Discworld I PSX Demo

hkzlab · Post by **hkzlab** » Sun May 31, 2009 4:44 pm

In fact... the full game was unfinishable until today because of a nasty bug in Act IV (which, according to web sources, happened with psx interpreter too).
The demo starts, but i still have to play it until the end (or maybe you've already played it, sanguine?).
Also, now you can play both the demo and the full game without having to move the files around, just add the game & play, it should automatically take care of psx version directory structure.

BTW, anyone of you with NTSC version of Discworld I PSX around? i'd like to know if it detects and starts up correctly: i had only the european version to work upon.

Meringues · Post by **Meringues** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:06 pm

Is it just me or does the audio/speech in the PSX version sound slightly better quality when run through SVM?

hkzlab · Post by **hkzlab** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 10:10 pm

In fact, speech and fx samples in PSX version are 44100hz, in PC version the frequency is 22050hz.
At first i thought that the audio was simply reencoded from pc version, but then i found that some samples were different, eg. the red dragon voice which lacks the reverb found in pc version (and is just a plain female voice).
So it could very well be that sound samples in PSX version are reencoded in higher quality from original sources.

tadhock · Post by **tadhock** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 5:47 am

Is this also the case for the Saturn version? If so, any chance it'll eventually be supported?

(don't worry, I'm not actually requesting it, just curious since I know I've got an old Sega Saturn copy of the game lying around somewhere...)

hkzlab · Post by **hkzlab** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 8:51 am

I have a saturn copy, and had a quick look at the resource files.
The (main) problem with Saturn version is that the resources are in big endian format, so all the code which reads from files will have to be changed to take account of that (and i assure you, it's not a trivial task...).
Another problem is that i don't know which audio format saturn version uses, so it's a bit hard to check quality of the samples.
I'm not saying it won't be supported, it's just that i don't have time to look into those issues right now :-|

tadhock · Post by **tadhock** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 10:25 am

No worries - thanks for looking into it.

I was only asking cause I found my copy the other day, was curious after reading about the "improved" PSX verion

Meringues · Post by **Meringues** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 3:09 pm

Are there any other advantages/tweaks of the PSX version, or are any other versions considered to be the best version of the game? the curtain between acts is not in the PC version??

ChickenHound · Post by **ChickenHound** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 12:28 am

I have two demo disks with Discworld I and II but when I loaded them in the Playstation (Original), the sound is choppy and the games freeze constantly. When I looked at the disks they had 0.5mm scratches in them. I would post them to you, but they're history.

hippy dave · Post by **hippy dave** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:19 am

i haven't tried it myself, but i've been told that the best thing to do with a scratched cd is to take it to your local blockbuster video (or possible equivalent) and ask them nicely to run it through their disc grinder (wears the surface down to give a new smooth surface).

Deledrius · Post by **Deledrius** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 10:11 pm

hkzlab wrote: BTW, anyone of you with NTSC version of Discworld I PSX around? i'd like to know if it detects and starts up correctly: i had only the european version to work upon.

Nope, it doesn't detect. Detection works when modified to only expect {"english.txt", 0, "7526cfc3a64e00f223795de476b4e2c9", 230326}

The other language files are absent. Upon load, I receive an error stating english.idx could not be found. It's located under the samples subdirectory on my disc. If I have all files in one directory, the game loads and I'm able to get at least to the point where I gain control of the character.

Here's a tree listing for the US English PSX Discworld (It's pretty long so I didn't want to post the whole thing here).

Let me know if you need any more info from this version of the game!

hkzlab · Post by **hkzlab** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:03 pm

Meringues wrote:Are there any other advantages/tweaks of the PSX version, or are any other versions considered to be the best version of the game? the curtain between acts is not in the PC version??

If i remember correctly, the curtain is there in my pc version too...
Another difference of psx version is that fonts are always "blue" in game: no different colors for each character (and this is certainly not a plus).
I haven't seen other differences in this version... maybe the music, which is in SEQ format, but i still did not implement it.

Meringues · Post by **Meringues** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 11:34 pm

hkzlab wrote:maybe the music,which is in SEQ format, but i still did not implement it.

Is that something that can be done?

hkzlab · Post by **hkzlab** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 11:39 pm

Yes, but i'm not working on it right now.
Clone2727 was looking at the PSX SEQ format, though i don't know what is the actual status of his work.

clone2727 · Post by **clone2727** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 9:49 am

hkzlab wrote:Yes, but i'm not working on it right now.
Clone2727 was looking at the PSX SEQ format, though i don't know what is the actual status of his work.

I have written a converter to SMF and I need to test it. I also wrote the code that should figure out what sound file to play. I haven't gotten around to testing yet, though. Assuming it works, I get to move on to loading waveform banks.

Meringues · Post by **Meringues** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 10:02 am

Great! I was just curious as I assumed it was a format that couldn't be implemented, good to see there are ways around it