Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (EGA, DOS, CD)

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Cute. The opening is very cute. Indy is falling from one level of a building to another while the credits play. Very very cute and made me want to continue.

I am trying to do anything but scene set and procrastinate tonight, so I decided I had to get a SCUMMVM game going. The Pirate Bay had Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, so why not give that a shot.

I am trying to find the perfect graphic options. This isn't bad. OpenGL, TV filter, full screen, etc...





There is a whimsy to a lot of Sierra adventures that I usually can't stand, and I felt like the Lucasarts ones tone it down a bit. We'll see if that is the case. I seem to be able to get sub titles or voice acting, and the voice actor for Indy is fine.

I rate the first five minutes of this game as APPEALING.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Argh, imgur does not do the graphics any favors. I will try to take them inside ScummVM and not with the Windows screenshot tool.

[RealNC]

Wait, you never played it before? It's the best or second best game ever made. (Monkey Island 2 is the other one.) Although I would recommend the VGA version for a first playthrough.

[Flack]

I just downloaded the CD-ROM version from my shelf.

[Jizaboz]

I actually returned Wing Commander II for this game at Babbages lol

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I have never played it. I spent way too much time, I thought, in Sierra land with their little whimsy style and I dunno. Something about it never appealed to me. And I just assumed Lucasarts games would be the same way.

I accidentally started the SCUMM adventure games "Last Crusade" before realizing I had the wrong game started, and the opening dialogue for it is out of character for Indy and Marcus, it is something for little kids. Not saying it is bad, but I thought that my low estimation of these things were proven again.

I have also never played a Monkey Island game.

[Roody_Yogurt]

This is probably not worth your time, as you likely won't play Fate of Atlantis for more than 20 minutes, but one thing that is possible through ScummVM these days that I think is cool is the support for Soundfonts. Soundfonts take MIDI songs and play them with the proper instrument the music intended (you probably know this but I don't remember how familiar I was with them before ScummVM supported this), and several people over the years have been creating their own soundfont files to try to reach that holy grail of making things sound as cool as possible.

Anyhow, personally, I like what this does for some of these old adventure games with MIDI support (and think that it sounds better than Adlib in a lot of cases). Some people go crazy for MT-32 support but I really only sometimes use that for Loom.

You can get two soundfonts in the links here:
https://forums.scummvm.org/viewtopic.php?p=97076#p97076

Despite the intro theme sounding better in Fatboy (IMO), I think I preferred UHD in terms of most of the game's music still being recognizable to how I remember it.

To get it working, in either the game or global options, go to the Audio table and override the global settings (well, if you are in game options, I guess). Set music device to FluidSynth. Go to the MIDI tab, change the GM mode to FluidSynth (this might only be available in global options), and direct the soundfont path to wherever you put your soundfont file.

Also, I think you said something about either having voice or subtitles? In that aforementioned Audio tab, you can force it to do both. That's how I always play it.

Anyhow, I think it's a fun game. There are definitely a handful of moments where it's easy to get frustratingly stuck, but much of it is fair. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say (since it was a big selling point for the game) that, after a certain point, there are three paths through the game. I avoided the fighting path for the longest time since I thought it was just going to be a non-stop fight fest like a certain part of the Last Crusade game, but even that route had some parts I really liked (and much of the fighting is avoidable).

[Flack]

That thing about the Soundfonts is incredibly interesting. I attended Comdex in 1997 and as part of a drawing actually won a Sound Blaster AWE 32, which was the first soundcard I owned that supported Soundfonts. I bought a little MIDI keyboard and would download all kinds of crazy Soundfonts to make songs. I probably still have them in the archive of files from my old BBS.

The MiSTer people go nuts over the MT-32 stuff. I'm sure you're aware of the Pi solution, the MT32-Pi. I've heard examples of it on YouTube and it sounds lovely, but I grew up using a cheap-o SB16 (until I got that AWE32) so that's what I'm most nostalgic for. Either way, that's a cool bit of info about the Soundfonts.

[Roody_Yogurt]

I really haven't put a lot of time into MT-32 stuff so my experience might not be super representative. I find that it sounds great but is a little too perfect for my tastes. I like what these soundfonts have managed to do, and it's a nice little perk that using them is completely legal (unlike tracking down a MT-32 ROM).

[RealNC]

For my DOS MIDI needs, I use Munt for MT-32 emulation, and Sound Canvas VA for Roland Sound Canvas emulation (duh.) Both sound great and accurate. I used soundfont synths in the past, but they just can't compare to actual emulators. I grew up with a Sound Canvas clone and soundfonts just don't sound how I remember.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I do intend to play this longer than 20 minutes and I shall research the sound corrections that Roody describes. My main problem at the moment is getting you, the reader, viewer and JC denizen, the best screen shots. I have gone from just scene setting to wanting to have good screenies. I won't let you down.

[(ᵕ˵ ૩ᵕ)━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ]

I actually returned Wing Commander II for this game at Babbages lol

Substitute Alpha Centauri for Wing Commander II and Grim Fandango for The Fate of Atlantis and my experience was profoundly similar.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

This is probably not worth your time, as you likely won't play Fate of Atlantis for more than 20 minutes

It is now my life's goal to get to the 21st minute of play.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Also, I bought a "PicoGUS" that I will talk about in another thread.