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NAGI Documentation

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Submitting an Unknown Game's Details

The information I need is included in this list in order of necessity (ie, if you can't get the file sizes or interpreter version.. that's ok)

• Name - the name of the game.  "Police Quest" or "Space Quest: The Lost Chapter" would suffice here.
  
• Checksums - edit nagi.ini and set the option "crc_print" to 1 and "console" to 0.  NAGI will print a checksum for each game it finds and will output it's contents to stdout.txt.  Open stdout.txt and copy the checksums for the game you wish to submit.
• Interpreter version - You can determine which version of interpreter the game uses by running a program called AGInfo .  Just run it in the same directory as the game.  If you can't find the interpreter or it's version, there are other methods to try.  Version 2 interpreters have four directory files (logdir,snddir, viewdir, picdir) whilst version 3 interpreters will only have one directory.  Older version 2 games will have an unencrypted object file so if you open the file"object" in notepad and can easily read the object names then you have an older version 2 interpreter.
• Game version - This is the version of the game data.  You can check out the About messagebox from the menu for any information.  Also, try going into debug mode (usually alt-D) and it will print out a version message sometimes.  Finally, try and find a file that has an extension ".QA".  These ".QA" usually contain version or bugfix info.
• Date - Sometimes the publication date will be inside the game data files.  However, most of the time you will have to look at the dates of the files yourself.  Sierra AGI games were published between 1986 and 1989.  You have to watch out because some people add readme's and other files a year or two after the game was released.  Just pick the date that the majority of the files have.. or just the later date.
• Platform intended - The AGI games were designed to run on a bunch of different systems but there were some differences for each platform.  The platforms I know about are PC, Tandy, PCjr, PS/2 30, Amiga, Macintosh, Atari ST,  Apple II and Apple IIgs.
• Disk type - Later versions of games came in two versions.. 3.5" and 5.25" editions.  If you know which disk arrangement it came in, this could be useful.  In 3.5" the sizes are around 500k and 5.25" they're around 100-300k.  Fan made games don't take this into account at all and you can get games that take up a meg or two in one volume.
• File sizes - Useful to determine disktype or just to compare with other game versions.
• Bugs/side effects - Does the game work in NAGI or the normal Sierra interpreter?  Are there any side effects that occur because of that?  Can you finish the game?
  

There can be slight differences between games versions and I think that some of these differences can be attributed to copy protection removal. I believe the games that have copy protection are: Kings Quest 4, Gold Rush, Man Hunter 1/2 and Kings Quest 3.  If your game has copy protection or protection removed, that would be useful to note as well.

Once you have all or some of this information, please send an email with this information to sonneveld@hotmail.com and i'll add it to the next version of NAGI that's released.  If you include your name and email address, I'll add you to the credits too.

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