WIP Atari ST ScummVM-lite

[agranlund]

There's a new build for anyone here to try if you want to.
scumm_st_alpha_200423

The changes in this alpha build are:
* DMA sound for STe / Falcon / TT computers
* Load/Save works (Press F5 in-game to bring up the menu)
* A bunch of general speech and SFX fixes, should also be a bit faster than before
* Simple and temporary options menu at startup:
you can choose music output (Off / Atari / General Midi / Roland MT32)
and speech/sfx output (Off / YM2149 / DMA sound )


Especially interested in knowing if DMA sound actually works on real TT/Falcon/STe hardware - I only have my 520ST for testing on.
Also interested in knowing how badly Monkey Island 2 runs on a stock Falcon.
(Some scenes appear to run decently in the emulator, which gives me hope, but performance may be different on real machines?)

I must say, seeing Day of the Tentacle running pretty much flawless on my good old Atari ST, with midi and digitized speech makes me really happy and very grateful for the amazing TF534 accelerator!


Next bigger things are these, and maybe also sort of in this order.
- Proper settings menu
- Clean up and prepare the code for going onto Github
- Start big rewrite of internal drawing routines
- Support for Sam'n'Max
- 256 color mode for TT and Falcon, also possibly a 64 color mode

I did some early steps for TT/Falcon 256 color mode but decided to shelve it.
Rather work on refactoring the graphics engine before it also needs to have a bunch of different options to consider.
My priority for now will be to focus on getting this 16 color version as good as I can possibly make it before adding more graphics modes.

Cheers,
--Anders

[stephen_usher]

I can't hear any music on my TT but the sampled audio is fine, though suffers from compression artefacts, which may be in the original anyway.

Oh, I've just had a stutter where the sample repeated a few times. (I'm typing this whilst the "Day of the Tentacle" is running through its start-up sequence. OK, some stutters when the eyes appear in the time machine sequence.

P.S. Also, after running the Windows version of ScummVM I notice that a number of the sounds aren't being generated, usually the squeaks, pops etc. And during the intro sequence the pick-up truck is rendered behind the scenery rather than in front.

[Steve]

Amazing work!

Results on my TT:

Tentacle = graphics pretty much flawless, DMA sound is great, atari music is great too / Also tried my MT32 - works great!
Atlantis = again, graphics flawless, I don't hear any sound effects? Is indy meant to make sound crashing through the window? Atari music sounds great, MT32 works!
Monkey2 = Graphics get a bit corrupted in the intro overlay sequence, other than that it is fine. Atari music works great, MT32 works great, again not too sure where I should be hearing sound fx though (haven't heard any up to the bridge encounter)

Cannot wait for a 256 colour ver, man you are a legend!!!

[EvilFranky]

Thanks for the demo to try.

Seeing MI2 running on the ST has been a dream for many years, very excited to see your progress.

Tried this in the Hatari emulator. Atari STE, TOS 1.62, 14MB RAM.

MI2 will only launch with sound disabled. Otherwise 4 bombs. It plays through the intro until the end of the campfire then crashes to desktop with a messed up screen.
DOTT (floppy no voice version) again will launch with sound disabled. Lets you start the game, click around a bit then crashes the same as MI2.

Not tried Indy yet

Looking good so far though, very surprised at how well the GFX process down to 16 colours.

Have you thought about looking into the Hatari profiler for when you come to taking a look at optimising the drawing routine? I'm not a coder at all, but have read enough on some Atari forums to know it can be a useful tool for optimising projects.

[stephen_usher]

Here's a capture of what it's like on the TT: https://youtu.be/PEi14BKyzJo

[Steve]

Here's a capture of what it's like on the TT: https://youtu.be/PEi14BKyzJo

It is strange that you don't get the YM music on your TT but I do. I know my machine has that strange double layer PCB mod on my YM chip, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

[stephen_usher]

I've just tried with ST sound... During the part where the tentacles are "walking" towards the stream I get 20 (yes, 20) bombs!

I get sound but no music.

[stephen_usher]

Here's a capture of what it's like on the TT: https://youtu.be/PEi14BKyzJo

It is strange that you don't get the YM music on your TT but I do. I know my machine has that strange double layer PCB mod on my YM chip, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

No idea. Mine's totally stock. The only things I've done since I bought it new is replace the TT-RAM card, added a Lightning VME, changed the SCSI hard disk, power supply and the backup battery. i.e. nothing on the main board.

[Steve]

It is strange that you don't get the YM music on your TT but I do. I know my machine has that strange double layer PCB mod on my YM chip, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

No idea. Mine's totally stock. The only things I've done since I bought it new is replace the TT-RAM card, added a Lightning VME, changed the SCSI hard disk, power supply and the backup battery. i.e. nothing on the main board.

Yes mine is stock too, but see my motherboard photos:
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... f=58&t=999

It has some form of factory mod on the YM chip. Nobody know what it is for... Yet.

[stephen_usher]

You've also got a later version of the TT with SMT chips.