Support for Hugo's House of Horrors Trilogy?

dooplex · Post by **dooplex** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 2:31 pm

I liked the Hugo's House of Horrors Trilogy by David P. Gray a lot, and I think they would be a great addition to SCUMMVMs supported set of games.

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/hugo-series

The engine seem very simple and, also, very similar to Sierra's AGI engine. Maybe it would be fairly easy to include these games? I can't know, though.

md5 · Post by **md5** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:03 pm

http://www.scummvm.org/faq.php#id266156

Tinhead Ned · Post by **Tinhead Ned** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 6:42 am

The Hugo trilogy already runs in windows. You wouldn't need ScummVM to run it anyway.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 6:57 am

Tinhead Ned wrote:The Hugo trilogy already runs in windows. You wouldn't need ScummVM to run it anyway.

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in the world runs Windows.

Seldon · Post by **Seldon** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:47 pm

Actually, if you have windows, then you probably don't need ScummVM at all, as you can run almost all games through DOSBox. The point of ScummVM is to allow running games on other platforms.

md5 · Post by **md5** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:04 pm

That's not true. Running games under ScummVM is much easier than on DOSBox, as there's virtually no "arcane" setting up required (e.g. weird path requirements, sound configuration, VESA configuration etc). Plus, ScummVM offers other features too, like for example a much nicer save/load dialog, fixed bugs found in the original games, less disk space requirements (because of audio files compression) less CPU needs and much much more. I personally prefer ScummVM's approach than DOSBox's (for games that are supported by ScummVM), but I'm biased

Seldon · Post by **Seldon** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:02 pm

md5 wrote:That's not true. Running games under ScummVM is much easier than on DOSBox, as there's virtually no "arcane" setting up required (e.g. weird path requirements, sound configuration, VESA configuration etc). Plus, ScummVM offers other features too, like for example a much nicer save/load dialog, fixed bugs found in the original games, less disk space requirements (because of audio files compression) less CPU needs and much much more. I personally prefer ScummVM's approach than DOSBox's (for games that are supported by ScummVM), but I'm biased

I didn't mean, that DOSBox is better than ScummVM

That's clear, that ScummVM is MUCH user-friendlier than DOSBox. But in my opinion, effort needed to add game to ScummVM only to make it easier to use is pointless. For me the main advantage is that I can play games on my mobile phone.

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:08 pm

DOSBox is also available on multiple platforms, though. Not as many as ScummVM, but definitely Linux.

Seldon · Post by **Seldon** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 4:11 pm

MusicallyInspired wrote:DOSBox is also available on multiple platforms, though. Not as many as ScummVM, but definitely Linux.

And here is another advantage of ScummVM - emulating whole DOS system is much more power-demanding, so small devices are ruled out.

dooplex · Post by **dooplex** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 4:53 pm

I've gotten the Hugo adventures (all three, DOS versions) to run on my netbook using DOSBox - it wasn't so difficult at all. SCUMMVM has a lot advantages over DOSBox, though, as some have already pointed out, ease of use no being the only one.

It's about personal bias, too, of course. I've grown to like SCUMMVM a lot. It is such an ambitious project and you can really feel that all contributors share a great love for all those wonderful old games.

Which isn't to say that DOS Box is bad, either. DOSBox is a more universal emulator and therefore more complicated to use. On the other hand it's able to run much more games and applications than anything else. It's all about point of view, I guess.

Personally I doubt that DOSBox would run sufficiently fast on a mobile phone, to play anything like a LucasArts adventure or even the Hugo adventures (let me know if I'm wrong).

Longcat · Post by **Longcat** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 5:38 pm

dooplex wrote: Which isn't to say that DOS Box is bad, either. DOSBox is a more universal emulator and therefore more complicated to use. On the other hand it's able to run much more games and applications than anything else. It's all about point of view, I guess.

Whereas ScummVM isn't an emulator at all.

Seldon · Post by **Seldon** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 6:36 pm

dooplex wrote:I've gotten the Hugo adventures (all three, DOS versions) to run on my netbook using DOSBox - it wasn't so difficult at all. SCUMMVM has a lot advantages over DOSBox, though, as some have already pointed out, ease of use no being the only one.

It's about personal bias, too, of course. I've grown to like SCUMMVM a lot. It is such an ambitious project and you can really feel that all contributors share a great love for all those wonderful old games.

Which isn't to say that DOS Box is bad, either. DOSBox is a more universal emulator and therefore more complicated to use. On the other hand it's able to run much more games and applications than anything else. It's all about point of view, I guess.

Personally I doubt that DOSBox would run sufficiently fast on a mobile phone, to play anything like a LucasArts adventure or even the Hugo adventures (let me know if I'm wrong).

It seems that out discussion drifts into comparison of ScummVM and DOSBox, which is pointless. These are two great applications, but totally different. ScummVM is always better than DOSBox, IF particular game is supported. The problem is the effort needed.
By entering this discussion I just wanted to say, that Tinhead Ned's argument against inclusion of the game into ScuumVM "because it works in Windows" doesn't make sense.

clone2727 · Post by **clone2727** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:19 pm

Seldon wrote:Actually, if you have windows, then you probably don't need ScummVM at all, as you can run almost all games through DOSBox. The point of ScummVM is to allow running games on other platforms.

I also am able to play my other non-PC versions of games in ScummVM. For example, the mac version of Loom doesn't work under OS X Classic (without a patched executable to allow running in 256 colors).

bobdevis · Post by **bobdevis** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:51 pm

Something that hasn't been mentioned yet; MS will throw out support for it sooner or later.
All that 16-bit compatibility stuff for the DOS-era software will have to go at some point and then you will have to use alternatives like DosBox/ScummVM anyway.
The hardware support for 16 bit code is going the way of the dodo aswell. Try installing Windows98 unvirtualized on an AMD Phenom machine or some such. If by some miracle you can get it to boot you will notice your machine being very slow because Windows9x relies on 16 bit code that doesn't get executed very efficiently.

Tinhead Ned · Post by **Tinhead Ned** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:25 pm

eriktorbjorn wrote:
Tinhead Ned wrote:The Hugo trilogy already runs in windows. You wouldn't need ScummVM to run it anyway.
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in the world runs Windows.

Well, Linux users can use Wine...and if you've got a Mac...well, if you bought a Mac then you obviously didn't buy it to play games on, bahahahaha