LucasArts' PC adventures possible on DS, stalled by size limitations

[wraggster]

To this day, it baffles us that LucasArts still hasn't re-released its library of adventure titles, if only so our non-gaming friends can believe us when we tell them the developer "doesn't just make Star Wars games." Speaking to Eurogamer, Fracture assistant producer Jeffrey Gullett said it's something they've looked into it but that there's an issue of size limitations for a DS version.

Said Gullet, "The cart size of the DS makes it impossible to put out ports of any of our old graphic adventures ... There's literally not enough room on those carts to put the games out." The standard DS cart supports up to 256MB (but with slower data transfer speeds), while the DS version of ScummVM is just over 7MB. We're not sure if Gullet meant the entire LucasArts adventure library wouldn't fit on a cart, but we're willing to bet you could at least get the first three Monkey Islands under 128MB.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/02/lucasarts-pc-adventures-possible-on-ds-stalled-by-size-limitat/

[masterchief929]

lucas arts does need to start porting. like now.... START BLOODY PORTING!!

[Peronthious]

Err...alright, if they say so.

*goes back to playing Day of the Tentacle in ScummDS*

[scrabbus]

HAHAHAHA, Peronthious, too true! I have been playing ScummVM on my ds for years now, there are not many Scumm titles that way more than 256 meg anyway only the later titles with all the animation and speech, but hey what do we know, lol. What do these people take us for?

[Kaeruyaki]

Um, it's called compressing. Those wav and bmp files are huge by themselves, but just a little bit of work and they could EASILY get the 650MB Day of the Tentacle down below 128MB.

[LoudMaximus]

Lucasarts are just being lazy and thinking up the easiest(and lamest) excuse.they're too busy spewing out as much star wars related crap as they can.
Mind you,the force unleashed does look like it has potential

[jaws365]

We already have ScummVM, so it's unnecessary unless they re-make the games.

Games I really would see are Quest For Glory series by Sierra and UFO Enemy Unknown by Microprose :thumbup:

[Aryn]

So, let me see if I get this straight...those who own a flash cart that takes a micro sd memory card can access several gigabytes of data, and select between a rediculous amount of games to load on the same memory card, and LucasArts claims that they will have problems due to size limitations?

Seriously, LucasArts, do your research and either ask Nintendo to expand the capacity of their cartridges or create your own cartridge.

[scrabbus]

Just shite excuses really, you know how it works, its all smoke and mirrors whenever you want a straight answer from any games co's these days

[DanWare]

It's not a matter of space. They will fit. But many fans are already running ScummVM-DS. I have bought these games in the past and feel entitled to play them on my DS.

To compete LucasArts would need to release something that ScummVM-DS cannot run - this would require more RAM in the DS, not so much cartridge space.

[wiggy fuzz]

why should size be an issue? surely game developers have the means to choose the sizes of the flash carts they use - considering the price of a 2GB SD card nowadays it shouldn't be much of an issue

[Jayenkai]

The size thing is obviously untrue, just a wee bit of compression should do it.

Methinks it could be a case of "But they've all got ScummVM already, why would they buy it?"

To do it properly, not only do they have to rewrite Scumm from scratch for the DS (At which point, why bother, why not actually just license ScummVM!), but they might as well then carry on, and write some new games..

[Gideon007]

It's all about support. If they start selling those relics they'd need to support them again or even fix errors these still have. The original developers have long since moved on, the code (if it even exists) is ages old, they'd have to have new developers that would need to pour over the old code again... Too much costs for too little to gain. After all people that bought them ages ago won't pay again and just use ScummVM. It makes no financial sense for Lucas Arts to bring these old games out again.