Beneath a Steel Sky

hamster

Just installed VmScumm v0.80 and got the CD version of Beneath a Steel Sky. I am determined to finish it this time. I bet a many of ye want to complete this gem but for the lack of time. (72Mb)

Going to install Monkey 1 and 2 as well.

hamster

Actually I just dug out Day of the Tentacle zipped on a CD. Forgot I had. The intro is hilarious and I forgot Maniac Mansion is on it too! Time to put the hamster into the microwave and gauge weird Ed's reaction. Ha Ha!

RobertFoster

One of my favourites

hamster

Hmmm The Robert Foster? The Number One Fan?

hamster

Today, I went through my old game collection and applied them to the ScummVM.

I tried the out following:
1. Beneath a Steel Sky (DOS CD version - class without saying)
2. Day of the Tentacle (PC Disk version - still has voice intro - class)
3. Flight of the Amazon Queen (CD DOS version)
4. Loom (Amiga disk version)
5. Maniac Mansion (DOS Disk version)
6. Maniac Mansion (Amiga Disk version)
7. Monkey Island 1 (Amiga Disk version)
8. Monkey Island 1 (DOS Disk version)
9. Monkey Island 2 (Amiga Disk version - better music than PC)
10. Monkey Island 2 (DOS Disk version - better graphics than Amiga)
11. Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (Amiga Disk Version).

Games rared up for future installs comes to 162Mb (BASS and Flight of the Amazon taking most of the space). It's great to get to play any of these a click of a mouse. No more floppies, no more wheel codes, no step-ups. Excellent!

Will try to add Simon the Sorcer I and Broken Sword II later (downloaded the re-encoded videos to replace the ones on the CDs).


Notice the differences in the graphic palette between the Amiga and PC versions. I actually prefered the Amiga version for music and the PC version for graphics. In Amiga case, floppies aren't an issue (WHLOAD or not).

RobertFoster

Wow, big list! BS1 and BS2 are easy to get working through ScummVM, though they'll increase your RAR by a gig or so There's a tutorial here, though I doubt you'll need it

hamster

Thanks. I am going to strip out Broken Sword and burn the lot to 1 DVD. I'd love to put Sam and Max on with this list but damn I sold the game after completing it. Argh! I love that line "Your a sick puppy sam".

Once I'm done, I get some manuals an maps together as well to complete the DVD.

hamster

The Broken sword II works perfectly under ScummVM. The new videos from the scummVM site work fine and the total for this game comes to 950Mb.

I will try Gobliins (Amiga/DOS) and Simon the Sorcerer (Amiga) next. Tomorrow I will put Curse of Monkey Island on the DVD as well (may as well fill it!). These will all work perfectly under linux now.

hamster

Got a hold of Sam and Max! And this works beautifully off ScummVM. I remember when playing on a 3x speed CDROM drive the pauses killed me off the game. The dialog is a barrel of laughs and the wisecracks from Max cracks me up... see the screenshot from near the start.

Also, I came across an advanced version of Zak McKracken (FM Towns) which sports lovely VGA style graphics and CD music.

hamster

I kicked up Maniac Mansion in ScummVM and the enhanced version. With that I compared it with the recent Deluxe version (not for ScummVM). The first line of the intro makes a good point, don't you think? This was originally a 1987 release.

hamster

Got Full Throttle, Loom and The Dig (Fantasic game!) working under Scumm VM. Full Throttle and The Dig (especially) have great sound tracks!

I decided to start with Monkey Island 1 though and work my way up through these classics.

hamster

Final Updated list. That's wraps up ScummVM until later.

TinCool

hamster wrote:

Got Full Throttle, Loom and The Dig (Fantasic game!) working under Scumm VM. Full Throttle and The Dig (especially) have great sound tracks!

Yeah, The Dig is a great game all right. A little slow at the start as the first few puzzles are a little difficult but once you get going it really is good, one of the better Lucasarts games point and clickers.

Full Throttle is great too, but far too short and the biking section of the game is a bit of a pain in the nads but great story and music and comically funny.

hamster

Yeah Full Throttle is a bit short alright. The punch-ups on the bike sections is unusual... at least you can retry and move on. Using ScummVM I have it set up to use x3 scale and full screen and looks authentic. I play this on the laptop so it also enables me to use the laptop's native resolution.

silverlining

That's mad, I got a collection of scumm games + emulator for the xbox (SCUMMVMx) about a fortnight ago. I was a huge fan of point and clickies having finished both monkey island 1 & 2, BASS, simon the sorcerer, sam & max and full throttle and I really missed that genre. I had a quick go at most of the games but once I get a bit of time I'm going to play through The Curse of Monkey Island which I had never played before.

Gobliiins (or is it gobliins?) as far as I remember was really funny and it's not in this collection so I'll have to do a search for it.

It's nice to be able to sit back and play a game at your own pace for a change

hamster

It's Gobliiins (3 i's - I always have to remind myself of that). The intro is good as it shows how the king comes under the spell of a voodoo doll.

I am actually going through The Curse of Monkey Island myself - currently at Stan's Previously Owned Vessels.. Thats a laugh. I completed it before - 10 years ago on the PC (no sound - not even Adlib) which was a downer from Monkey Island II on the Amiga (which was a 11 disk swop fest). Yep, as you saw, it's great to get IN and get OUT of these games when you have some spare time.

I plan to do the Dig afterwards Monkey 1. The music was done really really well and will help working out the puzzles.

