ScummVM on UIQ3 (some games don't work)

[Noelemahc]

I'm currently using the latest UIQ3-compatible version (which is the 0.X.0 tic-tac-toe stable), and I'm running it on a SonyEricsson W950i with the latest firmware, though I'm not sure if the latter has any impact on performance.

In any case, there are several problems which I seem to have run into concerning running several games via this version of ScummVM.

Firstly, all AGOS games show me to a black screen of intent thought which doesn't lead to anything useful. While I may just survive without Simon the Sorcerer (not only because I've completed it numerous times, but also because the ScummVM games work okay and I won't die of adventure game starvation), the same unhappy result with Elvira is quite depressing and leads me to stressful worryness. Yes.

Secondly, the already-mentioned-in-connection-to-another Symbian build problem with Goblins 3 - the game works A-OK, runs smooth and well, BUT. The cursor-location-dependent features (i.e. the drop-down menu and the location scrolling) aren't funtioning at all, although the drop-down menu works juuust fine in Gobliins 2 and WEEN. Well, at least I can listen to the pretty musick.

Thirdly, Bargon Attack, while it runs perfectly, is one of the older and funnier-in-that-special-programming-way Coktel games, requiring the user to press F1 or F2 to choose the game mode at startup. Yes, maybe it was a good idea a decade ago, but since there's no such button on the virtual keyboard, I cannot press either and the game is locked in perpetual motion of the intro demo. Ouch.

Fourthly, FotAQ (the *compressed* freeware talkie version taken from the ScummVM site) also encounters the black-screen-of-doom sitch as with the AGOS games.
It should be noted that while Nippon Safes Inc. starts up in the same fashion, its wait on the black screen of slow loading agony is quite short, and not long enough to incite a paranoid panic in my heart and THAT game starts up and works quite well after the wait.
So tell me, is my lack of patience to blame or it there actually a problem here?

And just a minor quip, the scrolling screens in DotT (like the wash-the-carriage and human-show-judge-talk scenes) don't actually SCROLL. The few edge pixels of the screen (the edge through which we scroll, of course) show the scrolling as if it actually happened, but the rest of the screen is unaffected until the 'virtual' scroll ends and the whole image just jumps into the scrolled picture. This doesn't detract from the experience, but it does keep us away from perfection.

On a much lighter note, I'm eternally grateful for the ability to play my favourite advanture games on my mobile phone, especially for DoTT, Loom and Gobliins 2, though the others are also much welcome on the small screen, and I hope my (semblance of) feedback will aid the developers in some way.

P.S. Naturally, all the games tested on the mobile do run quite well on my PC, so it is NOT due to a lack of files.

[Pull-Me-Under]

Loom seems to have worked for Noelemahc -- it doesn't work for me, though. I have the talkie version, it starts fine, but crashes when you click on the flask inside of the tent in the village. There should be a sequence of notes, but you hear only the first two notes, and on the third it crashes.
The same version runs fine on the PC, the crash only happens on my W950i. Both ScummVM versions are 0.10.0. Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be?

[Anotherguest]

Differences between a PC and a mobile phone..
- Different CPU architecture
- Usually slower filesystems
- Less free memory
- Lower screen resolution

These differences can lead to the following:
- Slow loading times (specially when using encoded audio streams), see other posts
- Crashes when using MP3 (mad is not really liking the Symbian V9 environment)
- Crashes in OOM situations
- Various issues in various games.

So if you read the other posts here you can get some tips that will make games playable, also a hint of which games that might be so.

[Noelemahc]

OGGs went for me as the fastest among the options of storing sound/music, both in terms of overall slowdownness and in terms of loading times.

Haven't actually tried Loom's talkie version because I much more like the floppy one for it's persistent musick. And that one works, as you can probably guess, without a hitch.

It would also be nice if you could tell us what error code the crash has (if at all - if it's an OS-level crash, it's supposed to give you a pop-up with the error code, if it simply CTDs then you should say so exactly), because it might be OOM (out-of-memory), or it might be corrupt file data, or something else entirely. I don't suppose AnotherGuest can magically guess what happened without proper input.

[manig]

Hi Noelemahc

Can you please guide me how to make CoMI work on my W950i? I have got the original CD. I transferred the files to phone but the game does not start and a black screen with very small green words appear.

I can play MI1 and 2 very well thou.

Thank you
Mani

[Noelemahc]

Arranging the files in a way that allows you to play the game via Win32 ScummVM always helps. That is, remember to copy the contents of BOTH CDs into a single folder, keeping the directory structure. Then check if it'll work. If (when?) it does, then copy these files to the phone.

But you have to remember, it will still hang dead after the intro.

[manig]

Thanks. I will give it a try.

Can you please list the games that work perfect on W950i.

I have BASS, FOTAQ, Indiana Jones FATA and MI1+MI2 so far.

[Noelemahc]

Any SCUMM game that's not SVGA (in other words, any SCUMM game besides from CoMI and MM for NES -- the HE games work, but have graphical glitches) and both Elvira games. And Gobliiins parts 1 and 2 as well as Ween: The Prophecy.

Simon 1 and 2 suffer from incurable slowdowns, and I'm yet to try any AGI games.

[Anotherguest]

I have bought the broken sword games (1&2) .. I intend to use them as test platform for better vga compability on the P1i and Z8 for example

[nipsen]

That's great. Looking forward to see how it'll turn out.

[zod]

Thirdly, Bargon Attack, while it runs perfectly, is one of the older and funnier-in-that-special-programming-way Coktel games, requiring the user to press F1 or F2 to choose the game mode at startup. Yes, maybe it was a good idea a decade ago, but since there's no such button on the virtual keyboard, I cannot press either and the game is locked in perpetual motion of the intro demo. Ouch.

hello,
at moment i play cyrandia with my n9500 because of lack of F1/2 keys. also looked into .ini files but nothing there.