Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars

[Ced]

An epic adventure which takes you around the globe in a desperate race to unlock the ancient mysteries of the Knights Templar. [details (http://www.1src.com/?m=show&id=1323)]

[TK-421]

This is a bloody brillant game and I am quite stoked to see it coming to my Palm next week. This is one the great point and tap (click) adventures from the 90s. I hope there are enough sales on this one to justify at least the conversion of Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror.

[archangel]

Good game, but I have played through it on the Playstation and Game Boy Advance so I don't have the interest to play it again. Glad to see it get a PDA release though.

[mochant]

I haven't played this yet (my son has and assures me it's qute enjoyable). I pre-ordered it a while back and am counting the days until it's released. One can play only so much Bejeweled after all ;^)

[modernmystic]

I wonder why it's not compatable with the UX40, UX50, or the VZ90?I would have thought that it would be the other way around.

Any ideas if it will work with a later update?
-mm

[Sutek]

Hi folks,

My name is Kieren Smith, some of you may know me from the Astraware Forums and our customer support (but I won't be offended if you don't recognise me ;)), but I also work with our partners such as Revolution in coordinating the testing and development of the games we publish.

Some of you are wondering why the Sony CLIÉ UX40, UX50 and VZ90 are listed as not supported by Broken Sword, so I wanted to explain why this was the case. Supporting devices with resolutions of 480x320 or 320x480 is not an entirely simple proposition, as it seems like nearly every new device which is capable of this resolution handles it in a different way (similar enough that some approaches work for several devices, but different enough that this can still go wrong in unpleasant ways). The Sony CLIÉs are no exception to this rule, and the above three devices have their own subtle differences to the TH55, and to their predecessors (the NX and NZ series).

The bad news is that in order to fully support the whole range of devices, developers need access to the SDKs for them, providing both information and programming resources - without these, developers don't have access to functions like those to fully control the silkscreen, and depending on the approach an application has taken, this can be either a minor problem, or critical (or both, depending on the devices :( ).

Unfortunately when Sony stopped making and selling devices, they also removed the ability for new developers to download the SDKs for their devices, making it impossible for developers to get hold of the latest SDKs and to support these devices in the best way possible. To make matters more complicated, the legal agreements surrounding access to these SDKs prevents them from being shared among developers - the only source for the files was through Sony's developer area, now closed.

During the development of Broken Sword for Palm, we found that the above three devices were exhibiting some problematic display issues related to the silkscreen. Solving these properly would require access to the SDKs, which we knew wasn't possible, but we tried several other approaches to try and find a suitable compromise solution. Unfortunately, depite the best efforts from Revolution and myself, we weren't able to find a suitable solution which satisfied all the necessary criteria (it had to be stable, it had to behave in a reasonable and predictable fashion for the user, and most important, it could not impact stability on other devices).

In the end, although we tried our best to prevent it, we had to take the decision to classify the UX40, UX50 and VZ90 as incompatible with Broken Sword :(

I hope that you can understand both our reasons and our reluctance behind this decision. I would still very much like to try and find a solution to the problem, so it's something we will continue to work on in future updates. If we can get these three devices working in future release of the game then we'll do so, but unfortunately I can't say for certain at this time.

If anyone has already pre-ordered Broken Sword, and have a Palm which is now listed as incompatible, please let support@astraware.com (mailto:support@astraware.com) know, and we will refund your purchase or switch it to an alternative game (at your preference).

Warmest regards,
Kieren
External Developer Liason, Astraware

[archangel]

Wow, how cool is it to get an actual response from a publisher about issues like these so we can understand why it has happened. I have bought many games from Astraware and I'm even happier about that now that I see how good the customer concern is. I have a discontinued device as well and now it gets tough when things stop supporting your device.

[modernmystic]

There has got to be a way around this. Though, I've never looked into this kind of thing before, but someone here has got to know. I just hope that one of them sees this thread.

Thank you for the response Kieren. I really appriciate it.
-mm

[ptiz_govorun]

Sutek
there is Landscape(for TH55) and Portrait(for UX40/UX50) from Mobile-Stream.com which adds PalmSource API support for Sony Clie devices. From my own experience this applications work well with ScummVM emulator in 320x480 resolution.
Maybe you can take a look or give out some beta for testing.

[ptiz_govorun]

finally released
http://www.astraware.com/all/featured/brokensword1/

[kpouer]

Hi, it seems to work on Tungsten E only started it seems not to be slow or something like that. I'll try it on my Palm TX too. But a question : what about French version ? The original game exists in French (and probably several other languages), it would be very cool to have localized versions.

[Sutek]

There is Landscape(for TH55) and Portrait(for UX40/UX50) from Mobile-Stream.com which adds PalmSource API support for Sony Clie devices.


