SCI Companion V3 - alpha build notes/bugs/feature requests

[troflip]

I can confirm too. (There are bound to be issues with loading some games, since I don't have all the sierra games).

It may be mis-identifying the resource map format or something...

[Collector]

Let me know if you need any files to investigate. Would it be a good idea to check with other SCI1 games?

[troflip]

Fix has been submitted for the LSL1 VGA problem, should be in the next release. If there are any other games that have issues opening, please let me know.

[MusicallyInspired]

Out of the games I have, I cannot open Jones in the Fast Lane CD version.

Other than that, the only issues I have are getting garbled graphics when opening EGA SCI1 games:

• 1990 Xmas Card EGA
• Hoyle 3 EGA
• Mixed Up Fairy Tales EGA
• Police Quest 3 EGA
• Conquests of the Longbow EGA
• Jones in the Fast Lane EGA
• Space Quest I VGA
• Space Quest IV EGA

I don't have the LSL games handy to test.

Castle of Dr Brain EGA and KQ5EGA (0.000.055 and 0.000.062) open fine, however.

[Collector]

I just tested all and uploaded copies of everything that does not open and one SCI1 EGA game for troflip so he has something to work with.

[troflip]

Out of the games I have, I cannot open Jones in the Fast Lane CD version.

Other than that, the only issues I have are getting garbled graphics when opening EGA SCI1 games:

• Space Quest I VGA

Can you screenshot me what you get when loading SQ1 VGA? I've found an issue, but it only happens when browse info is turned on, which is not the default in the version of SCI Companion you're using.

[Collector]

No problem with Jones CD v1.0 with the build I have, regardless of views or settings.

[troflip]

Other than that, the only issues I have are getting garbled graphics when opening EGA SCI1 games:

• 1990 Xmas Card EGA
• Hoyle 3 EGA
• Mixed Up Fairy Tales EGA
• Police Quest 3 EGA
• Conquests of the Longbow EGA
• Jones in the Fast Lane EGA
• Space Quest I VGA
• Space Quest IV EGA

If you use the Game->Version detection dialog, and switch the view and pic types to "EGA", then click "reload game", does it work?

I think SCI Companion is incorrectly assuming these games are VGA because they contain a palette resource (presumably just left over).

[MusicallyInspired]

Ah thank you, troflip, that does work for every game. Interestingly, though, the first 12 Picture resources in Conquests of the Longbow are blank (30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85). However, their priority and control screens work fine. I believe they are the screens for the hedge maze in the game. Even more interestingly, they don't show up in Companion for the VGA version either. As a final thought of abounding interest, neither versions of these screens are viewable in SCI Viewer.

No problem with Jones CD v1.0 with the build I have, regardless of views or settings.

I have 1.0 as well. I get an error message, won't even open up:

Unable to open resource map: Opening
g:\games\adventures\sierra\jonescd\resource.004 failed with error 2:
The system cannot find the file specified

There is no resource.004, incidentally, just resource.001.

[troflip]

I have 1.0 as well. I get an error message, won't even open up:

Unable to open resource map: Opening
g:\games\adventures\sierra\jonescd\resource.004 failed with error 2:
The system cannot find the file specified

There is no resource.004, incidentally, just resource.001.

The issue with the Jones CD version is the same as the issue with the LSL1 VGA. It should be fixed in the next release of SCI Companion (Collector is probably using the private build I have him that has the fix).

[MusicallyInspired]

I just found more pictures that won't load in Companion or Viewer. 301 and 699 from Space Quest IV. All versions. I wonder what the differences are in these images and if they have some special purpose.

[troflip]

What do you mean "won't load"? They load fine, they just have nothing in the visual screen. Probably used as overlays.

[MusicallyInspired]

Even the hedge maze screens? Are they just comprised of sprites over a single background? Actually, that wouldn't surprise me considering some of the random forest screens are much of the same.

[troflip]

Even the hedge maze screens? Are they just comprised of sprites over a single background? Actually, that wouldn't surprise me considering some of the random forest screens are much of the same.

I haven't played the game, but looking at screenshots, and view 500 and pic 490, suggest that this is indeed the case.

[Kawa]

So I was wondering earlier today, why is SCI Studio 3 only 2.68 MB and SCI Companion 3 a whopping 19.7 MB? I know it's just an alpha build but... I dunno how else to put it, but the poor thing is downright obese. Why is there even a timezone map in there? Why even two? Version 2 is an impressive five point something, with only the one theme.

So I'm thinking... why are the themes even there to begin with? It can't be individualism, considering they're all imitations of Office and Visual Studio. SCI Studio had no themes at all, yet still had this thing where you could tell "Brian made this". Now, because of the nature of what it was made in, all of SCI Studio's window layouts and such are stored in plain text, and almost all of the UI images like toolbar icons and the like are raw hex strings, including the large banners, yet it's a fraction of Comp 2's size.

Not meant as an attack or anything, just something that came to mind and baffled me all the way through lunch.