Messages

31

Everything-Else / Re: SCUMM Nutcracker Utilities

« on: February 05, 2022, 09:50:39 AM »

Here's the SCUMM Tutorial. It's dated 1991, around the time of SCUMM v5 (i.e. Monkey Island 2)

And here's the SCUMM Manual. It's dated 1996, around the time of SCUMM v7 (i.e. Full Throttle, The Dig).

32

Everything-Else / SCUMM Nutcracker Utilities

« on: February 04, 2022, 04:54:39 PM »

I've just been informed on Mixnmojo of a set of utilities called Nutcracker. It's a set of tools for editing resources in SCUMM games. Its decompiler outputs code that very closely matches that of the original SCUMM syntax. If this were an IDE, it'd be really useful. Right now, v5 and v6 are supported.

Nutcracker

Here's an example script from Secret of Monkey Island:

Code: [Select]

room recipe {

exit { ; EXCD LECF_0001\LFLF_0084\ROOM\EXCD
local variable L.0

set-screen 0 to 144
start-script 17 (2)
for L.0 = 0 to 255 ++ {
palette intensity 255 in-slot L.0 to L.0
}
charset 2
end-object
}

enter { ; ENCD LECF_0001\LFLF_0084\ROOM\ENCD
local variable L.0

start-script 17 (1)
set-screen 0 to 200
for L.0 = 0 to 255 ++ {
palette 0 in-slot 0
}
break-here
charset 1
print-text center color 0
print-text at 160,25 "DIRECTIONS TO MONKEY ISLAND!!!"
print-text at 160,33 " "
print-text at 160,41 "Pre-heat pot to 450 degrees"
print-text at 160,49 "Add the following ingredients:"
print-text left at 74,57 " "
print-text left at 74,65 "     1 Cinnamon stick"
print-text left at 74,73 "     4 Leaves of Mint"
print-text left at 74,81 "     1 Human Skull (pressed)"
print-text left at 74,89 "     1 squirt Squid Ink"
print-text left at 74,97 "     2 pts Monkey Blood"
print-text left at 74,105 "     1 Live Chicken"
print-text left at 74,113 "     3 oz. Brimstone"
print-text left at 74,121 "     1 or more of the following:"
print-text left at 74,129 "       pyridoxine hydrochloride,"
print-text left at 74,137 "       zinc oxide, yellow 8,"
print-text left at 74,145 "       mine mononitrate and BHA."
print-text left at 74,153 " "
print-text at 160,161 "Let bubble over low flame until thickened."
print-text at 160,169 "Serves crew of four."
charset 2
for L.0 = 0 to 255 ++ {
palette intensity 255 in-slot L.0 to L.0
}
end-object
}
}


33

Forum Support and Suggestions / Re: HTTPS/TLS

« on: February 04, 2022, 12:35:23 PM »

I replied to the previous topic, but I do have a status update regarding this site's security.

This site actually does have a valid certificate, and it's issued by the cPanel, Inc. Certification Authority. As far as everything under Community is concerned, it's secure as long as you use the HTTPS protocol. The rest of the site, however, does not display properly with HTTPS, and won't use the forum's style, just being plain white pages with black text. So yes, the site is not fully secure, but that seems to be because the rest of the site seems to use a custom or outdated CMS. Even the forum software hasn't been updated since 2017.

34

SCI Community News / Re: "Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard" (and Sierra...)

« on: January 21, 2022, 09:02:15 PM »

I expect nothing.

According to this, Phil Spencer does want to revive dormant IPs, giving King's Quest as one of the examples. We'll see what happens.

35

SCI Development Tools / Re: SCI32 Templates

« on: January 11, 2022, 12:12:41 PM »

It seems like the reason the views tend to be garbled when edited may be related to SCICompanion not properly modifying RESOURCE.MAP.

That's interesting. The more details you can get me and/or Phil, the better.

Specifically, if the resource files are modified, SCICompanion later mistakenly detects the map format as SCI 1.0, when it should be SCI 2. The package format and actual resources are still detected correctly, however.

In SCI Viewer, the resources themselves display fine, so it appears the view editor is not causing the problem; modifying the map file is.

36

Everything-Else / Re: It's 2020 and no TLS-encryption

« on: January 10, 2022, 10:30:48 PM »

That post is over a year old lol.

Yeah. I'm considering moving things over to my new site. I spared no expense and got a XenForo license. I can connect the new board with the main site, which uses WordPress.

Here's my analysis of this site:
Arcade
   Doesn't work. Probably don't need it anyway.

Shop
   Uses SMFShop. I can replace this with trophies, which are standard in XenForo.

Gallery
   Uses SMF Gallery, can be replaced with XenForo Media Gallery... later.

Tools, Fan Games
   XenForo Resource Manager can handle these easily.

There will be search engine optimization, proper support for mobile devices, and social media support.

37

SCI Development Tools / Re: SCI32 Templates

« on: January 10, 2022, 08:17:08 PM »

It seems like the reason the views tend to be garbled when edited may be related to SCICompanion not properly modifying RESOURCE.MAP. That may explain why the views look okay in the view editor.

