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ScummVM 0.5.0 Out, With Some Official Game Support
Ndr_Amigo writes "ScummVM (an interpreter for several different adventure game engines, like Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2, the LucasArts' SCUMM adventures and Beneath a Steel Sky, earlier Slashdot story) just released version 0.5.0. Among the usual bugfixes, new game support, etc, the interesting thing about this version is that the developers of one of our target games (Beneath a Steel Sky, by Revolution Software) actually supported us. To the extent of not only supplying us with the original assembly source code, but later deciding to release the game as Freeware to coincide with our reimplementation of their engine. This is a complete turnaround from our prior experiences, and shows that there are still a few smaller active game developers out there that are willing to help keep the classics alive for their fans... And of course you can download ScummVM and the freeware release of Beneath a Steel Sky from the ScummVM homepage :)"
I feel that if a game is old you (as a developer/publisher) should either:
1) Re-release it periodically. If it's worth buying they'll make money.
2) Give it away.
Companies like Nintendo are doing the former and others are doing the latter (didn't looking glass studios give away system shock?).
It's too bad that a lot of companies choose to keep an iron grip on their intellectual property instead of using it to increase their reputation, especially since fans are downloading these classics anyways - why not make it legitimate?
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
A pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel tied to his crotch. The bartender says "Why do you have a steering wheel tied to your crotch." The pirate responds:
:)
1. "-1 Flamebait"
2. "-1 b4d gr4mm4r"
3. "Arrrg it's drivin' me nuts"
4. "-1 Troll"
Ahh the fond memories of insult sword fighting
<whispers>
Huh? Oh.
I bought Beneath a Steel Sky for the Amiga many moons ago... but it kept crashing in the garden .. now i might actually be able to finish it! (Don't tell me how it ends!)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
...they'll scan your site for "game", "download", "emulation" and fsck you. They can do that because the 'A' stands for america.
If you have the UAE Amiga Emulator, you can find hundreds of legitimately-released games at Back 2 The Roots, enough to keep you entertained for years!
Thanks to SCUMM VM not only was I able to play MI, Indy, etc. but also The Dig and Loom. Hot damn were those some awesome games.
Previously I tried to play them under Win98s DOS, but audio and especially speech support was flaky because I have SB Live 1024. Now with ScummVM, no problems at all. Props to the development team!
I used a previous version of ScummVM to play one of my favorite childhood games: Sam and Max (talkie version). ScummVM worked perfectly. I highly recommend it to anyone trying to enjoy an oldie but goodie. I haven't tried this latest version yet, but I am sure it is at least as good as the version I used for Sam and Max.
Not only has beneath a steel sky been released but Revolution are also helping the scummvm team to add support for broken sword 1 & 2.
IMO this is a great move as it makes some of the coasters sitting on the shelves of linux converts into much more useful items again.
Go Revolution
XP is basicly 98 with a lot more extra features to hunt down and disable. --Dram
This is very cool stuff. I'm using ScummVM to play Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, a game which I loved back some years ago when I had more time on my hands and still love now. Great job!
Six minutes ago, I learned of ScummVM's 0.5.0 release. I downloaded and installed it, and pulled my Day of the Tentacle CD from my shelf.
As I am typing this, I'm watching the full talkie introduction playing in a window on my desktop, and I am looking forward to spending some quality time with Hoage, Laverne and Bernard.
I you at Lucas Arts were to support the ScummVM project, I am convinced you would be able to sell your entire back-catalog of SCUMM games to a wide audience - Macintosh users, Linux users and Windows users alike, especially considering the ease at which I got ScummVM to work, compared to the struggle I faced trying to get DOTT to run in a DOS window under Windows XP.
In the meanwhile, I'm of rooting through my two shoeboxes of old 3.5" floppies looking for Monkey Island I and II. Ah, the memories!
(Speaking of Monkey Island - that "monkey wrench" stunt you pulled in II was entirely uncalled for, btw...)
Sincerely,
et cetera, et cetera
(PS - to the ScummVM team: Top job! Props!)
Am I totally off base in wondering if the Virtual Machine stuff they've developed to mimic the DOS environment can be extended to more "modern" games instead of just these old Amiga era games? Stuff like the original SimCity that ran under DOS
Perhaps that's an impossibility due to the"non-freeness" of lots of more modern games. How supposrtive are game companies of this sort of work? Most of the games supported now are "abandonware" right?
MMORPG fan-boy? Prove your worth
I use the pocketpc version to play Day of the tentacle. while I'm on the train.
