menace690 wrote:
ScummVM works due to the adventure games being written using a scripting language. The Ambrosia games require actual emulators of the full Macintosh.
SheepShaver should work, but I have not attempted it myself.
http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/sheepshaver
This possibly brings up another issue. A few nights ago I pulled out Sheepshaver and gave it a go. Unfortunately there's a few issues, which I'll list:
- Only an old, pre-compiled version boots for me (a build from 2009 I believe). It works fine, but CDs (and disk images I've created) appear as an unrecognised format so cannot be mounted within Sheepshaver - I've successfully used this version to complete Prince of Destruction. Maybe there's a better way for me to be making my disk images?
- I've tried compiling a newer version to see if this irons out a few of my issues. I can't build it with JIT (this throws up a bunch of errors beyond my technical expertise - likely requiring low-level knowledge of the hardware). The macports version won't compile for me either (same errors)... so I disable JIT, compile the X11/GTK+ version and it compiles. I can use the preferences GUI, but can't 'start' the emulator because it throws an error in relation to the allocation of memory. I can 'disable' this error by compiling it without something called 'pie' (which seems to do some pre-launch checks) but this just disables the error message and checks (rather than fixing the underlying issue - so it crashes upon launch instead of sayi g 'warning this will crash if you continue so we'll stop it here.')
Has anybody had better luck with ripping CDs (and getting them to mount in Sheepshaver) or with compiling a newer version. Github messages indicate that Tiger broke the ability to compile Sheepshaver (for technical reasons beyond my capacity to understand). IMO it would be great if somebody could update it. Unfortunately it could be tough finding somebody with the time, knowledge and expertise. I finish my law degree at the end of May... so might be able to have another go then... but I don't have the required skills/training in software engineering, so it'd really just be me trying to hack it and force it to work (by doing things like disabling important checks/error messages without even knowing what the checks are looking for - as demonstrated earlier.)
Side note, does anybody else find that studying new things makes them want to play more and more retro games? I find my passion went away when I finished my studies and worked full-time. When I went back to uni to re-train, my passion for retro games came back. Maybe just my way of dealing with stress?
Edit:
To respond to the other posts.
1) Qemu can emulate PowerPC now (and other CPUs)... wow, I always thought it was just an x86 emulator (and later virtualiser.) Might check it out... the development seems to be a lot more active than that of Sheepshaver.
2) It would be cool if somebody could make an interpreter for the Cyberflix game (and Obsidian.) But yes... I accept that SCUMM was a more useful one because there are soooo many SCUMM games. It's cool to see how ScummVM has expanded (partly with the cooperation with the original devs of some games, and partly due to mergers with other interpreters.) The Cyberclex games (Titanic, Dust, Redjack...etc) were iconic games... guessing it would take a massive effort to reverse-engineer the engine (no doubt multiple versions depending on the game too) but to the end-user it was a bunch of Quicktime movies controlled by a scripting language. You never know! If somebody could RE the scripting language then they might get a lot of functionality for free (i.e. not have to re-write movie/image viewers...etc?) I dunno. Obsidian looks similar to the end-user but undoubtedly uses its own language... and it's the only game using that engine (to my understanding.) Guessing copyright and the like could get in the way (and even if not, interested devs would be needed)... could be worth investigating whether the devs are willing to cooperate and tell ScummVM how their scripting languages work. Pretty vague idea, but it'd be cool to see it happen. Same with Bloodbath TBH! Surely a pretty simple engine that displays a background, randomly displays enemies on-screen at different speeds and registers clicks as gun shots. But reverse-engineering it all? Eeeeeep out of my league, I just wanna play games unfortunately so these ideas will more than likely remain as dreams :)