So, it took some time but I managed to track down this disk. I am always intrigued by things that show up in the compatibility list that I've never heard of before.
However, in this case it is just a disk with really short, and somewhat poor quality, director loops?
This user here has an image of what "APE Man" looks like when you run it:
https://cohost.org/morayati/post/237440 ... you-tube-h
I feel pranked after taking all the time I did to locate this and try to get it running.
edit:
for what its worth, I never was able to get it running in ScummVM. I had to actually insert it into a an older mac machine. The disk itself was a compressed file with a note (in japanese) explaining that it wouldn't all fit on the disk, so I had to extract it all.
After extracting it, I got like 20 or so director files that play very odd things, like a half Japanese man half centaur running perpetually to the right.
I tried extracting these files to my windows machine in multiple formats, and yet scummvm wouldn't recognize any of them. The best I got was an "unknown variation" error, but when I tried to run it anyways it said game data files were missing.
APE Odyssey 2001.... what is this??
Moderator: ScummVM Team
Re: APE Odyssey 2001.... what is this??
Have you actually messed with it?
Calling it an "interactive" is a stretch. You can't do anything with any of the little running loops. The only thing "interactive" about it is the part where you navigate through the folders and decide which filed to click on next. There isn't even a menu tying it all together.
Calling it an art gallery is also a stretch. It is a series of 20 or so files that each contain about 4-5 frames of looping animation. Flashing letters. A 5 frame prancing half japanese man half deer\centaur, etc...
The fact that this was sold and that anyone bought it is mind boggling. Most of the little loops are lower quality than the clip art that came with programs like Print Shop.
I read the link you provided. If it was an actual art gallery, I would agree. There is no gallery aspect. There is no interactive aspect. And calling it art is a stretch.
I would suggest better documentation of "games" like this. There are people who spend a lot of money tracking down older games, or even "interactive art galleries". If ScummVM is going to branch out into supporting every random thing that anyone has ever released, then clearly I, and anyone else who collects, needs to start being a lot more picky about what we choose to invest in.
This sets a new low bar for content in ScummVM. It would be one thing if it was just one of the hundreds of new director games that have game detection ID's in the backend. But this was listed on the front page as one of a handful of newly supported Director "games" to be tested (https://scummvm.org/news/20231214/). Which draws a lot of attention to it.
Calling it an "interactive" is a stretch. You can't do anything with any of the little running loops. The only thing "interactive" about it is the part where you navigate through the folders and decide which filed to click on next. There isn't even a menu tying it all together.
Calling it an art gallery is also a stretch. It is a series of 20 or so files that each contain about 4-5 frames of looping animation. Flashing letters. A 5 frame prancing half japanese man half deer\centaur, etc...
The fact that this was sold and that anyone bought it is mind boggling. Most of the little loops are lower quality than the clip art that came with programs like Print Shop.
I read the link you provided. If it was an actual art gallery, I would agree. There is no gallery aspect. There is no interactive aspect. And calling it art is a stretch.
I would suggest better documentation of "games" like this. There are people who spend a lot of money tracking down older games, or even "interactive art galleries". If ScummVM is going to branch out into supporting every random thing that anyone has ever released, then clearly I, and anyone else who collects, needs to start being a lot more picky about what we choose to invest in.
This sets a new low bar for content in ScummVM. It would be one thing if it was just one of the hundreds of new director games that have game detection ID's in the backend. But this was listed on the front page as one of a handful of newly supported Director "games" to be tested (https://scummvm.org/news/20231214/). Which draws a lot of attention to it.