SoMI-Amiga-VGA version???

[Avatrunei]

If you allow me another encyclopedic question...

Browsing in the source files, I found out that ScummVM supports Secret of Monkey Island (VGA/Amiga) version. I had never heard of an Amiga VGA MI version. I searched around about this version and I did not find any game database that has informatno about it, not even Mobygames.

Now I apologize if I violate any rules, but the only valid information about it, was a warez site which offered the game for download, which was a 200+MB file!!

What happened here? I didn't even know that Amiga computers had VGA games. I know that A1200 had AGA 256 color graphics but I didn't find any information about an A1200 version of MI. Lastly, why was the warez file so big? I never heard of an Amiga game so big. Was it a CD version? Who can tell us about this particular version? When was it released and for what Amiga models?

[Kirben]

There is no AGA version of The Secret of Monkey Island.

The Amiga version of the Secret of Monkey Island was only 32 colors, and there was a rare release for CDTV too.

[Avatrunei]

So the above evidence suggests that I bumped on the CDTV version and that ScummVM supports it as VGA/Amiga/English.

PS. Not even the wiki mentions this (http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Dataf ... and.2C_The)

[Avatrunei]

It turns out that it's not really a VGA version. For some reason the ScummVM label is VGA/Amiga but after comparing some screenshots, it seems that the graphics are genuine Amiga. Is there a reason why the label mentions VGA? Is it a bug?


An interesting note: running the Amiga version of SoMI in ScummVM displays some features that were absent in the original Amiga run but were found in the PC version. Such features are the clouds over Melee island in the intro, and the pirates walking around the street of Melee. Apparently, the information existed in the Amiga version but was not shown because of resource constraints (I had played the Amiga version only on a A500 floppy +1MB exp). Somehow, it is allowed in ScummVM. Very interesting IMHO

[LogicDeLuxe]

An interesting note: running the Amiga version of SoMI in ScummVM displays some features that were absent in the original Amiga run but were found in the PC version. Such features are the clouds over Melee island in the intro, and the pirates walking around the street of Melee. Apparently, the information existed in the Amiga version but was not shown because of resource constraints (I had played the Amiga version only on a A500 floppy +1MB exp). Somehow, it is allowed in ScummVM. Very interesting IMHO

Your Amiga had only 68000 with 7 Mhz, right? It's not ScummVM which makes the difference, but the game scripts itself.
At the start, the game measures the machine speed, and if it detects a slow machine, certain animations are disabled automatically. This also happens with the PC versions.

Try it on an Amiga 1200 or on a turbo card, and you'll get the clouds.

If you run ScummVM on a really slow computer, the clouds should disappear as well.

[Avatrunei]

I would think so. Thanks for the clarification

[Avatrunei]

I just finished playing the Amiga-SOMI. I would like to point out a couple of things which I think are bugs and perhaps the developers should consider checking and/or fixing.

Firstly, the label of the game as VGA/Amiga/English. As I discussed above, the Amiga version is not a VGA version. Certainly the graphics were based on the PC VGA graphics, but as far as I know there is no other Amiga version, eg. based on the PC EGA graphics. So the label VGA perhaps doesn't make sense. The game perhaps should be labelled only as Amiga/English (or Amiga/[Language]) so perhaps this should be fixed.

I checked with MI2 and indeed it appears just as Amiga/English. So why there is a VGA in SOMI?

(If I am wrong or there is a reasoning behind the "VGA" in the label I would like to know )

Secondly, at the start of the Part 4, the title screen appears and disappears too fast. I remember that when the title screen appears there is a drum fill (instead of the funny musical cue) but the title stays a bit longer so that it can be read. Instead, now that I played it, the title appears and disappears too fast so it's like jumping from Part 3 directly to Part 4. I don't thin it was supposed to be like this in the original game, so perhaps it should be fixed.

Hope that I helped

[sammymarlo]

This is cool. I never noticed this before! Maybe a check option to force the game to run as if it was running on a slower machine would be an interesting option to add to SCUMM VM?

Intro on an Amiga 600: (No clouds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIXNUtdNzYI

Intro on an Amiga 1200: (Clouds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMFQrrujOrk

[LogicDeLuxe]

This is cool. I never noticed this before! Maybe a check option to force the game to run as if it was running on a slower machine would be an interesting option to add to SCUMM VM?

If you run the game in debug mode, there is a hotkey to change the detected speed. Changes apply when a new room is loaded.
This setting is not taken from savegames, which makes sense, as the savegames could be transferred or the machine could be altered. However, the current room remains in the state as it was saved, until you reenter it.

Besides the clouds, most noticeable are the disabled background animations in the Scumm Bar and at Stan's and the paralax objects in the governor's mansion.

Monkey Island also disables a few things when running low on RAM. For instance, if you pull out the note or a map, Guybrush may turn his back to you instead of showing the map pullout animation. I've seen this on disk versions. Not sure if this is still there on the enhanced CD.

They really did quite some effort to make sure the game is well playable, even on the weakest computers. Monkey 1 seems to be the only SCUMM game which got such a treatment, though.
Later SCUMM games can be annoyingly slow, if the hardware can't keep up. Indy 4 on a stock Amiga 500 is a pain. There must be a sadist which put the Amiga 500 sticker on the box.