PPC version

[greyfrontier]

Hi Tsomi, thank you for all of your work keeping the PowerPC version updated.

I'm willing to try and step up and assist building - I don't exactly have too much experience, but I do indeed have working hardware.. PowerMac G5 Single and PowerMac G4 MDD (both run 10.5., but I assume we'll need Tiger 10.4.11 to do your building correct?

Otherwise, if you're still maintaining the port, I'll just try and offer testing then..

[Tsomi]

Hi Tsomi, thank you for all of your work keeping the PowerPC version updated.

I'm willing to try and step up and assist building - I don't exactly have too much experience, but I do indeed have working hardware.. PowerMac G5 Single and PowerMac G4 MDD (both run 10.5., but I assume we'll need Tiger 10.4.11 to do your building correct?

Otherwise, if you're still maintaining the port, I'll just try and offer testing then..

Hi!

Thanks for offering your help. I’ve found the time to do some builds again, and so a 2.8.0 release is indeed available for OSX PPC, on the regular download page.

So I don’t think we’ll need help for builds right now (and the OSX PPC build process is a bit funky) but testing the releases and the games on your PPC devices would be very appreciated! Please don’t hesitate reporting any issue on https://bugs.scummvm.org.

(Also: Tiger is indeed a current requirement for building the release, but that’s only because the updated compiler from Leopard MacPorts has no Tiger compatibility in its C++ lib. Otherwise, Leopard itself can build for Tiger with some special flags.)

[greyfrontier]

No worries, I appreciate all of the work you do! Thanks again I'll work on testing soon!

[Tsomi]

Thanks!

Since I see that OSX PPC users tend to look at this topic, here's a ScummVM 2.9.0git "daily build" for this platform.

https://github.com/dwatteau/scummvm/rel ... 240615.dmg

Warning: the download and the resulting app are quite huge, because I've added debugging information to this development release.

Among other things, this includes a compiler upgrade (from GCC 4.8.5 to GCC 7.5.0), the Sonivox/EAS library, and some external library updates. As for the daily builds, this was built with all engines, including the unstable ones.

If people want to report bugs or other things about the OSX PPC port, that's your time! Please try to replicate your cases on a regular PC too, so that we're sure that your issue is OSX PPC only, and not a general issue. In any case, reporting the problems on https://bugs.scummvm.org/ is always preferred. Thanks!

[Tsomi]

I've put up a new daily build, if OSX PPC users want to test what will be part of ScummVM 2.9.0:

scummvm-2.9.0pre1-macosx-ppc.dmg (EDIT: see below for newer build)

Contrary to the final "release" builds, this one has the unstable engines turned on, FWIW.

Feedback is very welcome. Thanks!

(Some external libraries haven't been updated yet, and some newer ones haven't been added yet. I plan on doing that later on.)

EDIT: The official 2.9.0 release for OSX PPC (10.4, 10.5) is here: https://downloads.scummvm.org/frs/scumm ... sx-ppc.dmg

[Tsomi]

Hi there,

Here's a test build for the current 2.10.0git development release, on OSX PPC:
https://github.com/dwatteau/scummvm/rel ... sx-ppc.dmg

Contrary to the release builds I make, this one has all engines enabled (including the unstable ones), and debug symbols as well.

As I know some OSX PPC users follow this thread for news, I'd be happy to hear about bugs, regressions, or simple "it works fine" feedback I'm also interested in knowing how it performs on older G3s. Thanks!

[nozomi]

Testing 2.9.0 on a Mac Mini G4 running Tiger 10.4.11

Found that Backyard Football does not work. When trying to add the game by selecting the directory containing the files and clicking add, ScummVM immediately closes. No error messages, just closes the program. Other HE games work just fine, even Backyard Footall 2002.

Was able to add the game without trouble on Windows 11.

[Tsomi]

Testing 2.9.0 on a Mac Mini G4 running Tiger 10.4.11

Found that Backyard Football does not work. When trying to add the game by selecting the directory containing the files and clicking add, ScummVM immediately closes. No error messages, just closes the program. Other HE games work just fine, even Backyard Footall 2002.

Was able to add the game without trouble on Windows 11.

Thanks for reporting this; I'll add that to my TODO list for this month. We're aware of some issues with Humongous titles on big-endian platforms (Trac#15505), but we weren't aware of such an issue with Backyard Football.

Is that the 2001 release, as in https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?titl ... d_Football? It's not Backyard Soccer or some other release?

