Monkey Island 1 - Mac

[scoriae]

The 2.9.0 release notes say, "Improved graphics support for Macintosh MI1, MI2 and Fate of Atlantis"

So I thought I would take a look.

I have attached a screen shot.

Since when is applying a scaler like 2xsai an "improvement". The rounded off pixels look very unnatural.

I have no problem with scalers being offered as an option, but to make this the default way a game launches is not cool.

[scoriae]

For reference, here is a proper screen shot (taken from 2.8.0)

I've noticed it also butchers the aspect ratio with the scaler on.

[criezy]

The "Improved graphics support for Macinthosh MI1, MI2 and Fate of Atlantis" indeed includes implementation of the EPX filter used in the original interpreter. But as in the original, it can be turned off. The improvement also include implementing the Mac menu, and in particular the "Smooth Graphics" item in the Window menu (you can see a screenshot in the link below). I think Alt+g might also work to toggle on/off the graphics smoothing. I am guessing this is the turned on by default to mimic what the original interpreter was doing.

For reference, the changes are described here: https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/6184

[scoriae]

I appreciate the reply. I tend to launch my games via command line, so I don't see the options in the main menu when I am starting things up (I like to launch my stuff from the same front end as my other games, rather than use specific launchers for each).

I went and looked up someone running the game on a Mac, and you are correct.... there is some type of smoothing taking place. It just isn't quite as pronounced as the EPX filter ScummVM is using. The clouds and mountain on the title screen look similar, but the title itslef is worse for wear.

I am surprised to learn th Mac version was released this way. Thanks for the information.

Is it true for the aspect ratio as well though? Was the mac version compressed like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23ebXJz76LY

This video seems to suggets it was.

[criezy]

To clarify, the option to toggle smoothing is not in the ScummVM launcher or Main Menu, but it is in the game Mac menu (shown at the top of the window while playing a Mac SCUMM game). So it should be available even when launching games from the command line. See the attached image.

You can also add manually the "mac_graphics_smoothing=false" in the [scummvm] section of the ScummVM config file (if I read the code correctly, the setting is shared between all the mac SCUMM games and not specified per game).

I don't know about the Aspect Ratio. An expect on the SCUMM mac games will need to answer that.
Edit: there is a discussion about Aspect Ratio correction for Monkey Island in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=14460. In this discussion there is a claim (that I cannot verified) that the Mac original interpreter indeed did not do any aspect ratio correction and squashed the graphics for the 256 color version of the game.

MI2_mac_menu.png (245.92 KiB) Viewed 20089 times

[AndywinXp]

Hi. I'm one of the developers responsible for this. Every change you're seeing models the same exact behaviour you would encounter by booting the original game disc on a Macintosh.

It just isn't quite as pronounced as the EPX filter ScummVM is using. The clouds and mountain on the title screen look similar, but the title itslef is worse for wear.

Heh, this would pretty much surprise me, since the algorithm is the same exact one used in the original and with "same exact" I really mean that we disassembled the executable and took it from there...

[almeath]

The way the Macintosh version of Monkey Island is being presented in ScummVM 2.9 is exactly how it is supposed to look, if you want a true representation of how it ran on original hardware.

Back in the 90s I owned and played every LucasArts adventure game that came out for the Mac. Not a single one presented the game in what we now refer to as a “corrected” 4:3 aspect ratio. From Loom and Indy 3 up to The Dig and Full Throttle, all of them presented the game in a “stretched” ratio with black bars on the top and bottom, despite running on a 4:3 ratio CRT screen.

Further, the EPX graphic smoothing was enabled by default during the 68k era (including Monkey Island 1 and 2, and Fate of Atlantis). In the PowerPC era you could not use graphic smoothing on a 68k processor. Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, The Dig, and Full Throttle all needed a PowerMac to smooth the graphics. In the PowerPC era the graphic smoothing was toggled on or off in the game settings. In Monkey Island 2 you could toggle it by typing “rough” which would trigger a humorous message about making your Mac look dangerously like a PC. That option was not available in Monkey Island 1, which only ran with 'smoothed' graphics.

This is a photo I took of Monkey Island 2 running on a CRT monitor with my PowerMac G3 under MacOS 8.6:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/x9gvw1c6 ... adcx9&dl=0

This is a screen capture of The Dig running on an emulated Quadra 800 in MAME (not using graphic smoothing, due to the emulated 68k processor):

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jctlais1 ... olrjn&dl=0

As an aside, in the above post it shows a menu option in Monkey Island 2 to toggle smooth graphics. That was not present in the original game. As mentioned, you need to type "rough" to toggle the graphic smoothing on/off on original hardware. I anticipate that was added for convenience in ScummVM, as I also see the "File" menu is renamed to the "Game" menu.

