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#6193 SCI: SQ4 title screen skipping too quickly in EGA version

SCI: Space Quest 4
open
Filippos Karapetis
Script bugs (494)
5
2016-02-02
2012-11-28
misterhands
No

Latest Win64 snapshot
SQ4 DOS EGA

That was a bug I previously reported for the VGA version (SCI: SQ4 Floppy DOS title screen skipping too quickly - ID: 3537232),
and commit 99de89c974fc24bf58b034842750e522d7d441d4 by md5 fixed it. But the bug is still present in the EGA version.

Unlike the VGA version, the EGA version has no palette cycling effect on the title screen (or when Roger travels through time), so it will require a different fix.

Discussion

  • Filippos Karapetis

    Filippos Karapetis - 2012-12-02

    Thanks for the bug submission.

    I just watched the introduction of the EGA version, and I believe that the Space Quest 4 screen behaves correctly, plus the music is heard at the right time.

    In the VGA version, the Space Quest 4 screen disappeared very quickly before the fix, but in the EGA version it all works properly, as the game scripts don't take the palette cycling effect delay into account.

    Thus, I don't see this problematic behavior in the EGA version, and I'm inclined to close this as "Works for me". Setting it to "Pending" for now, till there is more feedback from the original poster.

     

  • Filippos Karapetis

    Filippos Karapetis - 2012-12-02
    • assigned_to: nobody --> thebluegr
    • status: open --> pending-works-for-me
     

  • misterhands

    misterhands - 2012-12-02

    I just tried again, and in ScummVM on my desktop computer the title screen doesn't last longer than one short second, which is clearly too quick. So it really feels like the title screen is skipped, just like the VGA version before you fixed it.

    In DOSBox, the title screen can last from less than 1 sec (like in ScummVM in my computer) to 10 seconds or more, depending on how the cycles are set.

    So I think it is not a bug, simply something that happens when you have a modern, very powerful system. The number of cycles that determine the duration of the title screen can be processed in a split second.

    This problem requires a workaround IMO. And the issue is sure to become worse and worse in the future as the power of machines keep increasing.
    I feel that the normal time for the title screen would be 4 to 6 secs, like on the fixed VGA version.

     

  • Filippos Karapetis

    Filippos Karapetis - 2012-12-02
    • status: pending-works-for-me --> open-works-for-me
     

  • M. Kiewitz

    M. Kiewitz - 2014-11-02

    Which title screen do you mean?

    The Space Quest screen? Or the "Time Rippers" screen?

    The "Time Rippers" screen delays internally for exactly 8 seconds. It doesn't use cycles.

    Also do you have music enabled?

     

  • misterhands

    misterhands - 2014-11-03

    I mean the Space Quest title screen. It vanishes right after the copyright line shows up.
    At that very moment there is a big CPU utilization spike in the ScummVM process, it looks like the cycles are processed as fast as possible.

    The Time Rippers screen lasts 8s indeed. So this one's a little too long. (kidding)

    The music setting does not seem to make a difference. I've tested with no music, adlib and mt32.

     

  • Eugene Sandulenko

    Eugene Sandulenko - 2016-02-02
    • status: open-works-for-me --> open