BACKENDS: Dreamcast - Riven: List for loading saved games is empty

[kremiso]

Hi
in these days i reach to make run Riven on the Dreamcast, using the 5 CD
Windows english version and your (great as usual) last 2.0.0 release.
The game runs fine, and can be saved, but when i want to re-load it,
the list of gamesaves is empty (but is still on VMU)
Is it fixable ?
Thanks

[bgK]

The Dreamcast save code seems to be limited to filenames up to 12 characters when listing files:
​https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/blob/1b0ffaf31104e086ae4735447beab78f37626fd8/backends/platform/dc/vmsave.cpp#L183

Riven uses 13 characters filenames. If you are able to build the DC port maybe you can try to tweak the code to see if the DC able to list files when using a larger buffer for the filename.

[kremiso]

Sorry, this is a little too much for my tech level :)
hope some Dreamcast nut here around read this and try to make it

btw, thanks for the reply !

[digitall]

I took a look at the Dreamcast backend code and the relevant calls are into the libronin library used as a HAL on the Dreamcast. libronin also uses 12 character filenames so this would need to modified there to allow longer ones.

However, I don't think this is possible since the original Dreamcast VMU Flashrom layout uses a FAT with 12 character filenames as per: ​http://mc.pp.se/dc/vms/flashmem.html

It may be possible to reformat this with a custom format, but I suspect the Dreamcast Bootrom might "correct" this and wipe the VMU :/

[kremiso]

Riven gamesave (x2)

[kremiso]

Thanks @digitall for the (bad) news
i have uploaded my Riven gamesave for anyone want take a look
it's a virtual VMU save taken with Demul emulator
inside it, 2 gamesaves 41 blocks each

[dafioram]

This is a little out of scope.
An alternative to loading from the gui is using the command line.

From the README:

-x, --save-slot[=NUM] Saved game slot to load (default: autosave)

[bonki]

Please leave this open for now. There might be an elegant way to fix this and as more games might suffer from the same problem essentially rendering them unplayable I feel like we should put more effort into this.

Also, the command line is no viable option on the Dreamcast (please correct me if I'm wrong).

[kremiso]

Was wondering about opposite approach, change save/load game routines to reduce to 12 chars,
to make it readable by the DC VMU
You think it's possible ? Where Riven manage those ones ?

[kremiso]

not an elegant solution, but i reached to fix this hexediting and changing the generic savename string into the corresponding plugin