I know of these applications, although from what I know of them they don't quite operate in this fashion (but rather emulate features of the Palm implementation of hi-res+). However, I will take another look at them in case they are useful in some way - I can't guarantee success, but I will guarantee checking them out :)


But a question : what about French version ? The original game exists in French (and probably several other languages), it would be very cool to have localized versions.


I think you'll be very pleased to hear that Broken Sword for Palm does include localised text for French, Spanish, Italian and German! We don't switch to the appropriate language automatically (some do prefer to play the game in it's original language), but if you go into the Options from the main menu, you should be able to cycle through the available languages!

Warmest regards,
Kieren

[mikle820forex]

i got this error msg while playing the game;

"Datafile (sword1data.pdb) not found, please install it."

did i miss a file to install? i only have one file from the .zip when i downloaded it from astraware.com....

[modernmystic]

All right. I positive that sooner or later you will be able to add the UX40, UX50, and VZ90 to the list, but by the time that this happens, the $10 off code will no longer be valid. Is there a plan for this?
-mm

[Groby]

Hi,
I tried the game and it looks like i remember it from my PC, great! :)
But it only runs with 320x214 on my TH55.
Any way to make it run in 480xXXX? :)

thanks
Groby

[yorrick]

i got this error msg while playing the game;

"Datafile (sword1data.pdb) not found, please install it."

did i miss a file to install? i only have one file from the .zip when i downloaded it from astraware.com....

There should be two files to download. One is the application - the other is the database ( know I'm stating the obvious given that one is a prc the other is a pdb file)

[poodle1]

i got this error msg while playing the game;

"Datafile (sword1data.pdb) not found, please install it."

did i miss a file to install? i only have one file from the .zip when i downloaded it from astraware.com....

I have same problem on LifeDrive. I can't progress beyond beginning screens. I do not see a "Data" file anywhere. Help!

[ptiz_govorun]

poodle1,
you can buy the game)) remember, you downloaded deomo version)))

[Sutek]

All right. I positive that sooner or later you will be able to add the UX40, UX50, and VZ90 to the list, but by the time that this happens, the $10 off code will no longer be valid. Is there a plan for this?


I appreciate your confidence, although I don't want to make any guarantees at this time, just in case! As for the question of the discount, if we are able to find a fix for this, we'll look at the situation at the time and see what can be done (again, I prefer not to try and second guess the future ;))


But it only runs with 320x214 on my TH55.
Any way to make it run in 480xXXX?


Sadly not at the moment - the reasons behind this are in fact almost identical to the problems behind support for the UX/VZ devices above, but we managed to get the other modes to function as expected on the TH55.


i got this error msg while playing the game;

"Datafile (sword1data.pdb) not found, please install it."

did i miss a file to install? i only have one file from the .zip when i downloaded it from astraware.com....


If you could please check the email from ourselves containing your registration code, you should also see a download link - this download contains the additional datafile which you'll need to install. If you would like us to re-send your registration mail with this download link, please just drop support@astraware.com an email and we'll be happy to help!

Warmest regards,
Kieren

[Groby]

Must i store this Datafile (sword1data.pdb) in Ram or can i move it to the memorystick(which Folder)?

[Alsicole]

The big datafile can be put on the card. The game reads it from there.

[Groby]

in which folder?

[Alsicole]

In the Palm/Launcher folder. If you send it to the card via Hotsync then it should go there automatically.

[ptiz_govorun]

Sadly not at the moment - the reasons behind this are in fact almost identical to the problems behind support for the UX/VZ devices above, but we managed to get the other modes to function as expected on the TH55.

support@astraware.com an email and we'll be happy to help!

Warmest regards,
Kieren

Sutek, can you make a test version that will explicitly enable landscape (populate the list in settings with 480x320) for TH devices(or for all, since this is a test version), my guess is that Lanscape utility can do the rest of work.
I think its not hard, you'll need just to ignore device detection results.

[Groby]

Yeah, a test version would be a great idea! :D

[alial522]

Hi,

I am new to these forums and I don't know how does this work. Does anyone have the daafile sword1data.pdb? Can you send the file to my e-mail address. Please send the file. I contacted astraware but they did not find my regitration details in their database. :( I have the registration number but not the full file of the game brkoen sword. Please send it to me. My e-mail address is alialwani93@hotmail.com. I will be very grateful to you. :confused:

Bye for now,
alial522

[Kirsten T]

Hi,

I am new to these forums and I don't know how does this work. Does anyone have the daafile sword1data.pdb? Can you send the file to my e-mail address. Please send the file. I contacted astraware but they did not find my regitration details in their database. :( I have the registration number but not the full file of the game brkoen sword. Please send it to me. My e-mail address is alialwani93@hotmail.com. I will be very grateful to you. :confused:

Bye for now,
alial522

Hi Ali,

We will always do our best to find your registration. Can you let us know where you purchased the game, and about what date? We can then contact the site you purchased through and see where your registration is. If you have an order number that would be useful too.

Best Wishes
Kirsten

Astraware Support.