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Ok, only FYI (as many of these topics were covered in other replies) and certainly not for karma (as this topic is dead at this point), here is the definitive guide for playing Lucasarts/Sierra games on modern PC's:

First, Linux PC's:
Lucasarts games: http://www.scummvm.org/
AGI Sierra games (Lsl1, Sq1, Sq2, Kq1-3, etc): http://sarien.sourceforge.net/
SCI0 Sierra games (Sq3, Lsl2-3, Kq4): http://freesci.linuxgames.com/
SCI1 Sierra games (Sq4-5, Lsl5-6, Kq5, etc) and oddballs like willy beamish and all those old games like tunnels of armageddon: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/
Windows Sierra games (Sq6, Lsl7, etc): http://www.transgaming.com/ (or apt-get install wine)

Any platform, Sierra games: This guy has done the unpossible, writing timing fix patches for the games so you don't have to kludge them with slowdown utils: http://geocities.com/belzorash/

Windows PC's:
LucasArts games: http://www.scummvm.org/
AGI Sierra games: http://www.agidev.com/nagi.html
SCI Sierra games: http://sourceforge.net/projects/vdmsound/
Windows games:
http://home.planet.nl/~harms646/larry7.html
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancement s/ResChange.shtml
Games that just don't work right:
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/

And just for grins, because it's freaking awesome:
http://www.agdinteractive.com/
http://people.freenet.de/lucasfangames/maniac/game s_eng.htm
Good luck, let me know if you have any problems.

This might be semi-offtopic, but you make it sound like you haven't yet seen this.

Visited here lately?

Don't set up an old pc set up ScummVM http://scummvm.org/ it even runs on linux!

Point & Click adventures are the answer. Go to http://www.scummvm.org/ for ScummVM and Ebay for games such as Monkey Island.

It really depends on what kinds of games you like, of course, but if you like classic point-and-click adventures, I'd really recommend getting ScummVM and some of those old LucasArts classics (you can get those for cheap on eBay, for example). I've got to admit I have no idea how a headmouse works, but if it's anything like a regular mouse in terms of flexibility and immediate control over cursor movement, I think you'll find those very playable. ^^

Classic games, huh?
Well, I happen to have just the links for you.

Doomsday: A windows and linux improved doom port
http://www.doomsdayhq.com/

ScummVM: An LucasArts games emulator. Plays almost all games: Indiana Jones, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max...
http://www.scummvm.org/

DOSbox: An DOS emulator. Good for classic games.
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/

With Wine, you can also play lots of classic windows games. Take a look at wine's application database to find your game.
http://appdb.winehq.org/

ScummVM has a lovely Pocket PC version that is really nice and will play all your old favorite LucasArts (and a few others) games. And since they were all mouse-based, the gameplay translate well to touchscreen and stylus.

Thanks to the wonder of ScummVM, you can play this game on any OS ScummVM supports, which includes Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, PalmOS, Pocket PC, Dreamcast and BeOS. (You may need windows to get the game files out of the .exe, although wine might work for that)

ScummVM plays nearly all the original games too, so if you have the discs lying around you can replay all the old classics on your favorite OS that didn't exist when they came out :)

Bring Back Maniac Mansion

Okay

And this is always useful

This is the best news I've heard all day! Made me dig out my old Sam & Max and DOTT CDs. ScummVM is sweet! And I was planning on getting some work done this weekend :/ Actually played through Beneath a Steel sky the other week too. I sure miss the good old days...

I still play Sam & Max, DOTT, MI 1, 2, 3 & 4... For most Lucasarts games you can use the ScummVM to play on most platforms (Linux included of course).

What I miss the most is a good cross-platform open-source adventure game engine I could script in the language I like the most (Ruby of course... but Python would be good too). I could try to write something but I'm too much of a n00b for such a project :(

• The Ur-Quan Masters (speechfree)
• "Beneath a Steel Sky" and "Flight of the Amazon Queen" (beerfree)

Why is it that you can walk up to any book store and pick up titles that were written centuries ago, or purchase movies that date as far back as 1912.. and yet you can't even play a game anymore that came out 5-7 years ago?

One might argue that it's due to technical reasons, but that's no excuse is it?

Why do we find ourselves donating our precious time hacking away at emulators and virtual machines when it should be the people who made the games in the first place that should be supporting them? Does the game industry hold their own products in so little regard that it has already decided that future generations can't enjoy them?

