Question: Export to scumm?

[Sythe]

I'm a long time fan of point and click adventures. Various exceptionally good titles such as Loom, Monkey Island and DOTT come to mind.

I previously was aware of AGS but never actually looked into it until I played 5 days a sceptic (which I considered partically good for a fan game).

Anyway on with my question: The SCUMM engine/utility is well understood and has been extensivily reverse engineered by various groups such as the ScummVM development team. While you probably, personally, feel your AGS engine is superior to the SCUMM engine (which was coded a good 20 years ago now) it would be interesting to see an export utility that allowed developers to compile their games to the SCUMM engine to be played on/under ScummVM.

Anyway obviously I don't know a lot about your parser or your scripting language (other than its C++) as I've only taken a quick look at the editor. But the source to ScummVM is avalible on their site.

If you took this idea and ran with it you could also make an automatic importer for SCUMM data files which reconstructs characters, backgrounds, animations etc. into a blank AGS game. This would be fantastic, imagine the number of long over due sequals we would see from fans - who better.

Just a few thoughts. - BTW you might want to shorten that signup test; it's a little long and pointless.

[SSH]

Just a few thoughts. - BTW you might want to shorten that signup test; it's a little long and pointless.

Maybe you should ADD another question: "Is this signup test too long and pointless? Yes/No" 

[Haddas]

He simply means, that the signup test is there for a reason. We get very little lamers here in general.

[Scummbuddy]

We can already import everything from an old Lucas game into an ags fan game. And we have the ability to replicate the Scumm GUI's perfectly, so I don't see the point.

[SSH]

Not to mention that it's been asked umpteen times already. Try the forums search button up the top.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=14573
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=21805
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=22893
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=17818

[Sythe]

We can already import everything from an old Lucas game into an ags fan game. And we have the ability to replicate the Scumm GUI's perfectly, so I don't see the point.

I was just attempting to pull all the sprites, music and characters etc out of Loom without success. What tools are you using? I was using Scumm Rev; I tried both Loom 16 colour (good version) and the 256 colour cd version.

Be rude to me all you want it's not like I've got anything to loose here.

[Scummbuddy]

ScummRev is not for characters. It's for backgrounds and objects, mostly. Get Costume Ripper or Costume Viewer to look at characters.
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And if anything, I would want the signup questionaire harder. We still get trolls, but not nearly as much as we did when we didn't have the form. I'm happy its there, and happy how it is.

[SSH]

Be rude to me all you want it's not like I've got anything to loose here.

Well, your now deleted post called me a spammer... anyway, why don't we forget all that

There is an AGS Loom template already. I'd point you to Rui's Skimbleshanks AGS resource site, but it looks like it has overdone its bandwidth  No doubt, someone else has the template somewhere. So, you're problem is solved.

Generally it works best if you tell people your actual problem rather than where you got stuck in solving it: that's true in all aspects of life.

[Ubel]

ScummRev does rip music from some newer games like CMI for example...

I'd suggest you to get LucasRipper. It's quite good tool for ripping all graphics from LEC games.

[Sythe]

Be rude to me all you want it's not like I've got anything to loose here.

Well, your now deleted post called me a spammer... anyway, why don't we forget all that

There is an AGS Loom template already. I'd point you to Rui's Skimbleshanks AGS resource site, but it looks like it has overdone its bandwidth  No doubt, someone else has the template somewhere. So, you're problem is solved.

Generally it works best if you tell people your actual problem rather than where you got stuck in solving it: that's true in all aspects of life.

Well the term 'spammer' implies you are a person who spams. What else would I think when you replied to my post telling me to make a second thread. Essentially you started that.

My problem is AGS is a good engine so why hasnt anyone got around to continuing classic series?

The solution, I feel, is to write a utility to instantly import all the objects and characters from an existing game essentially allowing anyone to start where lucas arts finnished.

Templates and imitations are ok but you can still feel the difference when you sit down and actually play the game. When I played maniac mansion delux I realised it wasnt running on the SCUMM base very quickly.

I can help out with bandwidth. If anyone needs some free hosting for a point and click adventure game they are working on just drop me a line: sythe@sythe.org - I'm only using a fraction of my dedicated server's monthly allocation so I'd be happy to help.

[SSH]

Just a few thoughts. - BTW you might want to shorten that signup test; it's a little long and pointless.

