[ scummvm-Feature Requests-1286150 ] Third-party translations

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Feature Requests item #1286150, was opened at 2005-09-09 17:55
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Category: None
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Patrice Aubry (kaminari)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Third-party translations

Initial Comment:
Since 09/04/2005, the CVS builds are unable to run
unofficially translated SCUMM games. It coincides with
the new unified target system, which relies on md5
checksums rather than specific target names (zaktowns,
loomcd, etc). Whenever trying to launch such a
translation, we get the following error message (here's
Zak FM-Towns in newly translated French as an example):

gameid=zak
platform=fmtowns

"Looking for zak
Trying to start game 'Zak McKracken and the Alien
Mindbenders'
Unknown MD5 (46583ec0ecc443db614fa465a12cc592)! Please
report the details (language, platform, etc.) of this
game to the ScummVM team
(0:0:0x0): Unknown magic id (0xFE08) - this version is
unsupported!"

I have long hesitated to fill this as a bug report,
hoping it was just a fixable glitch due to the new
system and not a deliberate choice to drop support for
third-party translations. But just in case, please let
me advocate the cause of those unofficial translations
through a couple of arguments:

1. They used to work in ScummVM without any problem
(providing the translation was carefully done), and
they used to be enjoyed by a fair number of people
whose English was not their native language. Those
translations just had to be manually added to the INI
file and given a proper target name, which was not a
big deal.

2. The people working on unofficial translations want
to contribute to the legacy of those old games by
putting whatever creative skills they have (beyond
programming) for the benefit of the many and in a
legitimate way. This is different from hacking since
those translations (mine at least) are distributed
under the form of patches only applicable onto original
versions (via PatchMaker, etc).

3. Figuratively speaking, the mission of ScummVM has
always been to "translate" games from one computer
"language" to another, that is to make some games run
on platforms that never had any "native" versions of
those games (eg. running The Dig on PalmOS). We,
freelance translators, do the very same, except our
efforts are aimed at people, not computers. But the
philosophy's the same.

The unified target system is a very good thing IMO, but
it has the side-effect of leaving in the dust any game
which md5 is unrecognized (particularly annoying when
you're working on a WIP translation). The matter is
complicated with those PC games which were available in
two or more versions for the same platform --
Classic/Enhanced, floppy/CD, EGA/VGA... The new system
has no way whatsoever (beside checking the md5) to
determine whether it's an EGA or a VGA version, a
Classic or an Enhanced, a floppy or a CD... It used to
rely on the target name for that.

I'm occasionally working for a French translation group
called ATP, which purpose is to offer quality
translations of games that were distributed here but
either never translated or badly done. I've worked all
Summer long on an exclusive translation for Loom VGA
and was delighted to see it work in ScummVM for a few
days. Now I have to tell people to use DOSBox or an
older version of ScummVM in order to enjoy this
translation, which is quite frustrating.

Hopefully it will run again the way it did -- I'd sure
be thankful to you for that. At least please consider
and discuss the matter.

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