[Scummvm-devel] Chewy: Escape from F5

[Sven Strothoff]

Hey everyone!

I would like to ask if you could add support for...WAIT! Don't delete
this mail yet. ;)

I am well aware of the FAQ (especially 1.5 & 1.10) and what I was going
to ask is not if _you_ could do it, but if _I_ could do it.

Ok, first a little information about the game. "Chewy: Escape from F5"
was published in 1996 by BlueByte (a German developer/publisher that
belongs to Ubi Soft since 2001). It is a classic point and click
adventure. I think it's a really good game, but unfortunately it was
never really popular.
I only own the German version (Chewy: Escape von F5) but also an English
version (maybe others? *shrug*) exists.

I came up with the idea of adding Chewy support to ScummVM some weeks
ago, when I tried to play Chewy. I (mainly because I was curious) tried
to figure out some stuff about the game (file formats and stuff) and did
a little reverse engineering (didn't find out that much, but it is
something that could be worked with - or at least it can become
something useful). As I am a fan and a happy user of ScummVM I thought
that it would be cool if ScummVM had support for Chewy.

I gave it some thought and talked to a friend (bastardo, you might know
him from irc) and he persuaded me to try it...
I know that it is very hard to reimplement a complete engine by reverse
engineering (beside the fact that it would require permission anyway).

After some research, I found the mail address (snailmail) of BlueByte
and the main artist (not a BlueByte employee). Actually it's not even
that far from here (I am living in Germany). BlueByte has always been
pretty friendly to fans in the past, so I would like to ask them for
support. That would be 1) permission to do it, 2) source code (if still
existent).

Of course I cannot ask them before I got your permission. I have no
intention to pretend being a ScummVM developer. Also as you have already
gathered a lot of experience I would request your help for writing a
letter. I will never take any actions before asking you (or respectively
the project leaders).


Hmm that should be enough text for a first request (maybe even too
much ;). Well, I would like to do (try) it. I have no guarantee that I
will be successful (either in getting the permission or reimplementing
the engine) but I would be doing my best.

What else can I say...

Thanks for your time reading this (rather long I admit) mail.
And I am curious to get your answer(s).


Sven (dsy)