Works wonderfull on my Axim, I got a cheap 512MB CF-card so now I can play the full cd vesion I got and get all the voices.
So I rooted through the old disks. Sadly, no Monkey Island.
HOWEVER - I did find a copy of good old Leather Goddesses of Phobos, and it plays just DANDY in an XP command window (once you've downloaded and run ansi.com from here)!
I feel an urge. Suppose I should head northwest!
It isn't a DOS emulator -- SCUMM games are written in a cross-platform format -- that way LucasArts didn't need to write, for example, completely different versions of a game for DOS and Amiga -- they just had to write a SCUMM interpreter for each platform. It's basically the same strategy that the Infocom people did for text adventures like Zork.
The ScummLinux project allows you to play your favorite ScummVM-supported games anywhere; just boot the CD, choose a game, and enjoy. It supports all the soundcards supported by the Linux kernel and TV-Out for some graphics cards, so you can even play on a television set.
I think Revolution Software is only doing this right thing by releasing it as freeware. I mean, does those old Sierra games even *work* on a modern Windows installation to 100%? They aren't sold and build on ancient technology, so why should they not just upload it all to their FTP and say "here you go, if anyone want it"?
I just find what many game companies do with those ancient games no one will ever care about again being so incredibly silly...
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Take the Amiga back into the house.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Once again, I can hear the immortal line "Those breasts are never natural" without having to dig out the CD.
Okay, so I dug out my old Monkey Island II CD. unfortunately, I lost my code wheel. I guess I could download a hacked version somewhere, but I'd prefer to play my own version. So, can I get a code wheel or a scan of it somewhere?
Does anyone know if you can use PC CDs on a Mac with this? Cuz that would be awesome.
Also makes me want a dreamcast.
Revolution Games have also released their first game as freeware:
:-) I'm tempted to send them an e-mail, thanking them for this initiative they're taking, only hoping others will follow in their step. I would really like to see a boom in legit abandonware.
Lure of the Temptress
What a wonderful game company.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
On OS X, you can read from PC discs, and simply get the game data off there and store it on your hard drive (or, say, your Pocket PC). ScummVM works beautifully on the Mac, especially since it does not have speed issues that you'd run into with DOS emulators like DosBox.
www.firastudios.com
I put a copy of Beaneath the Steel Sky manual on my web site. The useful summary is "try to right click objects" which wasn't obvious on my Mac. The game looks fantastic.
I've been playing DOTT on my mobile phone on train journies for the last few weeks, with voices and everything (MS Smartphone). Need I say more? Long may it continue :)
"UAE" is free and legal as is the software at "Back 2 The Roots" but what you still need is a legal version of the Amiga Kickstart.
Fortunatly, the people behind Amiga Forever have you covered. They sell a licensed copy of the Amiga's Kickstart and it's OS. Actually, their package has several versions of the Kickstart/OS so you can pick and choose which Amiga flavor to emulate including the A500 (which most games were designed for), CDTV and CD32. The disc even contains an interview with Jay Miner!
Support legal emulation.
PS lucasarts: i have tried buying them from you, but you wont even sell them to me cuz i am not in america
I mean, did anybody write a completely new game for ScummVM? Or, are there any tools for making them at least?
The reason that these things are getting ported is that no one is making adventure games anymore.
I think Old Man Murray explained it best.
-- Repeat with me: "There is no right to profits".
Agreed, they're a nice company. I actually did my secondary school work experience there a few years ago in York, UK.
They're a great bunch of people and definitely have that friendly feel to them (relatively small group when I was there). If I remember correctly, the 3 owners of the company are actually the director, lead programmer and tools programmer who used to work out of a flat many moons ago. Nice to see them supporting their old games.
Check out Broken Sword 3 currently in development.
I was at my parents house for a couple weeks this summer and had my iBook. I noticed a Monkey Island disk (which had 1 and 2) in a stack near my parents PC. I remembered ScummVM, downloaded it, and played for hours and hours. I'm looking forward now to getting Sam and Max and many of the other classics. IMO those were the best games I've ever played, thank you for your hard work!
Sarien runs even older Sierra AGI games. You know, like Leisure Suite Larry.
Are there any other games which were reimplemented like that? I know someone wrote a System Shock browser that some day could some day become a full engine, and it looks like some of the people who worked on Exult are now looking at Ultima 8.
I don't know if I should mention is here, but how about the Windows SCUMM engine in the LucasArts Archives(R): Adventure Collection? It is written bij Aaron Giles.
Jac
how the hell do you open your inventory on beneath a steel sky?
