIW, I'm working in C# now, so other than fixes for things that are severely broken, there won't be any more updates to version 2. Maybe by some time this summer, I'll be ready to release a more modern version... with a lot of new bugs...

thx,

202

SCI Development Tools / Re: SCI01 interp decompiling

« on: December 10, 2020, 10:05:20 PM »

You might have better luck with Ida Pro. it's a highly capable disassembler. It's a commercial tool, but they have made one of their earlier versions available for free, and it works great on MSDOS programs.

I took a quick look at Reko- it couldn't even figure out the entry point for simple DOS programs. Not sure how well it would do with a program as complex as SCI.

Decompiling (disassembling) is a lot of work, and a bit of an art. I've spent years disassembling AGI. I have Version 2.917 100% disassembled, and other version mostly done (I only go to them when I'm looking for differences).  But it took A LOT of work.

If someone is serious about trying to decompile/disassemble SCI, it can be done, but just be sure you understand what your getting yourself into!

203

AGI Development Tools / Re: WinAGI Version 2.1.3 Is Available

« on: December 07, 2020, 02:43:02 PM »

OK, OK, OK!!!

I know I need to switch. But I'm an old curmudgeon, and frankly it scares me a bit that I have such a steep learning curve awaiting. I have Visual Studio (and have had it for years) installed, but every time I open it up, I just get discouraged at how complicated even simple tasks seem. I know it's just a matter of buckling down and learning it, but like I said, I'm old and stuck in my ways. It's not rational, but I can't help it. Some day...

Regarding the problem with the text editor - it's not Windows; it was me. Again. Stupid versioning- the installer had version 3.0.30 of the OCX, but it was supposed to be 3.0.31. So I was installing the wrong one (When I tweaked the OCX, I forgot to copy the new version to the install folder). I fixed the installer, and tested it on a clean Windows 10 system, and it works great - no errors.

You may notice that the first post changed a bit - after getting a special request, I added support for Apple IIgs sound. More fun stuff!

Thx for your support (and for your 'gentle' nudging toward a modern dev platform...)

204

AGI Development Tools / Re: WinAGI Version 2.1.2 Is Available

« on: December 06, 2020, 09:52:38 PM »

Hmm, that's not good. Have you tried to register it manually using regsvr32? Maybe that will work. Also, can you check that the two Type Libraries, 'olelib.tlb' and 'olelib2.tlb' are installed in your system directory (I believe it's actually c:\windows\syswow64)? If they are not, that might be part of the problem. It looks like around version 1.2.9, richedagi.ocx stopped registering normally in some situations. I will do what I can to track it down.

Can you give more specifics on the 'Invalid procedure call' when closing a game? I have never seen that error before. If I can duplicate it, then I should be able to track it down and correct it.


Is anybody else having trouble with logic editor and RichEdAGI.ocx failing to register? Has anybody gotten it to install and work correctly? Feedback would be extremely helpful here.

thx,

205

AGI Development Tools / Re: WinAGI Version 2.1.2 Is Available

« on: December 02, 2020, 10:59:47 PM »

Ugh. No matter how much testing I do, it seems like something always crops up as soon as I release a version. v2.1.1 won't handle saving and opening layout files correctly. The last step when releasing a new version is to update internal version checks- but somehow I missed the layout functions this time. 

So ignore version 2.1.1. I updated the wiki, and the link in the first post to point to version 2.1.2 which fixes the issue.

If anybody notices any other problems, please let me know and I'll try to get them addressed too.

206

AGI Development Tools / Re: WinAGI Version 2.1.2 Is Available

« on: December 02, 2020, 03:34:46 AM »

To demonstrate just how useful and easy WinAGI is to use, here is a set of project files and logic source code files for a fully decompiled version of Gold Rush! I did this decompilation as a way to 'stress test' WinAGI to make sure I fixed as many bugs and glitches as possible. It also helped me identify additional enhancements and improvements.

To use this file, extract its contents, including the src directory, into a folder that has the original Gold Rush AGI files (you have to have your own copy of the game- I can't post that here). Then open the WinAGI project file, GR.wag in WinAGI version 2.1.1. You can then browse through all the logics, observe how the game used global defines throughout the game, and explore the game's room arrangement in the Layout file.

