Jump to content
IGNORED

Game Disk Images as a Datasource


Recommended Posts

I've been kicking around the idea for a while of using the disk images of classic games as datasources for remakes of those games. Games must have databases on the disks that layout things like towns and dungeons, npc dialogue, quest parameters, platform levels, etc. If those regions could be identified in the disk images, read as data, and then used to drive a modern game engine, it could be interesting. SCUMMVM does a very similar thing, reading the original data (usually from files, instead of disk images) and rendering the graphics and sound on modern platforms.

 

Thought? Crazy? Not worth it? Amazing idea?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Depends how badly you want remakes I guess :)

The advantage with all the Lucasfilm/Lucasarts games was that they were all built on the SCUMM engine which made it relatively easy to build an engine that replaces it. Given series of ST games are likely to use standardised formats for level data etc. which would open up possibilities of this kind of thing, but otherwise it would take a lot of effort per game in comparison to SCUMM games.

Could work well for something like the Dizzy games!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Not too crazy. I'm working on a port of Sundog: Frozen Legacy to modern platforms.

This uses the same principle as the SCUMM engine and ScummVM, or the Inform games and Frotz.

 

This can work because Sundog was written, with the exception of a few small bits of 68k assembly, in UCSD/Softech Pascal. This compiled to a platform-independent p-code. So it was "just" a matter of writing an interpreter for the appropriate p-code dialect and I have most of the game running.

 

With most other games, which tend to be written for the native platform this is going to be much harder. But I'm certain there are other cases where a game vendor used a single engine for a series of games and much of the game logic is scripted in the data files.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And so then I go give your link a thorough read and find that you have indeed heard of it and linked to it. ;)

 

But I like your approach as well. Even playing the new one, I still have nostalgia for the old one (which about 10 years ago I actually played start to finish.... finally....)

 

It is one of my absolute favorite all time games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have you heard of/looked into the Sundog Resurrection Project?

 

http://www.sundogresurrectionproject.com/

Yes :) I think it's great that they're working on that. After all, the game was supposed to be a trilogy. 33 years late is better than not.

 

But indeed, my project's goal is different, it is about nostalgia and history and making the original game more accessible. I very likely won't be adding any new missions :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I've been kicking around the idea for a while of using the disk images of classic games as datasources for remakes of those games. Games must have databases on the disks that layout things like towns and dungeons, npc dialogue, quest parameters, platform levels, etc. If those regions could be identified in the disk images, read as data, and then used to drive a modern game engine, it could be interesting. SCUMMVM does a very similar thing, reading the original data (usually from files, instead of disk images) and rendering the graphics and sound on modern platforms.

 

Thought? Crazy? Not worth it? Amazing idea?

 

This is very common for PC games, there are a lot of re-creation projects that use new code along with game data from the original games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...