Loom CD Version, audio troubles, etc. etc.

ShiningRayde · Post by **ShiningRayde** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:55 am

Alright, I've scanned the webs, I've scanned the forums, and I still can't find an answer. Either they were too simple (Read the readme? The readme says nothing!) or far too complex for this simple mind.

I know you're all probably tired of seeing these threads, but I just need to ask for my own case...

I own the CD-Rom version of Loom. Had it since I was a kid, and loved every second of the game.

Now, I find ScummVM, which allows me to play it quickly and easily (Along with Secret of Monkey Island, another childhood favorite) on my new computer.

Now the hitch... I want to try and preserve my CDs as much as possible, a psychological condition brought upon me when I was 12 or so and broke my brother's 'ALLIES' cd for CnC Red Alert. So, I do everything I can to use them as little as possible, and thought that ScummVM would be a great place to start.

And it is: I can play the game without the CD, and lose absoloutely nothing in game play and mechanics... but I miss the sound, the music, the voices. (To this day, I still quip "Grass green, I hate that color...")

So, in plain, simple terms, can someone please give me the directions to completely remove the CD from this system? I've tried a number of things, even have the track1.mp3 (ripped with Windows Media Player, however), but nothing seems to work.

I thank you all for your time.

clem · Post by **clem** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 8:45 am

I'm not sure what to suggest since nothing you write strikes me as 'wrong';

generally you have to copy over the datafiles and rip the audio to mp3/ogg/flac and you seem to have done that

- does the track1.mp3 file play on its own in an audio player?
- is the track1.mp3 file in the same directory with the other game data files? (i.e. can ScummVM find it?)
- is your ScummVM version compiled with mp3 support? (I'm sure it is if you downloaded the normal windows version)
- do you get speech in other ScummVM-supported games?
- which ScummVM version are you running?

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 9:08 am

Another thing to check is to make sure that the file is really named track1.mp3. (I believe track01.mp3 would work, as well.)

Microsoft Windows, by default, has an "intelligent" feature that makes it hide the file extension of files it thinks it knows what they are. When this feature is on, track1.mp3 is probably shown as track1, while track1.foo is shown in its entirety. So if this feature is enabled, and you see a file that appears to be named track1.mp3, chances are that it's actually named track1.mp3.mp3.

ShiningRayde · Post by **ShiningRayde** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:13 pm

My ScummVM window says 'ScummVM 0.10.0', so I presume that's the version.

That's also the part that throws me the most, 'compiled for MP3'. I have very little idea as to how to do that, or even what it means. Okay, basic idea of what it means, but not much more.

the track is located in the Loom folder, next to the rest of the files I copied from the CD. It is labeled track1.mp3, bit rate 64 kbps, 25.3 megabytes in size. It plays by itself in WinAmp, so I can listen to the game in it's entirety, though very, very scrambled.

Trying to run the LOOM.exe in the folder just generates a black screen requesting the 'Loom talkie CD'.

As to other games, I have Secret of Monkey Island and LeChuck's Revenge, so no speech per-se, but the music does play, and so far as I can tell, they are working.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:10 pm

ShiningRayde wrote: the track is located in the Loom folder, next to the rest of the files I copied from the CD. It is labeled track1.mp3, bit rate 64 kbps, 25.3 megabytes in size. It plays by itself in WinAmp, so I can listen to the game in it's entirety, though very, very scrambled.

Strange. I assume you've double-checked that the file really is "track1.mp3" and not, say, "track 1.mp3" or - as I mentioned earlier - "track1.mp3.mp3".

(In the last case, if you remove .mp3 from the file name, Windows would probably still recognize it as a music file since the real file extension is still there, albeit hidden.)

ShiningRayde · Post by **ShiningRayde** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:11 pm

Not yet, no, but I will try that next. It is possible, but if it comes up with 'removing file extension' problems, I'll know it's not the issue.

cde · Post by **cde** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 7:45 pm

Another Windows Media Player concern could be that your files are actually track1.mp3.wma and so on. Unless you have dug around in WMP to specify MP3 ripping, just entering the MP3 extension won't change the preferred format away from Windows Media Audio.

I would recommend the excellent and free CDex for trouble-free ripping. http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

ShiningRayde · Post by **ShiningRayde** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:57 pm

Thank you all for your support!

Especially you, CDE. After using CDex, I managed to create track1.mp3, and after following the appropriate measures, Loom now plays without the CD completely, which means I can stash the treasure for later generations.

Again, many thanks to all of you who chipped in!

clem · Post by **clem** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:58 pm

as a final thought, if you really really want to preserve CD audio, make sure to use lossless audio compression (ScummVM supports flac)

Loom CD Version, audio troubles, etc. etc.

Loom CD Version, audio troubles, etc. etc.

A big thanks!