New ScummVM-friendly Mastertronic Broken Sword Trilogy DVD

[samwise]

Hi, all.

Thought some ppl might find this of interest:

01/02/2008 is listed by Mastertronic as the official release date for a new DVD compilation release of the first three Broken Sword games, Broken Sword Trilogy.

I just picked it up on a trip to my local high street games shop. The design of the DVD case inlay IMHO looks a lot better than the older, cheaper Broken Sword 1 & 2 Sold Out re-release compilation and I was surprised to see this release is quite ScummVM-friendly. Both the website and the DVD cover inlay's System Requirements sections include, after the standard OS reference, the line:

Broken Sword 1 & 2 compatible with all platforms supported by ScummVM.

The DVD itself provides everything you need in the sword1 and sword2 directories, AFAICT, to enable you to play both the first two Broken Sword games with ScummVM. This includes all but one of the DXA quality cut-scenes, which should save on your bandwidth downloading from this site.

The only thing I've noticed missing so far, is the eye.dxa / eye.fla cut-scene from Broken Sword 2. Having not played the game through before, I don't know if that cut-scene is required but it can easily be downloaded from this site, or you can use the MPEG 2 / OGG version in the extra directory of the DVD. In fact, to save owners of this new release downloading all 111 MB of the complete Broken Sword 2 Cutscene Pack (all languages, DXA compression) from the Downloads page here, it might be worth providing the eye.dxa / eye.fla files separately.

For completeness, the extra directory on the DVD also comes with Mac, Windows and source code bundles of the ScummVM 0.10.0 release, the Broken Sword foreign language Add-On packs and alternate English MPEG 2 / OGG compressed cut-scenes.

Last but not least, and only mentioned briefly in the small description text of the pack's cover and on the website, the now-freeware adventure Beneath A Steel Sky is also hidden away on the DVD, waiting to be uncovered.

All this plus the third Windows game, Broken Sword The Sleeping Dragon, at a fairly wallet-friendly price.

It sounds like the Sold Out re-release is more fiddly to install than this one and has lower quality cut-scenes. As there's no disc compression involved, all three of the ScummVM games can also now be played straight from the DVD with this new release, which is another plus.

I'm quite happy with it so far ...

Sam.

[eriktorbjorn]

The only thing I've noticed missing so far, is the eye.dxa / eye.fla cut-scene from Broken Sword 2. Having not played the game through before, I don't know if that cut-scene is required but it can easily be downloaded from this site, or you can use the MPEG 2 / OGG version in the extra directory of the DVD.

That's the cutscene that shows the Virgin Interactive logo at the beginning of the game, so it's very non-essential.

[samwise]

Ahh, then probably not worth making it available separately.

Good to know, thx.

I guess the ScummVM README file could use an update just to add that pointing ScummVM at the relevant folder on this DVD release is all that's needed, instead of the more complex instructions required for the Sold Out re-release.

Sam.

[sev]

Yeah, one of ScummVM developers was involved in production of that DVD.


Eugene

[Collector]

Yeah, one of ScummVM developers was involved in production of that DVD.


Eugene

Think how much better the new Sierra collections could have been if done the same thing with one of the DOSBox Devs.

[Kirben]

The only thing I've noticed missing so far, is the eye.dxa / eye.fla cut-scene from Broken Sword 2. Having not played the game through before, I don't know if that cut-scene is required but it can easily be downloaded from this site, or you can use the MPEG 2 / OGG version in the extra directory of the DVD. In fact, to save owners of this new release downloading all 111 MB of the complete Broken Sword 2 Cutscene Pack (all languages, DXA compression) from the Downloads page here, it might be worth providing the eye.dxa / eye.fla files separately.

Well the eye cutscene, is just a brief sequence for the Virgin Interactive logo.

I expect the eye cutscene was dropped, due to Virgin Interactive no longer been the publisher.

[raina]

OT, but WTH.. "Broken Sword Trilogy"? I know money is a powerful force but other than that, I sometimes have hard time figuring how some people's minds work. How do the three games make a trilogy? The 4th one has already been out "for ages" as well (although I don't have it yet)! I'm all for the availability of these classics, I just have a problem with the packaging. The worst case I can think of is that the naming would distract a newcomer from realizing the series actually continues.