Sure, there's the odd overpriced nostalgia pack put out every now and then, but that's just a drop in the ocean.

ScummVM, a virtual machine that runs games developed for LucasArts' SCUMM engine, has been adding support lately for older games (Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, etc.) released by Humongous Entertainment. (http://www.scummvm.org/demos.php has some examples). ScummVM is extremely portable and runs on everything from most unix systems to game consoles and palmtops.

DOSBOX is great, but for Lucas Arts adventure games, you would be better off using ScummVM, which has also been ported to the XBOX, as far as I know.

If you have the original game, you can use SCUMM VM to work as the script engine for many Lucas Art games. This way you can still enjoy the classics, without having to fiddle around with DOS emulators and such. :)

Sorry about the double post, my posting finger slipped.

This game is all my childhood, i played it for month, and if there's someone around here that knows the carribean sea better than me, he'll taste my sword for sure. But for /. readers it's perhaps out of sight, i played it on the C=64 last century, then on the amiga, and got it on the PC for a birthday. Anyway, i hope the "remake" will keep the promises of the first game.

Other games i like: "Soul reaver", "Black & White", "Trick Style", Tibia, Nomad Soul, and of course all the Lucas Art Series..

Emulation looks like one of the few things for which it might be decent--assuming the gamepad feels ok. Locking users into a specific version of an operating system running at a low screen resolution with a gamepad interface severely limits the number of games that would be playable on this unit.

Attempting to play ScummVM games with a stylus on a Clié PEG-N760C was hard enough.

LucasArts engineer Nick Porcino has an article detailing what to expect from graphics in the next generation of game systems including the "influence of cinematic realtime rendering, the promise of advanced lighting techniques and high-dynamic range images, the uses of the rendering pipeline, and the future of multiprocessor-based rendering and advanced geometry."

Funny. That is exactly the same what gaming technology engineers were talking about when the first consumer GPUs were hitting the market in the nineties. Meanwhile, the best games ever made by LucasArts are successfully emulated by ScummVM on 486. Cinematic realtime rendering, advanced lighting techniques and high-dynamic range images and multiprocessor-based rendering and advanced geometry my arse.

I have found the FreeSCI being the best for Sierra games, and it's available for Win32, Macs, Linux, DEC Alpha, etc. Same with Maniac Manson, Beneath a Steel Sky, and other SCUMM based games (lots of lucas Arts games). ScummVM is a fantastic, widely compatible engine for LucasArts and other SCUMM based games, and is also available for a host of formats. To boot, two different games are freely available for it, Beneath a Steel Sky, and Flight of the Amazon Queen (both are in the floppy version, and the full CD ROM version with voice audio! Beneath A Steel Sky will NOT disappoint, play it!).

The Z-Machine engine for Zork has been ported to everything known to man, and some things not known to man, so that's widely playable.

Lastly, for those niche games that you love (Epic Pinball, Jill of the Jungle!) try a virtual machine system, like VMware (the best, IMHO), Microsoft's newly aquired and freshly released Virtual PC 2004 (not as good, IMHO, and not available on Linux, obviously), or some other open source projects might work.

The last gasp is to install a copy of DOS or Win9x on a spare small partition (Mine's a half gig bootable partition on my second drive), and boot from it for really cranky stuff. This only works, mind you, if your sound card has some form of DOS based drivers/emulation drivers available. I have a Creative branded Ensoniq Audio PCI, and while I have the DOS drivers, they're a bitch to find now, and I keep them very safe. I've found that Demos and Intros are most likely to fail. I can't get Future Crew's Second Reality running with sound under anything but real DOS.

This is also another good reason to kep an old Sound Blaster 16 lying around. God knows they're plentiful enough and cheap, so no true old school hard core gamer/geek shouldn't have one. :)

I wonder if this version of Quake can be played using CABAL...

An addendum to my previous post:

Buy Simon the Sorcerer 1, 2, and 3D

Found out that Harlan Ellison's site has I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream the computer game for $32.

Lucasarts has a few of their classics still for sale, buried deeply on their site: Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, a 3.5-pack with Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Sam & Max hit the Road (the full Maniac Mansion game is included in Day of the Tentacle, hence the .5), Escape From Monkey Island, Curse of Monkey Island, and a Mega Monkey Bundle with Monkey Island 1-4 (look for promo link under Escape from Monkey Island).

