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For more information, compatibility lists, details on donating, the latest release, progress reports and more, please visit the ScummVM home page at: https://www.scummvm.org/

Table of Contents:

1.0) Introduction

1.1) About ScummVM

ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables shipped with the game, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed!

Originally it was designed to run LucasArts' SCUMM games, such as Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle or Sam and Max. SCUMM stands for 'Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion', which was the first game for which LucasArts designed this system. And much later it gave its name to ScummVM ('VM' meaning Virtual Machine).

Over time support for a lot of non-SCUMM games has been added, and ScummVM now also supports many of Sierra's AGI and SCI games (such as King's Quest 1-6, Space Quest 1-5, ...), Discworld 1 and 2, Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2, Beneath A Steel Sky, Lure of the Temptress, Broken Sword I and II, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Gobliiins 1-3, The Legend of Kyrandia series, many of Humongous Entertainment's children's SCUMM games (including Freddi Fish and Putt Putt games) and many more. You can find a full list with details on which adventures are supported and how well on the compatibility page. ScummVM is continually improving, so check back often.

Among the systems on which you can play those games are regular desktop computers (running Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, ...), game consoles (Dreamcast, Nintendo DS & Wii, PS2, PSP, ...), smartphones (Android, iPhone, PocketPC, Symbian ...) and more.

At this time ScummVM is still under heavy development. Be aware that whilst we attempt to make sure that many games can be completed with few major bugs, crashes can happen and we offer no warranty. That being said, some of the games have been supported for a long time and should work fine with any recent stable release. You can get a feeling of how well each game is working in ScummVM by looking at the compatibility page. Actually, if you browse a bit around you might discover that ScummVM is even being used commercially to re-release some of the supported games on modern platforms. This shows that several companies are happy with the quality of the software and how well it can run some of the games.

If you enjoy ScummVM feel free to donate using the PayPal button on the ScummVM homepage. This will help us buy utilities needed to develop ScummVM easier and quicker. If you cannot donate, help and contribute a patch!

1.2) Quick start

For the impatient among you, here is how to get ScummVM running in five simple steps.

  1. Download ScummVM from https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/ and install it.

  2. Create a directory on your hard drive and copy the game datafiles from the original media to this directory. Repeat this for every game you want to play.

  3. Start ScummVM, choose 'Add game', select the directory with the game datafiles (do not try to select the datafiles themselves!) and press Choose.

  4. A dialog should pop up allowing you to configure various settings if you wish to (it should be just fine to leave everything at its default, though). Confirm the dialog.

  5. Select the game you want to play in the list, and press Start.

In the future, you should be able to directly skip to step 5, unless you want to add more games.

Hint: If you want to add multiple games in one go, try pressing and holding the shift key before clicking 'Add game' -- its label will change to 'Mass Add' and if you press it, you are again asked to select a directory, only this time ScummVM will search through all subdirectories for supported games.

1.3) F.A.Q.

We've compiled a list of F.A.Q. at:

https://www.scummvm.org/faq/

2.0) Contact

The easiest way to contact the ScummVM team is by submitting bug reports (see section 2.1) or by using our forums at https://forums.scummvm.org. You can also join and e-mail the scummvm-devel mailing list, or chat with us on IRC (#scummvm on irc.freenode.net) Please do not ask us to support an unsupported game -- read the FAQ on our web site first.

2.1) Reporting Bugs

To report a bug, please follow the "Bug Tracker" link from our homepage and log in with your GitHub account. Please make sure the bug is reproducible, and still occurs in the latest git/Daily build version. Also check the known problems list (below) and the compatibility list on our website for that game, to ensure the issue is not already known:

https://www.scummvm.org/compatibility/

Please do not report bugs for games that are not listed as being completeable in the 'Supported Games' section, or compatibility list. We know those games have bugs.

Please include the following information:

  • ScummVM version (PLEASE test the latest git/Daily build)
  • Bug details, including instructions on reproducing
  • Language of game (English, German, ...)
  • Version of game (talkie, floppy, ...)
  • Platform and Compiler (Win32, Linux, FreeBSD, ...)
  • Attach a saved game if possible - If this bug only occurred recently, please note the last version without the bug, and the first version including the bug. That way we can fix it quicker by looking at the changes made.

