RAMA crashes while trying to save (ScummVM Android)

[Abandoned Witch]

So the latest version of Android port of ScummVM has problems with RAMA, especially with saving.
When I try to save after the first cutscene - and when I confirm it, it crashes the ScummVM app.

[Praetorian]

So the latest version of Android port of ScummVM has problems with RAMA, especially with saving.
When I try to save after the first cutscene - and when I confirm it, it crashes the ScummVM app.

Hello, could you clarify a few things for us, please:
1. Does this crashing when saving happens with other games too (if you tried)?
2. Does the crash happen consistently for you at that point after trying to save?
3. Have you set a custom save location for the game or for ScummVM in general? Could you check the Save Path setting from the ScummVM launcher, for the global setting (under Options... -> Paths) and/or the game setting, (under "Edit Game... -> Paths)
4. What is your device model where you are testing on, and which version of Android OS does your device run?
5. Are you testing with the latest version (2.2.1pre) of ScummVM on the Play Store or a development build (2.3.0git) from our site?
6. Did you also play Rama with an older version of ScummVM on the same device and it worked without issues? If so, which version of ScummVM was that?
7. If I understand correctly you mention that there are other problems with RAMA apart for the crash when saving, what are those?

Unfortunately, I don't own a copy of Rama so it may be difficult to reproduce the issue.
If we cannot figure something out from the above questions, you should open a ticket on our bug tracker about this issue so that more developer can notice and reproduce.

[Abandoned Witch]

So the latest version of Android port of ScummVM has problems with RAMA, especially with saving.
When I try to save after the first cutscene - and when I confirm it, it crashes the ScummVM app.

Hello, could you clarify a few things for us, please:
1. Does this crashing when saving happens with other games too (if you tried)?
2. Does the crash happen consistently for you at that point after trying to save?
3. Have you set a custom save location for the game or for ScummVM in general? Could you check the Save Path setting from the ScummVM launcher, for the global setting (under Options... -> Paths) and/or the game setting, (under "Edit Game... -> Paths)
4. What is your device model where you are testing on, and which version of Android OS does your device run?
5. Are you testing with the latest version (2.2.1pre) of ScummVM on the Play Store or a development build (2.3.0git) from our site?
6. Did you also play Rama with an older version of ScummVM on the same device and it worked without issues? If so, which version of ScummVM was that?
7. If I understand correctly you mention that there are other problems with RAMA apart for the crash when saving, what are those?

Unfortunately, I don't own a copy of Rama so it may be difficult to reproduce the issue.
If we cannot figure something out from the above questions, you should open a ticket on our bug tracker about this issue so that more developer can notice and reproduce.

1. It does not happen with other games, and those with the same engine as RAMA (SCI 3, also including Lighthouse).
2. It's on the starting area after landing the ship on RAMA itself.
3. I set a save location for all saves in ScummVM, in the folder. I'll try to set a save folder for RAMA.
4. I am using Huawei Y6II (CAM-L21), running Android 6.0.
5. I am using the latest version 2.2.1pre from the Play Store but not the builds.
6: I've never tested the game on older versions since 2.0.0
7. No problems at all, just the saving.

[Praetorian]

1. It does not happen with other games, and those with the same engine as RAMA (SCI 3, also including Lighthouse).
2. It's on the starting area after landing the ship on RAMA itself.
3. I set a save location for all saves in ScummVM, in the folder. I'll try to set a save folder for RAMA.
4. I am using Huawei Y6II (CAM-L21), running Android 6.0.
5. I am using the latest version 2.2.1pre from the Play Store but not the builds.
6: I've never tested the game on older versions since 2.0.0
7. No problems at all, just the saving.

Thanks for clarifying.

Could you also specify if you used a custom installer like the one in SierraHelpPages? Or did you just copy the files from the game CDs in a folder? RAMA is a SCI32 game so the general instructions here for multiple CDs should apply.

I am asking because it seems that that specific custom installer is created targeting compatibility with "modern" Windows OS (eg. Vista) and they seem to have *somehow* enforced a Windows-specific path for save games:

Save game directories: Games are saved in the user-specific APPDATA directory regardless of what directory you choose in the game. This is to ensure compatibility with Vista.

