(early) Sierra Games Emulation Guide

[Menneisyys]

Many "oldtimers" recognize the name of the game developer / publishing company Sierra. They have published several games since 1978.

As their games are, generally, very cool, there have been a lot of efforts to make an interpreter to run their files, as is the case with other, well-known adventure companies like Lucasfilm (ScummVM) and Magnetic Scrolls (see related article HERE)

There are two interpreters for Sierra games: PocketSarien and FreeSCI. In this guide, I explain everything you'll ever need to know about these titles. I also recommend the generic forum for all platforms at AGI Games (despite the name, it also discusses SCI games and interpreters!) for a quick read after reading this guide.

PocketSarien

One of the results of these efforts was the multiplatform Sierra Sarien (which has, in the meantime, merged with ScummVM; interestingly, the Scumm compatibility list doesn’t list any Sierra titles), which is able to run all Sierra games (and, more generally, games written using the same AGI (Adventure Game Interpreter) engine) released in the eighties (but not later).

Sarien also has a free Pocket PC port, which runs on all Pocket PC's (even MIPS/SH3 Pocket PC 2000 ones).



It also runs on VGA devices, but without the on-screen keyboard, as can be seen in the following screenshots: 1 2 3 4 5).

It should be pointed out that PocketSarien will not run games released in and after 1990. That is, it won't run anything in the Larry series starting with part 2, in the Space Quest series starting with part 3, in the King's Quest series starting with part 4 etc. See the list of all supported games in the sarien.conf file included in the distribution ZIP file.

Note that they are NOT compatible with the AGDI (Anonymous Game Developers Interactive) remakes (see THIS; right now, KQ1, KQ2 and Quest for Glory II) either! (Incidentally, if you're a fan of free (!) adventure games, make sure you give these games a try.)

Getting and running PocketSarien

Go HERE; it’ll be listed at the bottom. Direct link HERE.

Unzip PocketSarien.exe to anywhere on your Windows Mobile device. As explained in the readme.txt in the same ZIP file, you may also want to create a directory named etc in the root of the built-in storage of your device and copy the file sarien.conf in there.

Now, copy all the files from the original AGI games to anywhere on your Windows Mobile device (make sure you install Mad Programmer’s File Dialog Changer to be able to navigate anywhere on your device. See THIS for more info on this). You can safely leave out *.ovl, *.com, *FONT files and the AGI file to save storage.

Now, just run PocketSarien.exe and select any file from your games, let it be VOL.0, VOL.1 or anything else visible. The game will start.

Getting the original AGI games

Unlike with some Lucasfilm games or all Magnetic Scrolls ones, it’s not possible to acquire all games off the Web because of the copyright issues. However, some of them are still (legally) downloadable; for example, The Black Cauldron (also see THIS) and Donald Duck's Playground on Al Lowe’s personal homepage (Note that the other games don’t seem to be compatible!)

(A personal remark: I really recommend the above-linked Donald Duck's Playground; back in the eighties, my little brother’s favorite game.)

Also, the two compatible fangames, Space Quest 0 – Replicated and Space Quest - The Lost Chapter (also see THIS) are freely available.

Finally, you can also download LSLI and SQI off the Web.

Unfortunately, the well-known abandonware site Underdogs doesn’t list many AGI (and, as far as FreeSCI is concerned, SCI0) titles.

Verdict

I can only recommend Pocket Sarien. It runs just great on all QVGA devices (and also VGA ones if you do have an external / built-in hardware keyboard; unfortunately, it’ll always use Portrait, which isn’t the best with landscape keyboards). Highly recommended!

FreeSCI for PocketPC 0.3.4c

While PocketSarien is an AGI-only interpreter, FreeSCI is an SCI0 (Sierra's Creative Interpreter version 0) one. Please see this Wiki page for more information on what this means and what other SCI versions there are.

The author of the port, PocketInsanity, is the author of some other, free utilities like XRick, OpenJazz, PocketUAE and Wolf3D. They’re all free and should be given a test ride. Yes, free doesn’t necessarily mean bad not only with the PocketInsanity stuff, but also vijay555, FdcSoft / DotFred, the S-K folks (see for example nScriptm), Mort (see for example MortScript and MortPlayer), Vincent Collura and n0p.

This WM2003+ (no pre-WM2003 compatibility – it is NOT compatible with PPC2k2 devices either!) emulator is for some of (the ones in the SCI0 and SCI01 section here and also this list) the newer Sierra titles. This means that its compatibility is much narrower than what the official homepage states (also see this thread on this problem). That is, the game is not compatible with the vast majority of the list "Leisure Suit Larry 2-7, Space Quest 3-6, King's Quest 4-6, Quest for Glory 1-4". This is certainly bad news.

