ScummVM: Sierra games trouble

[Louie]

Ive tryed to get 2-3 sierra games to work but not succeeded.. I cant remember the other 2 lol, but one of them was Gabriel Knight: Sins of Fathers..

Those 2-3 times I tryed, ScummVM recognized the game at first and added it to its list and named it something with "Sierra bla bla" .. but when I tryed starting it, it cant find any game..

I guess Sierra games are built the same since this happened to me 2-3 times, what is the trick to get around this?

[eriktorbjorn]

Ive tryed to get 2-3 sierra games to work but not succeeded.. I cant remember the other 2 lol, but one of them was Gabriel Knight: Sins of Fathers..

The short answer is that ScummVM doesn't support the Gabriel Knight games. That's why they are not listed on the compatibility page.

The longer answer (which I'm not the most qualified person to give, but I'll try) is that Sierra On-Line used - and kept adding features to - their SCI engine ("Sierra's Creative Interpreter") over the course of several years; between 1988 and 1996, if Wikipedia is to be believed.

Based on the compatibility page and the Sierra Game Versions page, ScummVM supports most (all?) games up to and including "SCI1.1". Unfortunately, that only includes a demo version of Gabriel Knight 1. There is some support - disabled by default; I don't know if it's enabled in the daily builds - for newer Sierra games. Last time I tried it, Gabriel Knight 1 seemed to run fairly well, at least for the first few rooms, but I don't know if you can actually finish the game...

[clone2727]

Last time I tried it, Gabriel Knight 1 seemed to run fairly well, at least for the first few rooms, but I don't know if you can actually finish the game...

You used to be able to, but there's been some regressions and is no longer completable.

[Louie]

woah, I recall that I saw Gabriel Knight there LOL, guess I were wrong..

Anyway, I tryed this with Legend of Kyrandia aswell, and the same thing happened, and those are listed in the compatibility page...

[md5]

Last time I tried it, Gabriel Knight 1 seemed to run fairly well, at least for the first few rooms, but I don't know if you can actually finish the game...

You used to be able to, but there's been some regressions and is no longer completable.

Even if GK was completable, that doesn't mean anything. It had (and still has) issues and things that are not working as they should, and is definitely not to be released or played in this state.

[clone2727]

Even if GK was completable, that doesn't mean anything. It had (and still has) issues and things that are not working as they should, and is definitely not to be released or played in this state.

Well, it means something, just not a "release now" something.

[md5]

I disagree. SCI32 is missing critical functionality (like cantbehere() which is related to character placement), and a lot of things are only working in GK1 and no other SCI32 game (like the dialog text). Also, critical pieces of the graphics code are not fully faithful to the original, or are simply missing (such as the palette adapting code).

Thus there are issues with the implemented functionality, a lot of missing functionality, and regressions are to be expected. So this is definitely not production ready code.

Also, what are the issues that have arisen that prevent GK1 from being completable? (I've only played half of day 1 in ScummVM)

[eriktorbjorn]

Anyway, I tryed this with Legend of Kyrandia aswell, and the same thing happened, and those are listed in the compatibility page...

I have no idea why that would happen, assuming you're running an up-to-date version of ScummVM and have all the necessary data files. What was the exact error message you got?

[clone2727]

I disagree. SCI32 is missing critical functionality (like cantbehere() which is related to character placement), and a lot of things are only working in GK1 and no other SCI32 game (like the dialog text). Also, critical pieces of the graphics code are not fully faithful to the original, or are simply missing (such as the palette adapting code).

Thus there are issues with the implemented functionality, a lot of missing functionality, and regressions are to be expected. So this is definitely not production ready code.

OK, but I don't see where you disagree with me

Also, what are the issues that have arisen that prevent GK1 from being completable? (I've only played half of day 1 in ScummVM)

Well, that's about as completable as it is now. You'll get an error going from Grandmother Knight's attic to back downstairs.

[md5]

Which version is that? Grandma's attic works fine for me in the DOS and Windows versions (haven't tested the Mac version yet). I even saved and loaded inside the attic, still worked. Perhaps it's an old saved game you got?

[clone2727]

Which version is that? Grandma's attic works fine for me in the DOS and Windows versions (haven't tested the Mac version yet). I even saved and loaded inside the attic, still worked. Perhaps it's an old saved game you got?

Only happens when starting from the beginning of the game and then walking downstairs again (in any version, minus the demo -- I believe I told you this one already). But, right now, I'm getting a segfault when going to the larger map screen so it's even less completable now again.