[Scummvm-devel] FAQ update

Mon Feb 16 23:13:14 CET 2009

I don't have docbook either, but I would like to suggest other  
changes to the FAQ.
I am writing them there for discussion, but let me know if you prefer  
that I post a text file on the patch tracker (not as a patch for the  
docbook file though :-( ).

* First, there is a typo in the new answer concerning FreeSCI (FAQ  
2.5): 'are' is missing after 'SCI games' in the following sentence
"However, many SCI games still not supported, so you may also want to  
check out DOSBox..."

* I saw that the FAQ 2.3 (Will ScummVM support other games?) has also  
been updated, but there is also a typo in it:
"Secondly, there must be a developer (or multiple) who are interested  
on working this and..."
should be "interested in working on this"
Also in such a case I am not sure if this should be 'who is' or 'who  
are'. I would have written the former but I am not very good with  
this kind of stuff... Any native english speaker around there?

* Answers to question 2.1 ("What games does ScummVM support?") and  
2.2 ("Does ScummVM run any non-SCUMM games?") are a bit outdated as  
they list games hinting this is the complete list when many recent  
additions are not listed.

- For FAQ 2.1, the compatibility list is mentioned, but I would  
change the following lines and get something like this:
"We have a compatibility list on our website that contains an up to  
date list of what games work, and how well they work. As well as  
SCUMM games, we also include virtual machines for the first two Simon  
the Sorcerer games (by Adventure Soft), Broken Sword 1/2 and Beneath  
a Steel Sky (by Revolution), Flight of the Amazon Queen, Gobliiins 1  
and its sequels (by Coktel Vision) as well as Inherit the Earth (by  
The Dreamers' Guild) and several other games. Some more games may be  
added, but this is not a common occurrence - see below."

Also in the above text (and the current one), the developer is given  
for all the listed games except FOTAQ. I see no reason for this and I  
would add it for this game as well (is it Interactive Binary  
Illusions?).

- For FAQ 2.2, I would change the first paragraph to the following text:
"Yes. As well as SCUMM titles, ScummVM supports Simon the Sorcerer (1  
and 2), Flight of the Amazon Queen, and the Revolution Games: Broken  
Sword 1, Broken Sword 2, and Beneath a Steel Sky, as well as  
Gobliiins 1, Gobliins 2, Goblins 3, Inherit the Earth and several  
other games (check the compatibility list)."

And maybe remove the the following paragraph (since FAQ 2.3 has  
changed, I suppose this should be changed as well):
"We do not have any plans to support any other non-SCUMM games at  
this time. If we do, it will be added to the Compatibility List."

* I would like also to propose to change FAQ 5.6 "ScummVM crashes,  
but console window disappears too quick to see the error  
message." (shouldn' it be "too quickly" by the way?)
I am thinking of making the question is bit more general and adding a  
part on MacOS X:
"ScummVM crashes, but console window does not appear or disappears  
too quickly to see the error message.

On windows, to make it visible... [keep text as it is now]

On MacOS X, you can find the error messages by starting Console.app  
(in Utilities within the Applications folder). If you prefer, you can  
also run ScummVM from the terminal. To do this, start Terminal.app  
(also in the Utilities folder), then drag&drop the ScummVM.app  
application on the Terminal window, suppress the space at the end of  
the line and add 'Contents/MacOS/scummvm' (without the quotes). The  
line should look like this: "/Path/to/ScummVM.app/Contents/MacOS/ 
scummvm". Then press return to start ScummVM."

I am not sure if we should mention the use of the Terminal there, as  
using Console.app answers the question. Using the Terminal can be  
useful if we want to use additional flags though (e.g. -d9).

* FAQ 5.11 "I downloaded Broken Sword packs from your site but the  
game won't run" is also outdated.
"These are not full games but reencoded cutscene (video) packs. To  
run the games you still need the original disks. Originally cutscenes  
were encoded in proprietary format and Revolution Software kindly  
permitted us to reencode them into MPEG and distribute them freely on  
our site."

As far as I know support for the MPEG cut-scene as just been removed  
from the trunk (and from the download page), and DXA has been the  
preferred format for some time now. Therefore you could just change  
'MPEG' by 'DXA' in the answer. I see that the code in the trunk now  
supports the smacker video, but I don't think the 0.13.0 branch does.  
I suppose the FAQ will again need to be updated when 0.14.0 is out :-)

That's all for now. Sorry for the long mail.

Thierry (aka criezy)

Le 16 févr. 09 à 11:30, Willem Jan Palenstijn a écrit :

> On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 11:48:55AM +0100, Max Horn wrote:
>> Am Mo, 16.02.2009, 11:26, schrieb Filippos Karapetis:
>>>
>>> Hello
>>>
>>> The FAQ needs to be updated, particularly the questions regarding  
>>> SCI and
>>> integration with FreeSCI.
>>>
>>> I'd update it myself, but I don't have docbook...
>>>
>> I already updated it yesterday in the repos, but I haven't gotten  
>> around
>> to uploading the changed faq.inc -- if somebody else could do it...
>
> I synced the faq.inc in the web repo with the docs repo.
>
> -Willem Jan
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --------
> Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San  
> Francisco, CA
> -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the  
> Enterprise
> -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source  
> participation
> -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source  
> code: SFAD
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H
> _______________________________________________
> Scummvm-devel mailing list
> Scummvm-devel at lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/scummvm-devel

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.scummvm.org/pipermail/scummvm-devel/attachments/20090216/2231149c/attachment.html>