Is ScummVM losing focus?

[Banquo]

Don't get me wrong, I really love this project. However in the past it was solely for LucasArts Scumm based games. Progress seemed to go a lot faster and the games probably got more attention since there were so few of them. Then they started adding non-LucasArts games. I'm not sure why, I think the project was perfect as it was. Now more and more games are being added and it's turning into more of a DOSBox type thing instead of concentrating on only the LucasArts classics (many of which are still not perfect after all these years). I'll probably be chastised for bringing it up but I really think they should have stayed with LucasArts games only. It's just not Scumm anymore.

[clem]

well, there is something you can do about that!

Code: Select all

./configure --disable-he --disable-agos --disable-sky --disable-sword1  --disable-sword2 --disable-queen --disable-saga --disable-gob --disable-kyra --disable-cine --disable-agi --disable-touche

make

I'm happy the way things are going - plus adding further engines may have useful fallout for SCUMM as well

[PsYcO]

what are you talking about? dosbox is awful in comparison... you have to install them, set up the drivers, then go through 18 problems before the game is playable.

secondly you have to mount the cd's go into various sub-folders, and its annoying if you miss spell or forget a part. unlike scummvm, 1 time set up, you find the folder hit add and your done.

while support on games is fewer on scummvm, there better. but there growing all the time.

lastly, hypothetically speaking, you go out and buy a copy of windows vista. you install it, it works perfectly, then you notice it has the latest full version of office on it, do you;
a. complain till your blue in the face
b. you already have it, but just accept it

[Banquo]

I didn't mean I was unhappy because it supported more games. I just meant that adding more games from other companies means the LucasArts classics are getting less attention, at least it seems logical to think so. If all efforts were on fixing the Scumm games instead of adding others seems like they'd all be a lot farther along.

[PsYcO]

I didn't mean I was unhappy because it supported more games. I just meant that adding more games from other companies means the LucasArts classics are getting less attention, at least it seems logical to think so. If all efforts were on fixing the Scumm games instead of adding others seems like they'd all be a lot farther along.

but that's only because they ran out of games to RE.

and they cant fix problems they don't know about, and its not like there ignoring them, if we find bugs they fix em.

essentially the project would not be making progress, if they didn't add other game support

[eriktorbjorn]

Progress seemed to go a lot faster and the games probably got more attention since there were so few of them.

Or maybe because there aren't as many easy-to-reproduce bugs left in the SCUMM engine. When I first got involved with ScummVM, there were lots of them: strange sounds in Sam & Max, masking errors in Loom, the flickering Chron-o-John in Day of the Tentacle, ... Nowadays, most of the bug reports for the SCUMM engine seem to be for ScummVM running on hand-held devices, or for non-English or FM-TOWNS versions of the games. Or Digital iMUSE, which seems to have some bugs lurking inside it still.

Of course, the number of active ScummVM developers has always been fairly small, so it can be quite noticeable whenever one or more of them are too busy with other things to work on ScummVM.

[exofreeze]

I didn't mean I was unhappy because it supported more games. I just meant that adding more games from other companies means the LucasArts classics are getting less attention, at least it seems logical to think so. If all efforts were on fixing the Scumm games instead of adding others seems like they'd all be a lot farther along.

thats extremely illogical. By adding more games, the scummvm project reaches more and more people, thereby bringing much more attention to the games it originally supported (ie: lucasarts games).

Keeping it a niche piece of software which can only play 12 games is not "keeping attention" on lucasarts games, it's simply ignoring the potential it has for other games.

I'd also be intereste din hearing about these dehabiliting problems inherent within scumm games that need so much attention that all other games should be ignored.

[sev]

instead of concentrating on only the LucasArts classics (many of which are still not perfect after all these years).

I'm just wondering on what do you mean exactly by this? Which are these problems in LucasArts games? It sounds like out of blue to me. Did you really encounter some Big Bug(TM) in any of LEC games?


Eugene

[bobablob]

Now more and more games are being added and it's turning into more of a DOSBox type thing instead of concentrating on only the LucasArts classics (many of which are still not perfect after all these years). I'll probably be chastised for bringing it up but I really think they should have stayed with LucasArts games only. It's just not Scumm anymore.

Uh . . . what?
*Finalist: People will bitch about anything Award.*

[exofreeze]

hahaha, I second that motion.