[Bug Report] SCI Studio

[Cryptonomic]

Unfortunately this is somewhat hard to isolate in all cases. I am using SCI Studio 3.0.1.29 (dated 16 March 2003). I notice this problem only appears to happen on Windows 98 SE. It does not happen on my Windows 2000 platform.

What happens is this:

If you spend time going through the Views, sometimes just looking, other times cycling through the loops and cels, you will once in awhile get the message:

"The parameter is incorrect."

Eventually you will get:

"Access violation at address 004B7475 in module 'SCISTUDIO.EXE' Read at address FFFFFFFF."

I can get this to happen fairly consistently and by fairly consistently I mean anytime I use SCI Studio on Windows 98. I also noticed the frequency of this happens more if you open a large, detailed game. For example, I opened Space Quest 3 and Leisure Suit Larry 3 and this would happen fairly regularly, but not in any discernible pattern. (Also you usually cannot shut down the application normally after this. When you start getting the "parameter incorrect" message but before the "access violation" message, you will often be unable to close the application - it will just spawn more "Parameter is incorrect" message boxes.

Just bringing it up as a matter of possible interest in case anyone else is finding this issue. Again, this never appears to happen on my Windows 2000 machine but happens consistently on my Windows 98 Second Edition machine.

[Brian Provinciano]

Bah, use Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP. It pretty much requires it. Windows98 is five years old anyway

[Cryptonomic]

Bah, use Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP. It pretty much requires it. Windows98 is five years old anyway

I hear you. I mainly use Windows 2000 as it is. I more brought this up just in case it was not known about or had not been commented on.

On the other hand, keep in mind that Windows 98 still has a large user base, at least in the home market, easily rivaling that of Windows Millenium. I wrote an open source program called IF Builder that had a large problem on Windows 98 that I overlooked because I developed on Windows 2000. It was more of an issue than I thought because many of my users were using Windows 98. So regardless of whether I liked that particular OS or not, I had to cater to it. Can you see my Quality Assurance background coming to the fore here? That being said, I am not sure what proportion of SCI Studio users are on what operating system. And, of course, sometimes you just have to develop for the operating system that is more stable - and stability is not exactly a hallmark of Windows 98!

Anyway, Windows 2000 it is. Thanks for the response.

[Te Rangi]

This is a really old bug, that I've gotten for A LONG time (especially with the pic editor on Windows 2000/XP)

But, Brian has ironed most of them out (back in the 2.0 days, views got corrupted really easily, and even compiling scripts could kill your game!)

[Paladinlover]

Yeah, Win 98 had it's good points, but it's plain getting old.

The only reason why I keep Win 98 is because, in case I want to play an old game that doesn't work on XP, like The Sims (I have ALL the expansion packs!!).

But soon enough, Sims 2 is coming out and that wouldn't be a problem either!

BTW Brian, how's the new SCI studio going? I'm itching to finally be able to save my editing!!

Till next time stay cool  

[Te Rangi]

The Sims worked fine on Windows XP for me

[Eero R]

Hehe, I can run almost every game on my copy of XP, even those old classics without problems (sometimes the missing sound)...

[Cryptonomic]

Even though off topic for this thread, for those curious, "Home of the Underdogs" now has a section on running games under Windows XP, with some suggestions. (It mainly only applies to older games.) You can see it at:

http://www.the-underdogs.org/guidewin.php

Unfortunately, XP is not making all the inroads into the home market that Microsoft wants, or at least as fast as they want. But it is gaining. (Avoid XP Home Edition, of course, because of the nasty security flaws. XP Professional is the way to go if you want to upgrade from Windows 2000 or Windows Millenium.)

[Te Rangi]

HOLY SHIT! THANKS TO THAT GUIDE, I MANAGED TO PLAY SQ4 CD WITHOUT ANY ANNOYING GLITCHES!

*kisses cyptonomics feet*

[Brian Provinciano]

Keep it clean "Mr. T"

[Paladinlover]

The Sims worked fine on Windows XP for me

Not for me, XP won't run The Sims, same goes to some old games like Wing Commander Privateer.

Hehe, I can run almost every game on my copy of XP, even those old classics without problems (sometimes the missing sound)...

Ahh yes, the old problem of DOS sound not working, well then, here's something that you can use.

http://www.ece.mcgill.ca/~vromas/vdmsound/

I used it and it works like a charm!

Till next time stay cool  

[Allen]

Well, I use VDMSound, that makes ALL games work

[Allen]

Oops, didn't realise someone posted that first

[Eero R]

You know what: install Windows XP SP2, running old games is lot easier... I did it, and I've got no problems with old games at all...

[Paladinlover]

You know what: install Windows XP SP2, running old games is lot easier... I did it, and I've got no problems with old games at all...

Only SOME old games don't work on XP, but in general 99% of all old games will work perfectly.

I could never get The Sims to work on XP, so I gave up and installed 98 to play it again.

But with Sims 2 coming out, that shouldn't be a problem. I just hope that all those goodies that are in the 6 expansion packs that are out already!

6 whole expansion packs, it's really no wonder that The Sims is the best PC game of all time (Pac-Man has the honor of the best Arcade game of all time).

Till next time stay cool