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Old Sierra Adventure Games for linux
Hal-kun writes "Remember
way back when Sierra adventure games were 160x200 with only
16 colors. Remeber how cool they were? Games like the original
Leasure Suit Larry and Space Quest one? Well, Entropy is
now writing a free Sierra AGI Interpreter for dos and a
Linux port is in the works.
Linux X11 Screen shots:
Kings Quest 2 Outside the Castle
Leisure Suit Larry Larry in the bar
Space Quest 1 Title Screen
Space Quest 1 Ulence Flats Bar
Space Quest 2 Title Screen"
God I loved those games.
It would still be nice if they could do SCI, though.
Space Quest 3, in my opinion, has a better text
parser engine than any other SQ game.
FYI, the Apple IIe has emulators so good that
they seem to work perfectly 100% of the time.
The only time I had 'nightmare' problems with SVGALib,
was when I didn't have the SysReq "Magic Key" enabled
in the kernel. Once I enabled that, I was able to
ALT-SYSREQ-R to restore the keyboard, and then type
"textmode" to restore the text mode. So now,
SVGALib crashes aren't a hassle at all. Heck,
it's EXTREMELY rare for me to have to reboot at all
now, dealing with SVGALib. =)
He just added in the x11.c from the guy working on it
in the latest release (now called "Sarien").
that was an sci game
Yeah, Brøderbund is still around. They've distributed a few recent games (can't recall any particular ones though).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
that'd be great to use the old games, but not eveyrone has dos/windows installed on their systems. i.e. me.
---
I just gotta say I'm pretty excited after I heard
this. I loved those games, and I think it's an
EXCELLENT idea porting those games to Linux.
I'm sure I'm going to play Larry, Space Quest
and Kings Quest!!! awesome!
On the Amiga, those games had FM music/soundfx. The bad thing is that it takes a powerful machine to run UAE with sound enabled.
Sam and Max.. dammit that game was everything and more. I want more. (:
DOSemu (http://www.dosemu.org) runs old Sierra games very well... I've been playing Quest for Glory 1 again on the .99.x series with no problems...
:wq
How appropriate. You fight like a cow :)
I remember this game from them. It and King's Quest I were the first commercial games I ever had on a PC. My dad downloaded them from a BBS for me.
I loved Art of War. I had no instruction manual so I played it all the time and always learned cool new things about it. It was every bit as entertaining as Heroes of Might and Magic ever was, just the graphics weren't so hot (though they were at the time).
The hell with that, port Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, and Mysteries of the Sith :)
I've heard people getting them working under Wine but I haven't yet, just locks everything up.
These were all DOS games. Of course, they work just perfectly fine under DOSEmu (with PC speaker and all!) but who doesn't want them available as native games? I mean, the old Infocom games work under DOSEmu too but I much prefer using one of the ZIP interpreters available. I can't WAIT to get this interpreter; I have about every one of those Sierra games that was ever made!
im not sure about kings quest, but sq1 and 2 only used pc speaker. sq3 made use of adlib quality sound. one less reason to reboot is fine with me.
Boy, I'm with you on that. I miss the games with text parsers more than anything. Granted, Wolf3D was and is one of my favorites (I just picked it up along with Spear of Destiny for about $15. Works fine under DOSEmu too), but the old games that made you think were the most fun. I remember when King's Quest 7 or whatever came out, and when your mouse cursor blinked, you clicked. Boring as hell. I'll take EGA graphics ANY day if the game is more fun. King's Quest II ranks as one of the best computer games I've ever played. The new ones may have killer graphics, but the games themselves are utter crap.
I believe the source, as given, is only for MSDOS.
I'm attempting an SVGALib port that I'll send up
to the guy.
At least I thing that was their name. They put out games for the C=64. There was one I was really addicted to called Spelunker. I would love to find some of the old C=64 games I used to play. Too bad most of the companies are being dicks about distributing their old games for use with emulators.
--- Keep the choice with the user..
