SCUMM: Allow Amiga palette in MI1 / Loom DOS EGA versions

[CitricTabby]

First off, I love your app big time! I have managed to buy the floppy disks / CD-ROM discs (via eBay) and digital versions (via GOG.com) of SCUMM games made by LucasArts over the course of the past few years, and I physically own the DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, and/or Mac versions of almost all the games I have made digital backups via my Greaseweazle 4.0 floppy combo drive setup and/or my internal optical drive hooked up to my homebuilt gaming workstation PC with Windows 11 Pro as my full-time OS.

One thing I would like to see you implement into ScummVM is the Amiga EGA palette-based render mode for Monkey Island 1 and Loom (both DOS EGA games). I know you have that for INDY3 as well as Maniac Mansion V2 and Zak McKracken V2 (all DOS EGA), but MI1 and Loom (both DOS EGA) could definitely use it as I am not so fond of seeing sun-burnt human skin tones, as it could imply they would be suffering from skin cancer like melanoma.

Please look into it as you implement this into a future build for ScummVM.

Thank you!

[tag2015]

I may misremeber, but I think this "trick" was possible some ScummVM versions ago, and was later removed

[CitricTabby]

If your project has successfully made the original DOS EGA version of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to work with the Amiga color palette renderer option, couldn't you try to port said options to the original DOS EGA versions of Loom and The Secret of Monkey Island as well?

Or at least bring back that color palette override trick you mentioned to the current ScummVM daily builds.

[dwatteau]

Nice collection you have there :)

Yes, ScummVM used to let you use which render mode you wanted. The list of possible choices was reduced in commit <​https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/commit/2fe65d95ef86433460c2c59eca9de022564c2926>, mostly because some users tried to use some impossible settings, such as "CGA mode on Mac or Amiga".

Then, the popular Amiga skin tone was allowed again as a special exception for Maniac Mansion/Zak, and then for Indy3 (Trac#15227).

I agree that we should probably allow setting this for MI1/Loom as well again, yes. I'll see if the other SCUMM maintainers are OK with this.

[CitricTabby]

Have you gotten the green light to implement the SCUMM Amiga EGA render mode for both DOS EGA versions of Loom and Monkey Island 1 yet?

I paid pretty good money for all of those classic LucasArts DOS game floppy disks on eBay in the past few years, made legit image backups via Greaseweazle, and I would like to see the two remaining SCUMM DOS EGA games (Loom and Monkey Island 1) to finally get this Amiga-style EGA render mode treatment to make it well worth my investment.

[dwatteau]

There was no objection, so far. We’re focusing on the tests and bugfixes for the next 2.9.0 release right now, but I will probably submit a PR to implement that for Loom/Monkey1 EGA (and probably the Passport to Adventure demo as well).

So if everthing’s OK the change may appear in the next daily builds in a few weeks. I’ll update this OK when it’s done, and when time permits it.

Thank you for highlighting this discrepancy, and I’m quite admirative in your Greaseweazle work!

[CitricTabby]

Any progress so far on this feature request of mine for ScummVM?

You can also add this Amiga-style EGA renderer for the Passport to Adventure demo that is available to download through your website's Game Demos section, as a matter of showcasing its capability to everyone. And when you're done, you can integrate it into the daily build if it's a little late to go into the final release.

[dwatteau]

As I said, we're busy with finalizing the 2.9.0 release, so you will have to wait "a few weeks". There is no point in asking for an update again, as long as that release isn't done. We work on our free time.

If you really need to play this game as quickly as possible with this setting, install ScummVM 2.6.1, which was the last release allowing this setting -- before we add it back for the next one.

Thank you for your understanding.

[CitricTabby]

That's okay, I have plenty of other games to play on my homebuilt gaming workstation PC that consist of Forza Horizon 5, the new Forza Motorsport, Grand Theft Auto V Online, and the like. I can wait for it until it's done.

Thanks for your help, and I wish your team good luck on finalizing the 2.9.0 release of ScummVM!

[dwatteau]

Thanks for your understanding and encouragement :)

I've submitted a Pull Request to restore the ScummVM < 2.7.0 behavior in the next development versions:
​https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/6316

I'll update this ticket if/when it gets merged. Note that it won't be part of the official 2.9.0 release that's due later this month, but hopefully it will be part of the development builds (see <​https://buildbot.scummvm.org/#/dailybuilds>) in the following days or weeks.

[dwatteau]

In 6f7f61af:

SCUMM: Allow using the Amiga palette again for Loom/Monkey1/Passport (Trac#15458)

This restores the popular ScummVM < 2.7.0 behavior of allowing the Amiga
renderer mode to be used for all the DOS v2-v4 EGA titles (that is:
Maniac Mansion V2, Zak V2, Indy3 EGA, Loom EGA, Monkey Island 1 EGA, and
the Passport to Adventure EGA demo).

Many players like it for the softer palette and/or more natural skin tone
it gives to most characters.

This relaxes commit 2fe65d95ef86433460c2c59eca9de022564c2926 a bit.

[dwatteau]

Hi @CitricTabby,

FWIW, this should be fixed in the new daily development builds:
<​https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/#daily>

(You may need to wait around 24 hours before this change is effective in the new builds. It is not part of the 2.9.0 stable release.)

For the moment, having the "Amiga" rendering option available in the game settings may require removing/adding it again to your ScummVM game library, though.

I'll mark this ticket as fixed, but feel free to reply to it in order to tell us whether it looks good to you.

Thanks for reporting this, and have fun playing with this palette :) (which I prefer as well!)

Have a good New Year's Eve!