[Scummvm-devel] Testing and notes for ScummVM

[Pete Spicer]

Hi guys!

First of all, I'd like to say thanks for ScummVM, it's so nice to be able to 
delve back into my old games collection. I probably should have put some of 
this in the forum, but I figured it was quicker to get it round to the 
development team as it's testing notes.

I have a bug report/testing notes derived from my machine which I've run 
0.4.1, 0.5.1 and 0.5.3 (CVS 31/8/03) on. All were built from source with MAD 
disabled and Vorbis support enabled (0.4.1 has BASS disabled, as per the 
default)

Here's the results of my testing:

Beneath A Steel Sky (0.5.3)
I haven't played the game right through, but it looks pretty good to me. 
Everything seemed to run exactly as it should do. Indeed, I suspect that 
ScummVM's implementation of Virtual Theatre will be better than 
Revolution's, because on my old 386, occasionally sound would disappear and 
speech would just stop, just for no apparent reason.

Day of the Tentacle (0.4.1, 0.5.1)
Datafiles taken from CD version, I have found no problems with this.

Loom (0.4.1, 0.5.1, 0.5.3)
Taken from three Amiga disk files I downloaded from the Internet. I own the 
original, but my Amiga's disk drive is defunct so I can't use my originals. 
Testing in an Amiga emulator proved that the interpreter has been modified 
to bypass the protection.
I transferred the contents of the three disks to a directory on my hard 
drive, specifically copying the *.LFL files from the Rooms directory of each 
disk.
When running from that directory as the 16-colour Loom (target: loom), it 
runs fine in 0.4.1 with Amiga palette thingy disabled (enabling it corrupts 
the graphics)

Monkey Island 1 Amiga (0.4.1, 0.5.1, 0.5.3)
Again, taken from Amiga disk files, which I downloaded (though I own the 
original) - also copying the *.LFL, disk0?.lec and *.dat (music and sound) 
files to a single directory.
Target 'monkeyega' runs the game, but with severe graphical corruption - I 
can provide screenshots of this if it would help.
What I find slightly weird, however, is that not all the graphics are 
corrupted.
With 0.4.1 and 0.5.1, the actor graphics (the clouds in the intro, Guybrush 
and the lookout at the lookout point) are fine - if Amiga version is not 
selected.
However, with 0.4.1 and 0.5.1, the game dies after the conversation with the 
look-out, stating that it can't find the resource.
With 0.5.3, the game gets through the copy protection screen, only if Amiga 
version is enabled, but once the intro starts, it makes no difference if 
Amiga version is selected. The actor graphics are not corrupted whether 
Amiga version is enabled or not, but the backgrounds are.
I can't really explain that well the nature of the background corruption, 
but it amounts to the interpreter drawing 8 vertical lines (original 
resolution), then 8 blank vertical lines, then another 8 vertical lines of 
the background and so on, with completely the wrong palettes. Other issues 
have been seen, such as the poster on the alley-way wall being at different 
heights in these vertical strips.
There also isn't any sound or music, though both music.dat and sample.dat 
are present.

Monkey Island 2 PC (0.4.1, 0.5.1 briefly)
Datafiles taken from the MI1 & 2 CD, I couldn't find any problems with this. 
Played through to the end, certainly no obvious problems. I played it on the 
full setting (not Monkey Lite)
Once I get my Monkey Island CD back from lending it out, I'll test monkey1 
as well.

Sam & Max Hit The Road (0.4.1, 0.5.1 briefly)
Datafiles taken from the CD version, I couldn't find any problems in 0.4.1 
and even the issue in 0.5.1 doesn't seem to be too serious, I couldn't 
actually find anything wrong in the highway subgame, but as I never played 
it much, I wouldn't know what to look for.

The Curse Of Monkey Island (0.5.3 briefly)
I haven't tried this much, as I wasn't a huge fan of this game, but I played 
it anyway. There is, as already noted, the phantom frames of Wally firing 
the cannon, and also the game appears to be running incredibly slowly, 
though it probably doesn't help that I run it in a window under Linux on a 
less-than-amazing video card.
The game seems to be OK but I'll do more thorough testing before I say any 
more.

The Dig (0.4.1, 0.5.3)
Datafiles taken from CD version.
The only problems I found in 0.4.1 were that as the team were descending 
into the asteroid, the game played incredibly slowed when updating. I also 
found that occasionally there would be phantom subtitles - previous 
subtitles which had not been cleared properly. The effect also happened on 
the 'dark tunnel' verb line as Low moved down the screen to head to it.
Testing in 0.5.3 has been less extensive (mainly because I haven't actually 
finished The Dig yet) but I've found no problems so far. I didn't see any 
phantom subtitles or anything.

I also have Full Throttel, Indy 3, Indy 4 and Maniac Mansion (as in 
Tentacle) but I haven't as yet tested them on ScummVM.

Other things of note:
First of all, I would be fairly careful with the iMUSE engine because iMUSE 
is patented under US law, so working with the datafiles may be a form of 
infringement. I'm no legal specialist, but interpreting SCUMM is one thing 
(SCUMM is not patented, merely copyrighted, and expression of form itself is 
also copyrighted but I think ScummVM would be OK on those grounds)
However, iMUSE is patented also, which changes things.

Also, since Steel Sky is now freeware, would you guys like a copy of the 
manual in PDF form for it? I bought the game under the "Sold Out Software" 
label some years ago and the manual (all 15 pages, including the cover) is 
supplied as a 146KB PDF file.

Hope this all helps, and if you want me to provide any other information, I 
will.
I will be downloading and testing CVS versions as they are on Sundays (by 
getting the daily tarball, rather than CVS pserver access) for future 
testing.
And I also own Simon 1 & 2 but I lent the CDs out a couple of years ago to a 
friend and *still* haven't got them back yet. I must remind him about those.

Anyway, thanks again for ScummVM and I hope the above helps you guys.
Pete

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