I dunno, maybe it's just me and incomplete collections. I couldn't buy a "full" Indiana Jones DVD set knowing they're filming the 4th movie and I had to pass a gorgeous Monty Python collection without "The Meaning of Life" as well as a Tarantino box without "Pulp Fiction"..

[marzipan]

Was thinking about getting this one myself, but after reading a random thread at the C+VG forums which mentioned it (someone couldn't get the DVD to run on their PC), I'm starting to wonder if Mastertronic added any dodgy copy-protection to this pack now. Is this true?

[Ceri Cat]

Last I heard Mastertronic IS Sold-out software. And they're known to use Safedisk and Securom copy protection methods. Both of which the newer versions of hate forms of CD/DVD emulators and burning software they detect in memory such as Alcohol or Daemon Tools.

And to answer the question asked I believe from the descriptions I've heard elsewhere Mastertronic employ Safedisc V4 protection on the trilogy disc, which means if you use stuff like Alcohol or Daemon Tools for wholy legitimate reasons you'll need to unload them from memory before the disc will work.

I have to admit CP peeves me to no end, the only people it ever stop are the 100% honest people who won't even dream of using a CP crack on a game. I'm not advocating piracy, nor am I condoning it, however I can understand the frustrations that lead to it. Partially why I didn't allow the manager of Cadogan studios to look at putting any into our projects, it was easier for everyone involved and less costs for us.

I think my most annoying CP moment was going to the Sims website and not being able to sign up because someone had managed to get my key from a keygen (I believe) and registered it already... And I'd only bought the game that morning.

[marzipan]

Hmmmm okay. Although thinking about it..... is the protection only for BS III really? Hopefully it won't get in the way of the whole "run the first two through ScummVM" procedure, right?

[Ceri Cat]

It could. Part of how Safedisc operates is by creating sectors that are weakened essentially on the disc, making them hard to read the data from to copy to your hard drive, and potentially make it hard for SCUMM VM to just read the files straight from the disc. These files act as a fingerprint for the protection itself, and as an irritant to duplicating the disc. In fact I don't think I've ever come across a burner that could duplicate the data 100% which makes backing up games a royal PITA.

[clem]

It could. Part of how Safedisc operates is by creating sectors that are weakened essentially on the disc, making them hard to read the data from to copy to your hard drive, and potentially make it hard for SCUMM VM to just read the files straight from the disc. These files act as a fingerprint for the protection itself, and as an irritant to duplicating the disc. In fact I don't think I've ever come across a burner that could duplicate the data 100% which makes backing up games a royal PITA.

But I'd expect weak sectors to be added in places where reading does not have to be reliable - i.e. you have a dummy file you read and if it comes out the same 100% of the time, the disk is a copy. Putting vital datafiles on such sectors would be a sure way to get the game randomly crashed.

[Ceri Cat]

And that is exactly what happens Clem. It's not put on uncritical sectors, depending on the disk your major data files are riddled with them, those games with CD Audio tracks tend to have them mangled badly in duplication. Plus if the disc isn't the original the executable won't allow it to run, on the earlier versions of safedisc protected games you could spot them because the real executable was stored in an encrypted file with a common extension, and there was usually other telltale files. God only knows how many times I coastered legitimate backups because of those weak sectors before getting a decent copy that'd work with a no-cd patch. There is no rhyme or reason to the location of the weak points, except to the protection itself, burners tend to have more trouble than a lot of CD/DVD-ROMs due to being more sensitive to discrepencies.

I'm trying to remember if the companies have ever been sued for infringing on civil rights in countries like Australia where you're allowed to make personal backups by our copyright laws.

[clem]

And that is exactly what happens Clem. It's not put on uncritical sectors, depending on the disk your major data files are riddled with them, those games with CD Audio tracks tend to have them mangled badly in duplication.

So how do the games themselves reliably read their own datafiles then?

[md5]

You can read more info about the weak sector scheme used in Safedisc 2 (and newer versions) here:
http://sirdavidguy.coolfreepages.com/Sa ... _Info.html