Finally, please report each issue separately; do not file multiple issues on the same ticket. (Otherwise, it gets difficult to track the status of each individual bug).

3.0) Supported Games

At the moment the following games have been reported to work, and should be playable to the end: A more detailed compatibility list of the supported games can be found here:

https://www.scummvm.org/compatibility/

LucasArts (SCUMM) Games:
Maniac Mansion [maniac]
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders [zak]
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [indy3]
Loom [loom]
Passport to Adventure [pass]
The Secret of Monkey Island [monkey]
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge [monkey2]
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis [atlantis]
Day of the Tentacle [tentacle]
Sam & Max Hit the Road [samnmax]
Full Throttle [ft]
The Dig [dig]
The Curse of Monkey Island [comi]
Activision (MADE) Games:
Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 [lgop2]
The Manhole [manhole]
Return to Zork [rtz]
Rodney's Funscreen [rodney]
Adventuresoft/Horrorsoft (AGOS) Games:
Elvira - Mistress of the Dark [elvira1]
Elvira II - The Jaws of Cerberus [elvira2]
Personal Nightmare [pn]
Simon the Sorcerer 1 [simon1]
Simon the Sorcerer 2 [simon2]
Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack - Demon In My Pocket [dimp]
Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack - Jumble [jumble]
Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack - NoPatience [puzzle]
Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack - Swampy Adventures [swampy]
The Feeble Files [feeble]
Waxworks [waxworks]
Coktel Vision (GOB) Games:
Bargon Attack [bargon]
Fascination [fascination]
Geisha [geisha]
Gobliiins [gob1]
Gobliins 2 [gob2]
Goblins 3 [gob3]
Lost in Time [lostintime]
Once Upon A Time: Little Red Riding Hood [littlered]
Playtoons: Bambou le sauveur de la jungle [bambou]
The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble [woodruff]
Urban Runner [urban]
Ween: The Prophecy [ween]
Revolution Software (Various) Games:
Beneath a Steel Sky [sky]
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars [sword1]
Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror [sword2]
Lure of the Temptress [lure]
Sierra (AGI/preAGI) Games:
The Black Cauldron [bc]
Gold Rush! [goldrush]
King's Quest I [kq1]
King's Quest II [kq2]
King's Quest III [kq3]
King's Quest IV [kq4]
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards [lsl1]
Mixed-Up Mother Goose [mixedup]
Manhunter 1: New York [mh1]
Manhunter 2: San Francisco [mh2]
Police Quest I: In Pursuit of the Death Angel [pq1]
Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter [sq1]
Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge [sq2]
Fanmade Games [agi-fanmade]
Mickey's Space Adventure [mickey]
Troll's Tale [troll]
Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood [winnie]
Sierra (SCI) Games:
Castle of Dr. Brain [castlebrain]
Codename: ICEMAN [iceman]
Conquests of Camelot [camelot]
Conquests of the Longbow [longbow]
EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus [ecoquest]
EcoQuest 2: Lost Secret of the Rainforest [ecoquest2]
Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist [freddypharkas]
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers [gk1]
Hoyle's Book of Games 1 [hoyle1]
Hoyle's Book of Games 2 [hoyle2]
Hoyle's Book of Games 3 [hoyle3]
Hoyle Classic Card Games [hoyle4]
Jones in the Fast Lane [jones]
King's Quest I [kq1sci]
King's Quest IV [kq4sci]
King's Quest V [kq5]
King's Quest VI [kq6]
King's Quest VII [kq7]
King's Questions [kquestions]
Laura Bow: The Colonel's Bequest [laurabow]
Laura Bow 2: The Dagger of Amon Ra [laurabow2]
Leisure Suit Larry 1 [lsl1sci]
Leisure Suit Larry 2 [lsl2]
Leisure Suit Larry 3 [lsl3]
Leisure Suit Larry 5 [lsl5]
Leisure Suit Larry 6 [lsl6]
Leisure Suit Larry 6 (hires) [lsl6hires]
Leisure Suit Larry 7 [lsl7]
Lighthouse: The Dark Being [lighthouse]
Mixed-up Fairy Tales [fairytales]
Mixed-up Mother Goose [mothergoose]
Mixed-up Mother Goose Deluxe [mothergoosehires]
Pepper's Adventures in Time [pepper]
Phantasmagoria [phantasmagoria]
Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh [phantasmagoria2]
Police Quest 1 [pq1sci]
Police Quest 2 [pq2]
Police Quest 3 [pq3]
Police Quest 4 [pq4]
Quest for Glory 1/Hero's Quest [qfg1]
Quest for Glory 1 [qfg1vga]
Quest for Glory 2 [qfg2]
Quest for Glory 3 [qfg3]
RAMA [rama]
