Apple //e SCUMM V1

[twh/f2]

Hi Everbody,

 

i just discovered the Applie //e version of Maniac Mansion (MM).

 

I don't know much about the technical specifications of the Apple //e but it was quite interesting to see MM running in the emulation.

 

The graphics are -imho- ugly. The Apple //e screens look like a mix of Atari hires NTSC with color artifacting and low-res 4 color mode.

 

It would be really interesting to understand how difficult it would be to port the Scumm v1 Apple //e implementation to the Atari 8bit so it could execute the MM scripts or even Zac McKracken. The Apple //e version of MM seems to require 128KB of ram. Both computers are based on the 6502 and don't think that the Apple //e had better support for graphics and sound.

 

To be clear: I'm not asking anybody to port it. I'm just fascinated that LFL once had a real nice platform-independent adventure Virtual Machine system. And I'm really sad that it has never been ported to the 8bit. Not even the predecessor which was used in Labyrinth...

 

 

[+Philsan]

Maniac Mansion is one of the 8-bit gems missing in the A8 library.

On Wikipedia I found this interesting part regarding C64 version:

 

Development focused on the Commodore 64 home computer, so a concern was to make the game small enough to fit into its 64 KB memory.[15] Scrolling was used to show objects and characters in rooms during cutscenes.[16] The designers used this technique to force players to explore the mansion's larger rooms by hiding elements off-screen.[11] However, the Commodore's bitmap mode was unsuitable because it needed a large amount of memory (8k) and did not permit scrolling (only character screens can be scrolled on the VIC-II chip). Thus the game had to use character graphics which were scrollable and only took 1k, but couldn't have the same level of graphical detail as bitmaps. The set uses 8 × 8 pixel tiles. Since the VIC-II could only have 256 tiles (two 128-character sets which may be switched), it limited the level of detail Winnick could design into the graphics. To circumvent this, Gilbert created a program to generate the tiles from Winnick's pixel art. To comply with the tile limit, the program compared similar tiles and created approximations that could replace multiple tiles. Winnick inspected the results for visual errors and then repeated the process until the number of tiles was sufficiently reduced. To make the characters easily recognizable, Winnick made the heads relatively large. Each character consisted of three multicolor sprites stacked on each other. Because the Commodore 64 restricted sprites to 24 pixels horizontally, the characters' animations never extend outside this width.[16]

[+Stephen]

Nice - very oldschool Graph2Font trick :

[candle]

I would love to see scumm ported to a8 platform, especially enchanced by and well suited for vbxe.

Many titles would become available just like that possibly ouperforming their amiga or atari st conterparts.

Another issue would be the sound engine, but nothing i couldn't fix

[José Pereira]

I had some initial try many time ago.

I think that the game logic/playing can be directly ported from C64.

The guys can be redesigned to Atari Multicolour Players and Missiles for the sight.

The screens can be in ANTIC4/GR.12 and the text part in one charset of hi-res GR.8 charmodes and I think I know how to do the screen(s) construction so that all game fit in just 64KBs.

I'll see if I get time in the next days to show my idea.

Edited October 4, 2013 by José Pereira

[twh/f2]

I would love to see scumm ported to a8 platform, especially enchanced by and well suited for vbxe.

Many titles would become available just like that possibly ouperforming their amiga or atari st conterparts.

Another issue would be the sound engine, but nothing i couldn't fix

 

You are so right Candle,

 

maybe it would be the convincing killer app so everybody has to upgrade to the VBXE !

But seriously - it would be a really cool demonstration for the VBXE.

[Tempest]

 

The graphics are -imho- ugly. The Apple //e screens look like a mix of Atari hires NTSC with color artifacting and low-res 4 color mode.

They actually look better on real hardware (emulated Apple II stuff never looks right). I played the heck out of this back in the day on my IIe, I was bummed when Zak McKracken didn't come out (it was finished but not released).