Broken Sword III

Broken Sword I and II are still for sale here and there-- I couldn't find a good link. I did, however, find that Revolution (who makes these games) has released Lure of the Temptress along with Beneath a Steel Sky.

Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen for download from ScummVM. Also, re-coded cutscenes for Broken Sword I and II to get the video working in ScumMVM.

Well, if you have a look at their compatability list, you'll see that there's still a number of games that don't make it to the ideal 95% mark. I imagine they'll think about calling it 1.0 once that list is all (or nearly all) at or above 95%.

An interesting idea but see what the SCUMMVM FAQ has to say about this

Quote:

Can I use ScummVM to make new games?

While it is theoretically possible to write a new game that uses ScummVM it is not advisable. ScummVM has many hacks to support older games and no tools geared towards creating content usable by ScummVM. Potential game authors are encouraged to look at open source technologies such as libSDL for a cross platform DirectX like library, and the Lua and Python scripting languages for game logic.

The fact that I easily found rpms to run under Linux was just a bonus. I have experienced a few crashes in Sam & Max (all occuring in the same room), but the gameplay is intact. One mini-game doesnt work properly but the game should be playable from beginning to end.

But I havent heard mention of one of the best reasons to use SCUMMVM: save states. With a point and click adventure, it may not be as critical as save states in say, a SNES emulator, but it's still be a convienence, and only costs 100k/save

To see how well your favorite LucasArts SCUMM game is supported, check out the compatability chart

Nice, thanx!

BTW, any recent info on Gary Winnick (IMHO graphics) and David Fox (IMHO script), who worked on Maniac Mansion with Ron Gilbert?

So all we now need is some million bucks (or less; how much do top-adventure-makers earn?) to lock Ron and Tim and the rest of the team into the same room for a week of brainstorming. The results could be open-sourced to implement them.

As there is already a very good open-source adventure interpreter called ScummVm, it shouldn't be too hard to get going :-)

Wanna start funding, anyone?

They even have the sounds working correctly on some of the games.

And, if I remember correctly, the Lucas Arts collection (Greatest hits, whatever it's called) have been updated to run under WinXP without any tweaking.

Calmiche,

The first game was so good I still have it and a 486 just so I can go back every few years and play it.

What the fuck are you doing with that dosbox garbage when ScummVM does such a great job?

Ugh, this reminds me of why I hate text adventures. open drawer with key, that does not computeth, use key in drawer, that does not computeth, unlock drawer with key, that does not computeth. Can someone tell me how to unlock a freaking drawer that would have taken two clicks in a graphical adventure game?

Mmmmmm, ScummVM...

The version of Sam & Max will more than likely be the updated directx version by by Aaron Giles of MAME and ex-LucasArts fame. Previously this updated binary (resources are the same I believe) was only available in parts of the UK and Europe in a compilation pack know as the Entertainment Pack. As LucasArts don't have this available for people who already have the game, preordering Armed & Dangerous to get the bonus disc is the only way many people can get an updated version from LucasArts, or your could just look here.

I'm curious about which legacy games are giving you trouble. I've found solutions for Doom , System Shock 2, LucasArts adventures and others.

Check out also ScummVM. Plays lots of good oldies, LucasArts' adventure games, Simon the Sorcerers, Beneath a Steel Sky etc. And enhanced with anti-aliasing too!

Sarien plays some Sierra oldies.

And perhaps FreeSCI (other Sierra oldies) might work some day on OS X too (native or via X11).

that they dump this prototype to a rom file so that everyone can enjoy MM how it was truly meant to be enjoyed on nes. Or you could just play it on scummvm like a normal human.

Being very fond of those old Lucas Art games, i though giving away a few links about the SCUMM VM may be interresting for other /.ers.

- The SCUMM VM (already on /. here (Linux SCUMM Interpreter), and here (Lucas Confuses ScummVM With Abandonware).
- The SCUMM Bar, sadly down untill mid-july (but not closed!), is a reference on the genre, with nice interviews with the original developpers of the first games.
- The International House of Mojo
- WWHS
- The Big Whoop Fairground (Monkey Island)
- The Legend of Mokey Island

Well from there you can find tons of links to fan sites...

