Will Point And Click Games Be Truly Point & Click?

[Bosbeetle]

I Know scummvm is ported to the pandora, but I wonder about the controls. Do we have to use the nubs as a mouse or is a direct "point" with the stylus possible. (ive read somewhere that its very hard for amiga to have the touch screen act as mouse since its all relative) so I was wondering is this also the case in ScummVM?

How great would it be to have real "point&click" games. How is it handled in the ScummVM for gp2x?

 

[rabidpoobear]

Scummvm is a virtual machine that's running just a game's files, so it should work fine. The problem with Amiga is that it's emulating an entire OS, not just the games, and the OS has a fixed way to treat the mouse. ScummVM should be different.

I have no idea really but I'd guess I'm right.

 

[scottm]

We will certainly be using the stylus for playing through scumm (although there might be a problem sorting out the left and right clicks - although in saying that do any of the scumm games need a right click?). Of course you'll probably be able to configure the nubs if you want (but most people will be using the stylus).

I'm sure DJWillis will be able to give you a more accurate response though - as he ported scumm.

 

[mali]

.

 

[Bosbeetle]

.

ofcourse Ive seen that video but didnt closely look at the scummvm. Great

 

[rabidpoobear]

I'm DJWillis

Oh snap. How's the WiFi going?

 

[Bosbeetle]

I'm DJWillis

Oh snap. How's the WiFi going?

:lol:

 

[WizardStan]

Weeee, that's a blast from the past.

"Yeah, I know, killing's not nice, but it works"
-- EvilDragon

 

[atomicthumbs]

it'll either be point and click or point and swear

 

[Bosbeetle]

it'll either be point and click or point and swear

Stylus pixel hunting

 

[verm71]

What will be the difference between pointing and clicking, and simply moving the mouse over something without clicking it? Will there be an additional pressure level required to signify "click", or will tapping the screen then dragging automatically be considered like a drag operation as opposed to "I just want to move the mouse pointer here"?

 

[gruso]

Do many ScummVM compatible games use click & drag, or right click for that matter? (Serious question. I've only ever played point & click games that require a single left click for everything. )

I can tell you that with ScummVM on the F200 (along with FreeSCI, an awesome Sierra game interpreter ported by Hooka), a tap on the screen = a click in that location. The rest of this is foggy memory: I know that the ScummVM menu has you controlling the mouse cursor with the d-pad, and clicking with the B button. I can see this allowing you to click and drag, but I haven't tried this control method in-game. In FreeSCI, the d-pad is your arrow keys, allowing you to play the old old old school way. I'll pull out my GP2X tonight and see if I can gather some more solid info.

Also worth looking at is the work Pickle did for DOSBox on the F200. He added mouse support, and was looking at different ways to handle mouse actions (with modifier keys etc). But it never did work well with Battle of Britain, so I stopped playing with it.

 

[BackAssward]

Honestly, I remember when I played the originals that scummvm emulates (from so many years ago), there was no dragging. I haven't played scummvm itself, but I'm sure it can't add dragging when it wasn't part of the game before.

That aside, I am sure the Pandora can do "click and drag" on any game that uses it, if the programmer implements it. There is no reason the touch screen couldn't do it.

 

[mrdremel]

Do many ScummVM compatible games use click & drag, or right click for that matter? (Serious question. I've only ever played point & click games that require a single left click for everything. )

I can tell you that with ScummVM on the F200 (along with FreeSCI, an awesome Sierra game interpreter ported by Hooka), a tap on the screen = a click in that location. The rest of this is foggy memory: I know that the ScummVM menu has you controlling the mouse cursor with the d-pad, and clicking with the B button. I can see this allowing you to click and drag, but I haven't tried this control method in-game. In FreeSCI, the d-pad is your arrow keys, allowing you to play the old old old school way. I'll pull out my GP2X tonight and see if I can gather some more solid info.

Also worth looking at is the work Pickle did for DOSBox on the F200. He added mouse support, and was looking at different ways to handle mouse actions (with modifier keys etc). But it never did work well with Battle of Britain, so I stopped playing with it.

Yes, there were some games that needed a right click option, or a drag and just move the cursor option. This was needed to e.g. find a light switch in a dark room in "Maniac mansion", of to find a switch in "Indy 3". Right clicking was needed in e.g. "Beneath a steel sky" and "Full throttle".

You can't go without right click for some games. But in my humble opinion, that would be an easy option to build. Just hold a shoulder button (left e.g.) to do a drag cursor here and not click when I tap the screen) and hold the right shoulder button to do a right click (or some other button configuration). But that would probably need to be added to the ScummVM application.

 

[gruso]

Ah ok then. I'm sure DJWillis would have this covered, it probably would have been worked out for the F200 some time ago. Heading home from work soon, I'll check it out.

 

[mzeo77]

You can't go without right click for some games. But in my humble opinion, that would be an easy option to build. Just hold a shoulder button (left e.g.) to do a drag cursor here and not click when I tap the screen) and hold the right shoulder button to do a right click (or some other button configuration). But that would probably need to be added to the ScummVM application.

Holding a modifier button for determining right/left click is not ideal. I've played some games in scummvm on my nds, and it is not as smooth as i would have liked it to be. I would like to try to use gestures similar to what is used by a touchpad:

hold - move mouse
tap - left click
tap tap - right click
tap hold - left click drag

Come to think of it, I should probably try patching and compiling scummvm for nds myself. I'm a bit lazy though. I got an old platformer which I should be porting to the pandora first. All my coder energy goes into my day job so I rarely do any coding at home any more.

 

[gruso]

Ok, I've fired up ScummVM, FreeSCI and DOSBox on my F200.

ScummVM (port by DJWillis):
First tap on the screen is a left click. You can drag the cursor around from here, and it won't register another click until you release the stylus and tap again. (This applies to the ScummVM UI, as well as in-game). I don't have any games installed that use right click or drag, but the readme suggests that these functions are supported on other systems if not the GP2X. That means this stuff should be easy to implement in the Pandora port, if it isn't already. You can also move the cursor around with the d-pad, and click with the B button.

FreeSCI (port by Hooka):
As per ScummVM, first tap is a click and you can drag the cursor from there. These games were all basic left-click affairs though, so all you need to know is tap the screen and your character will walk there. The FreeSCI UI is best navigated with d-pad and buttons (the d-pad does not move the mouse cursor here). In-game the d-pad does not move the mouse either, it is mapped to the arrow keys as a second option for character movement.

DOSBox (port by Pickle):
Sadly I don't have any games configured to use the mouse right now. Setting this up for each game can be a laborious trial and error process, so I'm not getting into that tonight. But I do know that Pickle implemented a range of mouse options such as mapping buttons to left & right click, toggling whether a screen tap is a click, etc. All this is configured on a per game basis in the dosbox.conf file.

If nothing else I've been reminded how much of a treat we're in for. All three were already awesome on the F200; throw some nubs and a keyboard into the mix and I dare say this is going to top playing them on a real PC. I hope we do get a FreeSCI port. These three titles together are a holy trinity of sorts.

 

[Vlynndar]

It would be fun it it worked with the Quakes, too. You've got an enemy? And you never learned to aim? Simply tap them and disappear.

 

[mcobit]

Games like Sam&Max Hit the road use rightclicks to circle through the options you have. Mostly the games, that don't have the oroginal SCUMM interface use rightclicks.

 

[Bosbeetle]

Full throttle uses the right click to bring up the interface I think.