Slater & Charlie Go Camping [slater]
Shivers [shivers]
Space Quest I [sq1sci]
Space Quest III [sq3]
Space Quest IV [sq4]
Space Quest V [sq5]
Space Quest 6 [sq6]
The Island of Dr. Brain [islandbrain]
The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery [gk2]
Torin's Passage [torin]
Other Games:
3 Skulls of the Toltecs [toltecs]
Amazon: Guardians of Eden [access]
Beavis and Butt-head in Virtual Stupidity [bbvs]
Blue Force [blueforce]
Broken Sword: The Return of the Templars [sword25]
Bud Tucker in Double Trouble [tucker]
Chivalry is Not Dead [chivalry]
Cruise for a Corpse [cruise]
DreamWeb [dreamweb]
Discworld [dw]
Discworld 2: Missing Presumed ...!? [dw2]
Dragon History [draci]
Drascula: The Vampire Strikes Back [drascula]
Eye of the Beholder [eob]
Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon [eob2]
Flight of the Amazon Queen [queen]
Future Wars [fw]
Hopkins FBI [hopkins]
Hugo's House of Horrors [hugo1]
Hugo 2: Whodunit? [hugo2]
Hugo 3: Jungle of Doom [hugo3]
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream [ihnm]
Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb [ite]
Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos [lol]
Mortville Manor [mortevielle]
Myst / Myst: Masterpiece Edition [myst]
Nippon Safes Inc. [nippon]
Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender [nebular]
Ringworld: Revenge Of The Patriarch [ringworld]
Riven: The Sequel to Myst [riven]
Return to Ringworld [ringworld2]
Sfinx [sfinx]
Soltys [soltys]
Starship Titanic [titanic]
The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime [pegasus]
The Labyrinth of Time [lab]
The Legend of Kyrandia [kyra1]
The Legend of Kyrandia: The Hand of Fate [kyra2]
The Legend of Kyrandia: Malcolm's Revenge [kyra3]
The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel [scalpel]
The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo [rosetattoo]
The Neverhood [neverhood]
The 7th Guest [t7g]
TeenAgent [teenagent]
Toonstruck [toon]
Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths [tony]
Touche: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer [touche]
U.F.O.s / Gnap: Der Schurke aus dem All [gnap]
Voyeur [voyeur]
Zork: Grand Inquisitor [zgi]
Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands [znemesis]
Humongous Entertainment (SCUMM) Games:
Backyard Baseball [baseball]
Backyard Baseball 2001 [baseball2001]
Backyard Baseball 2003 [baseball2003]
Backyard Football [football]
Backyard Football 2002 [football2002]
Bear Stormin' [brstorm]
Big Thinkers First Grade [thinker1]
Big Thinkers Kindergarten [thinkerk]
Blue's 123 Time Activities [Blues123Time]
Blue's ABC Time Activities [BluesABCTime]
Blue's Art Time Activities [arttime]
Blue's Birthday Adventure [BluesBirthday]
Blue's Reading Time Activities [readtime]
Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise [fbear]
Fatty Bear's Fun Pack [fbpack]
Freddi Fish 1: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds [freddi]
Freddi Fish 2: The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse [freddi2]
Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell [freddi3]
Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch [freddi4]
Freddi Fish 5: The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove [freddicove]
Freddi Fish and Luther's Maze Madness [maze]
Freddi Fish and Luther's Water Worries [water]
Let's Explore the Airport with Buzzy [airport]
Let's Explore the Farm with Buzzy [farm]
Let's Explore the Jungle with Buzzy [jungle]
Pajama Sam: Games to Play on Any Day [pjgames]
Pajama Sam 1: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside [pajama]
Pajama Sam 2: Thunder and Lightning Aren't so Frightening [pajama2]
Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat From Your Head to Your Feet [pajama3]
Pajama Sam's Lost & Found [lost]
Pajama Sam's Sock Works [socks]
Putt-Putt Enters the Race [puttrace]
Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon [puttmoon]
Putt-Putt Joins the Circus [puttcircus]
Putt-Putt Joins the Parade [puttputt]
Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo [puttzoo]
Putt-Putt Travels Through Time [putttime]
Putt-Putt and Pep's Balloon-O-Rama [balloon]
Putt-Putt and Pep's Dog on a Stick [dog]
Putt-Putt & Fatty Bear's Activity Pack [activity]
Putt-Putt's Fun Pack [funpack]
SPY Fox 1: Dry Cereal [spyfox]
SPY Fox 2: Some Assembly Required [spyfox2]
SPY Fox 3: Operation Ozone [spyozon]
SPY Fox in Cheese Chase [chase]
SPY Fox in Hold the Mustard [mustard]

