Opened 2 years ago

Last modified 2 years ago

#13365 new feature request

SCUMM: French version of The Dig has original audio issues in SMUSH

Reported by: dwatteau Owned by:
Priority: normal Component: Engine: SCUMM
Version: Keywords: dig, french, audio, smush
Cc: AndywinXp Game: The Dig

Description (last modified by dwatteau)

There are some audio problems in the French version of The Dig, which also happen with the official interpreters (confirmed with: 1995 DOS, 1996 Macintosh, 2002 Aaron Giles, and 2009 Steam interpreters).

For example, in the intro scene:

(1) The very first sentence pauses/glitches in its first few seconds, as if the audio buffer had troubles initializing/calibrating. Example here: https://youtu.be/C2MA7tVYlvY?t=206 (and the streamer notices the glitch too), and it also happens there: https://youtu.be/C2MA7tVYlvY?t=231
(2) When the background art credits appear, there's a long sentence, which is cut a couple of seconds too early in the French version (the next sentence is started before the last "une langue étrangère" words are told). Example here: https://youtu.be/C2MA7tVYlvY?t=393

After some discussion with Bosca on Discord, it appears that this happens during SMUSH sequences, so I don't really know how to determine the ID of the audio content that should be extracted with SCUMM Revisited in order to make sure that the original audio is OK. Bosca says that the audio of the Italian version is also a bit choppy.

However, I think that the original audio *is* OK here: if I open the ScummVM debugger when the voice says "elle peut apprendre" (just before the sentence gets interrupted), then the full original sentence can be heard (because the debugger pauses the script that interrupts it, I guess). It's also possible to hear the complete sentence when playing in DOSbox with a low-cycle value (e.g. 4000). So I think that (2) is "just" a timing issue, but I don't know how to do this within SMUSH.

Since the behavior is the same in ScummVM and in the original interpreters, I don't think that this qualifies as a ScummVM bug, but working around this would be nice (although all French players of The Dig have been used to these issues for more than 25 years ;).

The French version is available on GOG and Steam, if necessary. You can ping me here or over Discord if you want me to do some tests or provide more information.

Change History (3)

comment:1 by AndywinXp, 2 years ago

Cc: AndywinXp added

comment:2 by dwatteau, 2 years ago

Description: modified (diff)

comment:3 by AndywinXp, 2 years ago

Type: defectfeature request

Being that the current behaviour matches the original exe I won't close this, but I'll label it as feature request.

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