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 :)"

Comments

I love it :)

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

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?

Re:I love it :)

[moosesocks]

Indeed. Companies could make humungous profits by re-releasing old games. Many games are often pulled from shelves before they become popular.

Examples which come to mind are the SNES game 'Chrono Trigger' (has sold on Ebay for up to $150), and the 'Freespace' series of PC games which cost about $10 in retail at the end of their shelf life, but now sell for over $60 on ebay.

Re:I love it :)

[slim]

1) Re-release it periodically. If it's worth buying they'll make money.

I bought a new copy of Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max on a single CD a few months ago (the mind plays tricks, but I'm sure it was no more than a year ago). So someone recognises that the property is still worth money.

But getting Sam & Max running in Windows 2000 with full speech and music was difficult, and I never managed at all with DOTT. Getting it doing with ScummVM, however, was a breeze. LucasArts should bundle ScummVM and the games; I reckon it would save them money on fielding tech support calls. It would be polite to throw the ScummVM developers a few quid, but not obligatory.

I can't fault either of those games, and I'd recommend anyone buy them today. Beneath a Steel Sky, however, breaks Lucasarts' first rule of adventure games - you should never be able to die or get into a situation where you can't win: in BASS you get shot in the first scene.

very cool

[oohp]

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!

Open letter to Lucas Arts

[WeeBull]

Dear LucasArts,

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!)

Re:Open letter to Lucas Arts

[Nodatadj]

Ah pants...they're still going with the 3d games.
Like MI4 wasn't bad, but it looked a bit crap compared to the lovely artwork of MI3.

Same with the screenshots of Sam and Max. The 2D concept looks like it could be a much prettier game to play than the 3D version.

Or maybe I just hate having to use a joypad to play adventure games...I wanna point and click where I walk to.

Any way to extend this to modern games?

[groove10]

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?

Re:Any way to extend this to modern games?

[rking]

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

The original Sim City ran on the Amiga. I don't think it was even all that late in the Amiga's timeline.

Re:Any way to extend this to modern games?

[Hatta]

As I understand it ScummVM, FreeSCI, etc. are not really virtual machines, but command interpreters. Kind of like the 3d engine/front end game model we see today, except these are adventure game engines. The reason that these things are getting ported is that no one is making adventure games anymore. This very sad fact forces fans to reverse engineer, document, and implement the engines to preserve these games for posterity. This is encouraged by the separateness of the engine and the game. You don't have to port every game individually, though slight modifications of the interpreter were common. I think if you want to play the original game you're gonna have to download a pc emulator like plex86 or bochs, install MSDOS and play from there.

PocketPC version

[Cothol]

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.

Re:And there's EVEN more!

[Jugalator]

Revolution Games have also released their first game as freeware:

Lure of the Temptress

What a wonderful game company. :-) 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.

Re:And there's EVEN more!

[russx2]

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.

Exult

[Anonymous Coward]

People who like ScummVM may also like Exult, a GPL'd reimplementation of the Ultima 7 engine. Not only does it run on modern hardware and a bunch of operating systems, it also implements modern scalers so that the ancient 320x200 game looks good to modern eyes as well.

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.