SCI-1 and "blending" EGA games

[chixdiggit]

Let me preface this by saying I don't know a lot about messing around with the innards of games. However it seems like a lot of people here do.

I was browsing through wikipedia's article on the SCI engine, and there were some comments in the SCI-1 section kind of implying that a games with the same SCI version could be joined or altered. Rather than reprogram an EGA game to provide the point-and-click interface, is it possible someone could take the original interface from a game like KQ5 and overlay it onto QG2 or Colonel's Bequest, providing hand / eye icons etc?

AND. If it were, would it be possible to add the ol' mouth icon and a new drop-down list of conversation topics? Knowledgeable folks please aid my curious mind.

[MusicallyInspired]

No, it's not possible. First of all the point & click interface wasn't added into the SCI interpreter until SCI1. Although, Cloudee on the SCI programming forums successfully created a working SCI0 template game with a P&C interface and no parser at all. But this is all script-based. But this was scripted from scratch. It's currently impossible to edit compiled scripts for SCI games unlike AGI games. So editing scripts from Sierra's SCI games to add P&C is not something that's going to happen. Second of all, while there was a mouse cursour in SCI0 games it was very basic and had no pathfinding ability. If the character ran into an object he would just stand there blocked instead of walking around it like in SCI1+ games. Again, the pathfinding was built into the interpreter and not scripted, so it's obviously absent from SCI0 games.

[Cloudschatze]

No, it's not possible.

At a minimum, it seems like basic Eye and Walk icons might be possible, even without the pathfinding ability, since these actions are already present with the mouse support in most (all?) SCI0 games.

Speaking of "looking" with the mouse, for the most part, you get the same messages as if you'd used the parser. The two parser-driven Quest for Glory games seem to be exceptions though. Whereas QfG1 cycles through a number of cute messages when you look at inconsequential things, QfG2 seems to contain a fair amount of dialogue that can only be seen by using the mouse (AFAIK).

[MusicallyInspired]

Yes, I said myself that a guy on the SCI Programming forums successfully created a template game for SCI Studio/Companion with a working P&C interface. Walk, look, use, inventory, or whatever-else-you-can-think-of cursours and all (just without pathfinding). But I believe what chixdiggit was suggesting was replacing the SCI0 interface with the SCI1 interface. A direct duplication is clearly impossible.