Maybe you should ADD another question: "Is this signup test too long and pointless? Yes/No"

OK, maybe the use of the second person was confusing, but I was addressing the forum maintainers, not you. I was suggesting taht another question be added to the signup test, nothign at all about another thread.

Anyway, as I said. Lets put that behind us.

People have tried to continue series: there are lots of Monkey Island, Kings Quest, Indy, etc. threads in Games in Production. I myself was involved int he Fountain of Youth project for a while. However, most of these have no tbeen completed. Maybe people prefer to inject their creativity into somethign original, especially when some fan projects have been closed down by the copyright holders.

[Sythe]

Just a few thoughts. - BTW you might want to shorten that signup test; it's a little long and pointless.

Maybe you should ADD another question: "Is this signup test too long and pointless? Yes/No"

OK, maybe the use of the second person was confusing, but I was addressing the forum maintainers, not you. I was suggesting taht another question be added to the signup test, nothign at all about another thread.

Anyway, as I said. Lets put that behind us.

People have tried to continue series: there are lots of Monkey Island, Kings Quest, Indy, etc. threads in Games in Production. I myself was involved int he Fountain of Youth project for a while. However, most of these have no tbeen completed. Maybe people prefer to inject their creativity into somethign original, especially when some fan projects have been closed down by the copyright holders.

Ah hehe I see. Sorry I, misunderstood you.

Copyright isnt an issue for me. My server is located in Malyasia where the DMCA has no influence. I run a RuneScape cheating site which has been shut down about 8 times while I tried to bounce it around the US with different hosts. Eventually I moved offshore; Haven't had a problem since. RuneScape is an MMORPG owned by JaGeX LTD - a UK company which is now backed by millions of dollars due to their recent successes. They haven't launched a law suit and I'm actively breaking their current copyrights for their current games. I see no reason why lucus arts would go futhur than an email to a webhost when these guys didnt.

I graduate highschool in 2 weeks. After that I will have plenty of time on my hands but I am planning on starting a web hosting company so perhaps not. I would start a project related to this but honestly I dont think i'd get it finnished. Especially using AGS. I would probably get further writing my own engine and building on that.

Anyway at the moment I'm still more interested in playing good point and click adventures than writing them. Not that I can draw anyway. An engine is usless without an artist.

[SSH]

If you don't have an issue with such things, then go ahead and get involved. But understand that others will have practical, artistic  (and occasionally moral) resaons why they don't also extend the Lucas/Sierra series

[Electroshokker]

Anyway at the moment I'm still more interested in playing good point and click adventures than writing them. Not that I can draw anyway. An engine is usless without an artist.

Drawing ain't the only thing that's necessary: you need a good story, puzzles, music/sound, scripting, ...

If you can't do all these things yourself, you need to recruit folks, get a team together.

About fangames:

Aside from copyright issues which you would obviously get it you claim you're making THE sequel, most project leaders find out they don't have the time to put into such an undertaking. You need to motivate everyone, be there if they have questions (and in which time zones is your team), make important decisions (though setting up a poll or two just for the team helps with that), and tons of other stuff.

That being said, I just LOVE doing this stuff, 'cause in the end, it can really pay off. If you don't claim you're game as THE sequel, create your own original art (including music 'n stuff) and add a lot of parody stuff in there (which we at RMI are doing, I swear, sometimes I can't stop laughing), promote the original games and respect the copyright holders' wishes (should they make note of you), you're making a much better name for yourself then if you just rip off the old games's graphics, reposition some stuff and call it your own.

short version:[/i] Parodies, original art, don't call it a sequel, get a good team together (if you need help) and prepare to have a lot of work.

Making your own original game of course would be FAR more interesting, since you don't have to give a damn about expectations, copyright issues and other stuff.

(note: I've got plans like that myself for after RMI is finished, got a few half-written stories ready, but that's beside the point)

[Janik]

He simply means, that the signup test is there for a reason. We get very little lamers here in general.

I don't remember filling out a signup test when I signed up - is this a recent change?

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Yowza, the bandwidth is exceeded already! Long time this no happen!

It'll get reset on the ninth. In the meantime, anyone can PM me and ask for links. Here's the LOOM template if it still matters: http://www.lumpcity.co.uk/~skimbleshanks/templates/Loom.rar

[Pumaman]

SCUMM and AGS are fundamentally different, so there's no easy way to convert between them.

Graphics and sound effects can generally just be exported from one and imported into another, but the scripting languages are sufficiently different that it wouldn't really be possible to create any sort of converter.