Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

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rootfather
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Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by rootfather »

A few months have passed since we released ScummVM 2.5.1.

No matter if you expect the scorching heat of the upcoming summer or freezing blizzards in winter (depending on your favorite hemisphere): it’s release time again!

Our lovely developers added support, yet again, for a bunch of new ancient games that require testing:
  • Sanitarium
  • Hades Challenge
  • Marvel Comics Spider-Man: The Sinister Six
  • The 11th Hour
  • Clandestiny
  • Tender Loving Care (CD-ROM Editions)
  • Uncle Henry's Playhouse
  • Wetlands
  • Chewy: Esc from F5
Besides these games, we’d appreciate it if you could check our release testing list - maybe you’ll even find your favorite game on there that has been sitting on that shelf for way too long.

And since ScummVM is about playing games in general, we’ve seen quite a bunch of changes across many, many engines - so this is the perfect time for giving your favorites another go.

The AGOS, SCI and SCUMM engine received some really extensive modifications which make all games using those engines very good testing targets as well.

All testing must be done with stable builds, not development ones. Please report any bugs or oddities on our issue tracker.

A detailed list of all exciting new features and fixes is available in our NEWS file.

Thank you very much for your support!
lwc
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by lwc »

Mark it down - this new beta version finally moved to GPLv3! :D
GusCE6
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by GusCE6 »

Hopefully this follows the rules here, but I cannot do extensive searches for already-covered things at this time- besides, this gives details. And screenshots! ^-^

If it does violate any rules as it's so big then please delete it.

I am currently programming games using AGT 1.7 Big. It is the same as AGT 1.7 except it allows many more nouns, meta-commands, messages, rooms, variables, that sort of thing.

The games so far work with DOSBox 0.74 (both for Windows and Puppy Linux) as well as the two mobile versions the Windows CE 6 Sylvania netbook uses (PCKDOS and PocketDOS 1.2.1). They work just fine in fact, amazingly well on the netbook.

SCUMMVM, both versions I've tried for Windows, will run these games but only for a time and poorly at that.

On top it says "GLK AGiliTy version 1.1.1."

1) As you can see from the screenshots SCUMMVM calls it "A Bloody Life" by default and it is always black text on a white screen regardless of whatever color scheme is used. Curiously enough the title screen does not vanish automatically. The information bar shows the exits; this does not happen with any DOS emulator.

2) Instead of going from "page to page" it goes from line to line.

3) The directional keys have no effect as they are supposed to.

4) SCUMMVM is incapable of handling meta-commands in the CMD file. The single biggest improvement of AGT compared to its earlier incarnation GAGS is the meta-command since it allows you to customize your program. Any attempt a game makes to use a meta-command causes an error message.

5) Using extra words causes problems. AGT allows something like "Play marble" or "Play with marble" but the latter causes an error message about prepositions with SCUMMVM. It does not crash the program however.

6) After a time, even if you do absolutely nothing, SCUMMVM crashes.

7) All of the above is true for a GAGS game except SCUMMVM does not crash and it appears to play properly. Note the white screen/black text, no use of directional keys, and exits shown on information bar are still there. Also note that the proper name of the game is shown on the SCUMMVM window. So it's the AGT enhancements that are causing the worst problems (such as the meta-commands. I'm guessing that since the game must check the CMD file every time there is input that causes problems even if none are used). RESTORE game- done via SCUMMVM itself- appears to work, except for "HELP"- it works but there is a "glk help" error message as well. You also get the "$prep_$" error message but it does not crash the game. I successfully played "Alice" to the end.


This is of particular interest to me as I am programming an all-text game using AGT. If it has any success it will be the first of several. "SanctuaryRPG Black" encouraged me to try and if you don't have that one do check it out, it's terrific and runs on almost anything.


