AGI: Gold Rush - not detected in nightly build

[enderandrew]

• ScummVM 2.1.0git898-gc5981a1fad
• English, floppy, tried two versions
• Windows 10 x64

When adding the game, ScummVM suggested this was an unknown fan game (despite the game being listed on the compatibility chart). I tried editting the ini file to manually tell ScummVM to treat this as goldrush.

[goldrush]
platform=pc
commandpromptwindow=false
gameid=goldrush
description=Gold Rush! (DOS/English)
originalsaveload=false
herculesfont=false
path=D:\Emulation\ScummVM\games\goldrush\
mousesupport=true
guioptions=sndNoSpeech gameOption1 gameOption3 gameOption4 gameOption5

I got the following output:

User picked target 'goldrush' (gameid 'goldrush')...

Looking for a plugin supporting this gameid... AGI preAGI + v2 + v3
Starting 'Gold Rush!'

The game in 'D:\Emulation\ScummVM\games\goldrush\' seems to be an unknown AGI
preAGI + v2 + v3 engine game variant.

Please report the following data to the ScummVM team at
https://bugs.scummvm.org/ along with the name of the game you tried to add and
its version, language, etc.:

Matched game IDs: goldrush

{"grdir", 0, "3ae052117feb483f01a9017025fbb366", 2399},
{"object", 0, "9fa64d3f27c489933c6d9700e94f1791", 1814},

Your game version has been detected using fallback matching as a
variant of agi-fanmade (Unknown v3 Game).
If this is an original and unmodified version or new made Fanmade game,
please report any, information previously printed by ScummVM to the team.
AGI: Using PC-BIOS font
Emulating Sierra AGI v3.002.149

[FredPJ]

I'm not a developer, but you're most likely using a cracked version that is around on the internet and not the original game. I can confirm that Gold Rush! is detected in the current nightly build using proper sources.

[enderandrew]

This isn't a cracked version. I initially tested from my own preserved copy of the game I'd had for years.

In adding and testing various games I find it odd that for some games, all kinds of versions are detected and supported (multiple platforms and revision levels of the game). I've noted with some games however, that only one particular version is supported, and at times, the data files are only accepted in a weird format.

For example, copying the game.dat file from the floppies for Troll's Tale doesn't work. I found a "ROM" that someone put out of what is recognized for Troll's Tale, and it is a disk image file. Why does the data need to be in a disk image file rather than copying the original files? In this case, the pirated version is being supported, but it would be difficult to get the original version working.

To be thorough, when my copy of Gold Rush didn't work, I then turned to "rom" sites (though these aren't truly roms) just to test and see if my copy wasn't really a supported version. I found two different versions online that are listed as working in ScummVM specifically and they don't in the nightly build I'm testing with now.

Digressing a bit, but I'm seeing a similiar issue with "Hi-Res Adventure #3: Cranston Manor". There are cracked versions floating around most of the Apple II sites. I have an original copy of the floppy that isn't cracked, but ScummVM won't recognize it. For this game, it wants a 13 sector floppy disk image, even though it doesn't support or look for this type of format for any of the other Hi-Res Adventure games from the Apple II. Why is this the only version supported? I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to convert what I have into the 13 sector disk image. I'd literally have to fire up an Apple II and run a special version of ADT to do that. I didn't file a bug report because as far as I can tell, this is intended behavior to only support this one odd image.

I get conceptually that ScummVM does not want to be seen as a piracy tool or supporting piracy. For old C64/Apple II/Atari games in particular, often the only versions that are preserved are cracked versions, which may behave differently. Preserving original copies of old floppy games is difficult and important where possible. But for some of these games, the support structure seems a bit obtuse.

More specifically for Gold Rush, if non-cracked files from the floppies aren't working currently then I don't know what to say. I also spoke to others who were able to get the "rom" version working previously, which is what that copy was distributed as a version that specifically works in ScummVM. This may need to be tested again against nightly, which is why I opened a bug report.

[FredPJ]

Again, I'm no developer but the information that you have provided matches the well known pirated copy with cracked copy protection (and many bugs). I can confirm that both the versions 2.01 (Sierra 1988) and 3.0 (The Software Farm 1998, available on Steam) of Gold Rush! are successfully detected in the latest nightly build. Cheers.

[enderandrew]

I hadn't thought to try the Steam version. I actually already had that in my Steam library, probably from a Humble Bundle or something. That version is detected.

[waltervn]

Replying to enderandrew:

Digressing a bit, but I'm seeing a similiar issue with "Hi-Res Adventure #3: Cranston Manor". <snip> I have an original copy of the floppy that isn't cracked, but ScummVM won't recognize it. For this game, it wants a 13 sector floppy disk image, even though it doesn't support or look for this type of format for any of the other Hi-Res Adventure games from the Apple II. Why is this the only version supported? I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to convert what I have into the 13 sector disk image. I'd literally have to fire up an Apple II and run a special version of ADT to do that. I didn't file a bug report because as far as I can tell, this is intended behavior to only support this one odd image.

The main problem there was that the usual image format for 13-sector disks is .nib. The problem with the .nib format is that many different .nib files can describe the same data. So even though I had created a cranston.nib from our original floppy, adding that to the detection list was pointless, as the md5sum would never match someone else's cranston.nib. It's not possible to do proper detection without looking inside the .nib at the actual data stored within it. That's why I opted to use the uncommon .d13 format, which can be created with CiderPress.

However, support for 'looking inside a .nib' has been added very recently and you should now be able to use a cranston.nib file as well. If your floppy dump is in some other format like kryoflux stream files or edd, we'll probably never support those formats directly, but can help with the conversion process.