And adding in the control panel is tougher than in SCI16, since the GameControls and Slider classes appear to have been deprecated. SCI2's control panel will be based on that of GK1 and SCI2.1's on SQ6.

38

Everything-Else / Re: It's 2020 and no TLS-encryption

« on: January 09, 2022, 08:42:34 AM »

SierraHelp is managed by Collector, but I think this site is managed by Cloudee1, who hasn't been active for a year. A lot of the Sierra fan pages, for that matter, are seen as "not secure" by Chrome.

I do agree that an SSL certificate would be a good idea. My new site, The Missing Floppies, does have one (it came with my Hostinger plan and never expires).

39

SCI Development Tools / Re: SCI32 Templates

« on: January 07, 2022, 08:42:54 PM »

I managed to put in an older-style status line. Since the DrawStatus kernel call no longer exists in SCI32, this required making a special plane with text. QFG4 did a similar thing, but with views to represent current health, stamina, and mana.

40

SCI Development Tools / Re: SCI32 Templates

« on: December 20, 2021, 12:34:54 PM »

By the way, you can input the interpreter's name with any argument, and it will give the version number and stamp.

Thank you. I tried this with a few games but couldn't get it to output the info in DOSBox.
"c:\KQ4\sierra version" outputs "Can't find configuration file" and "c:\KQ4\sierra -version" boots the game with no output. I must be doing something wrong.

This doesn't work on SCI16 interpreters before version 1.001.095 (which is nearly all of them). I guess I should have noted that.

41

SCI Development Tools / Re: SCI32 Templates

« on: December 19, 2021, 01:15:55 PM »

Any idea what the LSL7 stamp will be? Not that it works with SC anyway.

Here's the initial DOS interpreter's build date and version:

Code: [Select]

Oct 18 1996 04:09:07   3.000.000The version stamp number is 18.
And here's for the interpreter included in the official patch:

Code: [Select]

Nov 08 1996 17:46:12   3.000.000HOWEVER... the stamp number in the patch's interpreter is -1! That means no version stamp check!

By the way, you can input the interpreter's name with any argument, and it will give the version number and stamp.

42

SCI Development Tools / Re: SCI32 Templates

« on: December 17, 2021, 08:29:25 PM »

Well, after researching some SCI32 game demos, I figured out their interpreters' version stamps. Now I know why some don't trigger Error 42 after the resource file is modified - they have the stamp 0 or -1, which allows it to match any game!

Code: [Select]

LSL6 SVGA: 0
LSL7 demo: 11
RAMA demo: -1
Torin: -1
Torin demo: -1
SQ6: 1465
SQ6 demo: 1352
SWAT demo: 1402
KQ7 demo: 0
GK1 CD: 0
PQ4 CD: 0
QFG4 CD: -1
QFG4 disk: 869
QFG4 disk (German): 933

43

SCI Development Tools / Re: Decompilation Archive

« on: December 16, 2021, 08:11:32 PM »

I've just put up decompilations of the demos for Torin's Passge and RAMA! Slowly, I work my way up to the later part of SCI2.1...

From the ScummVM wiki:

These are mainly SCI21 game demos of SCI3 games and exhibit behavior where strings and arrays are mixed together (they were cleanly separated in earlier versions). kString subcalls are of a new variant, variant was also used in SCI3.

44

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: So You Thought You Were a Hero? Development Journal

« on: December 14, 2021, 10:54:48 PM »

All right. After shelling out $39 for Anvil Studios' Multi-Audio 8/16 accessory, I've managed to convert all of the original music to WAV files.
I thought I was using the SGM soundfont, but it turned out I was using Arachno instead.  That's a good thing, though, since Arachno is actually more accurate.
And I know it's more accurate (and which music is original) because the QFG4.5 soundtrack is actually available for purchase! Really! The composer's name matches that of what I found in the ripped MIDI files.
I made both mono and stereo masters of the conversions, just to be safe.

So go buy the official soundtrack! (I did!)

45

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: So You Thought You Were a Hero? Development Journal

« on: December 13, 2021, 12:06:06 PM »

One reason I'd like to eventually upgrade to SCI32 is better support for WAV-based music.
The MIDI files can be converted to WAV files using something like Anvil Studio. But to make them sound better, a soundfont works wonders. There's one here that sounds good, the General MIDI soundfont "SGM-v2.01-YamahaGrand-Guit-Bass-v2.7". Another good choice is Arachno.
Torin's Passage (which most closely corresponds to my SCI2.1 template) appears to only support monaural sounds, as all of the audio files are mono. Sound effects are 16-bit, while music is 8-bit.
So it seems fair that the music should be exported as 8-bit mono tracks.
Most of the sound effects I'm using are from QFG5 and already 16-bit.

But one drawback to SCI32 is that SCI2 pics do not appear to support controls; where actors can go is determined by polygons instead. For this reason, I will try to only use polygons instead of control colors.