KQ4, LSL2, and SQ3 ZERO-ONE editions

[EricOakford]

I've done something impressive - I've ported KQ4, LSL2, and SQ3 to the SCI1 engine (1.000.172, from the Seasoned Professional). KQ4 and LSL2 have the digital audio from their Amiga versions. Ever wonder why you can't save or bring up the inventory in KQ4's organ room? It's because there's not enough memory to do so. The new engine's improved memory management fixes this.

LSL2 uses the codebase for the Amiga version 1.003, which overhauled all the scripts.

Also, SQ3 1.018 (the version included in collections and digital distribution) actually has a bug where the scripts refer to the wrong said specs. That was fixed for ScummVM., and I've applied that fix to my upgrade.

Now the main issue is actually distributing it. For the RESOURCE.001 and RESOURCE.MAP files, they'll have to be in binary patch form. The drivers and interpreter were from an officially freely available Christmas card, so no issues there.

My next goal is LSL3, with its Amiga-exclusive sound effects and slight script revisions. Maybe grab some decompiled code from the French and German versions as well...

[MusicallyInspired]

 

[Charles]

Is that the interpreter version that?s like QFG2?s but with debugging still enabled?

[MusicallyInspired]

It's the SCI1 VGA interpreter with the parser still included.

[OmerMor]

Wow - that's an amazing achievement!

Now a VGA version could be a simple drop-in replacement of VGA pics and views... congratulations! 

[Charles]

I didn?t realize that interpreter still supported vector pics ? or did you have to rasterize them first?

[Andre999]

Thats really cool. Hope you find a way to distribute them. With decompiled readable SCI source code ...

[Kawa]

I didn?t realize that interpreter still supported vector pics ? or did you have to rasterize them first?

You know that one screen in the endgame of Space Quest 4 where you flush a bunch of icons?

100% vector.

[Kawa]

It's the SCI1 VGA interpreter with the parser still included.

Seasoned Professional is also available in 16 colors. I'm looking at LSL2-01 right now and it's very much still EGA.

[Collector]

I can do the binary patch, but but the user's game files to be upgraded will be version specific, much like my installer for NRS' KQ4 Amiga hack. I did make his patch apply to several different versions by generating a binary patch for each version and packing all of them into the one installer. The caveat is that I need a copy of any particular version to make a binary patch for it.

[MusicallyInspired]

It's the SCI1 VGA interpreter with the parser still included.

Seasoned Professional is also available in 16 colors. I'm looking at LSL2-01 right now and it's very much still EGA.

Yes, true.

[EricOakford]

Well, it turns out the synonyms block is no longer supported from SCI01 on. LSL2 and SQ3 didn't use it much, if at all, so it doesn't affect them. KQ4 and LSL3, on the other hand, use it quite often, so I'll have to adjust the said specs to not use it.

By the way, I've managed to test LSL3 to completion using the S.old.010 interpreter. Next step is to port to version 1.000.172. As with SQ3, there is actually a German Amiga version of LSL3 that uses SCI1, and has SCI1 sound resources... but they have no Adlib tracks. Nothing Sounder can't fix.

The only things that don't work are rm140's RoomScript (the age quiz) and rm340's ComicScript (the Comedy Hut's inputting of ethnic groups). For the former, I just couldn't decompile it ("Couldn't find DUP source: 20"). For the latter, I had to do some tricks to generate workable code, but it doesn't work right (fortunately, the sequence is still completable, so you still can get the full 4000 points)