WinAGI Version 2.3.4

[AGKorson]

A new version of WinAGI, 2.3.4, is available for download here: http://agiwiki.sierrahelp.com/images/1/1a/WinAGI_2_3_4.zip
(2.3.3 had a major bug in the NewGame function)

No major enhancements, but it fixes a couple minor bugs. If you're going to use the AGI Power Pack (see the post above), you should update to the latest version of WinAGI.

Enjoy!

[cosmicr]

Hi AGKorson, I had an older version of WinAGI and was having a lot of crashes on startup or just after loading a .wag game file.

I upgraded to this version thinking it may fix the issue but it still persists. Most of the time the splash screen appears and then after it disappears the program hangs with the spinning circle mouse icon. Other times I am able to get to open a file, but after loading it crashes again and hangs to the point where I have to close the application. It seems to be random. I think it's a file problem but don't know what. I've tried several games.

I tried running it in Windows XP and 7 compatibility, that didn't seem to work, I also deleted the "VirtualStore" file (windows 10) and that didn't seem to help. I'd offer a screenshot, but it's just a grey blank screen. I also tried running as administrator but that didn't work. I don't know if it's my system or the app, but it did always work in the past. Is this a known issue?

[AGKorson]

That's not something I've ever seen or heard of before. If the installer ran correctly, all necessary files should be there, and it should work. If something was broken, I would expect it to be repeatable, not random. Makes no sense to me.

You're running W10? if so, there should be no problem. I run it (and occasionally do development of it) on a W10 system. Also on W11. It shouldn't matter, but are you running 64bit or 32bit? I've also seen it run on both of those systems.

In looking over the Install package, I can see there MIGHT be a possible problem with the text editor; WinAGI uses a custom editor control, but it relies on having the file riched20.dll installed, but my installer doesn't add it - it assumes it will be there like all other kernel files. Maybe that file is missing or corrupted? But even if that's the case, I would expect a different error instead of what you describe.

Only other thing I can possibly think of is that one of the Windows components used by WinAGI is the wrong version on your system but isn't being updated by the installer. If you are interested, I can send you a list of all windows components that WinAGI uses; if you check the versions/dates of them and send those data back to me, I can check against the list of what is working to see if there's a file that's problematic.

[doomlazer]

Sorry for jumping into yet another thread, but make sure that you've first removed the old version by running the WinAGI 2.3.4 installer and selecting "Remove". Once removal is complete, run the 2.3.4 installer again and install.

It's easy to overlook, but if you're installing on top of an old version the option is "Modify", not "Install", which doesn't upgrade properly and I've had cause problems similar to what you're describing.

[cosmicr]

Thanks for the replies. I did do a "fresh" install by uninstalling the old version first.

In the event viewer, it does give a few warnings about not overwriting "newer" versions of some dlls. I wondering if that's it? I'll check to see if I'm missing any dlls. But obviously something changed on my system because it always worked previously (I haven't reinstalled Windows in years).

I am using Win 10 64-bit. I did notice in task manager that the program is waiting on syswow64 - I'm not sure what that is but googling says something about viruses which is a bit scary. Could it be windows defender or something like that? I don't have any specific antivirus installed or anything else unusual.

I see you posted the source code, I might try to compile it and see what happens.

[AGKorson]

Good point about the installer - writing installers is not my strong suit, so it's important to uninstall the old version using its installer and THEN installing the new version. I don't know how to make an installer that does removal/updating of an existing version.

If the installer was giving a warning about some of the DLLs, that'd be the first place I'd look. If you happen to know specifically which DLLs, and what version of them are on your system, I'd love to have that info to do some testing.

SysWOW64 is a system subdirectory in the Windows directory- it has similar files as the System32 directory, but the 64 bit versions I think. (I'm not a Windows system expert though, so I could be wrong). I do know many of the files that WinAGI uses are there.

The zip file with the WinAGI source code on the wiki is very out of date. I haven't bothered updating it for years. If you want the files for the latest version, PM me your github ID and I'll send you a link to the repository.

[macca]

Hello,
I am new to WinAGI and recently downloaded WinAGI 2.3.4.

