Is Quest for Glory IV even in consideration?

Nazo · Post by **Nazo** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 3:17 am

Update 13 Sep 2019
This is an old thread. The new discussion for ScummVM support of Quest for Glory IV is here: Testing Quest of Glory IV with ScummVM
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Original post:
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I'm just wondering as the game isn't even listed in the compatibility lists (not even saying "not working") and it crashes right near the start when you try to cross the rope, so it's seeming kind of hopeless. I really would love to see this game in ScummVM some day (in fact, I'd just kill to have it on my tablet right now, but there are a lot of other benefits of being supported by ScummVM) and as far as I know it's mostly just the SCI engine, just with some extra unusual stuff thrown in (like the slight RPG system where even the adventure aspects of the game can from time to time refer to things like stats -- which I guess is at least partially responsible for that crash when crossing the rope since it's looking at stats at least somewhat there.)

No, I'm not complaining or saying "why isn't this game supported yet!" or whatever. I'm just wondering if it's even being considered at all. I'm guessing by all this that it won't work until specifically looked at.

Post by **digitall** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 4:19 am

It is best to check the engines page as this shows what the status of various engines/games are:
http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Engin ... ss_Engines
http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Quest_for_Glory_IV

thus Quest for Glory IV is shown under the SCI engine for "in-progress engines...being developed within ScummVM's main code tree.".

Specifically, this uses SCI2 / SCI2.1:
http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Sierr ... sions#SCI2

HOWEVER, the current state of support for SCI2 games is minimal. There are a bunch of missing unimplemented opcodes:
http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/SCI/T ... g_features

The only game considered completable is Gabriel Knight 1 (and even that is only with some internal hacks and minor graphical issues).

Collector · Post by **Collector** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 4:39 am

In the mean time, it works great in DOSBox.

Nazo · Post by **Nazo** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 12:46 am

Woops. Apparently "notify me when a reply is posted" doesn't work very well... (Maybe my e-mail filtered it as spam. I'll have to check...)

Collector wrote:In the mean time, it works great in DOSBox.

Well, DOSBox works great (and VMWare or other virtual systems work a bit better as this is one of those that plays a bit better in Windows IMO,) but it's not available to everything. In particular, anything other than a standard x86 PC pretty much. For instance, imagine playing it through DOSBox on an Android tablet. The thing is, this is actually what I want more than anything else. I can't tell you how much I enjoy playing my old favorite classic adventure games on my tablet via ScummVM. Enable the direct touch interface instead of the mouse emulation (the "hybrid MIDI" option) and most games play just beautifully. (All you have to do to right click is hold your finger where you want to click and tap another finger which you get used to very very quickly, though I think in a couple of games it would have been nice if it could have been switched.) Maybe it's not for everyone, but I absolutely love it and I want all my favorite classic adventure games to be playable this way someday.

At least I have Baldur's Gate on there now. (Apparently there's an "official" port.) That will keep me busy for a little while. It's nice to have more real games on Android.

digitall wrote:It is best to check the engines page as this shows what the status of various engines/games are:

Ah, thanks for the links. I wonder how much hope there is for that to be working any time soon, but, it's a very very good sign if it says it's actually in progress in the main code tree. Even if not any time soon, at least eventually it should be implemented properly then, right? I just hope QFG4 doesn't depart too much from the standard engine stuff. I know it does a lot of weird things and in fact had crashes in the DOS version (sliding down the slime path at the start for instance generally crashed my game. I don't know if it was just with certain characters or what. Later I found alternate paths, but for the most part I just had to play in the Windows version which seemed to be overall much more stable.) Plus one part wasn't even completeable without a slowdown utility on later faster machines, so I wonder how ScummVM would handle that.

Anyway, guess I'll just have to wait and see. At least there's SOME hope.

Collector · Post by **Collector** » Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:37 pm

There is no difference game wise between the Windows and DOS versions of QfG4. In execution, the Windows version is far buggier than the DOS. If the DOS did not work better for you, then you probably never configured it properly. Unlike KQ6, there is no real reason to find the Win more desirable than the DOS.

envisaged0ne · Post by **envisaged0ne** » Sun Sep 07, 2014 10:28 pm

Yeap, qfg4 DOS version has never crashed on me using Dosbox. Rather than assume the dos version is just buggy, try going to the sierrahelp forums and posting the problem. You'll find that Collector is very knowledgeable and can often help fix most problems that are posted

Nazo · Post by **Nazo** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 3:37 am

I configured it correctly. Even back then I knew DOS systems like the back of my hand and had already learned about stuff such as manually configuring a soundcard back before "Plug and Pray" as we called it (and how to deal with them afterwards, which definitely could be a bit of a pain sometimes -- especially since the extra PnP program required to assign resources to devices would steal more conventional memory.)