It was really very interesting to go through the entire game's logic code and see how the original programmers were able to make everything work so well in the game. It helped me a lot in understanding AGI programming concepts. Not surprisingly, I also found a few bugs in their code (it's a very large game, so no surprise that a few bugs slipped past their quality checks). There was also a a number of places where you could see how the game changed during development- fragments of code that pointed to different story lines that ended up being abandoned.

The source code logics in this project will generate an exact, byte-for-byte copy of the original compiled logics. The only thing I added were the comments and define names. Keep in mind that all the variable/flag define names and comments are my own- nothing in this project is meant to suggest this is the actual source code used by the original developers.

Anyway, if you are interested in studying the programming techniques used in a full size commercial game, this should be of great help. If you have any questions about the comments that I included in the source files, feel free to ask!

207

AGI Development Tools / WinAGI Version 2.1.4 Is Available

« on: December 02, 2020, 02:48:20 AM »

Here it is - the latest update to WinAGI. This version fixes a TON of bugs, a lot of enhancements, and some new features that I've heard folks asking about. I spent a lot of time testing, re-testing and testing again, so hopefully there aren't too many bugs left!

Link to the install file is here: http://agiwiki.sierrahelp.com/images/3/37/WinAGI_2_1_4.zip

Here's a partial list of the new features:

• Fixes bug in v 2.1.3 Picture Editor that disabled absolute line draws
  
• Support for Apple IIgs sounds- both types of IIgs sounds (PCM sound samples and embedded MIDI) can now be previewed and exported as their native format (.wav and .mid).
• A new LISTBOX option to display game resources (similar to the old AGI Studio look)- a number of people commented that they didn't like the tree list; now you can choose whichever display works best for you
• NAVIGATION BUTTONS - when browsing through in game resources, there are now navigation buttons that let you quickly go back to previously previewed resources, and then forward again
• improved support for multiple monitors; the program's position/size will now be correctly restored on systems with more than one monitor
• the logic editor now highlights AGI commands as keywords, for improved readability
• support for code snippets - shortcuts you can use to insert frequently used blocks of code to make coding go faster
• ability to open resources for editing from within the logic editor; right-click on any resource ID to show the open command in the context menu
• global defines (aka the 'defines.txt' included file) can now have individual comments for each define entry
• option to export picture resources as an animated gif to see the picture drawn step by step
• layout editor is synched to the resource list, making it easy to find a room on the layout editor when your layout is large and complex
• DIR files now expand or contract based on number of resources, instead of being automatically expanded to full size; this helps keep memory usage to a minimum, since DIR files are part of the room.0 memory block
• Much improved Help file, especially in the AGI Reference section; more in-depth analysis of the disassembled interpreter has resulted in a lot more knowledge of how the interpreter really works; the help file is now the real definitive source of information on AGI
• a lot of other minor enhancements/improvements too numerous to mention

I was also able to do some testing with Linux. WinAGI actually runs virtually bug-free when run in the WINE environment. It does require a configuration fix in WineTricks (due to a bug in WINE's implementation of riched.dll), but once that's done, it runs just fine. So Linux users have access to WinAGI too.

Things seem to have really quieted down around here, especially in the AGI forums. I fear that the golden age of fan games may be at an end. I'm hoping that tools like WinAGI will help people who might be interested in creating their own games, but didn't know where to start.

So if there is anybody out there who still has interest in AGI, please take a look at this latest release. I think you'll be pleased with how much it helps in creating your next AGI masterpiece.

208

AGI Syntax Help / Re: Questions about ROL and anyword

« on: November 10, 2020, 03:27:09 PM »

I realize I'm addressing a post that is EXTREMELY old, but I wanted to make sure that accurate information is provided in case anyone else comes here looking for an answer to the qestion.

The original problem posted is not an issue with AGI's handling of input; it's an issue of where commands are processed in the game's logic.

Code: [Select]

if (said("why", "rol"))
will return TRUE for any input that begins with "why", including "why" by itself, "why" followed by known words, and "why" followed by an unknown word (as long as haveInput[f2] is TRUE, and haveMatch[f4] is FALSE). The reason the original poster is getting the "I don't know X" message is because the check for unknown words is happening BEFORE the check for "why", "rol".