Note that the freely available Leisure Suit Larry 2 Point and Click does not use SCI (but AGS) and is, therefore, incompatible with FreeSCI.

Installing and running FreeSCI

Get the file HERE (alternate, direct download HERE).

Unzip freesci.exe anywhere on your Windows Mobile device and read the enclosed README.PocketPC.

Unfortunately, unlike with Sarien, you MUST list the games you have on your system in the main configuration file of FreeSCI. This is problematic because of two issues.

First, the configuration files use the Unix newline convention and they MUST stay in this format. This means you can’t edit the files with Windows’ Notepad (because it doesn’t handle Unix-style newline). You can’t use Windows’ Wordpad either because it’ll save the edited file using the Windows newline convention, which is incompatible with FreeSCI. Therefore, you MUST use for example the easy-to-use, free EOLNconv for converting between the two formats. In my article “Java Midlets on the Pocket PC - the Complete Tutorial”, I’ve also recommended this tool for conversion from the Unix newline format to that of Windows (for exiting) and back.

Second, under newer editions of the Windows Mobile operating systems starting with WM5 (including, of course, WM6), you can’t create a directory starting with a dot. This is unlike older (pre-WM5) operating systems. This bug hasn’t been fixed in the last 1.5 years and no one has been able to find a solution to it (also see THIS, THIS and THIS (note that the there recommended Resco won’t help)) – before me, that is. Yes, I was the first to be able to fix the bug. (The Windows Mobile community can call itself very lucky to have a coder / programmer like me to fix problems like this - and I haven't even mentioned some of the other productivity apps I've contributed to!)

To fix the bug, using a hexa file editor, position to cbe74 and change '2e' to, say, 66 (the hex code for 'f'). If you are afraid using a hex editor, I’ve made the hacked EXE available HERE; it requires the config file to be put in the ffreesci (instead of .freesci) directory in the root.

Finally, note that you must also list the version number of your game in the config file, not only its directory. To find it out, open the main .exe file (it's about 70 kbytes and, with most games, it's called sierra.exe and sciv.exe) with a file viewer (for example, F3 in Total Commander) and look for (Find, F7) the string ".000". When you find it, paste the entire X.000.XXX version number it's located in into the configuration file. (Also see THIS – it’s a worse description though).

Note that it works with external keyboards; then, however, the cursor keys will not be remapped to the landscape mode and will, therefore, work the other way around.

Speed issues

Unfortunately, unlike with Sarien, the FreeSCI is VERY slow (also see for example THIS). It’s like playing these games on an imaginary 1 MHz IBM PC with CGA emulation on a Hercules monitor. Really-really bad, even on a fast Windows Mobile device!


Note that some people recommend (see for example THIS) tweaking the graphics parameters; using the

dirty_strategy = 1
pic0_dither_mode = dither

parameters instead of the default

dirty_strategy = clusters
pic0_dither_mode = flat

In my practice, this didn't help at all.

Note that (I've tested this all!)

1. turning up the speed to 16 (Speed/Change) won't help at all – on the contrary
2. adding the pcmout_driver = null option to disable sound won't really help
3. also note that if you remove midi_device and sound_server, things will get much worse

See THIS for more info on these parameters.

Related info: PG.

Verdict

Unlike with Pocket Sarien, I don’t recommend this interpreter. It’s just TOO slow, even if you try to tweak the parameters. It’s pretty useless to try to play anything in it.

Note that you can run a lot of even newer Sierra games under different generic MS-DOS / x86 / Amiga etc. emulators, along with a lot of other (non-Sierra) games. I'll elaborate on these questions in later articles; the current article ONLY discusses native, interpreter-based solutions.

UPDATE (later, the same day): PG frontpage

[paqtoque]

Thank for the post Menneiyys, I always like to read your contributions.

Guess I am an oldtimer too, since I remember the name Sierra ...

I recently did want to revisit the Larry games, and was wondering how to play them on the Pocket PC platform. I have an iPAQ 4700 (I know, how do I dare show up here ...)

Quite frankly, while I appreciate the efforts by Scumm and others described in the article, I found the best way to ge them to run is with Pocket DOS. With enough memory reserved, all Larry Games up to Larry VI appear to start fine (in Landscape, nicely at full screen). The only issue I noticed so far is some dragging of the mouse, leaving traces on the screen at times for some of the newer Larry games.
I also admit that I have not played any of them all the way through (but just played the beginnings), so that I do not know about problems or crashes that may occur later in the game.

I have also tried to start running some of the Indiana Jones and other late eighties/early nineties adventure games. One of the problems with Pocket DOS I have noted though is that in some cases screen taps do not register at the correct spot (not with Larry games though, screen taps are in the right place). The Pocket DOS Forums are trying to give some advice, but did not solve my problem, that was experienced by other users too.

