VOGONS

Common searches


First post, by ThunderPeel2001

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hi! I have done a search on the forum for BASS on XP but there doesn't seem to be an actual solution anywhere. I read that the ScummVM guys had been given the source by the ever excellent Revolution, but I have yet to hear more about it.

Also a poster called "Mok" brilliantly summed up what's actually technically incompatible about the game (surely useful to somebody? 😀)

Thread here: showthread.php?threadid=447&highlight=beneath+a+steel+sky

Since I'm new to the whole "DOS Emulation" world, I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of the most stable/complete (even if that means slow!) DOS emulator? Or at least list my options 🙁

I'm only really interested in getting the PC talkie version running. I have even considered buying a small second HD and installing DOS on it to get this game working... but I'm not sure if that would even work 🙁

Thanks for any info!

~ Johnny

PS - My specs are in my profile if needs be! 😀 Thanks!

Reply 1 of 30, by Ender

User metadata
Rank Site Admin
Rank
Site Admin

As far as ScummVM goes, we're working on BASS support using the source, yes.

However it'll be possibly months until you can actually play much, as it is a big job to rewrite an engine - even with the original code (which is all assembly anyway...) - and there are currently only two people really working on the BASS stuff.

The rest of us are finishing off the remaining SCUMM games so we can move on to other stuff :)

-- Ender
Project Leader,
http://www.scummvm.org/

Reply 3 of 30, by Ender

User metadata
Rank Site Admin
Rank
Site Admin
Snover wrote:

Ender, is that going to be independent of ScummVM, or another built-in thing?

It'll be another built-in thing. We're going to switch sometime in the nearish future to
using 'game modules'.. Eg, you install ScummVM then install a module for each game engine
you want - Scumm, Simon, BASS, etc.

We might release one or two independent things in the future (just some vauge deals with
certain people floating around), but at the moment we're keeping everything in one place
so the team doesn't get split apart working on various seperate projects.

-- Ender
Project Leader,
http://www.scummvm.org/

Reply 4 of 30, by Snover

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Interesting. I think that the modular idea is great. Of course, then you need to involve the communication between extensions, and I'm not sure of the performance ramifications (if any) of that. Doing that would involve stripping ScummVM down to its bare minimum (just the renderer) and then adding various SCUMM engine modules (sound rendering, gfx rendering, INSANE engine, decompressors, recompressors, file importer/exporters, etc etc.)

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 6 of 30, by Ender

User metadata
Rank Site Admin
Rank
Site Admin

Originally posted by Snover
Interesting. I think that the modular idea is great. Of course, then you need to involve the communication between extensions, and I'm not sure of the performance ramifications (if any) of that. Doing that would involve stripping ScummVM down to its bare minimum (just the renderer) and then adding various SCUMM engine modules (sound rendering, gfx rendering, INSANE engine, decompressors, recompressors, file importer/exporters, etc etc.)



Well, the SCUMM engine modules would all be in just the SCUMM module. No other engine uses the same formats or methods, so there's no point splitting it up into more than just 'Scumm Module', 'Simon Module', 'Sky Module', etc. At least not at the moment. So there's really no overhead involved except from communication between the renderer and the game module - and speed-wise, dumping out a 320x200 graphic image every now and then (and we only send the bits of the screen that have changed anyway) is pretty damn fast.

Oh, and HunterZ: Of course we do. ALL the cool people hang out at VOGONS 😀

-- Ender
Project Leader,
http://www.scummvm.org/

Reply 11 of 30, by ThunderPeel2001

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Seeing as this post is still around, here's a link to the only known way of getting Beneath A Steel Sky on XP (or at least the only way *I* could get it working! 😀)

It's pretty long and complicated, but I think worth it 😀

BASS on XP

Hope someone else has the same sucess I did! (I finally got to play and complete that game -- hurrah!)

~ Johnny

Reply 13 of 30, by Mithent

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Out of interest, what did Microsoft change/break in WinXP that prevented BASS from working at all? It runs in Win2K - and if it has any serious problems bar the crash if Scroll Lock is not on, I've not encountered them. Perhaps I was missing sound effects - I couldn't say unless I could compare it - but there was music and the game was certainly completable.

Reply 15 of 30, by Nicht Sehr Gut

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Originally posted by ThunderPeel2001 Seeing as this post is still around, here's a link to the only known way of getting Beneath A Steel Sky on XP (or at least the only way *I* could get it working!

IIRC, even with Virtual PC, I still couldn't get BASS working properly. Hrmm...

Originally posted by Snover The sound effects and speech are TOTALLY sussed.

They're totally investigated/inspected/figured? Hrmm x2

Reply 17 of 30, by Takara

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hello all,

A friend of mine today said "I have a copy of Beneath a Steel Sky, I sooooo want to play it but can't make it run, any chance you can?" and of course I accepted the challenge.

Following Johnny's instructions for using Virtual PC I so almost have it running! I've actually seen something other than error messages and blank screens, I have actually seen part of the intro with sound effects and midi 😁

But... it very quickly exits to DOS with an "Error reading data disk." error 😠 The CD is brand new! Not a scratch on it... so I'm a little befussled as to what to try next. Guessing it might be a CD driver problem... not sure.

I'm using XP on a nice new Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop, can provide more detail if that might help.

Any suggestions would be lovely! 😀
Thanks,

Takara.