The following games should load but are not yet fully playable. Play these at your own risk, and please do not file bug reports about them. If you want the latest updates on game compatibility, visit our web site and view the compatibility chart.

Backyard Soccer [soccer]
Backyard Soccer MLS [soccermls]
Backyard Soccer 2004 [soccer2004]
Blue's Treasure Hunt [BluesTreasureHunt]
Animation Magic (Composer) Games:
Darby the Dragon [darby]
Gregory and the Hot Air Balloon [gregory]
Magic Tales: Liam Finds a Story [liam]
The Princess and the Crab [princess]
Sleeping Cub's Test of Courage [sleepingcub]
Living Books Games:
Aesop's Fables: The Tortoise and the Hare [tortoise]
Arthur's Birthday [arthurbday]
Arthur's Teacher Trouble [arthur]
Dr. Seuss's ABC [seussabc]
Green Eggs and Ham [greeneggs]
Harry and the Haunted House [harryhh]
Just Grandma and Me [grandma]
Little Monster at School [lilmonster]
Ruff's Bone [ruff]
Sheila Rae, the Brave [sheila]
Stellaluna [stellaluna]
The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight [bearfight]
The Berenstain Bears in the Dark [beardark]
The New Kid on the Block [newkid]

The following games are based on the SCUMM engine, but NOT supported by ScummVM (yet):

Moonbase Commander

Please be aware that the engines may contain bugs and unimplemented features that sometimes make it impossible to finish the game. Save often, and please file a bug report (instructions on submitting bug reports are above) if you encounter such a bug in a 'supported' game.

3.1) Copy Protection

The ScummVM team does not condone piracy. However, there are cases where the game companies (such as LucasArts) themselves bundled 'cracked' executables with their games -- in these cases the data files still contain the copy protection scripts, but the interpreter bypasses them (similar to what an illegally cracked version might do, only that here the producer of the game did it). There is no way for us to tell the difference between legitimate and pirated data files, so for the games where we know that a cracked version of the original interpreter was sold at some point, ScummVM will always have to bypass the copy protection.

In some cases ScummVM will still show the copy protection screen. Try entering any answer. Chances are that it will work.

ScummVM will skip copy protection in the following games:

  • Beneath a Steel Sky
    • bypassed with kind permission from Revolution Software.
  • Dreamweb
    • a list of available commands in the in-game terminals is now shown when the player uses the help command
  • Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb (Floppy version)
    • bypassed with kind permission from Wyrmkeep Entertainment, since it was bypassed in all CD releases of the game.
  • Loom (EGA DOS)
  • Lure of the Temptress
  • Maniac Mansion
  • Might and Magic: World of Xeen
  • Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
  • Rex Nebular and The Cosmic Gender Bender
  • Simon the Sorcerer 1 (Floppy version)
  • Simon the Sorcerer 2 (Floppy version)
    • bypassed with kind permission from Adventure Soft, since it was bypassed in all CD releases of the game.
  • The Secret of Monkey Island (VGA)
  • Voyeur
  • Waxworks
  • Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

3.2) Datafiles

For a comprehensive list of required Datafiles for supported games visit:

https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Datafiles

3.3) Multi-CD games notes

In general, ScummVM does not deal very well with Multi-CD games. This is because ScummVM assumes everything about a game can be found in one directory. Even if ScummVM does make some provisions for asking the user to change CD, the original game executables usually installed a small number of files to the hard disk. Unless these files can be found on all the CDs, ScummVM will be in trouble.

