Datafiles for SCI

ILikeThoseOldGames · Post by **ILikeThoseOldGames** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 6:27 pm

Hello!

I would like to ask the ScummVM developers if they could post on the datafiles wiki page which file are needed for SCI games.
(especially for King's Quest VII... - I know it is out of scope for the next release and there is at the moment a lot to do. But I try from time to time the SVN version and it would be easier if one doesn't always have to put the CD in the DVD drive. I am also very happy how much the progress is going on and I am glad that I can play my first Point and Click adventure which I have played on PC (KQVII) in remote future again...)

Because this is my first post in the ScummVM forum I also want to thank the ScummVM team for all their effort they have done to make those old games playable again (or playable on differnt platforms).

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 7:24 pm

For now I think all the files on the disks/CD(s) are needed for each game.

m_kiewitz · Post by **m_kiewitz** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 7:40 pm

All the large files are needed. You could delete the original interpreter(s), the original installer(s) and *some* of the driver-files (adlib driver adl.drv is required sometimes for example).

Anyway this wouldn't really save much. Better just copy everything onto SD-card or harddrive and don't delete any file.

If you really want to save space on talkie-games, just compress the resource.aud/resource.sfx files using the ScummVM tool.

ILikeThoseOldGames · Post by **ILikeThoseOldGames** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 8:42 pm

Ok, I will copy the whole CD and delete some file from which I think that they are not necessary.
Just thought it would be easy to give a list for this game because I deleted the unnecessary files for all the other games (non SCI) which run in ScummVM according to the datafiles wiki page.

I mean I just don't really like to have files on my disk (even if they are small and I have enough space) which I will never or can ever use again because I can't start the old, original interpreter...

Anyway, thanks for yours posts.

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 9:00 pm

Be sure not to copy over any files for game demos or something else that may be on the same disc.

m_kiewitz · Post by **m_kiewitz** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 9:19 pm

ILikeThoseOldGames wrote:Ok, I will copy the whole CD and delete some file from which I think that they are not necessary.
Just thought it would be easy to give a list for this game because I deleted the unnecessary files for all the other games (non SCI) which run in ScummVM according to the datafiles wiki page.

I don't know which CDs you got.
If you got collections, you should just copy over the actual game directories (including most of the time all sub directories). If there is an INN or TSN subdirectory (Sierra Network), you may delete those completely.

Most collections also got interview AVI movies, keep in mind that some SCI games actually play AVI videos, so you should not delete every AVI video you find. The interviews and extra content may get deleted of course. If there is a VFW or WINVIDEO subdirectory (video for windows), that may go too. And like MusicallyInspired already said - demos can get deleted as well.

Anyway like i said - regular game directories should be better left as-is. You may of course remove the original installer and interpreter, but it won't save you much space. Most games require at least some MBs and installer/interpreter are less than 150 KB.

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 9:33 pm

Originally I thought that the original interpreter was required to identify the game or engine version or something. Is that not so anymore? Did I misunderstand?

m_kiewitz · Post by **m_kiewitz** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 9:45 pm

MusicallyInspired wrote:Originally I thought that the original interpreter was required to identify the game or engine version or something. Is that not so anymore? Did I misunderstand?

The interpreter exe was unpacked and checked before, but this code is long gone. The original interpreter isn't used at all.

We are reading ADL.DRV (adlib driver) for the sound bank, in case there is no adlib patch resource inside the main game files and we also use MT32.DRV (MT32 driver) for some other information. IMF.DRV is also used.

ILikeThoseOldGames · Post by **ILikeThoseOldGames** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 10:03 pm

I don't know which CDs you got.

Sorry. The only SCI game I have is a german King's Quest VII (Windows only release so I can't play it in the DosBox (tried to start any .exe) and my Windows XP (32 bit) always gives error messages and can't start it (even if I use the Windows 95 compatibility mode or reduce the colors to 256. The last time I played the game was with Windows 3.11 and that was really a couple of days ago

...)).
But I know that King's Quest VII is out of scope at the moment because it is a SCI21 game (just thought that there could be easily given a list like there is a list for Myst or Riven).

Most collections also got interview AVI movies, keep in mind that some SCI games actually play AVI videos, so you should not delete every AVI video you find. The interviews and extra content may get deleted of course. If there is a VFW or WINVIDEO subdirectory (video for windows), that may go too. And like MusicallyInspired already said - demos can get deleted as well.

There are two demos, one promotional video (Phantasmagoria) and three in-game videos (intro, the two endings) on the CD as far as I can see. I will not copy the demo and promotional video.

I think the topic can be closed now because my question is (in my opinion) answered enough.

Thanks for your helpful advices.

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 11:35 pm

You can get a patch/installer from The Sierra Help Pages which will patch your version of KQ7 with the latest version which also comes with the DOS interpreter. Then you can play it in DOSBox no problem.

ILikeThoseOldGames · Post by **ILikeThoseOldGames** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 7:19 am

I already tried this but it didn't worked. I got an error messages and the created links could not start the game in the dosbox.

I think this is because my game is localized in german and the website(http://sierrahelp.com/Games/KingsQuest/KQ7Help.html#XP) says:

King's Quest VII & Windows XP
Update: The KQ7 DOSBox installers that will install US versions 1.4, 1.51 and 2.00b and automatically setup the game in DOSBox. The Windows only KQ7 version versions 1.4 and 1.51 will be updated to version 2.00b with DOS interpreter. Note that these will not work for localized versions. Not only does this solve the problem of not working in XP, it allows the game to be run in DOSBox, which also avoids the fire cracker speed bug.

But maybe this will help other people who have the english version.

So I think best idea is I to wait until ScummVM completly supports this game

.

md5 · Post by **md5** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 7:32 am

MusicallyInspired wrote:Originally I thought that the original interpreter was required to identify the game or engine version or something. Is that not so anymore? Did I misunderstand?

As m_kiewitz said, that code is long gone. It wasn't reliable, as a lot of game interpreters claimed to be the same SCI version, but had a lot of differences in the code. Each SCI game had its own custom made interpreter, so we can't rely on the SCI version in the original interpreter to figure out what each game uses. What we do now is disassemble game scripts on the fly whenever a game is started in order to understand what it expects from us, and we adapt the engine accordingly.

ILikeThoseOldGames · Post by **ILikeThoseOldGames** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 8:16 am

--> See my post after m_kiewitz post...

m_kiewitz · Post by **m_kiewitz** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 8:56 am

ILikeThoseOldGames wrote:Just for those of you who are also interested in having only the datafiles of the games:
The datafiles for my King's Quest VII (Windows only release / german) are:

This is just wrong. Please don't list such things just by playing around a bit.

At least the patch files are definitely also required, which are *.HEP and *.SCR as well (those files may or may not be there, depending on language and version of the game). But those are only accessed in certain rooms or even just certain situations, so even actually playing through the whole game completely may not reveal them as being needed.

The robot files will also be required (*.rbt), although they are currently not supported so of course they won't get accessed for now.

We will add official file listings for all supported games. Of course King's Quest 7 is SCI2.1, so it won't get into supported list for a long time.

ILikeThoseOldGames · Post by **ILikeThoseOldGames** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 9:08 am

This is just wrong. Please don't list such things just by playing around a bit.

I'm really sorry about this

. I don't want to misguide others so I will edit my previous post.

We will add official file listings for all supported games. Of course King's Quest 7 is SCI2.1, so it won't get into supported list for a long time.

Thanks.

Datafiles for SCI

Datafiles for SCI

Datafiles for King's Quest VII

Re: Datafiles for King's Quest VII