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AGStinger at the Quest Studios forum suggested that the non-interactive AGI and SCI demos (that used to run in computer shops) could also be added to the DVD. If you have equipment to output a run of these demos as a video stream it would make a great addition to the DVD. These demos can all be found at:
Link: http://www.classicgaming.com/agisci/(http://www.classicgaming.com/agisci/) -
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(Programming in Sierra games) Is it just me, or does anyone else also think that the old Sierra games aren’t programmed too well 🙂
All my Lucasarts games really don’t have any sound or speed issues, but a lot of old Sierra classics have both speed and sound issues.
PS!!!!! This is not meant as a complaint, it’s just something I’ve been thinking about lately. I *really* love the old Sierra games more than any other games out there, and I always have (since I was 8, I’m currently 22). -
(re: Programming in Sierra games) “not programmed too well….”
You have to define “well” in the scope of the context under which the games were developed. Basically a person or team will make a decision based on everything they have to hand at the time. Using an internal CPU clock tick (or whatever the actual issue is) for some timing might well have been the best option that they came up with at the time?!
I would comment on the Sierra installers…. The installer developers seem to make the whole process rather clunky. Take GK1…. original, installs OK on Win2K as does later Sierra Originals release…. now, try the same with the GK Mysteries collectors edition. It doesn’t work very well at all! More recently, HL1 had a massive bug in the installer where if you changed the default installation directory, when later uninstalled it wiped out all directories recursively from the root of where it was installed (IIRC).
The fact that LucasArts adventures don’t suffer the same problems could simply mean their engine didn’t work in that way or they came up with a different solution to a similar problem… However, I had lots of trouble with DOTT sounds (both floppy and CD releases had issues!). Without the likes of SCUMMVM, I’d imagine it’d be just as difficult running their games on a modern system. -
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(re: Programming in Sierra games) Both issues stem from the same thing, the speed of modern computers. The SoundBlaster driver problem arises from when the driver first polls the hardware, a modern machine responds so fast that it is as if the driver received no reply at all, hence the “Unable to initialize your audio hardware” error message (This is easily fixed by the GOSIERRA patch or one of the updated drivers from Sierra’s FTP.) The timing problems come from using the CPU’s clock as a timer function in their code. This causes the infamous errors such as those in QfG 4.
As far as LucasArts games go, There are many problems there as well. For those games we are fortunate to have ScummVM, which solves many of those issues (though not all.) It is too bad that FreeSCI is not as far in development as ScummVM is, though this is understandable as SCI is A LOT more complicated and versatile than Scumm is.
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