[nozomi]

It is indeed the football game you linked to. After a bit more testing, it may be related to a "theme" issue. While it works fine on Windows 11, Intel MACS and Ubuntu. I also tried it on RiscOS on a Raspberry Pi 3 and was not able to add the game. But it gave the error message of... "Unable to load widget position for "HENetworkGameOptionsDialog.Network Version". Please check your theme files for theme "scummremastered"

I was aslo unable to get Thimbleweed Park to run. I can add the game but it immediately closes after selecting "start" Could it be that the intergated Intel graphics do not support the needed OpenGL requirement. Or is there a RAM requirement that exceed the 512MB or RAM I currently have in the Mac Mini G4 for this game.

A similar issue also occured with "The Longest Journey" The game apprears to start and I can even hear audio as though the game has loaded but the game Windows remains black, never displaying anything.

[Tsomi]

It is indeed the football game you linked to. After a bit more testing, it may be related to a "theme" issue. While it works fine on Windows 11, Intel MACS and Ubuntu. I also tried it on RiscOS on a Raspberry Pi 3 and was not able to add the game. But it gave the error message of... "Unable to load widget position for "HENetworkGameOptionsDialog.Network Version". Please check your theme files for theme "scummremastered"

OK, thanks for the additional details, I'll look into that. That HENetworkGame thing makes me think of the fact that networking support is intentionally disabled on OSXPPC (it seems quite unwise to open network access on an OS that received no security updates for almost 20 years). I don't know if that's related -- but yeah in any case it shouldn't crash.

I was aslo unable to get Thimbleweed Park to run. I can add the game but it immediately closes after selecting "start" Could it be that the intergated Intel graphics do not support the needed OpenGL requirement. Or is there a RAM requirement that exceed the 512MB or RAM I currently have in the Mac Mini G4 for this game.

Ah, for Thimbleweed Park, that's known. Trying to run a 2017 game on a 2004 OS is going to hit some limits. On OSX Tiger it's currently impossible, as the engine requires OpenGL shaders, and OSX Tiger limits you to OpenGL 1.x where it's not available. If you use the ScummVM 2.10.0git test build (whose link I've added a few messages above), you should see a dialogue informing you that this game is not compatible with your system.

As for the "newest" machines that can run OSX Leopard, instead, maybe that game could work at some point. But we have a bug report for that: Trac#15711.

A similar issue also occured with "The Longest Journey" The game apprears to start and I can even hear audio as though the game has loaded but the game Windows remains black, never displaying anything.

Ah, this may be related to Trac#14462. OpenGL rendering is currently broken on some older cards; try switching to "Software rendering" in the game options, instead. It may render fine, then, possibly quite slowly, though.

[HelixNRG]

Hi all,

Thanks Tsomi for maintaining the PPC version – still enjoying playing these adventures on my iMac G3s!

A question that may or may not be specific to the PPC and other Mac versions (e.g. current support for Apple Silicon) – I've noticed that King's Quest IV, Leisure Suit Larry II, Police Quest II still begin by asking for look-up in the manual for copy protection. Going through the current SCUMMVM wiki, I couldn't find the reference, but I remember specifically reading that one of SCUMMVM's goals was to remove manual look-up for its supported games.

Did that policy change and it's now expected behaviour that you need the manuals to begin these games? Or is something broken in more current builds (I remember these games have been asking for manual look-ups for years). Or is there a problem with the copies of these games I have?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Alex

[criezy]

I've noticed that King's Quest IV, Leisure Suit Larry II, Police Quest II still begin by asking for look-up in the manual for copy protection. Going through the current SCUMMVM wiki, I couldn't find the reference, but I remember specifically reading that one of SCUMMVM's goals was to remove manual look-up for its supported games.

Did that policy change and it's now expected behaviour that you need the manuals to begin these games?

The policy is described in the documentation: https://docs.scummvm.org/en/v2.9.1/use_ ... -copyright
We only remove copy protection in a game if it was removed in official re-release of the game.

[HelixNRG]

Ah, roger that. If normal behaviour, all is good. Thanks for letting me know where that's found in the documentation.

Alex

[Tsomi]

For the OSXPPC testers, here's a new daily build for the 2.10.0git development release (built on 2025-08-15).

Among other fixes and improvements since the previous daily build, this should bring support for: Another World, The Last Express, Dark Seed, Willy Beamish, Master Lu, Nancy Drew…

EDIT: Here's a 3.0.0 pre-release for OSXPPC (built in late November 2025; also contains all the 'unstable' engines, with debug information). Users are encouraged to test this pre-release and report any problem/bug before the final 3.0.0 release is built (likely in a few weeks). Thanks.