AGS Wii Port?

[NsMn]

I can tell you that scotch is still active in the Chat. So why don't asking him by yourself? 

[QuestingHero]

I can tell you that scotch is still active in the Chat. So why don't asking him by yourself? 

I thought about that first, but then I figured that a response would be good for everyone interested in this port, not just me.

Edit: sent scotch a PM, I will post when he responds

[Layabout]

Actually, compiling ags games as Flash kind of brings up one of those ideas in my head. Why wouldn't it be possible to create a browser-playable ags game? Compiling for flash would cause issues with the well used right-mouse button in ags games, since it brings up the flash settings thingmabob. If you had an independant plugin that could read ags game files, you may have a way around this. I am not at all terribly familiar with what it would take to build a browser plug-in for AGS, but it would increase the available audience of your game.

Then again, thinking about it, it brings up many a problem. Not only would you have to write the plug-in for 3 os varieties, you'd also have to adapt it for the multitudes of browsers out there. Too big a job.

Wii sounds like a good idea, but the commercial problems, devkit, etc, as people have previously stated could be an issue.

iPhone is interesting. Yeah it could be an interesting platform. Only problem is you are competing against 10k+ apps. Many devs have stated the sheer number of apps available has made it almost impossible to make it a commercially viable platform.

[QuestingHero]

Depending on how they plan on releasing AGS would determine whether or not they would need the official SDK or not. ScummVM as well as many other Homebrew apps are using open source or community tools (a list can be found here) to develop and compile. If AGS was going to just add Wii as an option, and not allow people to charge for the Wii portion, then using these tools would be just fine (I believe).

[Joseph DiPerla]

Iphone, Wii and DS are far shots in porting. I think Linux, Mac and Windows Mobile are the best ways to port AGS. Especially WM. It has a compact version of .NET and should be the easiest to port as far as handheld systems go. But I think the only way AGS can truly become portable is by replacing Allegro with SDL or by coming up with a custom graphics library alltogether.

[QuestingHero]

I agree about Windows Mobile being the best bet due to compact .Net framework. The only reason I started this thread back up was because Chris told scotch (who volunteered to port it to Wii, and maintain a Linux and Mac OSX port) that he would be in talks with him about getting the source code. the link to that discussion is on the first page. discution is on the first page.

[SuperDre]

Going forward I believe a Wii port would be of the most benefit to the group of developers.
Additional knowledge of game play may be gained by installing the Homebrew Channel on the Wii and running SCUMM. Plays some adventure games on the Wii and report back. How is the playing experience. Does the interface work and does the Wii controller lend it self towards the game play interaction.

Even though there are a lot of Wii's out there, you will never get aproval from Nintendo, so the only way would be to use the Homebrew channel, which means you have to mod/hack your Wii... And we all know that it's illegal to do that.

1. Making the AGS runtime more cross-platform. This means an easier way to make Linux and Mac ports that are up to date. From everyone I've talked to who's interested in making commercial adventures, this is pretty much one of the big points that puts a maybe on their heads about using AGS.

I agree with that.. the biggest problem with AGS now for cross-platform is that Chris didn't really split the actual engine and the data/logic, even thought the data as far as I know is just 'pasted' to the executable (as I gather from how you need to get the linux version running)..
Also the plugin system will need to be made crossplatformfriendly which ofcourse will also be a bitch to do (unless the most popular plugin get integrated into the engine itself), the current plugin-system as I know it is too windows-specific (that's why they also don't work on the linux/mac versions of the engine)..

It's a shame someone burned Chris on another project which is the reason (as I understand) he's a bit more protective about his current project, and I'd propably would do exactly the same.. it's his baby and it's hard to let/see others work on it.. Also there are enough people who will say they will continue/port it to another platform but in the end will do nothing, and it's difficult to judge people unless they already proved they are committed to doing it, and that takes a lot of time before you can prove that..

Maybe with communities like ScummVM would give him a bit more confident that he doesn't get burned.. One of the things I and a lot from the ScummVM community would love is for ScummVM to incorporate the AGS engine (at least for playing the older AGS engines) so a group of REAL enthousiasts are able to work on it.. But then Chris would need to provide the sources for his old engines so ScummVM developers don't have to reverse-engineer everthing..  Once support is added for the old engine, it wouldn't be a problem for the new version(s)..

[Trent R]

Also the plugin system will need to be made crossplatformfriendly which ofcourse will also be a bitch to do (unless the most popular plugin get integrated into the engine itself), the current plugin-system as I know it is too windows-specific (that's why they also don't work on the linux/mac versions of the engine)..

Luckily, most all of the plugins have been modularized. Sure, there are some that can't be, including new ones, but AGS scripting can do a ton of things.

~Trent

[subspark]

I still think AGS needs to evolve enough to be completely cross-platform.

Cheers,
Sparky.

[Blackthorne]

I know this is some thread necromancy, but I didn't want to start another AGS port to Wii thread when there was this one already.


I would love to see an AGS port for the Wii - I think many of us here have some fantastic games and the Wii market would be a great place for a lot of people, both new gamers and old ones alike, to play some fantastic games.

Did anything ever come of Scotch's attempt?


Bt

[Snake]

I would like to know as well.

[subspark]

Yeah what ever did Scotch get up to on that? Did he ever organize the 3x source with CJ?

Cheers,
Sparky.

[PuNKKoMmANDO77]

ia a great project  :o

[QuestingHero]

ok, so I know this thread is VERY old, but now that the source has been released I think it is a great time to bring this back up. I would STILL love to play some of the AGS games on my TV using a wii remote. I know JJS has done some great things with the android, PSP and iOS ports, would it be posible to bring some of that love to the Wii?

Thanks,

UPDATE: Thanks to the Mods for moving this to Engine Development

[Icey]

AGS would be much better on the wii cause you it would be free.

AGS on the DS - 3DS would cost money cause you need a R4.

[JJS]

The Wii seems easy to program for. From what I saw the graphic API is very OpenGL like. An issue is that it is a bigendian PowerPC architecture which is basically unsupported since the PowerPC Mac port.

I was concerned about the available memory which is low with only 64 MiB. But due to recent changes (see the PSP thread), I think the platform could still be viable for a port. I won't promise anything, but I will look into trying to cross-compile the libraries and doing a basic Allegro port. Getting everything working might take some time due to the bigendian issues.

[QuestingHero]

JJS, you have just made my day! I will not hold you to it, but the fact that you are even looking at it, makes me smile.