Question about Broken Sword versions

[TribeHasSpoken]

Today I saw the "Sold Out" versions of the first two Broken Sword games for sale. I almost bought them when I remembered that I'd heard that one such budget release of the games was not compatible with SCUMMVM. Could you please clarify whether or not the version I saw would work with your emulator?

[Jimbob]

Today I saw the "Sold Out" versions of the first two Broken Sword games for sale. I almost bought them when I remembered that I'd heard that one such budget release of the games was not compatible with SCUMMVM. Could you please clarify whether or not the version I saw would work with your emulator?

I think it does work BUT you need some way to install the games using the Windows Installer. ISTR the data files needed are all stored in .CAB or installer files. I don't have that particular version, I'm sure someone who does will answer your question completely.

[eriktorbjorn]

Today I saw the "Sold Out" versions of the first two Broken Sword games for sale. I almost bought them when I remembered that I'd heard that one such budget release of the games was not compatible with SCUMMVM. Could you please clarify whether or not the version I saw would work with your emulator?

They should work fine. Indeed, the "Sold Out" PC releases of Broken Sword 1 and Broken Sword 2 are the only ones I've been able to test ScummVM with.

I only have the individual releases, not the new double pack, but from what I hear, that release actually uses ScummVM as its official interpreter.

[TribeHasSpoken]

Outstanding. In that case, I'll definitely buy it.

[Dwyloc]

Today I saw the "Sold Out" versions of the first two Broken Sword games for sale. I almost bought them when I remembered that I'd heard that one such budget release of the games was not compatible with SCUMMVM. Could you please clarify whether or not the version I saw would work with your emulator?

I have the "Sold Out" version of both Broken Sword 1 and 2 and played both of them using ScummVM. As stated above all you have to do is install them using the game installer them copy or move the required files to your preferred location for your scumm games.

Then you can also use the supplied ScummVM tools to compress the audio to make the installs smaller if you wish.

[Mediteran]

just a question, i cant play this without scummvm or? are there benefits to playing with this? im not sure what exactly is scummvm, sorry for being dumb

and does this "soldout" version already come with scummvm?

[clem]

just a question, i cant play this without scummvm or? are there benefits to playing with this? im not sure what exactly is scummvm, sorry for being dumb

and does this "soldout" version already come with scummvm?

The soldout version already comes with ScummVM, but it's an older version.

Nowadays the videos are of higher quality and the game might run better due to bugfixes.

[Mediteran]

so scummvm improves videos? great

im gonna download it then. also, ive never played BS 1, is the game supposed to be without picture when it starts, when the guy is talking? its just black screen and sound, later i get picture when the game starts

and, when i install scummvm, do i start the game through that or just click on the bs shortcut? and do i need to configure scummvm to get improvements?

[eriktorbjorn]

so scummvm improves videos? great

Compared to the originals? No.

What happened was that when ScummVM added support for the Broken Sword games was that we could not support the original Smacker videos. (Apparently RAD Game Tools are/were a bit protective about that format.) As a workaround, we implemented support for MPEG movies instead. Revolution gave us permission to make re-encoded cutscenes available for download. Unfortunately, re-encoding to MPEG degraded the quality.

Since then, ScummVM has added support for a different format called DXA, which was used for the non-Windows versions of The Feeble Files. (Actually, ScummVM uses a modified version of the format, which allows for better compression.) This is a lossless format (i.e. the re-encoded cutscenes are identical to the original ones), and is now the preferred format for Broken Sword as well. The DXA movies were created from the original Smacker movies, of course.

From what I understand, the Broken Sword double pack from Sold-Out Software includes ScummVM and the low-quality MPEG movies, so the DXA movies are an improvement over them.

im gonna download it then. also, ive never played BS 1, is the game supposed to be without picture when it starts, when the guy is talking? its just black screen and sound, later i get picture when the game starts

Yes, that's normal. But it's been reported enough times that it has its own FAQ entry.

and, when i install scummvm, do i start the game through that or just click on the bs shortcut?

I'd do the former, but I don't run Windows (except at work), so I don't know what short-cuts are created.

[Mediteran]

oh ok, so do i need to download the dxa movies or?


and, about the shortcut, not sure if it helps but it says:

Code: Select all

"D:\Games\Sierra\Broken Sword\scummvm.exe" -cscummvm.ini sword1

when i start scummvm.exe from that folder i get an old 0.7 version, and i have 0.11 installed in a different folder

[eriktorbjorn]

oh ok, so do i need to download the dxa movies or?

ScummVM can still play the MPEG movies, but the DXA movies look better. I'll let you decide whether or not that translates to a need.

If you download and unpack the DXA movies, you should be able to simply replace the old ones. (I'm guessing they're in a folder called video or something like that, but I don't know for sure.)

when i start scummvm.exe from that folder i get an old 0.7 version, and i have 0.11 installed in a different folder

You should simply be able to run the newer ScummVM and add the game to it. That process is described in this tutorial, albeit for a different game.

[Mediteran]

ok i do "need" to dowload

so i download the Broken Sword 1 Cutscene Pack (English, DXA compression) and thats it, nothing else? i installed it but it didnt overwrite anything, its all in the video folder now, is that normal? no overwriting? should i delete the other ones?

what about Broken Sword 1 Cutscene Pack (English OGG AddOn), whats the difference?

thanx in advance

[eriktorbjorn]

so i download the Broken Sword 1 Cutscene Pack (English, DXA compression) and thats it, nothing else? i installed it but it didnt overwrite anything, its all in the video folder now, is that normal? no overwriting? should i delete the other ones?

If memory serves me, the old cutscene pack consists of mp2, ogg and pal files. The mp2 files are the video, the ogg files are the sound and the pal files are for platforms that support only 256 colours. The videos are 256 colours (8 bits per pixel) originally, but re-encoding to MPEG turned them into 16 bits per pixel.

The new cutscene packs are probably dxa and fla (or is it flac?). They don't overwrite the old files because they have different names (that's how ScummVM knows what to do with them), but the old files are no longer needed.

what about Broken Sword 1 Cutscene Pack (English OGG AddOn), whats the difference?

The sound for the cutscene movies can be encoded as MP3, Ogg Vorbis or FLAC. MP3 and Ogg Vorbis are both lossy (i.e. when you decode them you don't get exactly the same signal back as the one you encoded, but the difference is usually not very noticeable), while FLAC is lossless. Apart from being smaller, the "OGG AddOn" is for "ports without FLAC support".

[Mediteran]

ok, so the new scummvm will now what to do with the new files i dont need to adjust anything? can i delete the old ones or will my game crash and stuff?

[sev]

ok, so the new scummvm will now what to do with the new files i dont need to adjust anything? can i delete the old ones or will my game crash and stuff?

Feel free to delete them. And after all you have your CDs to copy over deleted file again, eh?


Eugene