As I recall, you still get some stuff in "high resolution." I think it was just the text boxes and a few icons, but it was kind of nice to me at the time. Anyway, if we put assumptions aside, there are always possibilities besides the assumption that the user is an idiot. For instance, a bug that occurs in one environment might not in another even with the same hardware. Specifically many things are used differently such as how sound (music and digital audio both) is handled. There is also the possibility of different versions with different files. Furthermore, there's one more possibility: different characters with different stats resulting in different calculations at moments like that where it actually checks the stats (how well you handle the slime path depends on your stats. At high enough levels you can even walk up the pathway without sliding back.) I couldn't tell you what the specific culprit was, but the fact was, it would crash at that one part for me at the time on that system. I think it has been working fine for me in my DOSBox configuration now but then I'm using the copy from GoG instead of my old CD-ROM which is... who knows where. Their's might be a different version (or even potentially have patches, though I doubt it. Still, some Sierra games DO have fan-made patches.)

Anyway, what I really want specifically has nothing to do with any of that. I dream of the day I can play it on my tablet.

envisaged0ne · Post by **envisaged0ne** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 5:01 am

Ummmm, I'm 41 years old. I've been using computers, and programming since I was 10. My dad worked at IBM and got me started with learning about computer hardware, programming, etc. But rather than explain my knowledge, what was your post about pnp, etc have anything to do with weather QFG4 DOS version was buggy? All I was stating was to post your problems and see if someone could help. That has nothing to do with old computer technology or how well it might have ran on your old rig or how you setup your soundcard or other peripherals. Wasn't trying to make you defensive. Just made a simple suggestion. Even advanced computer users can find help by posting in the right forums. I certainly have learned a lot from them

Nazo · Post by **Nazo** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 5:33 am

envisaged0ne wrote:But rather than explain my knowledge, what was your post about pnp, etc have anything to do with weather QFG4 DOS version was buggy?

I was responding to this:

Collector wrote: If the DOS did not work better for you, then you probably never configured it properly.

I'm saying that it was absolutely beyond a doubt configured correctly and that I did actually know what I was doing when I configured it. (It's worth noting though that by that time it was a pretty simplistic configuration. Standard Intel processor and a SB Vibra16 soundcard -- no PnP or special configuration needed. Pretty minimal and simplistic. Sadly, no General MIDI or anything of the sort. It's actually pretty hard to mess that up. Standard VGA, standard two button MS compatible mouse, no drivers or configuration needed, no weird third party hardware.)

All I was stating was to post your problems and see if someone could help.

My problem was then. I never said I was having problems now. Truth be told, I haven't tested it. I do a different build now. I've found out that if you're willing to give up all of your starting points you can make a non-magical character magical (though alternately with the right setup you can get down via other methods, it's pretty much all or nothing so I go for the basic magical abilities since one can always train later to increase the other stats that were left at their base values at the start but if there is a way to learn magic if you didn't start with it I've yet to find it.) No need even to test that particular crash.

md5 · Post by **md5** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 10:13 am

Nazo wrote:As I recall, you still get some stuff in "high resolution." I think it was just the text boxes and a few icons, but it was kind of nice to me at the time.

That's not quite right. The Windows version of QFG4 doesn't have any extra hires resources.

The only two Windows versions that do have extra hires resources, compared to their lowres DOS counterparts, are King's Quest 6 and Gabriel Knight 1. Larry 6 doesn't count, as the hires Windows version is a complete rewrite with SCI2.1, as opposed to SCI1.1 of the lowres version.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:14 am

md5 wrote: The only two Windows versions that do have extra hires resources, compared to their lowres DOS counterparts, are King's Quest 6 and Gabriel Knight 1.

When I replayed Gabriel Knight 1 recently (in DOSBox), the DOS version could run either in low resolution, or with some high resolution elements depending on how I configured the game. Is the Windows version even further different?

md5 · Post by **md5** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 1:27 pm

eriktorbjorn wrote:
md5 wrote: The only two Windows versions that do have extra hires resources, compared to their lowres DOS counterparts, are King's Quest 6 and Gabriel Knight 1.
When I replayed Gabriel Knight 1 recently (in DOSBox), the DOS version could run either in low resolution, or with some high resolution elements depending on how I configured the game. Is the Windows version even further different?

Ah yes, my bad, the DOS version of GK1 can run in hires as well. The only differences are some hires versions of UI elements. The actual game graphics remain the same (albeit upscaled).

Collector · Post by **Collector** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 9:01 pm

GK1 DOS could use the VESA driver or the VGA, which would determine which resource archive it would use. It is possible to use a VESA driver with QfG4, but it gains you nothing and causes a number of graphic anomalies similar to running the Windows version with the color depth too high.

balpat · Post by **balpat** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 1:32 pm

Might I add that in both games - GK1 and QfG4 - the main portions of the graphics are so badly upscaled that I suggest not bothering with hires at all.

While GK1 has some slightly nicer dialog close-ups I find that upscaling the VGA version with 2xSAI gains a much nicer and smoother picture.

m_kiewitz · Post by **m_kiewitz** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:09 pm

balpat wrote:Might I add that in both games - GK1 and QfG4 - the main portions of the graphics are so badly upscaled that I suggest not bothering with hires at all.

Gabriel Knight 1 has all sorts of hires views included for example the newspaper and the magnifying glass right at the start of the game are hires. The game menu is also hires. And the intro + credits screens are also hires and not simply upscaled. The regular backgrounds are sadly not hires though.

QfG4 is quite pointless (afaik).