-a truly anonymous coward
P800 version is here. Just finished Monkey Island 2 with it. However I wonder why it is not an official scummvm release.
Building a better tomorrow by cloning obsolete engines!
Given that you need a copy of the original game to play it, and given that wine has been around for a good few years now, this is a vanity project. Good for them, but it just reenforces the impression that open source is largely imitative rather than innovative.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Bless the original author of that troll, and bless you for reposting it.
BT
of publicising one persons game engine on Slashdot when you have a release site called Freshmeat. This is version ermmmm .... errmmm ... 0.5. So you publicise it ? Fair enough a release 1.0 or 2.0 of a major piece of software. I would really like to see the Slashdot policy of publicising software releases.
Great game, use VDMSOUND to get the dos based sound working. I have been able to get sound working in many other dos games such as Civilization, Might and Magic, Master or Orion etc.
Get it at:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/vdmsound/
From the Vdmsound page:
VDMSound is a program that overcomes what has probably been the most exasperating limitation of DOS boxes since Windows NT -- sound support. VDMSound is an open, plug-in oriented platform that emulates an MPU-401 interface (for outputting high-quality MIDI music), a SoundBlaster compatible (SB16, SBPro 2, SB2, SBPro, etc.) implementation (for digital sound effects and FM/AdLib music), as well as a standard game-port interface (for playing games with joystick support). In development are improvements to the existing joystick emulation, and possibly VESA support.
Unlike all the Win9x SoundBlaster ISA 'legacy' drivers available from a variety of PCI soundcard manufacturers, VDMSound is not a mere 'wrapper' or 'bridge' to existing audio hardware. It is a self-contained, 100% software emulation program that is completely independent of your audio hardware type and settings. VDMSound works with any soundcard, and will even work on computers that have no audio hardware at all (for instance, instead of outputting sounds through your soundcard using the standard Windows drivers, VDMSound can easily output them to disk).
VDMSound works on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. For Windows 95, 98 or Me support, see this!
I loved Beneath a Steel Sky, years back when I bought it. It was fantastic, and the entire package carried the theme of the game, including the in-box little comic book. It really brought the whole interactive-comic feeling alive, and I salute Revolution Software for this little gift back to the general gaming community. I'll definetly give their games a +1 modifier when looking at the game shelf next time. ;)
jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
Okay, how should I put this so that it doesn't sound like a shameless plug? Ah, to hell with it. Need help with ScummVM, or some other old game you want to play but just can't manage to get working? (Come on, I know there are a few of you out there.) VOGONS has you covered. Ender (you know, the ScummVM guy) regulars the forum.
Okay, I'm done plugging.
But seriously, check it out. We're a year strong and, not suffing from complete mental breakdown, yet.
[insert witty comment here]
But DOSEmu costs nothing. It works really well. I used it to continue a Genecyst game I was unable to play under Win9x and WinNT kernel OSes, as well as playing the original 2 Monkey Island games. :-D
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I'll never forget describing Day of the Tentacle while having dinner with the family. My aunt, uncle, and grandmother were in town and so we had this big dinner. And I described to them about how there's one part to where you dess up as an American flag so ya look like a giant striped tentacle. Everybody had a stunned look on their face! I didn't realize I had called it "Day of the Testicle."
"Derp de derp."
I recently finished Full Throttle using ScummVM. It worked mostly ok, but skipped one entire scene (before jumping the gorge). Thankfully ScummVM automatically awarded me all the items needed to continue playing, so it didn't ruin the whole experience. No crashes on video, and I don't remember any other crashes either. Running on XP.
DOSEmu 1.1.5 and 1.0.2.1 both worked well for me, although I'd reccomend 1.1.5. The SB emulation is better than in VMWare; VMWare's audio breaks up like there's no tomorrow for some reason. It's almost like I have reverb turned on :-/
DOSEmu is also free as in freedom and free as in beer. VMWare is fairly expensive if you aren't a student.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Thanks so much for the freebie devs!
This game is just amazingly well-written and even cast.
These kind've games are like novels, they take a long time to finish, and sometimes you just can't stop while at others you get frustrated or distracted (like when you have no idea how to solve a puzzle, like I don't, like right after I start up that transport or whatever robot I'm completely stuck *wink* *wince*)
Anyways, it's sad that games like this are few and far between. Maybe someone can turn this awesome art form into a cash generator again. I think shenmue is a shining example of a more 'mainstream' evolution of this storytelling genre.
Anyways, enough with the babbling self. These kind of games rock! No doubt about it.
Many Thanks,
Luke