ScummVM

Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion Virtual Machine (ScummVM) is a set of game engine recreations. Originally designed to play LucasArts adventure games that use the SCUMM system, it also supports a variety of non-SCUMM games by companies like Revolution Software and Adventure Soft. It was originally written by Ludvig Strigeus.

Ports

Portability is a design goal of the project. Ports of ScummVM are available for Microsoft Windows, macOS and a variety of Unix-like systems including Linux (based on RPM, Debian, or source), members of the BSD family (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFly BSD) and Solaris. It has also been ported to console systems. Less mainstream personal computer ports include those to Amiga, Atari-FreeMiNT, Haiku-BeOS-ZETA, RISC OS, and OS/2 (including derivatives such as ArcaOS).

A variety of game consoles have official ports. ScummVM has been ported to gaming machines such as the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, GameCube, and Wii, and to handheld consoles including the GCW Zero, GP2X, Nintendo DS, Pandora, PlayStation Portable and the PS Vita. Handheld computer platforms supported include Palm OS Tapwave Zodiac, Symbian (UIQ platform, Nokia 60, 80, and Nokia 7710 90 phone series), Nokia's Internet Tablet OS (used by the Nokia 770, N800 and N810), Apple's iPhone, MotoMAGX, MotoEZX phones and Windows Mobile. Platforms supported by unofficial ScummVM ports include the Microsoft's Xbox gaming console, BlackBerry PlayBook, Zaurus, Gizmondo and GP32 portable device platforms. Mobile phones running Android, webOS or unofficial Samsung's bada OS are also supported.

History

Work on ScummVM started in September 2001 (with the first public release at October) by computer science student Ludvig Strigeus. Looking to write his own adventure game, he looked to see how the mechanics of an existing game engine, specifically working to create a way to play Monkey Island 2 on his Linux machine. At about the same time, Vincent Hamm was also looking to implement a SCUMM system player, and though he had done deeper research into understanding how the SCUMM engine worked, found that Strigeus was much further along, and the two joined to craft the project.), game engines are chosen for inclusion into ScummVM either if they are given the source code that makes it easy to port into the software's architecture, or if one or more of the team members are passionate about bringing a game engine into the program to do the difficult task of reconstructing the game's code from the compiled versions.

An attempt to bring in Another World by Éric Chahi brought some internal stress within the project in 2004. Another World was not a point-and-click adventure game, and used polygon-based graphics instead of pixel-based ones most adventure games employ, and thus was considered a serious departure from the focus of ScummVM. Though the project was scrapped in a few days after Chahi requested its removal as he was preparing a 15th anniversary remastered for sale, the current leads of the project had to refocus the group and define the ideals that ScummVM should meet. until all AGS v2.5+ games were officially added to the program, coinciding with its 20th anniversary in October 2021. By late 2020, ResidualVM officially merged with ScummVM.

Developer support

According to Sandulenko "there is no typical process" when it comes to collaboration with developers: "Everything is ad-hoc. What we do, we try to search for contact info of people who were working on the titles some developer is interested in, and we're inquiring access to their original source code, if it still exists somewhere. Then we start working on it at our own pace".

With increased attention, ScummVM has entered into favorable agreements with adventure game developers to help bring their titles into the engine, or in some cases, being given source code and other assets to work from. Revolution Software helped the developers with source code and technical advice for its games, and once ScummVM supported the company's Virtual Theatre engine, Revolution released Lure of the Temptress and Beneath a Steel Sky as freeware and provided assets from its first two Broken Sword games in an open media format. The renewed interest in these games from younger players enabled Revolution to work on two more Broken Sword games. available for download on the ScummVM website.

Laboratorium Komputerowe Avalon: Janusz Wiśniewski and Mirosław Liminowicz released the original source code of their adventure game Sołtys as freeware, available for download on the ScummVM website.
Perfect Entertainment: John Young, Colin Smythe and Terry Pratchett provided the original source code of their adventure games, Discworld and Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!?.
Wyrmkeep Entertainment: Joe Pearce provided the original source code of their adventure game, Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb.

The digital storefront GOG.com which specializes in selling digital copies of older games, provides support to ScummVM, and sells titles that include the ScummVM engine as part of their distribution. TrollVM has also been integrated into ScummVM adding support for three pre-AGI games: Mickey's Space Adventure, Troll's Tale, and Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Mistic's GPL violations

ScummVM is distributed as free software under the GPL-2.0-or-later license, enabling anyone to use the project as an engine for a game. For example, Revolution Software repackaged their Broken Sword games for a DVD release, using ScummVM with the included sword1 and sword2 engines to support modern computers. Mistic had used ScummVM for these, but failed to credit the developers. While the ScummVM team contacted gpl-violations.org for legal advice, Atari instead threatened to sue the ScummVM team, as the terms of Nintendo Wii development kit heavily restricted the use of open source software, including the GPL. A settlement was made in 2009, in which ScummVM would drop the investigation of the GPL violation, on the condition that Mistic would sell or destroy all GPL-violating copies of the games, make a donation to the Free Software Foundation, and pay the legal fees.