I am unsure however if this installer even installs the game fully on disc so that ScummVM can point to that game folder, or not.

In any case, I wouldn't use the custom or official installer for creating the game folder for ScummVM, especially on non-Windows platforms like Android. Just the copy (and occasional rename) method should work.

Edit: I am still interested on why it crashes, because obviously the app should handle error cases without crashing, but with me not being able to reproduce, debugging will be tricky

[gnk]

hi there,

i just had the same problem.
But in my case this issue was related to the missing VERSION file, inside of any Rama CDROM.
Just place on rama root folder and do a test.
If you dont have, i just attached as zip, unzip it to root folder of the game

VERSION_rama.zip

(143 Bytes) Downloaded 184 times

i tested on android and windows and its working well

[Praetorian]

hi there,

i just had the same problem.
But in my case this issue was related to the missing VERSION file, inside of any Rama CDROM.
Just place on rama root folder and do a test.
If you dont have, i just attached as zip, unzip it to root folder of the game VERSION_rama.zip

i tested on android and windows and its working well

Hi! Thank you for the feedback, I'm sure it will be helpful to people who might have this issue due to the missing VERSION file.

I'm not sure I completely understand, though, why the VERSION file would be missing.
RAMA is an SCI engine game (SCI3 according to our wiki page here)

For SCI engine games that don't have specific instructions about their data files on our wiki pages, users should follow the general instructions, which should result in the VERSION file being in the game folder.

This covers all SCI games from Sierra (like later King's Quest, Larry, Space Quest, ...) but also fan made ones.

WARNING: Unlike other games, SCI games have significant variation in the naming of required files.
They also can load supplementary files by resource maps, so it is recommended to keep all files in the game data directory from the CD.
Unless otherwise specified, do NOT remove any file from the directory, even if it does not appear on the following list, since this will likely cause weird bugs:

All SCI32 (SCI2/3) games

• Copy all files from each disk or CD to the game directory. Some games need additional work:

Games with multiple CDs

• Directories that exist on multiple discs (e.g. ROBOT and VMD directories) must be merged together, not replaced.
• Rename the RESOURCE.SFX from each CD to RESSFX.00<cdnumber>, and the RESOURCE.AUD from each CD to RESAUD.00<cdnumber>, to match the corresponding RESSCI.00<cdnumber> file that exists on each CD.
• It should be safe to replace any other files from later CDs that were copied already from earlier CDs, except in Phantasmagoria 1 (see below).

See: https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Datafiles#SCI
Also I see that the RAMA ScummVM wiki page has also been updated by CadiH (thanks!) to include this info:
https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/RAMA

[jjlisa1]

Slightly off-topic but related to Rama... multi-CD file naming. Can someone please explain with a little more detail how to setup the folders and files?
>> Rename the RESOURCE.SFX from each CD to RESSFX.00<cdnumber>

So do I name them RESSFX.00<1> or RESSFX.01, RESSFX.02, etc.
Anyone have a folder listing to show the naming convention here?

Thanks!

[Praetorian]

Slightly off-topic but related to Rama... multi-CD file naming. Can someone please explain with a little more detail how to setup the folders and files?
>> Rename the RESOURCE.SFX from each CD to RESSFX.00<cdnumber>

So do I name them RESSFX.00<1> or RESSFX.01, RESSFX.02, etc.
Anyone have a folder listing to show the naming convention here?

Thanks!

The renaming method means that "RESOURCE.SFX" from CD1 should be renamed to "RESSFX.001", and "RESOURCE.SFX" from CD2 should be renamed to "RESSFX.002", and so on, before copying into the same folder, so as not to overwrite one another.
The same goes for the RESOURCE.AUD file for each CD. RESOURCE.AUD from CD1 should be renamed to "RESAUD.001", and "RESOURCE.AUD" from CD2 should be renamed to "RESAUD.002", and so on.

However, in the case of RAMA in particular, there's only one RESOURCE.SFX, iirc, which is on CD1. So, you can either keep it as RESOURCE.SFX or rename it to RESSFX.001. ScummVM seems to support both cases. I also don't think RAMA has any RESOURCE.AUD in its CDs so you actually don't have to do any renaming at all.