Three questions... (ACI etc.)

[NLS]

(well almost three)

Although I follow SCUMMVM for years, I have missed somehow the "detail" that it actually can play Sarien games!!!

I did a quick test with Larry 1 - no time now - but I will post details of my ACI games the soonest possible.

Is there an actual list of Sarien games supported by SCUMMVM, or this is what you guys try to build with the test post?

Why is the daily build needed if Sarien interpreter is in there since last May?

Also, am I correct to assume that the PocketPC build does NOT support Sarien? (did the same quick test and failed) Is there a reason? I would LOVE this (since Sarien interpreters for PocketPC SUCK).

Also are there any plans to transparently support zip (or even rar) archives directly, like most modern emulators? (instead of having an expanded folder, this folder to be an archive)

Thank you for any reply, in advance.

[clem]

Is there an actual list of Sarien games supported by SCUMMVM, or this is what you guys try to build with the test post?

I guess since the engine is the same for all AGI games, they all should be equally supported? In any way, I think that's what they try to build with the newspost.

Why is the daily build needed if Sarien interpreter is in there since last May?

the engine wasn't official yet, so it wasn't enabled in the 0.9.1. release build; also it has been continuously extended since then, so the daily build might be an improvement for testing

also note that some other engines are also only available in daily builds (lure anyone?)

Also are there any plans to transparently support zip (or even rar) archives directly, like most modern emulators? (instead of having an expanded folder, this folder to be an archive)

common consensus still seems to be FAQ entry 6.1 - http://www.scummvm.org/faq.php#AEN292

hope that answers some of your questions,
clem

[NLS]

I read the FAQ entry but to be honest it doesn't say much as a reasoning.

Illegal distribution of games is easy in ANY case (what is so hard for someone that wants to be illegal to get a zip and just... expand it?).

It is a matter of organizing, using nice standard naming conventions and using ROM managers more easily.

It is also a (MAJOR) mater of small device builds (like PocketPC) that would benefit MUCH from any KB gained and benefit even more by the (seemingly) single file handling.

Free, light unzip libraries are all over the place. Please team, rethink your decision.

[clem]

I read the FAQ entry but to be honest it doesn't say much as a reasoning.

ScummVM foremost supports the original games.
The original games didn't come in zip files.
ScummVM does not support zip files.

see also http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Copyright_FAQ for the reasoning behind it

It is also a (MAJOR) mater of small device builds (like PocketPC) that would benefit MUCH from any KB gained and benefit even more by the (seemingly) single file handling.

For small devices zip compression isn't that great either I think, because where do you want to decompress a large file to to use it? I doubt you can just decompress, say, 1kb in the middle of a large zip file.

Illegal distribution of games is easy in ANY case (what is so hard for someone that wants to be illegal to get a zip and just... expand it?).

True, so why make it any easier?

[NLS]

I am not convinced but anyway doesn't matter since the decision is made.

To me internal zip support just seems like a modern "why not" feature. Your reasoning is (to me) more... complex than it needed to be. I hope some time in the future this changes.

off topic - reminds me of MediaPortal and their non-support for common plug-ins in their DVB-S module, because of the potential to use this to see encrypted channels - the whole "the knife can kill you so you cannot have a knife" (even though it is actually a tool) is a bit beyond me

Anyway. No hard feelings of course (and I could never have hard feelings towards such a free great project).

I keep my old disks in various formats, disk images, the files themselves in archives etc. Most of my old floppies are dead now anyway (and stuck in some closet).