Why does it only support adventure games?

seany123 · Post by **seany123** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 9:01 pm

I was wondering what the reasoning behind why ScummVM only supports adventure games... i dont know about anyone else but their is a couple of games which i would love to play but unable to which maybe this program could help.

GearHead Garage would be a main one.

anyone else?

this wasnt supposed to be a games request thread, but i guess there is no harm in listing the games people would love made available.

GearHead Garage
Rebel Assault
Rebel Assault II

McKnallski · Post by **McKnallski** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 9:14 pm

Rebel Assault and Rebel Assault II too.

grim107 · Post by **grim107** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 10:16 pm

I can't help you with GearHead Garage, but the other two games you listed can be run with DosBox.

Longcat · Post by **Longcat** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 10:18 pm

I guess it has to do with ScummVM originally being developed as a runtime environment for the LucasArts adventuregames. That's how it started out and that's how it stayed.

Reckless · Post by **Reckless** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 10:23 pm

Why? Perhaps the team who started and continue to be a part of the project have focused on what they enjoyed the most?!

There are generally other options for other games - such as Dosbox - so you rarely be without options!

Collector · Post by **Collector** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 11:12 pm

There is nothing to stop anyone with the ability to start their own project. You will not find anyone willing to invest the time to work on any games/engines that they do not care about. The project is already fairly large.

And as Reckless said, there are other options for the games that are not supported by ScummVM, such as DOSBox for the DOS games and for some other games there have been projects to port older games to newer platforms. And there is WINE to run Windows games on a few other platforms. WINE is even being developed for Windows to run older Windows games on newer Windows.

seany123 · Post by **seany123** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 11:41 pm

Okay well is there an area i can visit to request this?

Gearhead garage kinda works when you make compatibility to win95/win98 but the game crashes.

Freddo · Post by **Freddo** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:38 am

Have you read this?
http://www.gearheadgarage.com/forum/vie ... php?t=2327
http://www.gearheadgarage.com/updates.htm#WinXP

If you still have issues, the best thing you can do is to ask on the official Gearhead Garage forums for a new patch.

Nikioko · Post by **Nikioko** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:59 am

Let's put it this way: as long as there are so many adventures still not supported yet, I wouldn't start to integrate other games.

seany123 · Post by **seany123** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:46 pm

Freddo wrote:Have you read this?
http://www.gearheadgarage.com/forum/vie ... php?t=2327
http://www.gearheadgarage.com/updates.htm#WinXP

If you still have issues, the best thing you can do is to ask on the official Gearhead Garage forums for a new patch.

i have read both but that website is literally like a skeleton now, none of the download links work, its basically just cosmetic

DrMcCoy · Post by **DrMcCoy** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:02 pm

seany123 wrote:I was wondering what the reasoning behind why ScummVM only supports adventure games...

Because the people who started the project, and the people who continue to work on it care mostly about adventure games.
Also, this helps keeping the whole shebang somewhat focused. As ScummVM's approach requires enormous work for every single engine (and slightly less for every game using the same engine family), focus doesn't exactly come in abundance.

seany123 wrote:their is a couple of games which i would love to play but unable to which maybe this program could help.

Like I said above, adding a new game in ScummVM is a lot of work, since we completely re-create the engine, instead of simulating a complete PC like DOSBox, or rewriting the middle-layer like wine does.

Saying "okay, ScummVM will now support RPGs/FPSs/etc too" won't change that fact. Manpower to do the actual work of REing the games will still be needed.
And, if you have people willing to do that, they can still use ScummVM's internals as a starting point for their own project. Everybody wins.

seany123 wrote:GearHead Garage would be a main one.

This game is quite unsuited for ScummVM in general, even if it were an adventure.
ScummVM is rather specialized for pixely 2D games, while GearHead Garage seems to be a vectory 3D one. 2D and 3D games have some fundamental differences that are hard to reconcile.

seany123 · Post by **seany123** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 1:59 am

thankyou for your reply, i have just been wanting to play this game for such a long time, when i found ScummVM i thought it would be worth finding out if it would be possible to integrate it with ScummVM.

clearly its not without alot of work, which has given me a huge appreciation and envy towards the developers here.

Sean

Serious Callers Only · Thu Feb 10, 2011 10:46 am

It is true that games like bloodnet and QFG straddle the line between rpg and adventure and QFG is planed.

Though, RPGs are generally complex beasts. It is after all, the genre i chose as a refuge after adventures stopped coming out. Bloodlines, fallout, torment all satisfied my narrative needs, if not the puzzle needs.

Pity they stopped making them too. Ah the tragedy of the commons.