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ScummVM on the App Store

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Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#141

Post by incrudible »

dwaite wrote: post #135
smoldesu wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they got depreciated once, it's gonna happen again. Apple should invest in Microsoft-tier backwards compatibility if they want to avoid publishers abandoning their software.

I suspect Apple considers developers ignoring a five(?) year notice period that 32 bit compatibility will be dropped a sign that the publisher has already abandoned their software.

A "notice" doesn't pay bills. If the cost of porting over is expected to exceed future revenue, the publisher can not be expected to foot the bill.

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#142

Post by devbent »

turquoisevar wrote: post #140
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was never Apple's thing. Apple always changes things as it pleases and expects the developers to suck it up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeqPrUmVz-o

Not sure if you linked the wrong video, but the one you linked to barely supports your comment. Setting aside that abandoning OpenDoc turned out to be the right call, I see a dude trying to get a rise out of Jobs and Jobs handling it in a very respectful way, going as far as admitting they make mistakes and that he is flawed, but that ultimately the decisions are made with the end user (and sales) in mind and less wi…

> So I have no lost love for devs that couldn’t be arsed,

How are teams that no longer exist supposed to recompile anything? Plenty of source is laying around where the last person who knew how to compile it left the company years ago and no one even knows how to check the software out from the source repo anymore.

(Pre Git, it wasn't always obvious how to even pull software down from repos, tools like perforce allow for fancy remapping of folders so you cannot necessarily just pull source down, also I've worked in repos where you needed specially modified scripts that weren't in the repo so you could actually build things!)

Microsoft's MO has been that once the end user has acquired an executable, that program will keep working damn nearly forever.

16bit support was the only time they ever dropped anything, and people are still upset about that.

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#143

Post by turquoisevar »

smoldesu wrote: post #125
DennisL123 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Happy to sign all the necessary NDAs and to port them to 64 bit, newer iOS versions and devices for free.

If they got depreciated once, it's gonna happen again. Apple should invest in Microsoft-tier backwards compatibility if they want to avoid publishers abandoning their software.

God no.

As an end user it’s already annoying how, mainly big devs, are extremely slow in adopting the latest APIs, this would only motivate them more to just sit on their laurels.

As a dev for Apple platforms it would become a buggy mess and would lead to less bumping of target OS versions, which in turn leads to needing to reinvent wheels and coming up with time consuming workarounds.

Just one look at the gazillion ways Windows 11 has implemented configuration apps, from as far back as the XP era, has me shudder. You start out with Win 11 stuff but oh, you want to use that one thing? Now you’re lopped into Windows 7 stuff oh you want this other thing, enjoy this XP app, etc, etc. All in the name of backwards compatibility, no thank you.

Hell, the fact that they had to skip Windows 9 because of so many devs checking for a 9 to detect 95/98 is another such messy nonsense.

If I had to choose between that experience or Apple forcing me every year to learn an entirely new programming language + UI framework + persistent storage framework I’ll happily become a polyglot because the MS way of doing things is ridiculous.

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#144

Post by incrudible »

turquoisevar wrote: post #140
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was never Apple's thing. Apple always changes things as it pleases and expects the developers to suck it up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeqPrUmVz-o

Not sure if you linked the wrong video, but the one you linked to barely supports your comment. Setting aside that abandoning OpenDoc turned out to be the right call, I see a dude trying to get a rise out of Jobs and Jobs handling it in a very respectful way, going as far as admitting they make mistakes and that he is flawed, but that ultimately the decisions are made with the end user (and sales) in mind and less wi…

> just recompile it bro

This assumes you have all the source code for everything available, the person to do it ready, and that no compiler errors anywhere have crept in through the many revisions of the SDK. None of these assumptions hold for iOS ports that sold poorly (as most did), that were done by some team (likely defunct) as a one-off, that probably used a bunch of middleware they didn't own. It's just not worth it, otherwise it would've happened.