It must also be said again that SCUMMVM is a remarkable program. "Foxtail Chapter 3" refused to run on the 2001 Sony or even the superior 2002 Dell in any way until SCUMMVM 2.2 appeared- then as long as SwiftShader 2.1 was used the game played fine. In fact, even the 64-Bit Linux version played on that 32-Bit antique! In Puppy Linux 5.2.5 Lucid mode, as long as WINE and SwiftShader 2.1 were used (only the Windows version of SCUMMVM works) all versions of "Foxtail Chapter 3" worked- which was normally impossible as GLIB 2.29 cannot be installed. "Zniw Adventure" requires Vista or later but even with the daily build SCUMMVM 2.6 it runs on an XP antique- and initial tests imply it can run in Puppy Linux 5.2.5 mode as well! The implications there are not to be ignored. A shame "Foxtail" is switching to Unity, but if you can send aid to the Ukraine please do.
Compliments to the programmers here for making computing BETTER, not worse like others have been doing.
Attachments
SCUMMVM GAGS "Alice"
SCUMMVM GAGS "Alice"
GAGS_SCUMMVM.PNG (35.26 KiB) Viewed 9127 times
SCUMMVM AGT 1.7 (Big) Prep. Error
SCUMMVM AGT 1.7 (Big) Prep. Error
AGT_SCUMMVM3.PNG (34.85 KiB) Viewed 9127 times
SCUMMVM AGT 1.7 (Big) Help
SCUMMVM AGT 1.7 (Big) Help
AGT_SCUMMVM2.PNG (32.66 KiB) Viewed 9127 times
SCUMMVM AGT 1.7 (Big)
SCUMMVM AGT 1.7 (Big)
AGT_SCUMMVM.PNG (20.82 KiB) Viewed 9127 times
DOSBox 0.74 AGT 1.7 (Big)
DOSBox 0.74 AGT 1.7 (Big)
AGT_DOSBOX.PNG (25.75 KiB) Viewed 9127 times
KuroShiro
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by KuroShiro »

For those who don't have it, Sanitarium is being offered free on gog.com for a few more hours. :D
Fizanko
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by Fizanko »

Hello,

I'm very new to ScummVM so i don't know if that's the correct place to report the result of my Sanitarium testing.

After getting it from the free gog offer, i noticed at the same time people mentionning it wasn't running perfectly on window 10 , and indeed i noticed quickly after trying that there was some stutter from time to time with the mouse (especially in the menu where you save/load), and with how Sanitarium controls aren't very precise it was very annoying at time.
I noticed some people pointing that ScummVM got Sanitarium support but it needed testing. Perfect timing it seemed.

So after downlading and installing in the daily build section "ScummVM 2.6.0pre Release Candidate Build - Windows Installer (recommended) " (i think it was the one from the 07 june) , i got Sanitarium running through ScummVM after adding C:\GOG Games\Sanitarium\Data\ to it

I changed no settings in ScummVM, so it was all the default options.
And it ran really well, no mouse stuttering anywhere and to my surprise even the loading times were noticably faster than the gog version.

Helped with a guide (the puzzle with the boulder release in chapter 7 was really puzzling me) for when i was stuck, i went through every chapters of the whole game from the start to the end without any crashes or freezing, and without any problem with saving or loading.
And finally reached the end game credits as attached to the post, every cutscenes have been playing without problem during my whole playthrough.

So it looks like Sanitarium is running extremely well with the pre-release of ScummVM 2.6.0 and can be completed without any problems , superb work !
Attachments
sanitarium fully completed with scummvm
sanitarium fully completed with scummvm
1234.jpg (109.05 KiB) Viewed 8989 times
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criezy
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by criezy »

Fizanko wrote: Thu Jun 09, 2022 10:10 am So it looks like Sanitarium is running extremely well with the pre-release of ScummVM 2.6.0 and can be completed without any problems , superb work !
Thank you for the test! And it's good to hear it works well.
I have updated the release testing list with that information.
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dreammaster
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by dreammaster »

GusCE6 wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 12:33 am SCUMMVM, both versions I've tried for Windows, will run these games but only for a time and poorly at that.
Hey there. I'm the develop who did the original port of the AGT sub-engine. Like most of the other sub-engines, this was based on the Gargoyle project's version that had changes done to integrate various stand-alone interpreters to run under a current framework. So I don't know much of the specifics of the Agility interpreter itself. I do know that in the time since I did the original port, Gargoyle has updated several of the sub-engines. So what could be helpful is if you could try the game under Gargoyle, and see if the various problems you mention are resolved, and let us know. If they are, we could look into doing a fresh port/update of the codebase into ScummVM. This wouldn't be feasible for the upcoming release at this point, but it would at least be fixed for the next major release following that (presuming it works in Gargoyle).
alasker
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by alasker »

Completed full playthrough of "11th Hour" (Steam version) on Fedora Linux (Wayland), compiled "branch-2-6" from git, ran from build directory without installation. Game and its additional components ("Making of" and "Clandestiny trailer") were picked up correctly and are working. I'm not familiar with this game enough to know all its quirks, so some small issues might have slipped past me.
  • ScummVM save interface allows long file names, but they are truncated to 14 characters.
  • Character zero terminates file name string: tested with file name "10th hour", it became just "1".
  • All movies in SDL and OpenGL rendered seem to be offset to right by 12px, leaving vertical black bar on left.
  • After completing game and watching credits, closed "GameBook" and clicked close button on window titlebar, then "Segmentation fault (core dumped)" showed up in console.
  • During last puzzle (Dollhouse) there are a lot of debug output (a line for position for each move), probably leftover from debugging.
GusCE6
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by GusCE6 »

