Extra files needed for some games...

LOGAN · Post by **LOGAN** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:37 pm

There are some games that need an additional file to run the game with SCUMMVM and you need to download them seperate.

Beneath a Steel Sky, SKY.CPT
The Legend of Kyrandia, KYRA.DAT
Flight of the Amazon Queen, queen.tbl

I'm starting to wonder some things:

- What are these files exactly

- Why are these files seperate if they are needed for running a particular game? Why arent these files included in the SCUMMVM distribution itself, as they seem to be part of SCUMMVM and not part of the game.

Because you need these files inside the game's folder there is no change to ever get the game running from the original media.

I guess they arent included in the original distribution due to their size. But this makes people needing to download additional files and cannot use their original media. Can't these files just be placed inside the SCUMMVM folder, so no other changes are needed on the user's end?

Most ideal would be these files to be included in the standard distribution somehow, just let the user plug and play their games.

clem · Post by **clem** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 4:21 pm

basically those files contain things which were included in the original program executable; here's the engine-data README:

http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/s ... iew=markup

so these files are part of the game, not of ScummVM - plus they don't change often when the game goes stable (FOTAQ and BASS data files haven't been changed in ages) - but it would inflate download sizes quite a lot whenever a new version comes out

btw, LURE will need a datafile too

clem

joostp · Post by **joostp** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:24 pm

LOGAN wrote:Because you need these files inside the game's folder there is no change to ever get the game running from the original media.

You can run the games from their original media just fine if you put the additional datafile(s) in your "extra path".

LOGAN · Post by **LOGAN** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:45 pm

Thanks for the answers guys. No change the scummVM folder acts as default extra ?

And if indeed the dat file(s) are from the executable, why don't you read the data straight from the exe (thats on the original media)? That way no extra file needs to be downloaded AND it does not need to be included in the SCUMMVM distribution.

Lure needs also a dat file!? Aaaah that's why I could not even get it to start even for a milisecond.

Anyway, still SCUMMVM is the best and is in my mind already the ultimate AdventureVM!

clem · Post by **clem** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 8:29 pm

LOGAN wrote:And if indeed the dat file(s) are from the executable, why don't you read the data straight from the exe (thats on the original media)? That way no extra file needs to be downloaded AND it does not need to be included in the SCUMMVM distribution.

But then you'd need to save all the offsets in ScummVM... plus that's more complicated, and thus just begs for problems.
Imagine different revisions of a game, the data is always saved somewhere else in the .exe - keeping track of that is just not worth it

LOGAN wrote: Lure needs also a dat file!? Aaaah that's why I could not even get it to start even for a milisecond.

Yeah, it even prints an error, explaining which file it needs. Also not that since lure is WIP the datafile changes quite often.