ResidualVM was originally designed to play LucasArts adventure games that use the GrimE game engine, and was later adapted to support other ones. Like ScummVM, the VM in ResidualVM stood for virtual machine.

ResidualVM is a reimplementation of the part of the software used to interpret the scripting languages by conducting reverse engineering on the original game rather than emulating the hardware on which the games ran. As such, ResidualVM allows the games it supports to be played on platforms other than those for which they were originally released.

thumb|The logo used until July 2009

thumb|The logo used from July 2009 to January 2012

The name of the project comes from the fact that it was originally started to support the residual LucasArts adventure games not supported by ScummVM. The original Lua-based engine used by LucasArts in their 3D adventure games was called GrimE (as opposed to SCUMM), so ResidualVM's title is also a word pun as grime is a type of residue.

The project was started by former ScummVM team leader James Brown, and was first publicly available on August 15, 2003. Progress on the project was initially slow, and as a result the project's main goal of supporting Grim Fandango did not occur until April 25, 2011, when the compatibility of Grim Fandango was upgraded to "completable with a few minor glitches".

The project obtained a domain separate from ScummVM in December 2011. As a result of the new domain name, the project name was changed from Residual to ResidualVM. The logo was changed to reflect the new name in January 2012. The first stable release of ResidualVM was released 9 years after the project started, on December 21 the same year. It merged with ScummVM in October 2021. In addition, an Android port is available in the source code, and unofficial builds have been made with that source. There is also a port available for the Pandora console, and for FreeBSD, but they are not official as they have not been added to the main branch.

With increased attention, ResidualVM entered into favorable agreements with adventure game developers to help bring their titles into the engine. Cyan Worlds partnered with ResidualVM to release Myst III: Exile on digital platforms.

The digital storefront GOG.com which specialized in selling digital copies of older games, sells Myst III: Exile with the ResidualVM engine as part of its distribution. and Myst III: Exile, which are completable with a few minor glitches.

In the development branch, there is also support for Escape from Monkey Island, which is completable with a few glitches, and The Longest Journey, which is completable with missing features.

Like ScummVM, ResidualVM contains fixes for bugs present in the original executable. The ResidualVM team discovered a workaround for a bug that causes a critical dialog not to play in Grim Fandango. In addition, the Grim Fandango engine in ResidualVM has fixes for over a dozen other bugs present in the original. There is also a branch of ResidualVM called Grim Mouse, which allows Grim Fandango to be played completely with a mouse as a traditional point and click adventure game.

Supported games

thumb|[[Graphical user interface|GUI of ScummVM 0.8.0 with the "Classic (builtin)" skin]]

The following games have support built into the current release of ScummVM.

LucasArts games

In order of the games' original release dates:

Maniac Mansion
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
Loom
The Secret of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Day of the Tentacle
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Full Throttle
The Dig
The Curse of Monkey Island
Grim Fandango

Sierra On-Line games

The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery
The Black Cauldron
Castle of Dr. Brain
Codename: ICEMAN
The Colonel's Bequest
Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail
Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood
The Dagger of Amon Ra
Donald Duck's Playground
EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus
EcoQuest II: Lost Secret of the Rainforest
Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gold Rush!
Hi-Res Adventure #0: Mission Asteroid
Hi-Res Adventure #1: Mystery House
Hi-Res Adventure #2: Wizard and the Princess
Hi-Res Adventure #3: Cranston Manor
Hi-Res Adventure #4: Ulysses and the Golden Fleece
Hi-Res Adventure #5: Time Zone
Hi-Res Adventure #6: The Dark Crystal
Hoyle's Official Book of Games series
The Island of Dr. Brain
Jones in the Fast Lane
King's Quest: Quest for the Crown
King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne
King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella
King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!
King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride
King's Questions
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places)
Leisure Suit Larry III: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals
Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work
Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!
Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail!
Lighthouse: The Dark Being
Manhunter: New York
Manhunter 2: San Francisco
Mickey's Space Adventure
Mixed-Up Fairy Tales
Mixed-Up Mother Goose
Pepper's Adventures in Time
Phantasmagoria
Phantasmagoria II: A Puzzle of Flesh
Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel
Police Quest II: The Vengeance
Police Quest III: The Kindred
Police Quest IV: Open Season
Police Quest: SWAT
Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire
Quest for Glory III: Wages of War
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness
Rama
Shivers
Slater & Charlie Go Camping
Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter
Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge
Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon
Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and The Time Rippers
Space Quest V: Roger Wilco – The Next Mutation
Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in The Spinal Frontier
Torin's Passage
Troll's Tale
Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood

Coktel Vision games

Adibou
Adibou 2
Bargon Attack
The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble
Fascination
Geisha
Gobliiins
Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon
Goblins Quest 3
Lost in Time
Once Upon A Time: Little Red Riding Hood
Playtoons: Bambou le Sauveur de la Jungle
The Prophecy
Urban Runner

Adventuresoft-Horrorsoft games

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus
The Feeble Files
Personal Nightmare
Simon the Sorcerer
Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe
Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack
Waxworks

