[Scummvm-devel] PS2 #19 : games : special saved files : important

sunmax at libero.it sunmax at libero.it
Mon Mar 2 07:08:44 CET 2009


On the PS2 we have dire limitations on MC folder contents, where we
can only store up to 16 files (IIRC), so we cannot just have sword1.*
and samnmax.s* pollute all the space, so we resort to a trick where
we create a subfolder for each game:

mc0:ScummVM/simon2/000.sav

mc0:ScummVM/sword1/000.sav

So you can save up to 16 games for each folder, which ain't too bad.

Too achieve that we "trap" the filename, when the engine try to save
and split it so that we use the first part of it to map it to a sub
folder. When loading we map it back to canonical engine name, e.g.
mc0:ScummVM/sword1/000.sav would be converted back to sword1.000.

It seems perfect until you realize that some engines have special
cases, eg.

 - indy4 -> iq-points
 - sword1 -> SAVEGAME.inf

   Are there even more?

At the moment I have a list of exceptions. Would it be possible:

a) to require that engine coders use a standard, where the first
   part of a load/save file is always the name of the game?

   Ie: iq-points -> indy4.iq
       SAVEGAME.inf -> sword1.inf
       etc.

   This would -greatly- help the PS2 backend maintenance cause
   we won't have to keep a list of exceptions for those files.

b) if an engine fails to do so, is there a way to fetch the
   name of the "engine" used and "game" run anywhere?

   Eg. can I check something to know I'm running Scumm/Indy4 ?

I am especially worried now that after FreeSCI merge there
will be many more savefiles standards, exceptions, etc.

If we consider that most of ScummVM PS2 users store their saved
data on MC, this is kind of a must to sort out.

Thanks!
 -max





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