WinAGI Version 2.1.16 Available for Download

[doomlazer]

However there are certain game hashes ScummVM also blocks entirely. (For example, the cracked version of Gold Rush.)

This is likely due to an AGI bug in ScummVM versions 2.1.x and above.

[Collector]

The SVM team has blacklisted a number of games based on what they consider piracy, like the NRS SQ4 patch and yes, the cracked version of GR. However, not loading this translation is another matter. It should load an unrecognized AGI game as an "unknown fan AGI game".

[doomlazer]

Ah, ok. I didn't realize that was the case.

Still, WinAGI users should be aware that ScummVM versions 2.1.x and above will have trouble running games that don't match the detection tables until the bug is fixed. 


Edit: It looks like Gold Rush isn't explicitly restricted from loading. You get the warning in the image below, but it does launch in ScummVM 2.0.0 which is still commonly found in the GOG releases of Sierra games. With WinAGI, I put ScummVM v2.0.0 next to the .wag, change the preference to point to it and then the run button works great for testing with scummVM.

[AGKorson]

Is anyone else having problems with the words editor crashing WinAGI? No, probably not...

Can you elaborate on this? If there's an issue with the words editor, I'd like to know so I can fix it.

[obscurenforeign]

Sorry about the vagueness there. The problem is so weird I must've thought I was going nuts.

It isn't technically crashing... though I did get it to properly crash too, I think by trying to import a words.tok file. But trying to open the editor simply isn't doing anything... but with the strange caveat that it makes WinAGI unable to close the currently open game, otherwise still seeming to function normally. In this state I can't close WinAGI either, I have to terminate it in task manager.

I recorded a video of the bug if that helps:

Edit: It looks like Gold Rush isn't explicitly restricted from loading. You get the warning in the image below, but it does launch in ScummVM 2.0.0 which is still commonly found in the GOG releases of Sierra games. With WinAGI, I put ScummVM v2.0.0 next to the .wag, change the preference to point to it and then the run button works great for testing with scummVM.

That is very weird, at one point ScummVM would refuse to recognize that version of GR, so I wonder why they would *add* the functionality back in.

[AGKorson]

It isn't technically crashing... though I did get it to properly crash too, I think by trying to import a words.tok file. But trying to open the editor simply isn't doing anything... but with the strange caveat that it makes WinAGI unable to close the currently open game, otherwise still seeming to function normally. In this state I can't close WinAGI either, I have to terminate it in task manager.

That is very strange. I can't seem to reproduce the problem. I have discovered that if your WORDS.TOK file is missing, and you try to open it, WinAGI offers you a chance to create a new blank file. But if you decline, there's a bug that hangs up WinAGI. But you would get a dialog box with a yes/no question in that case, which isn't what's happening with your game here.

I have a bunch of questions that might help me track down what's going on:

• Does it do this for all games, or just this one? Does it have this problem for existing games (i.e. a Sierra game that you import) or just games you create?
• If it is just this one game, can you zip everything in the game directory and share it with me? That'd be super helpful.
• It looks like you created a sample game from the template. Did you do anything else to the game after creating it?
• Did this behavior start immediately after creating the game, or did you close it, re-open it and then it started doing this?
• Can you open the template game and edit the template's WORDS.TOK file?
• Is your WORDS.TOK file actually present in the game directory?
• Does it have any file attributes set, such as hidden or read-only?
• If you close your game, and open the WORDS.TOK file individually (choose 'Resource|Open Resource|WORDS.TOK File' on main menu), does it open?
• Does the game run, in DOSBox or any other interpreter? Is the WORDS.TOK file recognized as valid by the interpreters?
• Have you tried to open your game and WORDS.TOK file in other IDEs (i.e. will it open in AGI Studio)?
• Can you try copying a WORDS.TOK file that you know is valid to your game directory, and then try opening the word editor? (Rename the old file to something like WORDSbad.TOK first.)
• As a last ditch effort, have you tried uninstalling and then re-installing WinAGI?
• To make sure I'm looking at the right code, can you confirm what version of WinAGI you are using (click Help-About to see the version.)

