WIP Atari ST ScummVM-lite

[terriblefire]

Which versions of the games are you guys using. Presuming its PC if there is midi involed? Is there a guide for extracting the SE editions?

[Steve]

It's just the standard DOS VGA versions afaik. Just extract them and delete any pc specific exe files to save space.

[nemo]

Got the chance to test the latest version on my Falcon today.

While the first release ran basically flawless the latest version has some problems.

Notably DMA sound is broken and no longer works. (MagiC and TOS)

There is also a problem with cutscenes in INDY and DOTT (not MONKEY 2 though), where a scene is stuck after the first bit of dialogue which won't end. (only when running under MagiC)

Performance is really great now though! :)

[agranlund]

MI2 and Indy4 both now crash with 2 bombs directly after selecting the YM for music.

@agranlund
On my H4, I get the same, bombs when running TOS 1.04 (with IDE patch) but runs with EmuTOS 0.9.12 fine. Hard reset did not help with TOS 1.04.
Am impressed with how quickly this is coming along. Great work.

Thanks for bringing up TOS 1.04! I'm using a memory allocation feature that didn't yet exist in 1.04 but should be easily fixable for next version. I see now that I even had a "todo" comment about this around that particular piece of code :)

[agranlund]

I uploaded a new version here: scumm_st_alpha_200531.zip
Except for the work in progress YM music improvements, it's mostly just trying to fix bugs and crashes.


* @kodak80 , it *should* work fine on TOS 1.04 now. I didn't test this on my actual ST, just Hatari, if it still doesn't run let me know and I'll burn some 1.04 roms for my ST when I get a chance.

* Fixed speech/digitsound related crashes which were very common when playing the Indy4 talkie version regardless of selected sound mode.

* Went through my Interrupt & Timer related code and fixed a bunch of issues. Hopefully not creating new issues for some machines in the process.
This will probably fix an Indy4 hang on startup that was reported by someone with a Mega STE.
This may help with the Falcon DMA sound issue?

* @nemo, it's a stab in the dark for the Falcon DMA sound stuff.
This version detects Falcon and will touch the Falcon specific bits of the DMA registers - most notably TimerA-on-replay-buffer-end.
With a bit of luck, this and the general timer code fixes may help. Please give it a go if you have time!
The cutscene issue you reported is just another consequence of the same sound issue - scumm games will sometimes wait for a certain sound or speech to fully finish before continuing a sequence, and in your case the sound is likely not processing at all.

About DMA sound in general:
I have been mostly going by the assumption that Falcon TOS must initialise stuff in an STE compatible manner else it couldn't be automatically backward compatible with STE games.
And because I don't actually have an STE (or any DMA sound capable machine) I am testing that part on Hatari which by the sound of it appears to be much less picky than the real machines.
Thus, reports about how and if DMA sound is working on real machines is very much appreciated :)

[nemo]

Ok, I gave it a try.

DMA sound still has an issue.
Every time a sample plays there is just a very short distorted noise and nothing more.
But the games no longer get stuck during playback. :)

[stephen_usher]

DoTT: Still no YM music. Same graphics corruption in title and small places elsewhere.
Atlantis: Music sounds a lot better during the intro. Flight paths are big red blocks.

P.S. The YM music in both Atlantis and MI2 is quite quiet, I had to turn the TV sound up to double that required for other games.

[agranlund]

Thank you @stephen_usher and @nemo I really do appreciate your patience with my questions :)

stephen_usher, you still have DMA sound working on your TT though? Basically still the same problem since first release where music in DOTT is not working but it is working in MI2 and Indy4?
I noticed these graphics corruptions and I have a good idea of what it is, should be an easy fix after I've gotten my head around the state of the game right now and what is currently broken on different machines.
Sure would be nice to get DMA sound working again, I'm still not 100% sure but as far as I can tell it is broken on Falcon but working on other machines?

The music is a bit lower on purpose, it's to make it reasonable compared to the volume of YM speech. The plan was to add some volume controls for this but I haven't gotten around to it yet :)



nemo, do you know if it by any chance works in a totally clean boot to TOS 4.04? Basically nothing in the AUTO and so on - this is how I start the emulated Falcon in Hatari and maybe that is why it works there (I really doubt it - it's more likely Hatari is just not being 100% accurate to the real thing).
Not sure what approach to take yet. I'll need to take a step back and look it over completely I think.


I'd be in the market for a Falcon if they weren't so crazy expensive nowadays, but it's hard to justify spending collectors-item money for something you'd only want for the occasional hobby coding :)

[stephen_usher]

Thank you @stephen_usher and @nemo I really do appreciate your patience with my questions :)

stephen_usher, you still have DMA sound working on your TT though? Basically still the same problem since first release where music in DOTT is not working but it is working in MI2 and Indy4?

Yes, DMA sound works well, but just no YM music in DotT.

[wietze]

I tested scumm_st_alpha_200531.zi on my Mega STE (4mb, 2.06 german tos, using Cosmosex) with DoTT and MI2; herewith my findings when selecting:
#1 (YM) for sound and #2 (DMA Sound) for speech/effects.

- DoTT: intro + game works, with YM background sound; no speech or sound effects heard
- MI2: intro + game works, with YM background sound; no speech or sound effects heard

Awesome effort; looking forward to these developments and will provide feedback on future version if desireables.

Regards,
Wietze