Actually Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders was my first introduction to the genre when i was around 13, on a now old C64. This game was really crazy and got me so addicted that it was a reason for my parents to buy me a english/french dictionnary. There's a few projects from fans for a follow-up:
- Zak McKracken
- Zak McKracken and the Alien Rockstar
- Zak McKracken Between Time and Space

Finally some of you may also want to have a look to the news groups alt.games.lucas-art.*

have fun!

To add to the article, the ScummVM Team got the source code of Beneath a Steel Sky from Revolution, so we'll soon see a version of ScummVM supporting this game to the fullest!

Kudos to Revolution for opening the source at least to the guys at ScummVM!

The company has to take some responsiblity knowing that 99.9% of the people that buy this our going to do illegal things with it.

And what exactly is their responsibility? Especially if that 0.1% really appreciates the legal uses? Perhaps many emulator users are just interested in piracy, but I'm happy that I can again play old Lucasarts games that I've purchased over the years. I love my Dreamcast, but I know that it will eventually wear out and I'm glad that I'll be able to use emulators to continue enjoying the games I'm purchased for it.

If the developer genuinely wants its product used in a legal and ethical way, and there are customers who want the product to use in a legal and ethical way, the existance of people who would use it illegally is irrelevant, no matter if there is just one such person or a million. It's a free country (well, it used to be), demanding that I stop doing something that is legal and that I feel is ethical is an insult to that freedom. Insisting that the developer spent time and money to add "features" that complicate the product and remove options is just stupid.

Sam and Max is 93% Compatible with Scummvm. Scummvm works on linux amongst other OS's.

Sam and Max is 93% Compatible with Scummvm. Scummvm works on linux amongst other OS's.

That's why there are several different groups around dedicated to reverse engineering old games and rewriting them so people can actually -play- them... and usually on a stupid number of platforms, from PCs to Consoles and PDAs.

Not to mention places like VOGONs (Very Old Games On New Systems) which itself exists just to help people find ways to run said older games on newer OS's (mostly w2k mind you).

I just wish more companies would support efforts like this and release some source to older games OTHER than FPSes. I really appretiate the release of source from ID and everyone else, it's great learning material. But it would be nice if other genre developers also were intrested in preserving their 'art'.

ScummVM, my project, recently obtained the Beneath a Steel Sky source-code from the authors and we're now working off support for that. The difference in this case is that the engine -is- almost pure x86 assembly, so it would be rather a waste of time to GPL... for anything useful to be done, it would need to be mostly reverse engineered anyway. So this just makes it easier for us to do so dirty-room with commented assembly. Releasing it to a small dedicated group may be more appropriate in cases like this, to prevent splintering and stagnation, until the reimplementation is truely started.

Anyway.

- Ender
Boss Monkey: ScummVM
Founder: QuakeSrc

Standard Disclaimer: It's 8:45am, I havn't had any coffee yet. Any spelling or grammatical errors are henceforth claimed as artistic license. It's art, damn it!

That's why there are several different groups around dedicated to reverse engineering old games and rewriting them so people can actually -play- them... and usually on a stupid number of platforms, from PCs to Consoles and PDAs.

Not to mention places like VOGONs (Very Old Games On New Systems) which itself exists just to help people find ways to run said older games on newer OS's (mostly w2k mind you).

I just wish more companies would support efforts like this and release some source to older games OTHER than FPSes. I really appretiate the release of source from ID and everyone else, it's great learning material. But it would be nice if other genre developers also were intrested in preserving their 'art'.

ScummVM, my project, recently obtained the Beneath a Steel Sky source-code from the authors and we're now working off support for that. The difference in this case is that the engine -is- almost pure x86 assembly, so it would be rather a waste of time to GPL... for anything useful to be done, it would need to be mostly reverse engineered anyway. So this just makes it easier for us to do so dirty-room with commented assembly. Releasing it to a small dedicated group may be more appropriate in cases like this, to prevent splintering and stagnation, until the reimplementation is truely started.

Anyway.

- Ender
Boss Monkey: ScummVM
Founder: QuakeSrc

Standard Disclaimer: It's 8:45am, I havn't had any coffee yet. Any spelling or grammatical errors are henceforth claimed as artistic license. It's art, damn it!

It's hard enough to find games for linux... I could just imagine finding games for Solaris... User: "Yay! I can play old LucasArts games!!"

Conspiracy theory of the day: Lucasarts puts up a "fan community" site to garner lots of good karma in order to offset the hit it will take when it serves more legal papers to ScummVM (a Lucasarts adventure game interpreter), who just days ago produced another release...