Talk:Sierra's Creative Interpreter

SCI List of Games

This is a call for help. I've added the following page: SCI Games. I bet there's alot of information missing there, and possibly some errors too. Please help make it a better page by adding information and fixing the page. Thanks, OmerMor 18:39, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

The information on that page is either already on this page (i.e. graphics resolution), or way too arcane for Wikipedia: the exact SCI version number of every SCI game is not encyclopaedic information; dividing the games by interpreter generation like the this article does is entirely sufficient. While I'm not going to put up an "Article for Deletion" tag on it for now, I don't believe that page should be on Wikipedia. Adding a simple "SCI games" category instead would be a better idea. NewRisingSun 19:32, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree with your suggestion of combining the articles. Actually - my original intent was to add this information here, but I wanted my own space to "play" with the style and format of the list, so that I won't interfere with this one. About it being arcance - it may be so, but I also beleive this information should be publicly available, preferably in a wiki form, so that knowledgable people like you could contribute and make it more accurate and complete.

Errors

Looking over the list, I see quite a high number of errors. For example, KQ1SCI was not a SCI01 game, as SCI01 games have a SCI version number of 1.000.zzz (checked with Quest for Glory 2).

Also, Jones in the Fast Lane is really a SCI0 game (modified SCI0, but still SCI0), as all SCI01/SCI1* games pop up an Oops! error when pressing Left Shift-Right Shift-Numpad Minus - in SCI0 games (including Jones), a disassembly box pops up and debug mode is activated.

I've never seen anyone take actual notice of the SCI TA games. If we're going to list them seperately, we need to write what the differences between SCI1, SCITA and SCI1.1 are.

Lastly, IIRC, SCI1 games that have also been released as CD versions are only SCI1 on the disk versions. The CD versions are SCI1.1, as SCI1 didn't support many of the things common to CD vesions, such as digital sound. --Pidgeot 12:05, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

That's not entirely correct. The CD-ROM versions of KQ5 and JONES are indeed SCI1, not SCI1.1. SCI1.1 CD-ROMs have a RESOURCE.AUD file; SCI1 CD-ROMS have a AUDIO001.002 file.

Nice work on updating the article. Looks much better now.

In the case of Jones, I was referring to the disk version, but I suppose you're right about the CD version not being SCI0. Probably should have made that more clear. (I'd have checked before posting the above, but I don't have the CD version.)

As for KQ5, I blame Sierra for just using x.yyy.zzz as the interpreter version number. --Pidgeot 03:17, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Old discussion on page move

I suggest we move this article back to Sierra Creative Interpreter. Of all of the available sources, only a small fraction refer to the technology as "Sierra's Creative Interpreter." It also seems more likely that the name reflects the technology and not a possessive of the company. --TheGreateScaife 21:31, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

The Leisure Suit Larry games call them "Sierra's" in their About screen. I have no preference. NewRisingSun 20:42, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I didn't know that... interesting. Does anyone out there have the means of getting a screen shot for this? If so, I think we could definitively end this discussion forever! --TheGreateScaife 21:49, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

http://geocities.com/belzorash/sciname/sci.html NewRisingSun 21:39, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, there you go. Discussion over. :) Scaife 00:49, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree, I think we have proof now. Can we use these screenshots to illustrate differences in the actual article (do they meet Wikiepdia's Image Use Policy? NewRisingSun, can you provide other screenshots from the games that might illustrate the text-mode or GUI interfaces? We could add the pictures to each version's description. --TheGreateScaife 19:49, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm confused. Is this a coincidence, or are you using similar user names on purpose, or are Scaife and Nscaife/TheGreateScaife the same person? :) Anyway, since the user interface is not implemented by the interpreter, but by the script code (as explained in the article), pictures showing different user interfaces are not relevant to the article, which is about the interpreter. NewRisingSun 20:15, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Examples

Anyone has examples of how SCI looks? I.e. C style coding, python style etc...?

SCI Studio code resembles Lisp but it's compiled into SCI bytecode. Contrast this with AGI. --193.43.89.206 (talk) 20:00, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Here is some sample source code taken from Police Quest SWAT:

(instance hitNineShot of Script
   (method (changestate newstate)
      (switchto (= state newState)
         (
            (theGame handsOff
            (qualProd dispose:,delete:)
            (messager say: ALL ALL QUAL-HIT-9-C ALL self 320)
         )
         (
            (++ nineShotCntr)
            (qualList dispose:)
            (target1 dispose:)
            (messager say: ALL ALL QUAL-RELOAD-9-C ALL self 320)
         )
         (
            (if (== nineShotCntr 9)             
               (Bset fQualifiedSniper)
               (curroom newroom: ANGELES-TABLES)
            else
               (targetl
                  view:    3329,
                  setloop: 2,              ;One inch target
                  setcel:  0,
                  posn:    495 370,
                  setPri:  470,

                  init: ((snipeplane casts?) at: 0)ftrlnitializer,
               )
               (= qualList (List new:))
               (qualProd setReal: qualprod 6)
               (theGame hands0n:)
               (self dispose:)
            )
         )
      )
   )
) ;hitNineShot

OmerMor (talk) 09:11, 8 August 2008 (UTC)