Humongous Entertainment games

Various games by Humongous Entertainment use the SCUMM engine, and are therefore playable with ScummVM:

Backyard Baseball
Backyard Baseball 2001
Backyard Baseball 2003
Backyard Basketball
Backyard Football
Backyard Football 2002
Big Thinkers! First Grade
Big Thinkers! Kindergarten
Blue's 123 Time Activities
Blue's ABC Time Activities
Blue's Art Time Activities
Blue's Birthday Adventure
Blue's Reading Time Activities
Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise
Fatty Bear's Fun Pack
Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds
Freddi Fish 2: The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse
Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell
Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch
Freddi Fish 5: The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove
Freddi Fish and Luther's Maze Madness
Freddi Fish and Luther's Water Worries
Let's Explore the Airport with Buzzy
Let's Explore the Farm with Buzzy
Let's Explore the Jungle with Buzzy
Moonbase Commander
Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside
Pajama Sam 2: Thunder and Lightning Aren't so Frightening
Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat from Your Head to Your Feet
Pajama Sam's Lost & Found
Pajama Sam's Sock Works
Pajama Sam: Games to Play on Any Day
Putt-Putt and Pep's Balloon-o-Rama
Putt-Putt and Pep's Dog on a Stick
Putt-Putt Enters the Race
Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon
Putt-Putt Joins the Circus
Putt-Putt Joins the Parade
Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo
Putt-Putt Travels Through Time
Putt-Putt's Fun Pack
Spy Fox in "Dry Cereal"
Spy Fox 2: "Some Assembly Required"
Spy Fox 3: "Operation Ozone"
Spy Fox in Cheese Chase
Spy Fox in Hold the Mustard

Games by other developers

ScummVM also supports the following non-SCUMM games:

3 Skulls of the Toltecs
The 7th Guest
The 11th Hour
The Adventures of Willy Beamish
Alice: An Interactive Museum
Amazon: Guardians of Eden
Another World
Ape Odyssey No. 2001
Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity
Beneath a Steel Sky
Blade Runner
Blazing Dragons
Blue Force
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror
Broken Sword 2.5: The Return of the Templars
Bud Tucker in Double Trouble
Castle Master
Chewy: Esc from F5
Chivalry is Not Dead
Clandestiny
Classical Cats
Hades Challenge
Heart of China
Hodj 'n' Podj
Hopkins FBI
Hugo's House of Horrors
Hugo II, Whodunit?
Hugo III, Jungle of Doom!
Hyperspace Delivery Boy!
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb
The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime
The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time
Kingdom: The Far Reaches
The Labyrinth of Time
Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos
The Last Bounty Hunter
The Last Express
Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2: Gas Pump Girls Meet the Pulsating Inconvenience from Planet X!
The Legend of Kyrandia: Fables and Fiends
The Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate
The Legend of Kyrandia: Malcolm's Revenge
Little Big Adventure
Living Books series
The Longest Journey
The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo
The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel
Lure of the Temptress
L-Zone
Mad Dog McCree
Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold
Magic Tales series
The Manhole
Martian Memorandum
Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum
Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen
Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen
Might and Magic: Swords of Xeen
Mission Supernova Part 1 and Part 2
Mortadelo y Filemón: Una Aventura de Cine
Mortville Manor
Muppet Treasure Island
Myst
Myst III: Exile
Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake
Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion
Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand
Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill
Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger
Nancy Drew: The Final Scene
Nancy Drew: Treasure in the Royal Tower
Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness
The Neverhood
Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy
Nippon Safes Inc.
Obsidian
Oo-Topos
Operation Stealth
Orion Burger
Penumbra: Overture
The Pink Panther: Hokus Pokus Pink
The Pink Panther: Passport to Peril
Plumbers Don't Wear Ties
The Prince and the Coward
Private Eye
Reah: Face the Unknown
Red Comrades Save the Galaxy
Red Comrades 2: For the Great Justice
Return to Ringworld
Return to Zork
Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender
Ringworld: Revenge of the Patriarch
Ripley's Believe It or Not!: The Riddle of Master Lu
Rise of the Dragon
Riven
Rodney's Funscreen
Sanitarium
Schizm: Mysterious Journey
Sfinx
Soldier Boyz
Sołtys
The Space Bar
Space Pirates
Spaceship Warlock
Spider-Man: The Sinister Six
Starship Titanic
Syberia
Syberia II
Teenagent
Tender Loving Care
Thimbleweed Park
Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths
Toonstruck
Total Eclipse
Total Eclipse II: The Sphinx Jinx
Touché: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer
Transylvania
Trick or Treat
U.F.O.s
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
Ultima VI: The False Prophet
Ultima VIII: Pagan
Uncle Henry's Playhouse
Unrest
The Vampire Diaries
Versailles 1685
Voyeur
Wetlands
Who Shot Johnny Rock?
Wrath of the Gods
Zork: Grand Inquisitor
Zork Nemesis
Several Adventure Game Studio games
Several World Builder games