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Hey guys!
We have opened the Comment Section for all Posts now. After a quick review by our side they will appear under the respective posting.
Our Original Games Section is now fully functional and all patches which are available to date can be downloaded. In the next months we will work on additional content for the site.
Keep the Retro Spirit alive!
Eric
Hello there! I posted some messages for you on the Vogons forum about this, but I figure maybe it will be more visible to you here. I’ve started implementing some of your Sierra patches and playing through the games to verify they are in working order and don’t break anything, and I have two areas of concern so far:
1) The patch for Police Quest 2 (game ver. 1.002.011) does indeed skip the copy protection screen, but the game hangs when you try to exit from your car (Sonny just never gets out of the car).
2) The patch for Leisure Suit Larry 2 (game ver. 1.002.000) again definitely bypasses the copy protection check, but causes the game to return a lot of error strings after typed commands. For example, trying to look in the bin behind the market, or look in the hole when you are not close enough.
On the bright side: Your Leisure Suit Larry 3 patch works without any issues at all, so that’s great!
I have built a complete library of Sierra games that I have spent the last several (MANY) years archiving and searching for unprotect patches for. I am invested in having a thoroughly functional and playable library, and I’d be more than happy to help you test these Sierra patches (i.e., make sure the games are finishable, etc.) if you like. I can also help you prioritize the Sierra games most in need of accessible cracks too, if that would be helpful to you. Please feel free to contact me at the email address I’ve provided here.
Hey RS!
Thank you for your insightful post and your input. I will try to verify the errors you brought up. You did use the patch with the GOG Version of the games, right? Can you tell me if you tested under ScummVM, DOSBox or a real DOS System?
Also yes, it would be nice if you could help test them. :)
For PQ2 and LSL2, I used the Steam versions, which are the same as the GOG versions (the Steam game folders have all the same GOG files, and they are the same game versions). For LSL3, I used my own version (game ver. 1.021, which I have had kicking around here for, oh, 35 years), which is also the same game version as GOG/Steam. I was able to complete LSL3 with 4000 of 4000 points, with no problems. And, I’m using DOSBox 0.74-3 in all cases.
Oh damn, just saw it. It works fine under ScummVM (the one that came supplied with the game) but throws errors “Bad Said Spec” on DOSBox.
I will check why this occurs. I´m so grateful you bring this up.
Are there any SCI bytecode patches pre-applied in ScummVM? I know they entirely replace the SCI game interpreter on ScummVM, so that may be part of the issue. I would definitely say that, broadly speaking, patches should be a DOSBox-first effort for Sierra games; if they work in DOSBox, they’ll most likely work in ScummVM, too.
Chris over at Benshoof.org is one of ScummVM’s top SCI experts, so he might be able to help you track down the issues.
And to add to my other reply: Based on what I know about SCI scripting and patching (with the caveat that I am no programmer), it looks to me like you are applying patches directly to the RESOURCE files. The proper way to do it (again from what I have historically seen) is to extract the specific room scripts for the copy protection screens, and modify them as described here: https://www.benshoof.org/blog/case-cracked
You are correct. I did supply a patch file to you. (For Larry 2). Can you now test again? Do not apply my patch but just add the script file to the Game Directory.
Thanks for your help!
Eric
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