This is easy enough to demonstrate by putting the 'if' block at the beginning of Logic 0. You will get the desired response. As they say, 'timing is everything', and with AGI, it's even more important to know where you place code to make sure you get the results you want. AGI programming can result in really strange results if you don't pay attention to the order of things.

(AND, if you also have an unknown word in your input, keep in mind that even after displaying the response to 'why', you may also get the "I don't know X" response, depending on how your game handles unknown words. The templates that have been around for years will show the "I don't know X" response even if a preceding 'said' command finds a match. You will need to either reset the unknown word value (v9) within your code block responding to "why", or you will need to edit your unknown word handler to not respond if a match has been found.)

209

AGI Development Tools / New version of WinAGI - Looking for a couple testers before release

« on: October 09, 2020, 10:33:37 PM »

I have a new version of WinAGI mostly ready for release. But I would like some fresh eyes on it before I call it good.

Here's a list of the biggest changes/upgrades:

• LISTBOX option to display resources (in addition to the original treelist option)
  
• DIR files expand/contract as resources are added/removed (instead of staying expanded to full size)
  
• application size/position saved correctly on systems with more than one monitor
• NAVIGATION BUTTONS to allow user to step backward and forward through selected resources in the resource list; right-click/hold to scroll through the list
• all agi commands are now highlighted as 'keyword' type in logics when using syntax highlighting
• MANY fixes to the rich text box used in logic editor, so it does a better job of handling selections/edits/highlights
• right-click on a resource ID in a source file, and you now have the option to open it from within the logic editor
• SNIPPETS! you can use shortcut codes to insert 'snippets' (code fragments) of frequently used code
• you can right-click on a word in a 'said' command to show a list of all synonyms of the selected word
• transparency color of a cel is now shown on palette on view editor (ctrl+click to change transparency color)
• added comment column to the global editor so you can add comments to each defined term
• searching for vocab words in logics now has option to include search for all synonyms
• added setting that syncs the resource list to the layout editor; selecting a resource in the list will automatically scroll the layout view so the selected room is centered in the window
• hold down shift key with left mouse to drag the entire layout drawing surface
• Find/Replace supports multi-line values
• ... plus a TON of other minor enhancements, and countless bug fixes

I would like to have the new version ready for release in the next two weeks. So if you are interested in helping with one last good look to make sure there are no glaring issues, please PM me, and I'll send you a link to the install file.

210

AGI Development Tools / Re: Recommend IDE to open KQ4 (Apple 2gs) sounds, and logic 54

« on: October 07, 2020, 11:15:35 AM »

1.
Is there a "recommended IDE" for AGI (like SCICompanion for SCI)?

I may be a bit biased, but I'd say "WinAGI, hands down!" 

2.
Specifically, I want to open KQ4, Apple 2gs version (trying to understand the problem at https://bugs.scummvm.org/ticket/11509)
I have tried some IDEs (honestly, don't remember which, it was a long time ago), and all failed to open logic 54.
Just tried now AGI Studio, and upon opening logic 54 it says:

Code: [Select]

Error decoding logic (position 0x0E4E): Unknown action command (175)
3.
Is there something special with opcode 175?
Something 2gs specific? KQ4?
Some other complication?

Opcode 175 is the discard.sound command. It was added beginning in version 2.938, but only functions in non-MSDOS games. The MSDOS interpreters all have a stub function in place that was intended to ignore the command, but that stub function does not accept arguments. If you try to run that command on a MSDOS interpreter your game will crash, because the argument value passed to discard.sound gets treated by the interpreter as the next opcode instead of the sound you want to discard.

4.
Anyway, I've just found that with latest WinAGI  (http://agiwiki.sierrahelp.com/index.php?title=WinAGI) it opens logic 54 with no problem.
That's great news.

5.
However, when I tried to open any sound resource, it gave an error:

Code: [Select]

Error while loading sound resource

598: Invalid sound data: unable to load sound resource

Is it because of something special with 2gs? or KQ4? or something else?

6.
Any recommendation, suggestion or fixes are welcomed.

Thanks

MusicallyInspired is correct. Since the sounds aren't in the MSDOS format, WinAGI is currently not able to read or play them. I never had access to non-MSDOS versions of any Sierra games, so I haven't been able to decipher them to see how/if support for them could be added to WinAGI.