Notices

I wasn't able to find a contact address for fanoush, but as he's actively posting here, I thought I might as well, too.

I finally got my N800 the other day (yay!), and quickly rushed to try out the ScummVM port with my favourite adventure game series, Revolution Software's "Broken Sword". Unfortunately the port isn't well-suited to playing "Broken Sword" right now, as the games heavily rely on a working right mouse button (see the attached screenshot of the game's manual for the control scheme).

Going by the patch against the 0.8.x sources of ScummVM, the key bindings are hard-coded in the ScummVM codebase and engine-specific, and apparently no work has been done yet on adjusting the keybindings of the engine powering the Broken Sword games for the N800.

fanoush, do you have any plans there and a timeframe?

I received BS 1 and 2 some time ago and have it still in my drawer unopened. Will check the CDs and let you know. What key and mouse button bindings you suggest?

Hmm, let me think.

Here's what works right now: I can use the stylus to move the cursor around the screen and do what the game accepts as left-click. That allows me to move the player character around in the scene, access and actuate the inventory, and do the left-click actions from the table I've provided a screenshot of in the above post (the attachment). I can also use the ESC key below the directional pad to access the menu screen.

Here's what doesn't work:
- Right-clicking and the actions this opens up, as mentioned above.
- I find it difficult to move the cursor on the screen without accidentally invoking a left-click action. Sometimes you really don't want to left-click immediatelly, e.g. you might want to examine (right-click) a non-player character in the game before speaking to it.
- One can't save a game because it's impossible to enter a save game name.

So what's needed:
- A key set to emulate right-click. In some of the other keybinding mods you've used the button in the middle of the directional pad for this, that seems fine.
- If possible, it would be nice to be able to move the cursor on the screen with the directional pad's direction keys, to be able to avoid accidentally left-clicking due to using the stylus for moving it.
- If possible, a key that emulates entering a savegame text. E.g. one key would be hard-wired to simulate keyboard events to type "savegame" or something, which the user could then press in the save screen.

zoom keys on the top should write some letters in save dialog

as for the mouse - what about using the pen just for moving and have both left and right button mapped to keys? Will it work in all scenes or does some scene need quick moving and clicking or using both buttons or dragging (i.e holding button) so it is not practical?

Yep, that works.


Hm, good idea - that should indeed work!

OK, got sword1 datafiles to my N800. Runs OK even with the mpeg2 converted cutscenes from http://www.scummvm.org/downloads.php#extras Cutscenes are sometimes slow and tearing effect in main game screen is a bit annoying but otherwise it looks playable on the device so it seems definitely worth the effort. I have examined sword1 engine sources, found mouse handling part and it looks easy. In theory all that means that the timeframe may be 'real soon' :-)

Lovely, thank you .

OK, try this http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/scummvm_0.9.1-1_armel.deb. After all I added only right button to d-pad center button. Is is playable even in this mode. If you want to right click, tap (i.e. left click) and then immediately press the button. If you stay far from the object there is plenty of time before the left click takes effect and the following right click takes precedence. Maybe only if you stay right next to the item you may accidentally do the left-click action, in such case you can first walk to some distance and then left and right click. I still find this easier than to tap and then press the button for each left click.

So far the mapping is done only in Broken Sword 1, sword2 engine is different. The code is easy too but different and I don't have sword2 data files in the device yet (no space with BS1 on the card now).

Let me know how playable Broken Sword 1 is and if there is any other problem with this scummvm package.

The deb is built in 2.2 SDK so it should run both in IT2006 and IT2007.

First of, thank you a lot for your fast and good work - it works . At the end of the day, it's the app devs that make the device.

Some more thoughts about cursor movement: There are basically two ways to move the cursor to a new position in the game. The first is to tap at the desired location, which moves the cursor immediately from the old to the new position and also executes a left-click action. The other is to press the stylus on the tablet and move it, basically dragging the cursor along. The latter is the only way to position the cursor above an interactive object in the game without immediately executing any action. I find this difficult to achieve in practice - when I drag the cursor, it tends to register multiple left-clicks during the movement, or at the very least one on "release". The protection foil I have on my display might be the reason.

While you're right that there's usually enough time to tap the button for right-click before George (the player character, for those not familiar with the game) actually executes the action (because he has to move to the target, etc.), that isn't always the case. It certainly makes the game a bit more stressful to play, IMO, if only because it adds the requirement to keep in mind your position relative to the target.

One compromise I can see is to keep the stylus interaction model like it currently is, but also bind the direction keys on the directional pad to move the cursor. Then in dubious situations the player could position the cursor with the directional pad, and then right-click with the button. I guess it depends on whether the ScummVM codebase has some sort of provision for "move cursor on axis X by N pixels" actions you could bind to a key event. I think that would be ideal .

Oh and another request: Could you put up the current patch against ScummVM up somewhere?