"Another visitor.. Stay awhile. .. Stay forever!"
no, we're talking 80s, buddy. Loom, Monkey Island I, Zak Mackrakin, Indiana Jones Last Crusade... That type of thing
Where in the world is Carmen SanDiego
The AGI version of Quest for Glory one would. The VGA remake wouldn't.
Would QfG1 fall under this catagory as well? That was my favorite Sierra games of all time.
StylishPants.Org - Home of everything that's interesting, and nothing that's not.
Just find a search engine somewhere - like altavista. Search for abandonwarez, and you will find MANY sites with OLD games.
It looks like this Sierra AGI Interpreter still has a lot of bugs. Why don't play the original instead?
I had this game for my 1040 ST and laughed when my friend with a XT couldnt listen to sound except out of the lame pc speaker. ST sound rocked in its time. And Midi support ruled!
Anyone remember this? I played that game 10(?) years ago on my Atari 260 ST, and it rocked! All the following games like Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, Kings Quest, Police Quest et al were in the same style and they were my favourite games, until Lucas Arts did some similar ones (Monkey Island, Day of the tentacle...)
:o)
A year ago or so, I found a CD with Leisure Suit Larry 1-6 on it for $30 - now where I'm waiting for Linux versions
wasn't it 320x200
that was the coolest game, not to mention considering it came out in 92 or so. someone hook me up with a copy of that for linux!
... this is mostly useful for writing your own games with that engine and experimentin with modified versions of the original games. In order to play the old Sierra games, all you need is an emulator (whether DOSemu or an emulator for the Atari ST/Amiga/whatever was supported by the Sierra games).
Kinda. It was 320x200 video res, but the actual screens used doubled-up pixels
Peter
Isn't this an Infocom adventure ? Try your favourite port of the Z-Engine....
some of the old Amiga games like Fairy Tale (sp?).
I used to play that for hours.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!" =)
Actually, sound kinda works in DOSEmu. It can do Roland MT-32 emulation but it sounds kind of funny. And some DSP works. I can hear the gunshots and guards yelling on Wolf3D. But you're right, sound isn't the greatest in DOSEmu, yet. But I'm not complaining; I can play lots of games with a free project. I'm happy.
Here is some info on SCUMM, AGI and other old game engines
make
: No such file or directory
'. Stop. No rule to make target `objs.dep
any hints on how to compile it. It seems to want pgcc. I have redhat 5.2 and it uses ecgs (i believe) changed the makefile to ecgs and gcc to no avail.
It'd be especially nice if the X version could use DGA modes. I love doing things full screen, and unfortunately things seem to be moving away from SVGALib (or fortunately; it locks up on me half the time!) An option like in SNES9x is probably the best way of doing things. Just hit alt-f and you're in full screen, DGA mode. Really really nice, and it's a snap to switch back and forth. Anyway, I'm looking forward to my computer actually working (damn thing won't even turn on! Gotta check the switch and power supply when I can get my hands on a couple new ones) and playing these games.
That was supposed to be for the comment you were replying to (up one level) :)
Say "Monkey Island" again, and I'm getting sentimental. Sniff...
Each ultima game so far has a new engine (except U7SI used the same engine as U7. Although, other games would use the same engine (Bad Blood and Martian Dreams used the same engine as U6).
As far as U7 goes, there is EXTENSIVE technical information available, including the file formats, all the conversation text in the game, and a great deal of other information. The game itself has a built in in-game editor known as a hack-mover, where you can move any object, create your own buildings, landscapes, etc.
Entire ports have been done of some of the earlier games. I know U3 was ported to the Macintosh, and I believe that it was rewritten from scratch as it had nicer graphics than the original. Get on the "Ring of Dragons" webring and sift through the sites. You will be pleasently surprised with the amount of material that this game has generated.