I'm sorry that it's not working for you right now. I'll do what I can to get it fixed.

[doomlazer]

AGKorson, I'm not sure you noticed, but that looks a lot like it's running in WinXP! Maybe that's part of the problem?

That is very weird, at one point ScummVM would refuse to recognize that version of GR, so I wonder why they would *add* the functionality back in.

It is weird and I don't doubt that it was blocked. I might compile some pre-2.0.0 versions of SVM out of curiosity if I get time. If I ever make sense of it I'll start a separate thread. ty

[AGKorson]

AGKorson, I'm not sure you noticed, but that looks a lot like it's running in WinXP! Maybe that's part of the problem?

Good catch. I think that might actually be Windows running on Linux- obscurenforeign has been the primary user/tester of WinAGI on Linux.

@obscurenforeign, is that the case here?

[obscurenforeign]

Sorry about disappearing for a few weeks.

• Does it do this for all games, or just this one? Does it have this problem for existing games (i.e. a Sierra game that you import) or just games you create?

I just tried importing Leisure Suit Larry, same behaviour.

• It looks like you created a sample game from the template. Did you do anything else to the game after creating it?
• Did this behavior start immediately after creating the game, or did you close it, re-open it and then it started doing this?
• Can you open the template game and edit the template's WORDS.TOK file?

In the video I made a new template game expressly to be able to show the bug. I did first encounter the bug in the sort-of game I was working on though.

• If you close your game, and open the WORDS.TOK file individually (choose 'Resource|Open Resource|WORDS.TOK File' on main menu), does it open?

I think that was how I got WinAGI to properly crash before.

• As a last ditch effort, have you tried uninstalling and then re-installing WinAGI?
• To make sure I'm looking at the right code, can you confirm what version of WinAGI you are using (click Help-About to see the version.)

After initially finding the bug, (while on an older version) I downloaded and installed WinAGI 2.1.16 in order to make sure it wasn't a bug that's already been fixed. (Especially one related to my previous bug, which had been my first assumption.)

AGKorson, I'm not sure you noticed, but that looks a lot like it's running in WinXP! Maybe that's part of the problem?

Good catch. I think that might actually be Windows running on Linux- obscurenforeign has been the primary user/tester of WinAGI on Linux.

@obscurenforeign, is that the case here?

Yes, I gave up trying to get WinAGI to run in Wine and instead have been using it in Windows XP in VMWare. (I'll attach a screenshot of the full window for your pleasure.) Don't worry, I can do worse. I'm currently looking at installing Windows 98 in Dosbox so I can do development on a Raspberry Pi. Watch out, I'm crazy.

[AGKorson]

OK, thx.
I can tell from your video that WinAGI is able to open the WORDS.TOK file, because it shows the word and group counts in the properties window. I think there's a problem with the words editor form- maybe a control on it that is not compatible with Windows XP or a property being set incorrectly. But why it would do that in XP but not any other Windows versions, I don't know.

I might have access to a Windows XP machine. I'll try to do some testing to see if I can figure this out.

[obscurenforeign]

OK, thx.
I can tell from your video that WinAGI is able to open the WORDS.TOK file, because it shows the word and group counts in the properties window. I think there's a problem with the words editor form- maybe a control on it that is not compatible with Windows XP or a property being set incorrectly. But why it would do that in XP but not any other Windows versions, I don't know.

I might have access to a Windows XP machine. I'll try to do some testing to see if I can figure this out.

Windows XP actually did complain about the WinAGI installer making changes to my system for my... "security." It appeared the installer wasn't able to register ole controls. Although it seemed to work otherwise, what you said suggests to me this could be related?