I was trying to open Police Quest (from GOG) and encountered some errors during load - with the error message
Title: "Errors During Load"
Message: "Some errors in game and/or resource data were encountered."
After clicking the "OK" button to dismiss the alert box, and trying to click a control in the application I get an activity indicator cursor and then WinAGI goes to Not Responding and requires me to close the program.

I could see the following details in the bottom section of WinAGI during the load process.
Warning: "RW08", Description: "View 36 invalid view description pointer", Resource: 36, Line#: --, Module: "View36"
Warning: "DC07", Description: "This block at position 1146 contains no commands", Resource: 1, Line#: 340, Module: "Logic1"
Warning: "DC07", Description: "This block at position 1153 contains no commands", Resource: 1, Line#: 343, Module: "Logic1"
Warning: "DC07", Description: "This block at position 388 contains no commands", Resource: 119, Line#: 130, Module: "Logic119"

As additional reference, I tried to open Police Quest in AGI Studio 1.3.8 and did not encounter any issues. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[AGKorson]

Hi macca,

thx for the post, and welcome to the AGI programming boards!

The warnings when you import PQ1 are just that - the original resources in Sierra's released version of PQ1 had a couple of 'glitches' in their resources that don't affect the game at all, but are non-standard. WinAGI is just letting you know in case you want to rebuild/modify things that those warnings should be addressed.  You can ignore them completely if you want.

BUT, you have identified a very serious bug. The lock up is because of a change I made in 2.3.4 to address different types of text files and how they might indicate end-of-line. I thought that was a straightforward fix, but due to how the import function sets up the globals.txt file, the change causes WinAGI to lock up as you describe.

I am very sorry about that, and will get a fix for it ASAP, probably tonight.

In the meantime, you can work around it by manually creating (or editing if it already exists) a 'globals.txt' file in your game directory, and add at least one blank line (by pressing enter, then saving it). Do that before importing and then it will open correctly.

Again I am very sorry for that bug!

[Collector]

Good point about the installer - writing installers is not my strong suit, so it's important to uninstall the old version using its installer and THEN installing the new version. I don't know how to make an installer that does removal/updating of an existing version.

If the installer was giving a warning about some of the DLLs, that'd be the first place I'd look. If you happen to know specifically which DLLs, and what version of them are on your system, I'd love to have that info to do some testing.

Most of the installers I have written have been with NSIS. With NSIS it would be a trivial matter to check the Registry for previous versions or to uninstall a previous version. It also usually has a lighter footprint on the registry. You could easily have it use no more than uninstall information and file associations. It is easy to register DLLs, etc.

SysWOW64 is a system subdirectory in the Windows directory- it has similar files as the System32 directory, but the 64 bit versions I think. (I'm not a Windows system expert though, so I could be wrong). I do know many of the files that WinAGI uses are there.

The SysWOW64 folder is a redirect folder where 32-bit versions of DLLs and drivers are sent to keep them separate from the 64-bit versions. These are used by the x64 version of WOW (x64 version of Windows on Windows or WOW64  x86 emulator/subsystem) so 32-bit programs can run on x64 Windows.

The zip file with the WinAGI source code on the wiki is very out of date. I haven't bothered updating it for years. If you want the files for the latest version, PM me your github ID and I'll send you a link to the repository.

Perhaps just add a link to the GitHub on the WinAGI Wiki page instead of the zip?

[Charles]

The warnings when you import PQ1 are just that - the original resources in Sierra's released version of PQ1 had a couple of 'glitches' in their resources that don't affect the game at all, but are non-standard. WinAGI is just letting you know in case you want to rebuild/modify things that those warnings should be addressed.  You can ignore them completely if you want.

I haven't used WinAGI much, but out of curiosity, are there many known bad resource files of the official sierra AGI games? Like, are they few enough that you could detect them and put an additional message warning that the file decompiled etc properly, that these are just bugs present in the official game releases?  Or is that just an insane amount of work for minimal payoff?

EDIT:

I'm also seeing problems running v2.3.4 vs 2.3.2.  In 2.3.4 if I try and import a new game (KQ3 specifically), it hangs after decompiling but before opening the window where you select the ID name, the interp, the folders... all that stuff.

v2.3.2 works fine.  I did a full uninstall and re-install of each version before testing that.