I haven't been able to come across Simon the Sorceror and I had the PC floppy version once but never installed it!

LoGiE

Anyone got ScummV and BASS working on the PSP and care to post a setup guide?

hamster

LoGiE wrote:

Anyone got ScummV and BASS working on the PSP and care to post a setup guide?

Hey LoGiE....

Would this help? -> ScummVm setup

hamster

I finish The Secret of Monkey Island. It's true - it is a little short but it was excellent - I don't remember the ending from years ago - I'm beginning to wonder if I ever completed it before but the ending is similar in a way to Monkey Island 2. Excellent laughs throughout.

Anyway... Monkey Island 2 is next. The one I remember best.

hamster

Tonight,
I'm getting further into Monkey Island 2, talking with Cartographer Wally B Feed and about to steal his monocle. Originally I played Monkey2 on the Amiga first before Monkey1. Now having played/finished Monkey1 the
other day again (to refresh memories) - I can't help noticing how closely MK2 copies from MK1. A bit too much! The story of a crew finding (another) island is one example and at end of MK2 the way that Le Chuck is dealt with. I think though MK2 was always my favourite. The locations are so well done you get a piece of the atmosphere with nice ambient music - and get drawn into the story. Glad I saw the sequel first so I didn't compare it with MK1 all the time.

hamster

After a few weeks of real life (tm) interruptions - the quest of Monkey Island 2 continues unabated.

Here Guybrush is investigating the tombstones. Some really hilariously ones here. Here to find "something of Dead" for the nasty Largo and put an end to that embargo.

RagerX

If you want to decrease the install size of the games on your HD, I suggest getting the ScummVM Tools from their website. The video encoding is lossless and unless your running a high-end speaker setup you won't notice the loss of audio quality after converting to mp3. I saved about 40% of HD space doing this.
Anyway here's the link:
ScummVM Compression tools

hamster

RagerX wrote:

If you want to decrease the install size of the games on your HD, I suggest getting the ScummVM Tools from their website. The video encoding is lossless and unless your running a high-end speaker setup you won't notice the loss of audio quality after converting to mp3. I saved about 40% of HD space doing this.
Anyway here's the link:
ScummVM Compression tools

Thanks for that. I have seen the guys discussing it on scumm forums but have yet to try it. As far as I know - I downloaded the re-encoded videos for Broken Sword 2 (that was the biggest I had) rather re-encode my original from the 2 cds. But the whole Scumm collection fits nicely on one DVD with room for different versions. The Amiga music for Monkey Island 2 sounds better than the PC version for example - but the pc graphics were better with no disc swapping. I didn't have a harddrive with amiga originally.
I meant to store the 2 Simon sorcerers game on the same DVD - but should fit in if needed.

hamster

I have been meaning to complete Beneath a Steel Sky going back. This xmas I spent some time on it. Now it's getting weird as Robert Foster enters *hush* Linc Space! Great Game!



Anyone playing any adventure games recently?

SirLemonhead

I think that or maybe Day of the tentacle were the last ones I played a few months back.

Can play through them all without even thinking at this stage, which sucks.

hamster

MasterOfSolos wrote:

I think that or maybe Day of the tentacle were the last ones I played a few months back.

Can play through them all without even thinking at this stage, which sucks.

It can be frustrating at times. Usually for me it's finding a use for an object or where exactly to use it. BASS so far is easy enough.

SirLemonhead

I've just played them all so many times before

Ruu_Old

Love Beneath a Steel Sky. :)I was playing another point and clickeh game called Darkseed, very odd game.

hamster

Ruu wrote:

Love Beneath a Steel Sky. :)I was playing another point and clickeh game called Darkseed, very odd game.

Yeah about the 2 different sides of the same reality. Kind of hard to stick with I guess? I heard it wasn't too logical. I'd like to try it some time.

LoGiE

Ruu wrote:

Love Beneath a Steel Sky. :)I was playing another point and clickeh game called Darkseed, very odd game.

Darkseed! I played this on my trusty Amiga years ago amd gave it a blast in WinUAE about two years ago. It was an underated game at the time but it looked fantastic. All that H.R Giger stuff gave it a good atmosphere in the dark world.

I have Scummvv working perfectly on my PSP along with full throttle. Not a bad way to spend trips to work on the dart;)

hamster

LoGiE wrote:

Darkseed! I played this on my trusty Amiga years ago amd gave it a blast in WinUAE about two years ago. It was an underated game at the time but it looked fantastic. All that H.R Giger stuff gave it a good atmosphere in the dark world.

I have Scummvv working perfectly on my PSP along with full throttle. Not a bad way to spend trips to work on the dart;)

Sounds like you recommend it then Logie? I may try it out with a whdload version if I can.

LoGiE

As Ruu pointed out it's a strange game! Grab the Amiga version if you can for the sfx

hamster

LoGiE wrote:

As Ruu pointed out it's a strange game! Grab the Amiga version if you can for the sfx

Ok, Will try definitely try it out tonight.

hamster

Hi Logie,

I tried out Whdload versions of the ecs version and the AGA version with speech using the CD32 whdload version under wb3.1. I found I like the ecs version better. The speech is nice in the AGA version, but it's hard to keep from blinking and up to speed.
The start is pretty gruesome - it's a famous shot used in many a review. I might put this on the Adventure list. It's fairly original as adventures come.

What Amiga version is your favourite?

hamster

Ooh! This game takes a dark and mysterious twist.... :eek: