MI2 - Skeleton dance scene issue

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Mataku
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MI2 - Skeleton dance scene issue

Post by Mataku »

During the Skeleton dance scene in Monkey Island 2 (DOS\CD version), the Skeletons will sing the first verse of the song and then will keep dancing, Without getting to the next verse, and the scene will remain in a loop forever. The music will even reach to the end, and they will keep dancing, until you press ESC and the scene will go on.
When I try this on an old Version of ScummVM I have (0.6.1b) The scene works flawlessly. I'm guessing this has something to do with the IMuse system because this game uses it somewhat religiously to cue the game actions, but I'm still puzzled by how something that was working in an earlier version is broken in the new one. Any ideas?
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eriktorbjorn
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Re: MI2 - Skeleton dance scene issue

Post by eriktorbjorn »

Mataku wrote:Any ideas?
You could submit a bug report and attach a savegame from shortly before the dream sequence starts. I can't reproduce the problem with one of my old savegames, and I don't feel like re-playing the game from the beginning at the moment.
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Mataku
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Post by Mataku »

Okay, I got it working. For some reason,when the game language was set to "English (US)" the bug happened, but when I changed it to just "english" or "<Default>", the scene worked without the bug. The older version of ScummVM i used didn't have the different types of english, so I'm guessing that's why it worked on it and not on the new version.
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eriktorbjorn
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Post by eriktorbjorn »

I still can't reproduce the problem with my old savegame, even after changing the language setting.
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Mataku
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Post by Mataku »

It's the version of the game that came in the "Monkey Island Madness" CD, maybe in other versions there's no problem. That's about as much I can tell you.
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clone2727
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Post by clone2727 »

Just checked with my saved game too. No problems here either. (I have the Monkey Island Madness CD too). The save is about 2 years old, though.
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clone2727
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Post by clone2727 »

After trying for several attempts, I was able to reproduce the issue *one* time. I'm not sure what I did differently to cause it, so I'll have to try again. Tomorrow is another day. :wink:
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Strangerke
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Post by Strangerke »

Could it be a bug in the original game ?
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Longcat
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Post by Longcat »

It COULD be a glicth in the Matrix.
Vampire
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Post by Vampire »

The same happened to me. I have the Bestseller Games CD with MI2 on it. I have a savegame that is about 5 or 10 minutes before the issue happened and a savegame when the game is already stuck in the endless loop. My language is set to "German" and it is a german version of the game.
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ChickenHound
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Works Fine

Post by ChickenHound »

Works fine for me. I'm assuming that you are using the Windows port and not something like Dreamcast or PS2 or something like that.
Vampire
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Post by Vampire »

The error was with the Windows CE port, with the Wii port it worked just fine. Besides the fact that I didn't really remembered the verses but found my way mainly through try & error. :-D
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Mataku
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Post by Mataku »

Vampire wrote: Besides the fact that I didn't really remembered the verses but found my way mainly through try & error. :-D
:? ...

The verses were written for you on the piece of paper you carry.
dizzo
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Same exact error...

Post by dizzo »

Using ScummVM 1.5.0 on Android 4.1.2

(DOS/English) version

Exact same, "sang" first verse then no more text and an endless loop even after music stops.

Unfortunately only have a virtual keyboard so no esc key to see if I can end the cut scene. Tried using bluetooth keyboard as well but ESC key doesn't seem to override virtual keyboard. The MI2 source is installed from my original floppy discs.

Will try to play from earlier save with different settings to see if I can get past it.

Just thought I would put out there that there is still a bug. Otherwise ScummVM is fantastic, playing all of my old adventure games during my bus commute :)

Cheers.
digitall
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Post by digitall »

dizzo (and anyone else who is interested):

This bug has been known about for a while, but is an unstable bug in MI2 associated with MIDI timing in this scene.

It was first reported in 2002:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=de ... tid=418820

IIRC, eriktorbjorn did some investigation when it happened to me and said (to the best of my recollection) that he thought this was due to the skeleton dance scripts and animations being triggered by certain MIDI events, which might get skipped if the MIDI lagged or otherwise being subject to subtle timing/race hazards.

The general workaround is to have a savegame just before the dance and to reload if the dance locks up, which only occurs some of the time.

Unfortunately this is one of those bugs that is a nightmare to get a stable replication case for and thus to investigate and fix.

If you can find a way to trigger this from a savegame reliably, then please open a bug for this on the bug tracker attaching the savegame, and detailing your exact build.
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