The Video Game Critic

A few months ago I had a few email chats with Tony Warriner, a developer for Revolution Software in the UK.  I've been trying to sell him the ability of the DS and maybe even the Wii to resurrect the classic point-and-click adventure game, such as Revolution's own wonderful Broken Sword series.

 

Tony set up a petition to gauge interest on bringing the Broken Sword series to the Nintendo DS.  Under consideration is porting the first two games to the Nintendo DS, and/or bringing entirely new games in the series to the handheld.  I played both of the first games on the PC, and then later on the Playstation.  The first game in the series was also brought to the Gameboy Advance.  I played that one and enjoyed it, but the point-and-click interface of the games is clearly better suited to the Nintendo DS (and maybe also the Nintendo Wii).

Those interested can sign this petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/brokensw/petition.html

For those of you who don't know the games, here's some explanatory data from Wikipedia's entry for Broken Sword:

Broken Sword is an adventure game series created by game designer Charles Cecil of Revolution Software. The game series revolves around the adventures of George Stobbart and Nico Collard in fictitious stories based on history and mythology. The first two games in the series are controlled by a traditional point-and-click interface that the player uses to interact with the cartoon animated backdrops. The last two games are based on a 3D graphics engine that the player operates through a direct control system. The latest game, Broken Sword: The Angel of Death, is also using an advanced point-and-click interface similar to the first two.

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars (a.k.a. Circle of Blood): 

The first game in the series was released on September 30, 1996, published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment world wide. George Stobbart is an American tourist on holiday in Paris in the autumn. The story opens with George's quiet coffee at a cafe rudely interrupted by the explosion of a bomb planted by a man dressed up as a clown. He sets off investigating the explosion and, gradually, he and photo-journalist Nico Collard are drawn into a globe-trotting adventure involving conspiracies, cults and murder, all revolving around the Knights Templar.

Despite the death and cults the game is a lighthearted and fun game, with high-quality hand-drawn animation and graphics. The game features a musical score composed by Barrington Pheloung, and a cast of voice actors led by Rolf Saxon as George Stobbart.

Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror

The second game in the series, released in 1997, opens with George Stobbart witnessing the kidnapping of his now girlfriend Nico Collard. It is up to George to break Nico out, and uncover a secret drug ring, that relates to the redemption of a sinister god.

As good as those games are I'd rather see other SCUMM based Lucas Arts games like Day of Tentacles or Sam and Max end up on the DS.  For those, I'd gladly sign up.

 

If you've got the original copies and don't mind a little work there's an effort to get SCUMM based games on the DS through emulation.

 

For the basics check out

 

http://www.scummvm.org/

 

For the DS stuff check out

 

Here's a clip

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB65ps5ubN8

 

It's been out for a while now though there are some issues with certain games.  If I'm ever bored enough I'll have to track down the hardware needed to get them to work.  It's not perfect but supposedly pretty good.

[QUOTE=ActRaiser]

As good as those games are I'd rather see other SCUMM based Lucas Arts games like Day of Tentacles or Sam and Max end up on the DS.  For those, I'd gladly sign up.

 

If you've got the original copies and don't mind a little work there's an effort to get SCUMM based games on the DS through emulation.

 

For the basics check out

 

http://www.scummvm.org/

 

For the DS stuff check out

 

Here's a clip

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB65ps5ubN8

 

It's been out for a while now though there are some issues with certain games.  If I'm ever bored enough I'll have to track down the hardware needed to get them to work.  It's not perfect but supposedly pretty good.

[/QUOTE]

Wow...thats pretty sweet!  I used to love the old LucasArts SCUMM based games.  I would pay full price to play those games on my DS...or any system for that matter.

[QUOTE=ActRaiser]

As good as those games are I'd rather see other SCUMM based Lucas Arts games like Day of Tentacles or Sam and Max end up on the DS.  For those, I'd gladly sign up.

 

If you've got the original copies and don't mind a little work there's an effort to get SCUMM based games on the DS through emulation.

 

For the basics check out

 

http://www.scummvm.org/

 

For the DS stuff check out

 

Here's a clip

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB65ps5ubN8

 

It's been out for a while now though there are some issues with certain games.  If I'm ever bored enough I'll have to track down the hardware needed to get them to work.  It's not perfect but supposedly pretty good.

[/QUOTE]

Nah, I am definitely more interested in the Broken Sword series, which is my favorite series of adventure games.

 

In any case, I don't use those emulation programs, because I have a moral problem with it in particular.  I don't mind doing it if you own the original software though.  Revolution sort of released its first few games as free ROMs now, but Broken Sword games were not among them.  So until that time, I consider it to be (dare I say the word) "wrong" to download them and run them on emulation instead of just buying them and playing them legally (and morally).

[QUOTE=m0zart]

In any case, I don't use those emulation programs, because I have a moral problem with it in particular.  I don't mind doing it if you own the original software though.  Revolution sort of released its first few games as free ROMs now, but Broken Sword games were not among them.  So until that time, I consider it to be (dare I say the word) "wrong" to download them and run them on emulation instead of just buying them and playing them legally (and morally).[/QUOTE]

 

Seriously, those original games aren't going to run a PC made today.  Your best bet is to use them in conjection with software that does run on your PC.  Heck, the front page of Revolution's website states SCUMM support for 1 and 2.

 

http://www.revolution.co.uk/

 

The latest version of SCUMMVM now supports both BS1 and BS2. This means the games play properly on not only windows XP but also LINUX, MAC, etc. More

It might be time to step off your high horse on morality, when you own the game it's not a problem, and it's endorsed by the developers.

[QUOTE=Act]

 

Seriously, those original games aren't going to run a PC made today.  Your best bet is to use them in conjection with software that does run on your PC.  Heck, the front page of Revolution's website states SCUMM support for 1 and 2.

 

http://www.revolution.co.uk/

 

The latest version of SCUMMVM now supports both BS1 and BS2. This means the games play properly on not only windows XP but also LINUX, MAC, etc. More

It might be time to step off your high horse on morality, when you own the game it's not a problem, and it's endorsed by the developers.

[/QUOTE]

 

How funny.  I tried to be as careful when I pointed out their status as possible, and related it only back to myself, in order not to seem like I was being preachy.  For that effort, I get comments about being on my "high horse".

 

Yes I know about SCUMMVM, and I know that they suggest using that to run the old games on new computers, but nowhere in that I could see where those games declared public source.  The information on SCUMMVM, I assume, is there to give owners of the older version of the game a way to run the game on their newer computers.

 

Given that only two years ago the games were rereleased to run on modern computers on DVD ROM (for a price) for those who don't own the games, and that the first game in particular has been released for other handheld devices ery recently (GBA three years ago, and Palm OS a few months ago), I don't think the games are considered public source just yet.

 

Now in case I am wrong about the status of the Broken Sword games being public source, any information making that clear will leave me admitting that I was wrong.  However, even if the original release of the games is now public source, I would still like to see these games on the DS (or Wii), and I would still buy them in such a case, rather than get them for free.

 

Since that request was the purpose of this thread, could you get off of your high horse and let it act as that?  After all, I didn't ask you specifically if it was worth having on the DS or not.  I asked for signatures.  The lack of a signature on that petition constitutes your objection.