Fortunately, ScummVM has no problems running the games entirely from hard disk, if you create a directory with the correct combination of files. Usually, when a file appears on more than one CD you can pick either of them.

3.4) Known Problems

This release has the following known problems. There is no need to report them, although patches to fix them are welcome. If you discover a bug that is not listed here, nor in the compatibility list on the web site, please see the section on reporting bugs.

CD Audio Games:

  • When playing games that use CD Audio (FM-TOWNS games, Loom CD, etc) users of Microsoft Windows 2000/XP may experience random crashes. This is due to a long-standing Windows bug, resulting in corrupt game files being read from the CD. Please copy the game data to your hard disk to avoid this.

FM-TOWNS versions:

  • The Kanji versions require the FM-TOWNS Font ROM.

Loom:

  • Turning off the subtitles via the config file does not work reliably as the Loom scripts automatically turn them on again.
  • MIDI support in the EGA version requires the Roland update from LucasArts.
  • The PC-Engine Kanji version requires the system card rom.

The Secret of Monkey Island:

  • MIDI support in the EGA version requires the Roland update from LucasArts.

Beneath a Steel Sky:

  • Amiga versions aren't supported.
  • Floppy demos aren't supported.
  • Not a bug: CD version is missing speech for some dialogs, this is normal.

Elvira - Mistress of the Dark:

  • No music in the Atari ST version.

Elvira II - The Jaws of Cerberus

  • No music in the Atari ST version.
  • No sound effects in the PC version.
  • Palette issues in the Atari ST version.

Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb:

  • Amiga versions aren't supported.

Lure of the Temptress:

  • No Roland MT-32 support.
  • Sound support is incomplete and doesn't sound like original.

Simon the Sorcerer 1:

  • Subtitles aren't available in the English and German CD versions as they are missing the majority of subtitles.

Simon the Sorcerer 2:

  • Combined speech and subtitles will often cause speech to be cut off early, this is a limitation of the original game.
  • Only default language (English) of data files is supported in Amiga and Macintosh versions.

Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack:

  • No support for displaying, entering, loading or saving high scores.
  • No support for displaying names of items, when hovering over them in Swampy Adventures.

The Feeble Files:

  • Subtitles are often incomplete, they were always disabled in the original game.

The Legend of Kyrandia:

  • No music or sound effects in the Macintosh floppy versions.
  • Macintosh CD is using included DOS music and sound effects.

Humongous Entertainment games:

  • Only the original load and save interface can be used.
  • No support for multiplayer or printing images.

3.5) Extra Data Files

Some games require additional files that are not part of the original data. Those files can generally be found in our Downloads page.

Games that require additional data:

  • Beneath a Steel Sky (sky.cpt)
  • Flight of the Amazon Queen
  • Kyrandia Series (kyra.dat)
  • Lands of Lore Series (kyra.dat)
  • Lure of the Temptress (lure.dat)

The most up to date list of Engine data files can be found in our source code repository

3.6) Broken Sword games notes

The instructions for the Broken Sword games are for the Sold-Out Software versions, with each game on two CDs, since these were the versions most easily available at the time ScummVM gained support for them. Hopefully they are general enough to be useful to other releases as well.

3.6.1) Broken Sword

For this game, you will need all of the files from the clusters directories on both CDs. For the Windows and Macintosh versions, you will also need the speech.clu files from the speech directories, but since they are not identical you will need to rename them speech1.clu and speech2.clu for CD 1 and 2 respectively. The PlayStation version requires the speech.tab, speech.dat, speech.lis, and speech.inf.

In addition, the Windows and Macintosh versions require a music subdirectory with all of the files from the music subdirectories on both CDs. Some of these files appear on both CDs, but in these cases they are either identical or, in one case, so nearly identical that it makes little difference. The PlayStation version requires tunes.dat and tunes.tab.

3.6.2) Broken Sword II

For this game, you will need all of the files from the clusters directories on both CDs. (Actually, a few of them may not be strictly necessary, but the ones that I'm uncertain about are all fairly small.) You will need to rename the speech.clu and music.clu files speech1.clu, speech2.clu, music1.clu and music2.clu so that ScummVM can tell which ones are from CD 1 and which ones are from CD 2. Any other files that appear in both cluster directories are identical. Use whichever you like.