dreammaster wrote: Fri Jun 10, 2022 1:24 am
GusCE6 wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 12:33 am SCUMMVM, both versions I've tried for Windows, will run these games but only for a time and poorly at that.
Hey there. I'm the develop who did the original port of the AGT sub-engine. Like most of the other sub-engines, this was based on the Gargoyle project's version that had changes done to integrate various stand-alone interpreters to run under a current framework. So I don't know much of the specifics of the Agility interpreter itself. I do know that in the time since I did the original port, Gargoyle has updated several of the sub-engines. So what could be helpful is if you could try the game under Gargoyle, and see if the various problems you mention are resolved, and let us know. If they are, we could look into doing a fresh port/update of the codebase into ScummVM. This wouldn't be feasible for the upcoming release at this point, but it would at least be fixed for the next major release following that (presuming it works in Gargoyle).

If you mean the Gargoyle interpreter itself then already I see it also only displays in black and white for AGT games. It also yield error messages when giving certain commands, and the directional keys do not work. But it seems to work better than SCUMMVM so far.

But it malfunctions. For example, when using DOSbox you cannot drop or throw Todd's amulet- here you can. In another game you find a key by searching the cushions, with Gargoyle it says it doesn't know how to do that (making it impossible to proceed). Certain "generic" commands and messages I use to cover as many bases as possible (e.g. about rugs and the floor) do not work.

AGT games still don't work properly with Gargoyle. I downloaded and tried the early 2022 version.

This is going to sound like a stupid question, but since "Foxtail" is switching to Unity is there any chance SCUMMVM is going to work with that? Also, for AGT and other games is it possible to give SCUMMVM the abilities of DOSBox and so cover all the bases?

Again it amazes me that the 64-Bit Linux version of "Foxtail" so far and the Vista or later "Zniw Adventure" both work on an XP 32-Bit 2001 Sony VAIO. If one considers the implications here they are significant indeed.
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dreammaster
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by dreammaster »

GusCE6 wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2022 8:27 pm AGT games still don't work properly with Gargoyle. I downloaded and tried the early 2022 version.
Then there's not much we can do about it. Since the engine was ported rather than being done by us from scratch, we're really limited to the kinds of bugfixes and enhancements we can do.
[/quote]
GusCE6 wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2022 8:27 pm This is going to sound like a stupid question, but since "Foxtail" is switching to Unity is there any chance SCUMMVM is going to work with that? Also, for AGT and other games is it possible to give SCUMMVM the abilities of DOSBox and so cover all the bases?
Probably unlikely, unless the developers donate the source code to us. Without that, the game would have to be reverse engineered from scratch, at significant effort. Maybe someone will care enough to spend the effort at some point; who knows. Maybe even by someone outside of ScummVM. As for AGT, as above. If there's ever any open source AGT interpreter that provides 100% compatibility, we could look into doing our own port of it into ScummVM, even if it completely ignores the GLK framework Gargoyle uses. But again, someone else would need to develop it in the first place.
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TrivialBalderdash
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by TrivialBalderdash »

I completed Uncle Henry's Playhouse using the June 13 daily build on Mac OS (64-bit Intel). I didn't have any issues with any of the gameplay. I submitted one minor issue for some extra text after the user names - #13575

The CD don't have a version number, but lists the build as May_14th_1996.

Also, I found the easter egg mentioned on the Wiki. Go to the Credits tab in the Guest Book, click anywhere on the page, type "What?" & press enter. You'll see the text "Lead Programmer and" appear ahead of "Game Engineer ............ Preston Moser"

It might be related to the other easter egg I saw in the description of a YouTube video on the game. On the dollhouse puzzle selection screen, if you type "Sharpdog Preston", you'll unlock the final puzzle without having to complete the other twelve first.

Both easter eggs work using ScummVM.

Great work and thanks to the devs on getting these games added. I'm really looking forward to the 2.6.0 release!
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criezy
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by criezy »

TrivialBalderdash wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 3:22 am I completed Uncle Henry's Playhouse using the June 13 daily build on Mac OS (64-bit Intel). I didn't have any issues with any of the gameplay. I submitted one minor issue for some extra text after the user names - #13575
Thank you for the test and the bug report.
I have updated the testing list
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Mustrum
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by Mustrum »

I finished the German version of Marvel Comics Spider-Man: The Sinister Six with different exits. Died and revived several times.
Played with easy combat and difficult puzzles, mouse and keyboard controls. Without cheats (1x 'C' used).