What about the often-forgotten, but incredibly cool game, Conquests of Camelot? Is this bad-boy comeing for X11? You got to go through a beautiful game full of Arthurian legends and myths and there was tons of info on all the legengs in-game. This was one of the last games I could run on my 8088 based Tandy 1000SX, and it filled almost half of the 20 MB harddrive, but it was more than worth it. If anyone's got a copy of this classic, let me know!!
Yay! I want this! Now! Give it to me! :-) Seriously though, this sounds like really a lot of fun. Good work!
If what you're referring to is Exult, it's not
really a port of Ultima7, but rather an engine
that can display the Ultima7 graphics and animate
the sprites.
Unfortunately, I've never found enough information
about the data that drives the actual plot and
conversations in the game. It may be that it's all embedded in the code.
Another thing, my "SND2MIDI" program showed, that it is possible to map the AGI music into MIDI-events... Imagine hearing real 3-voice music from your games, when you only knoe the 1-voice pc-speaker version !
(AGI music is stored in a format, to play with the PCjr's sound-chip in 3 voices, the PC version plays only the 1. voice)
If you're looking for an easy-to-use and extensible open source engine, keep an eye on the MAGE Adventure Game Engine. We are currently looking for ideas about the compilation/bytecode intepretation of the story modules, and integrating some new interface paradigms(with typing, or graphical point'n'click, and so on..) Cactus (lazy to log in)
These games were never made for Windows. They would work under dosemu, presumably, but I'm not even sure they were all availible for DOS. I played them on my kickin' Apple IIgs
If at least DOTT and Sam And Max would be ported
for Linux. This would be heaven on earth.
Actually, Faerie Tale was released
for DOS, too. One of the first
3D-ish isometric style overhead view games, if
I recall correctly. (This would have been...
1988 or so.)
I remember it well because I stole that game
from a Software Etc. (I've since repented
of my evil ways..I was young, and..immoral.)
Peter Vessenes
peterv@ivcfne.org
I was so happy when I saw that option in the config for kernel 2.2, but unfortunately the Gravis UltraSound project does not work with 2.2. Besides ALSA (Which for me skips around a lot when I'm doing other things and also doesn't have OSS sequencer emulation), the Ultrasound project is the only way I can get good sound. OSS sounds like CRAP in the right channel so I refuse to use it. I can't wait until ALSA is a bit further along, then it's 2.2 and Magic SysRq all the way.. :)
DOSEMU
ya .. Broderbund is how it's spelled (with a line through the o, I think)
:)
They're still around. They did something with Cyan for Myst and Riven (distributed them mebbe?).
Anyway, yeah those Commodore games were awesome!
Anyone else remember Impossible Mission? or Winter Games? fun stuff
Nerp
Someone should code an AGI interpreter as a Java applet, and put it on the web, with some games (free, of course). The games could be played online, and for hack value, saved games could perhaps even be stored in cookies (gzipped and base-64ed). That would arguably be even cooler than the Infocom-Z-code-in-CGI pages.
I don't know is this was an old Sierra game but does anyone know of any plans to port Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis over to Linux??
I loved them too. But greedy companies and druggie teens always go for the latest thing, and I'm sick of 3d shooters (none are really that much better than Wolfenstien 3d) and "You are there" myst-quality games. It's been far too long since Sierra and Lucasarts and so on have released any good old, fictional and entertaining computer games. I miss Monkey Island, Sam and Max hit the road, and so on..... Since "Full Throttle" (can you say cool, but where's the rest of the game?), nothing's been the same..... :)
oh, well.....
It'd be cool to try something new for Linux.. but too many people would read the source to cheat, and too many would be involved in development
...look on Freshmeat for "Sarien" (which is apparently the AGI interpreter's new name)...a new version, complete with X11 support is there. With enough fighting, you CAN get it to compile, but my copy still dumps core when I try to load LSL1...
--ryan.
1) Remove the DOS-style newlines from Makefile.unix. (In fact, you might as well remove them from all the files)
...