In addition, you will need the cd.inf and, optionally, the startup.inf files from the sword2 directory on CD 1.

3.6.3) Broken Sword games cutscenes

The cutscenes for the Broken Sword games have a bit of a history (see the next section, if you are interested), but in general all you need to do is to copy the .SMK files from the "SMACKS" or "SMACKSHI" directories on the CDs to the same directory as the other game data files. (Broken Sword has a "SMACKSLO" directory with the same cutscenes, but these are of lower quality.) You can put them in a subdirectory called "video" if you find that neater.

For the PlayStation versions, you can dump the original videos off the disc. For each of the files ending in an "STR" extension, you should dump them as raw sectors off the disc (all 2352 bytes per sector). You may also use the re-encoded cutscenes mentioned below instead, but this will not work for all videos in Broken Sword II. For more information, see:

https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/HOWTO-PlayStation_Videos

Some re-releases of the games, as well as the PlayStation version, do not have Smacker videos. Revolution Software has kindly allowed us to provide re-encoded cutscenes for download on our website:

https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/

These cutscenes are provided in DXA format with FLAC audio. Their quality is equal to the original games due to the use of lossless compression. Viewing these cutscenes requires a version of ScummVM compiled with both FLAC and zlib support.

For systems that are too slow to handle the decoding of FLAC audio, the audio for these cutscenes is also provided separately as OGG Vorbis audio. Viewing these cutscenes with OGG Vorbis audio requires a version of ScummVM compiled with both libVorbis and zlib support.

For Broken Sword, we also provide a subtitles add-on. Simply unpack it and follow the instructions in its readme.txt file. The subtitle pack currently does not work when running PlayStation videos. (Broken Sword II already has subtitles; no extra work is needed for them.)

3.6.4) Broken Sword games cutscenes, in retrospect

The original releases of the Broken Sword games used RAD Game Tools's Smacker(tm) format. As RAD was unwilling to open the older legacy versions of this format to us, and had requested we not reverse engineer it, an alternative solution had to be found.

In Broken Sword II, it was possible to play back the voice-over without playing the video itself. This remained a fallback until ScummVM 1.0.0, but was never the only solution for any stable release.

In ScummVM 0.6.0 we used MPEG, which provided a reasonable trade-off between size and quality. In ScummVM 0.10.0 this was superseded by DXA (originally added for AdventureSoft's "The Feeble Files"). This gave us a way of providing the cutscenes in the exact same quality as the originals, at the cost of being larger.

Finally, in early 2006, the Smacker format was reverse engineered for the FFmpeg project. Thanks to their hard work, ScummVM 1.0.0 now supports the original cutscenes. At the same time, MPEG support was dropped. From a technical standpoint, this was a good thing since decoding MPEG movies added a lot of complexity, and they didn't look as good as the Smacker and DXA versions anyway.

3.7) Day of the Tentacle notes

At one point in the game, you come across a computer that allows you to play the original Maniac Mansion as an easter egg. ScummVM supports this, with a few caveats:

ScummVM will scan your configuration file for a game that's in a Maniac sub-folder of your Day of the Tentacle folder. If you've copied the data files from the CD version, this should already be the case but you have to add the game to ScummVM as well.

To return to Day of the Tentacle, press F5 and select "Return to Launcher".

This means that you could in theory use any game as the easter egg. Indeed, there is a "secret" configuration setting, easter_egg, to override the ID of the game to run. Be aware, though, that not all games support returning to the launcher, and setting it up to use Day of the Tentacle itself as the easter egg game is not recommended.

3.8) Dragon History notes

There are 4 language variants of the game: Czech, English, Polish and German. Each of them is distributed in a separate archive. The only official version is the Czech one, and the English, Polish and German ports have always been work in progress and never officially released. Although all texts are fully translated, it is known that some of them contain typos.

There exists an optional Czech dubbing for the game. For bandwidth reasons, you can download it separately and then unpack it to the directory of the game. You can listen to the Czech dubbing with all language variants of the game, while reading the subtitles.

All game files and the walkthrough can be downloaded from:

http://www.ucw.cz/draci-historie/index-en.html

3.9) Flight of the Amazon Queen notes

Only the original non-freeware version of Flight of the Amazon Queen (from original CD), requires the queen.tbl datafile (available from the Downloads page on our website) in either the directory containing the queen.1 game data file, in your extrapath, or in the directory where your ScummVM executable resides.

