SHP Forums

So an individual by the name of Myles Johnston has forked his own version of ScummVM he entitles "ScummVM-X" to support 4x graphic asset replacement for Sierra's SCI engine games. I used my ESRGAN/Manga109 upscaled backgrounds of Space Quest 4 and played through a bit of it. I didn't upscale the sprites, but those are also replaceable in the same way. Currently there is no aspect ratio correction, sprite transparencies use 1-bit alpha channels ("on" or "off") so no multiple levels of opacity (though that could be possible down the road), it doesn't support SVGA SCI games, and there is no colour cycling, but this is huge for high resolution gaming on oldschool 2D adventures! This even works with EGA SCI games like Space Quest 3, King's Quest 4, Police Quest 2, Leisure Suit Larry 2, etc making VGA-ifying EGA Sierra games all the more easier and faster! Now instead of having to remake an entire game from scratch in AGS or something, you can just replace the graphics (if you're a good artist) and boom you've got an authentic remake!. He also plans to add AGI support (King's Quest 1-3, Space Quest 1-2, Police Quest 1, Leisure Suit Larry 1, etc). I'm beyond excited for this and fully intend on working on some HRPs for Sierra games.

His build does not automatically upscale games. You need to have a "high resolution graphics pack" for each game you want to play this way. Which means upscaling the artwork and setting it up properly. (Don't worry, I'm already looking into doing this myself and having easily installable packages.) This video merely shows what's possible now. You could in effect replace these graphics with anything though, not just upscales. You could hand draw them yourself, or MS Paint them (like our classic MS Paint Your Own Adventures game thread ), or draw them with crayons and scan them in.

Here are the links to his fork and instructions:

ScummVM-X + Instructions
SCI Companion-X (for batch extracting graphics from SCI games to upscale yourself)

Here's KQ4 running in ScummVM-X with a few VGA-ified backgrounds people have made over the years in attempted KQ4VGA remakes. Just dropped into a folder now and bam: instant remake! Also, aspect correction is possible by going to ScummVM's options in the Graphics tab and selecting "Fit to Window (4:3)" from the Stretch mode dropdown menu.

Troels (Space Quest Historian) just released a video on this:

Latest developments, you can replace MIDI sounds/songs with WAV files, upscale fonts, and add SPEECH to games that don't have any!

Uh, MI ... did you add the speech to LSL2? It's very nice, but:

a) The music is too loud (and you can hardly hear the speech); and (more importantly)
b) What does Al Lowe think about this? Do you have to run it by him?

Just wondering...

Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Thu Feb 04, 2021 3:47 pm Uh, MI ... did you add the speech to LSL2? It's very nice, but:

a) The music is too loud (and you can hardly hear the speech); and (more importantly)
b) What does Al Lowe think about this? Do you have to run it by him?

Just wondering...

I can for sure answer "a" - considering the youtube links to a "Myles Johnson" - and MI, according to his website (and his long list of gaming/music credits) goes by a totally different name (go to his profile on here and visit his website)

I'd say "no" he didn't do the voice. (As someone who undoubtedly mixes his own music, pretty sure he'd also be quite well versed at volume control)

And for "b" - I promise you this was not run by Al Lowe. And I don't think Al Lowe would care, as he doesn't own the right anymore. He might only "care" as far as saying, "That looks cool."

I am not involved with this in any way. The lsl2 demonstration was Myles (the creator of this capability to add replacement assets and voices to Sierra games) using some audio from someone he found on YouTube who narrates the games he plays. That little voice pack was just an example to show what is now possible. And nobody needs to ask Al Lowe or even ActiVision for permission because this is modding territory on top of the original games.

I will be working on some HRPs though. There's already talks of an unofficial speech pack for Space Quest 5 . And Al Eufrasio, the animator for LSL6, is thinking of touching up his work with this!

OK, yup -- silly question. Sorry, MI. Yes, the name "Myles Johnson" didn't sound familiar. I was just a bit confused.

It's quite nifty that this is now possible. Would anyone like to try creating these for QfG1-3? Or LSL1-5? Or SQ1-5? Just wondering ...

Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:46 am OK, yup -- silly question. Sorry, MI. Yes, the name "Myles Johnson" didn't sound familiar. I was just a bit confused.

It's quite nifty that this is now possible. Would anyone like to try creating these for QfG1-3? Or LSL1-5? Or SQ1-5? Just wondering ...

Well, considering the big fan MI is of SQ (since he's a part of who runs the Space Quest website these days) and his interesting in making these - I am sure he'd do SQ.

To me, when I look at the LSL2 one - it looks like they "flattened" the colors pretty much to give it more of a "painting" feel.

Yeah, I'm starting with Space Quest 4.