[eriktorbjorn]

As an aside, in the above post it shows a menu option in Monkey Island 2 to toggle smooth graphics. That was not present in the original game. As mentioned, you need to type "rough" to toggle the graphic smoothing on/off on original hardware. I anticipate that was added for convenience in ScummVM, as I also see the "File" menu is renamed to the "Game" menu.

ScummVM does indeed add a "Smooth Graphics" menu item to games that originally didn't have it (Monkey Island 1, Monkey Island, and the floppy version of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis) though it should only do that if the "Modern UI/UX adjustments" enhancement setting is on. (That setting also adds the "rough" command to Monkey Island 1.) The names of the menus come from the MENU resources though, so they should be the same as in the original. Other than that, ScummVM does take a few shortcuts. Some menu items aren't implemented, so they are grayed out, menus are not usable while there is a dialog window on screen (only used for clipboard handling, which also isn't implemented), the save/load dialogs show ScummVM savegames rather than actual files, etc.

It's possible that some of these will change in the future, but I think it's already a pretty convincing illusion.

The development version of ScummVM has an "Enable gamma correction" option which, in combination with the "Enable the original GUI and Menu" option, should make it possible to disable most of the Mac features. (Except for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Loom, where it's necessary.) It also implements the Mac GUI for the remaining LucasArts SCUMM games, though there is work still to be done on Maniac Mansion.

[almeath]

The names of the menus come from the MENU resources though, so they should be the same as in the original.

Yes, I made a mistake there. It is correct that the File menu was renamed to Game.

The development version of ScummVM has an "Enable gamma correction" option which, in combination with the "Enable the original GUI and Menu" option, should make it possible to disable most of the Mac features. (Except for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Loom, where it's necessary.) It also implements the Mac GUI for the remaining LucasArts SCUMM games, though there is work still to be done on Maniac Mansion.

That's good to know. In my opinion the Mac gamma in 2.9 seems off compared to what I know of original Macs and also other emulation environments. However, I did think the colors in Monkey Island 2 looked washed out when I tested it on a CRT a couple of years ago, but that was a cheap shadow mask display which is probably on its last legs. I had Trinitron Mac monitors all the way up to my first LCD iMac, so I may have developed a different "perception" of what the correct color palette should be, as I could get some pretty good saturation on those old higher end displays.

viewtopic.php?t=17251

So, being able to disable the gamma correction and go back to how the colors were displayed in ScummVM 2.8 is actually my preference, but I do like the Mac GUI implementation and its good to know its still being improved. Being able to get an accurate Mac mouse cursor in every game would be great. Still, that's a minor detail - it's coming along very nicely.

[eriktorbjorn]

Being able to get an accurate Mac mouse cursor in every game would be great.

You'll have to remind me which ones are incorrect. This is what the cursors currently look like in Last Crusade, Loom, Monkey Island 1, Monkey Island 2, and Fate of Atlantis. (At least in the development version.)

mac-cursors.png (596 Bytes) Viewed 16479 times

[almeath]

Actually I have just checked the latest development build and the cursors are indeed correct for all those games, I tested each one.

For the later era adventures from Day of the Tentacle onwards, the Mac versions incorporated the customized cursors of the PC releases.

[eriktorbjorn]

Actually I have just checked the latest development build and the cursors are indeed correct for all those games, I tested each one.

For the later era adventures from Day of the Tentacle onwards, the Mac versions incorporated the customized cursors of the PC releases.

Whew!

Yeah, the later SCUMM games are much harder to tell from the DOS version just by looking at them. The way I've heard it explained was that when the first ones were released, Mac users were an important target audience, and they demanded that their games would look like proper Mac games. Later on... not so much! Apparently the main reason there even exist Mac ports of Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max was that Aaron Giles decided to make them first and ask permission afterwards.

Source: https://aarongiles.com/programming/war-lec/

[almeath]

Yes, I remember that era. It was strange, because when the Mac felt more 'niche' in the early 90s, it seemed to get a lot of support from companies like LucasArts and Sierra. Then, in the mid 90s when its actual shipped units went up dramatically, it still lost market share to 'Wintel' because of the overwhelming growth in the market.

There were large numbers of Mac customers with multimedia ready machines, yearning for content, yet you could not find it because retailers were reluctant to give floor space to Mac software, and the aforementioned publishers started to jump ship as Apple hovered ever closer to bankruptcy. Around that time, I noticed the ports becoming more 'sloppy' in that they were rough-and-ready, often done without taking full advantage of what the Mac platform could offer. Aaron Giles is great, because he did it out of appreciation for the Mac, and it shows.

Those were interesting times to live through as a Mac user. It's great that the ScummVM team can implement these improvements to bring back the feel of playing classic Mac games, with all their unique quirks.