[AGKorson]

I haven't used WinAGI much, but out of curiosity, are there many known bad resource files of the official sierra AGI games? Like, are they few enough that you could detect them and put an additional message warning that the file decompiled etc properly, that these are just bugs present in the official game releases?  Or is that just an insane amount of work for minimal payoff?

Yeah, most Sierra original games have at least one resource with minor errors/non-conformities. I did imports for my copies of Sierra games (I only own one version of each, so I haven't tried all the different versions). Among the 18 games I checked, only GR, KQ2, LLLLL, MMUG, SQ1, DEMO2, DEMO3 and DEMO5 have completely clean resources. BC, DDPG, KQ1, KQ3, MH1, MH2, PQ1, SQ2, DEMO1 and DEMO4 have at least one resource issue. None of them prevent the games from running though.

When importing a game, if any resource issues are detected, WinAGI will show this dialog:


Maybe I could change that to make it clearer? If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

I'm also seeing problems running v2.3.4 vs 2.3.2.  In 2.3.4 if I try and import a new game (KQ3 specifically), it hangs after decompiling but before opening the window where you select the ID name, the interp, the folders... all that stuff.

v2.3.2 works fine.  I did a full uninstall and re-install of each version before testing that.

Thanks for the confirmation. Version 2.3.4 is the one that I effed up. I rewrote the file retrieval functions for text files to handle different end-of-line markers, but failed to realize the changes would hang up if an empty file is encountered.  I've got it fixed and will upload a version that works correctly shortly.

[AGKorson]

Most of the installers I have written have been with NSIS. With NSIS it would be a trivial matter to check the Registry for previous versions or to uninstall a previous version. It also usually has a lighter footprint on the registry. You could easily have it use no more than uninstall information and file associations. It is easy to register DLLs, etc.

I recall giving NSIS a try in the past, but I struggled to master it. I'm sure you're right about it being a better installer authoring tool, but I just don't have the energy to figure it out.

The SysWOW64 folder is a redirect folder where 32-bit versions of DLLs and drivers are sent to keep them separate from the 64-bit versions. These are used by the x64 version of WOW (x64 version of Windows on Windows or WOW64  x86 emulator/subsystem) so 32-bit programs can run on x64 Windows.

Thx for that explanation. I figured it had something to do with 32 vs 64 bit, but didn't know for sure.

Perhaps just add a link to the GitHub on the WinAGI Wiki page instead of the zip?

I haven't made the repository public yet. I will do so at some point, but not until I'm ready. In the meantime, I don't mind sharing it privately if asked. I suppose I could update the zip files, but it's not like tons of people are clamoring to get the source code. I think I've had two requests for it in the past 15 years.

[Collector]

Understood about taking on NSIS.It is powerful, but not terribly intuitive. I learned it over years of writing increasingly more complex installers. The NSIS Wiki is a great resource as well as the forum, but you first need to gain a foothold in the scripting. Not sure if I would have managed if I had only had need for only one project.

If you give me all of the info for installing WinAGI, not just the installed folder, but any Registry entries, files in systems directories and whatever DLLs or drivers that need to be registered, etc. I could write an NSIS script for you that was well commented and should be easily modifiable by you.

[AGKorson]

That would be awesome! I will get that to you shortly. Thank you so much for that!

[Charles]

When importing a game, if any resource issues are detected, WinAGI will show this dialog:


Maybe I could change that to make it clearer? If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

I do a lot of software development for work, and often have to deal with ID-10T errors... message box fatigue is real, and I suffer from it myself... too many programs tell you things that they think are important but really aren't, so the user will just click OK without reading it... or without reading all of it. 

The only thing I could suggest is remove references to "errors" and focus on the "non-conforming" phrase you used before.  they're not errors in that your program did something wrong, so removing the Error word makes things less scary and makes the user less likely to think they did something wrong.

Something like:
MsgBox("Some non-conformities were encountered in the game and/or resource data." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "This is normal for most commercial Sierra releases, and do not affect game play or recompilation.", vbOK, "Non-Conformities Detected During Import")

Forgive the bad VB6 script... it's been ages since I'd used it.  If you could go one step further too, present a (slightly) different message if it's really the game or it's the resource, or both.  Remove as many generalities or ambiguities as possible.

That's why I'd originally suggested keeping a table of known bad games (either by ID, or by binary crc of the volumes) and specifically mention that this game is known to have non-conformance issues and that's ok.