After about a month of Windows 9x and emulation and other messing around... well I don't know if this will be any useful information to you but here goes.

I installed Windows 95 within Dosbox-X on a Raspberry Pi (ARM64) system. The emulation speed wasn't the most impressive, no dynamic recompiler it turns out, but it was nearly at the speed of a 486-66. I installed the Windows Installer service and the Visual Basic 6 runtime and... WinAGI 2.1.16 wouldn't install. In fact I tested multiple versions and 1.1.22 was the newest version that seems to install on any 9x system. Note that the latest version of Windows Installer available for 9x is 2.0... though, I don't know if you intend WinAGI to presently run on 9x anyway. 1.1.22 crashed when I ran it.

Since I had a real system set up with Windows Me (yes, Me) on it, I decided to play around with it a little. I installed VB6, (turns out Me already includes Windows Installer) and... it ran, (even the words.tok editor worked! ) although it crashed upon exit. (From what I can tell, WinAGI also stays running after this and takes a few Windows components with it... this prevents from Windows from shutting down properly, and Scandisk will complain about erroneous FAT entries for temporary files.)

Since I had it (well, an old version) running on a real Windows Me system, next I wanted to know if the crashing was a flaw in Windows 95 or Dosbox. I installed Windows 95 in PCem (on my x64 desktop) and... WinAGI ran just the same way as on my real Windows Me system. So 1.1.22 at least runs on 9x, though with a crashing bug... and it's not as if using such an old version is ideal anyway. WinAGI not working in Dosbox-X must be a bug with its CPU interpreter. I also tried 2.1.16 with the files manually copied into the PCem Windows 95 install, but it just beeped at me when I tried to run it. Haven't tried that on ME yet... I'm not expecting improved results.

I'm not sure by what other means WinAGI would be usable, especially on an ARM system. More accurate emulators such as PCem will probably run even slower on such a system, much too slow to run Windows, and I still haven't gotten it to work in Wine. (Even tried installing IE6.) It appears that AGS will work but... well...

I hardly have to do things this way... but wouldn't it be cool if I did?

I did get Qt AGI Studio to run on Raspberry Pi... in Wine. Yes. Although Linux builds are available, they fail to run or compile due to missing Qt 3 and 4 libraries. The last update in 2012, (before being revived by cromer) it switched to being Qt4... with Qt3 compatibility modules. 10 years later, and now Qt4 is deprecated, and unavailable in Debian Bullseye's repos! (Might work in Buster?) That sure doesn't motivate me to write software against Qt! (But, Qt AGI Studio isn't what we're here for anyway...)

[AGKorson]

That is an impressive amount of testing. I think I would have given up after 10 minutes.

I do see the irony in WinAGI being 100% compatible with Windows 10 and 11, but not running on earlier versions, given that VB6 was released around the time of Window 98.

To be fair, WinAGI makes extensive use of APIs, and I didn't intentionally look for backwards compatibility for any function calls; I chose whatever functions are currently available that met my needs.

I do have a couple of old cpus sitting around, and I have original install disks/CDs for most Windows versions (somehow I lost my MSDOS 6.22 install disks though- I kinda wish I still had those.) But I have so much stuff going on right now I don't know if I'll ever get around to doing any serious testing. It might be interesting to see if I could get the latest version to run in the VB6 dev environment on an older system to see if those issues could be debugged.

[AGKorson]

I just finished testing on a Windows Vista system. The issue with the WORDS.TOK editor was there as well. After getting VB6 installed and running, I discovered that the icon property for one of the picture boxes is seen as corrupt in Vista, even though it works just fine in Windows 11. After deleting and re-loading that resource, everything seems to work fine. I have no idea why this was a thing, but there you go.

Version 2.2.3 is now available for download here: http://agiwiki.sierrahelp.com/index.php?title=File:WinAGI_2_2_3.zip

Hopefully this fixes the issue in all older versions of Windows. And Linux users should now be good to go again too.