But I have reported save game bug #13587, the game save is not loaded with with the correct saving position.
I save before the puzzle, then I finished the puzzle, then I save the game after the puzzle. When I load the save game after the puzzle, I am before the puzzle.

Debian latest Branch master build ScummVM 2.6.0pre99-gbdc149bd5e8 (Jun 16 2022 06:47:23)
OS: Siduction (Debian/Sid)
GusCE6
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by GusCE6 »

dreammaster wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 2:13 am
GusCE6 wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2022 8:27 pm AGT games still don't work properly with Gargoyle. I downloaded and tried the early 2022 version.
Then there's not much we can do about it. Since the engine was ported rather than being done by us from scratch, we're really limited to the kinds of bugfixes and enhancements we can do.
GusCE6 wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2022 8:27 pm This is going to sound like a stupid question, but since "Foxtail" is switching to Unity is there any chance SCUMMVM is going to work with that? Also, for AGT and other games is it possible to give SCUMMVM the abilities of DOSBox and so cover all the bases?
Probably unlikely, unless the developers donate the source code to us. Without that, the game would have to be reverse engineered from scratch, at significant effort. Maybe someone will care enough to spend the effort at some point; who knows. Maybe even by someone outside of ScummVM. As for AGT, as above. If there's ever any open source AGT interpreter that provides 100% compatibility, we could look into doing our own port of it into ScummVM, even if it completely ignores the GLK framework Gargoyle uses. But again, someone else would need to develop it in the first place.
[/quote]


I was able to run more tests using the Gargoyle Interpreter over the past several days. The GAGS game "Alice" ran pretty much the same way as with SCUMMVM, although once again it was black text/white background as before. Colors do not work. "Alice" seems playable to the end.

With the more advanced AGT version 1.7/BIG) the special manual COLOR commands do not work, once again black text/white screen.

To try and cover as many bases as possible for common items (e.g. floors, walls, rugs, etc.) I used "generic" statements for anything related to them. The idea was that almost no matter what someone tried to do the same generic message would appear, that message covering those bases at once. PULL/PUSH RUG, EXAMINE RUG, TAKE RUG, BURN RUG, etc. would all be covered by that one reply. Problem is something like EXAMINE RUG gives the message YOU DON'T SEE ANY RUG HERE, probably because no location is given- I do that for things which generally appear almost everywhere. It works with DOSBox but Gargoyle, while it acknowledges that RUGS exist (you do not get an "I don't know what a rug is" error message) they are never there. It's the same with WALLS, CEILINGS, FLOORS, etc.

For specific nouns located normally it does work- in fact, unlike DOSBox a command like LOOK CUSHIONS only describes CUSHIONS rather than that and the room again. LOOK AT CUSHIONS works too. LOOK describes the room, like with DOSBox.

HELP does yield the HELP message for a room but under it is "Try 'glk help' for special interpreter commands."

Special AGT debugging commands do not work. If one attempts to test a game with Gargoyle he is in for one VERY inconvenient and lengthy time of it!

Meta-commands can yield a "GAME ERROR: Invalid argument to metacommand token." message. Note they do work with DOSBox.

The AGAIN command to repeat previous commands does work.

SEARCH yields a "Don't know how to search here..." error message. Because in a game I'm programming for a friend the only way out of the first room is to search some cushions to find a key with Gargoyle it is literally impossible to escape the first room.

IMPORTANT: The AGT game "Colossal Cave Adventure" itself seems to work properly, although it is still black and white. You can ENTER BUILDING at the very start but DOSBox does not allow this, you must type in ENTER only. ENTER also works with Gargoyle. I can only guess that my programming style, while it's "legal" and works perfectly with DOSBox, somehow does not play nice with Gargoyle.

Animation done with AGT works, but apparently Gargoyle is not eighty characters across so images are "off." It is also interesting to note that it moves faster than the normal 1 frame/second.

To be fair, unlike SCUMMVM Gargoyle does not crash with AGT games, but it is obvious neither can handle certain meta-commands and colors are useless. I like the house icon, though. :)

I downloaded the SCUMMVM Compatibility page and saw that AGT Interactive Fiction games support level is "good." My style must somehow have a bad effect on things, but again it's "legal" so I don't know why.


I wish I could help more with SCUMMVM, but cannot so far get over that first hurdle. When you say "source code" for "Foxtail" do you mean the game itself or Unity in general?
GusCE6
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Re: Please help with testing the upcoming ScummVM 2.6.0 release!

Post by GusCE6 »

One thread on the forums mentions "Demos Needed." Since my AGT games are causing trouble with SCUMMVM and Gargoyle would I send a sample of one of these games? If so, in private mail send me an e-mail link?
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