2) Change all references in Makefile.unix from "pgcc" to "gcc"
3) Make sure _M_LINUX is defined in config.h
4) (Quick hack for compile...) Change "#ifdef _M_MSDOS" to "#ifdef _M_LINUX" near top of machine.h
5) run "make -f Makefile.unix"
Everything will compile without complaint, but we're apparently missing an object called "x11.o", and there's no source code I can see to create it with. But at least this is a start...
--ryan.
Destroy him, my robots!
Unless you use pc speaker. yuk :-(
UAE is a lot better for games.
I was a poor teenager when all these games were new so I didn't have the $50 a piece to blow on computer games although I did play them a bit at friends' computers. Is it possible to buy the game files to be used in this interpreter (now that I have plenty of spare cash)?
Does anyone have any technical information on the game engines for some of the ultima games, I found on freshmeat that a port of ultima 7 to linux is on its way, anyone have any idea of the file formats for the other ultimas??? porting them to linux would be cool, you know.
I would really like to get my hands on the engine they used for the quest for glory games. I think it may even be possible to modify it to make a multi-player networked online environment based on it. Any bitter ex-sierra employees feel like posting in on tripod?
xm@GeekMafia.dynip.com [http://GeekMafia.dynip.com/]
both space quest and kings quest are sold on anthology cdroms for under $20. chips and bits has them.
AGI made it quite easy: The games are based on an bytecode interpreter, and the differences between the revisions are quite small, like a few additional instructions, or a new file-format for v3.
It is more difficult for SCI (for example Space Quest 3 or Kings Quest 4), because the interpreter seems to get major additions for new games. And it isn't completely documented, yet.
The same is true for SCUMM. There seem to be major changes between the games, and I have done only a little hacking on Maniac Mansion.
P.S.: Why not playing on an emulator ? Of course, but do we want NATIVE games, with an Open-Source engine that can be ported to any CPU (PPC, Alpha, Sparc, MIPS) out there, or do we want to live forever with emulated MS-DOS and Windows stuff ?
At http://agi.helllabs.org. I sent a story update to Rob but he has not posted it yet. A babelfish version is also available.
...Leather Godesses of Phobos !!!!
:-) )
( Complete with scratch n sniff card
I was going to start a project to port the AGI :)
this Easter. Oh well... I'll find something
else to do...
Hmmm, I still love those games. Not much compares to the feeling and soul those games had, and have. Nothing is more fun then to spend some hours infront of any xQuest game, or Larry btw, or to have tons of fun in PANG!
Although some 3D shooters might be fun for a while (you're amazed by those gorgeous graphics, and the ultra-cool sound effects), they most oftenly tend to be very plastic and superficial (Half-Life is a exception).
/ i got real good bongo drums
I've thought about this, too. AGI was designed for PC/XT style computers, Java should be fast enough.
On the other hand: I'd wait until one engine is completed, and you can check your Java engine against that.
Another cool Java project would be to rewrite the Editors and Compilers neccessary to write an AGI game - most of it is Win95 or MS/DOS.
Jens
So, when's someone going to do a Linux port of the SCUMM(tm) interpreter?
Personally, I love that I can play all the Infocom text games on my PalmPilot
now if somebody would do the same for lucas arts games that would make my day :)
I have an eye condition that causes me not to have true depth perception (but it does give me an 180 deg field of vision). Because of this, I get bad headaches and nauseated when watching/playing 3d games.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
Call me stupid (stupid), but what inhibits Sierra games from working under wine? Or is this an add-on to wine, or what? I'm confused.
Space Quest ][ was the first game I played on the first PC my family owned.
My brother, sister and I spent hours in front of an XT with a Hercules Monochrome card, arguing about how to get Roger Wilco through the swamp without being eaten. We took turns typing...if Roger died it was the end of your turn. A few years later I had to institute the same rules in my flat when I bought my 486 and installed Doom 2.
Space Quest rocked. So did Kings Quest. And Police Quest. And Hoyle Card Games. And Codename: Iceman...
my blog: good times, man, good times