Anyway, if you like those games, give Pocket DOS a try ...

And keep that white polyester suit clean ...

[Menneisyys]

Yup, except for AGI games, it's preferred to use a full-blown DOS (or Amiga) emulator to play Sierra games.

I'll elaborate on these emulators in a later article.

[AnnaWu]

Dear Menneisyys,

I tried to run FreeSCI on my iPAQ 5555 with WM2003 ( not WM2003 SE ).
If I select a game like Kings Quest 4 and try to press the Enter button ( see screenshot), FreeSCI exit directly.
I tried also other games with the same result.


Here my config file in .freesci folder which is on the root :

# Fullscreen/Portrait Mode can be triggered by switching gfx.sdl.fullscreen to yes/no

gfx.sdl.fullscreen = no
animation_delay = 0
midi_device = adlibemu
sound_server = sdl
scale = 1
mouse = yes
color_depth = 16
pic0_scaled = no
dirty_strategy = clusters
pic0_dither_mode = flat

# Please add your games like in the example below
# Don't forget to copy this file to the \.freesci directory

[King_Quest_IV]
resource_dir = "Speicherkarte\Emulator 2\FreeSCI\Games\KQ4"
version = 0.000.274

Please help me !

Anna

PS: The version number is ok, i check already with hex editor.
Also I tried: gfx.sdl.fullscreen = yes

[heybhouse]

Yup, except for AGI games, it's preferred to use a full-blown DOS (or Amiga) emulator to play Sierra games.

I'll elaborate on these emulators in a later article.

I'm looking forward to reading this. Wondering of King's Quest and Police Quest would work with PocketDos

[gfunk2002]

Just to add a little

Appreciate all the work that went into the above review.

Thought I'd add to the above that I use n0p's Dosbox(which is free) to run virtually all sierra games, AGI, SCI, SCI32 etc. Even the others like Thexder and Silpheed. You can even run the earlier ones using Tandy/pcjr sound. And the speed is essentially 100%--granted this is on an x50v. I also run other games--even wing commander(though that one is a little slow). Happy to talk about it if anyone needs to know how....it isn't without bugs....

[heybhouse]

Just to add a little

Appreciate all the work that went into the above review.

Thought I'd add to the above that I use n0p's Dosbox(which is free) to run virtually all sierra games, AGI, SCI, SCI32 etc. Even the others like Thexder and Silpheed. You can even run the earlier ones using Tandy/pcjr sound. And the speed is essentially 100%--granted this is on an x50v. I also run other games--even wing commander(though that one is a little slow). Happy to talk about it if anyone needs to know how....it isn't without bugs....

I'd like to check it out. Seems to be several similarly titled versions. I check out n0p's but everytime I try to run it, my pda freezes and I have to do a soft reset. What do I have to do to get it to run? Thanks!

[Michu]

All on my emu page ("linked" picture in my sig)

[heybhouse]

I tried some of these but can't get most to work. with dosbox I just get the endless turning circle, with pdosbox the PDA freezes and requires a soft reset, with PocketDos I can only run a few games (same with Pocket Sarien). My problem is probably that I don't remember much of dos or it's commands but still, it would be nice to run some of the old Sierra games.

[gfunk2002]

I have only gotten three versions of MS-Dos emus to run: PocketDos(which I think is very limited), Wall's Dosbox(which last I checked isn't being supported anymore), and n0p's.
First trick with n0p's is to turn off your GAPI tweak if you have it running. Will lock up with it on(though I have gotten 1.11 to work) Second is to make sure you adjust the settings in the Dosbox.conf file. Run with verysimple core. Make sure you have lots of memory available(and dont set the config to more than 4MB) Try that, see how it goes. If not, I can post one of my config files...........

I just downloaded the version off of Michu's page, and ran it with the default config, and it locked. Then I soft reset, turned off GAPI and it worked. Then I copied it to a card from main memory and it worked there. Then I turned back on GAPI and it still worked from the card, AND from main memory...I'll confess it is a little finicky at times, but VERY worth it. Lemme know if you still have trouble.

[heybhouse]

Alright, I got dosbox running (but the graphics of the text is quite poor even though it's set to vga - not sure how to fix) and pocketdos (trial) running most stuff but still can't get pbdosbox to run which I read is the best for games. The device just locks up and requires a soft reset. Can anyone help?

[gfunk2002]

The text of n0p's dosbox isn't all that good, as most of the time you will want to run in 320x240 anyway, and the set really wasn't designed for that. They use the same one for Wall's. They're readable, and of course the games are unaffected and perfectly readable. I have never gotten pdosbox to work. I run tons of games on n0p's and most things run well--just have to tweak the config file a little