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#145

Post by incrudible »

turquoisevar wrote: post #143
smoldesu wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they got depreciated once, it's gonna happen again. Apple should invest in Microsoft-tier backwards compatibility if they want to avoid publishers abandoning their software.

God no. As an end user it’s already annoying how, mainly big devs, are extremely slow in adopting the latest APIs, this would only motivate them more to just sit on their laurels. As a dev for Apple platforms it would become a buggy mess and would lead to less bumping of target OS versions, which in turn leads to needing to reinvent wheels and coming up with time consuming workarounds. Just one look at the gazillion…

Most software is written for ten year business cycles. Maybe the Apple approach makes sense for most consumers and the few little apps they use, but there's reasons why Microsoft is so strong in the enterprise, and backwards compatibility is a huge part of that.

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#146

Post by doctorpangloss »

basique wrote: post #129
KMnO4 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iSH has compiled the binaries for arm64 so they actually run natively. When they do a syscall to malloc they are actually doing a syscall to malloc. iDOS is interpreting the bytecode and wrapping the unavailable things with its own implementation. When a DOS application runs malloc, the memory is assigned by iDOS instead. I’m not saying Apple is consistent, but your example doesn’t show that well.

Isn't iSH literally an x86 emulator?

Yeah I mean, people think it’s a legal or engineering issue. If an App Store Editor (aka category manager) likes you, you will do alright.

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#147

Post by giancarlostoro »

turquoisevar wrote: post #143
smoldesu wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they got depreciated once, it's gonna happen again. Apple should invest in Microsoft-tier backwards compatibility if they want to avoid publishers abandoning their software.

God no. As an end user it’s already annoying how, mainly big devs, are extremely slow in adopting the latest APIs, this would only motivate them more to just sit on their laurels. As a dev for Apple platforms it would become a buggy mess and would lead to less bumping of target OS versions, which in turn leads to needing to reinvent wheels and coming up with time consuming workarounds. Just one look at the gazillion…

What I really dont get is why in some cases, when it looks obvious to me that the XP UI is just some Microsoft GUI for the drivers, why Microsoft didn't consolidate those APIs into the modern UI. They own the entire run-time, I don't understand why they cannot add a translation layer.

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#148

Post by nottorp »

toasteros wrote: post #64
unixhero wrote: post #37

There is also Dreamm https://aarongiles.com/dreamm/

DREAMM is a pretty significant project, and differs from ScummVM in a few ways. Primarily, ScummVM is an engine rewrite. They write new code that copies the behaviour of the original games. Aaron Giles worked at LucasArts and was instrumental in porting SCUMM to Windows (for Full Throttle and Curse of Monkey Island). DREAMM is a full x86 emulator that takes the original game code and runs it directly.[0] Amusingly en…

Oh, that one does x-wing and dark forces, nice!

On the other hand it only does LucasArts games so you need both DREAMM and ScummVM.

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#149

Post by _pigpen__ »

incrudible wrote: post #141
dwaite wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect Apple considers developers ignoring a five(?) year notice period that 32 bit compatibility will be dropped a sign that the publisher has already abandoned their software.

A "notice" doesn't pay bills. If the cost of porting over is expected to exceed future revenue, the publisher can not be expected to foot the bill.

Moreover, for a quoted company, Sarbanes Oxley makes it difficult to spend money on this kind of activity.

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#150

Post by eps »

johnwalkr wrote: post #80

This reminded me of the fact that excellent remasters of monkey island were released on the iPhone (and a few other paltforms) but were removed from the App Store after a few years. It’s a shame, they had great new artwork and sound/music but you could switch back and forth with the old art and it was cool to see the difference in each scene.

Disney yanked them after acquiring LucasArts.

I was so pissed when I went to re-download them and they disappeared even from my Purchased list. Complained to Apple and they basically said "shouda made backups, good bye and fuck off". $12 down the drain.

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