Alternatively, you can use the compress_queen tool from the tools package to 'rebuild' your FOTAQ data file to include the table for that specific version, and thus removing the run-time dependency on the queen.tbl file. This tool also allows you to compress the speech and sound effects with MP3, OGG or FLAC.

3.10) Gobliiins notes

The CD versions of the Gobliiins series contain one big audio track which you need to rip (see the section on using compressed audio files) and copy into the game directory if you want to have in-game music without the CD in the drive all the time. The speech is also in that track and its volume is therefore changed with the music volume control as well.

3.11) Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb notes

In order to run the Mac OS X Wyrmkeep re-release of the game you will need to copy over data from the CD to your hard disk. If you're on a PC then consult:

https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/HOWTO-Mac_Games

Although it primarily talks about SCUMM games, it mentions the "HFSExplorer" utility which you need to extract the files. Note that you have to put the speech data "Inherit the Earth Voices" in the same directory as the game data which is stored in:

Inherit the Earth.app/Contents/Resources

For the old Mac OS 9 release you need to copy the files in MacBinary format, as they should include both resource and data forks. Copy all 'ITE *' files.

3.12) Mickey's Space Adventure notes

To run Mickey's Space Adventure under ScummVM, the original executable of the game (mickey.exe) is needed together with the game's data files.

There is extensive mouse support for the game under ScummVM, even though there wasn't any mouse support in the original game. Menu items can be selected using the mouse, and it is possible to move to other locations using the mouse as well. When the mouse cursor is hovered on the edges of the screen, it changes color to red if it is possible to walk towards that direction. The player can then simply click on the edges of the game's screen to change location, similar to many adventure games, which is simpler and more straightforward than moving around using the menu.

3.13) Might and Magic Xeen games notes

To properly play the World of Xeen CD Talkie using original discs, use LAME or some other encoder to rip the cd audio tracks to files, either mp3 or ogg. Whichever you choose, the tracks of the first CD should be named from track02 to track31, whereas the second CD's audio tracks should be encoded and renamed as track32 through to track60.

For the GOG Might and Magic 4-5 installation, install the game to your computer, and do the following steps:

  • The game1.inst (CUE) and game1.gog (BIN) file from the game folder is a CD image. Use software like Virtual CloneDrive to mount it as a drive. Linux and MacOS users can use bchunk to convert it to an ISO.
  • Copy all the .cc files from the subfolder in the mounted drive to a new empty game folder that you create for the game.
  • Copy all the music/*.ogg files from the GOG installation to your game folder. You'll then need to rename all of them from xeen??.ogg to track??.ogg
  • You should then be able to point ScummVM to this new game folder, and the CD talkie version should be detected.

Savegames from either Clouds or Darkside of Xeen games can be transferred across to World of Xeen (that combines both games) simply by setting up and detecting World of Xeen (either by manually combining the two games or using the GOG World of Xeen installer), and then renaming the savegames to use the World of Xeen savegame format, by default 'worldofxeen.*'

The Xeen engine also offers two custom options in the Engine tab for the games in the ScummVM launcher. They are:

  • To change the threshold armor breaks at for characters from -10HP to -80HP
  • To show values for inventory items, even outside of the blacksmith, allowing the relative strength/value of armor and weapons to be compared.

3.14) Myst game notes

Left Click: Move/action
Space: Pause the game
Esc: Skip cutscene
F5: Menu

Myst will autosave to slot 0 if no save or an autosave is present in slot 0.

3.15) Quest for Glory notes

It is possible to import characters, beginning with Quest for Glory II, from past games to future games and continue from the stats earned from those games.

For example, a character can be imported from Quest for Glory I directly to Quest for Glory III without having to necessarily play Quest for Glory II.

Characters cannot be imported from future games to past games, nor can a character be imported to the same game that was just completed. In other words, a character from Quest for Glory II cannot be imported into Quest for Glory II.

If you want to use a saved character from the original Sierra interpreter, you will need to rename the character file to "qfg[game-number]-[character-filename].sav" and place it in the ScummVM save path (see section 6.0), otherwise the file won't get listed on the import screen.

Example: qfg2-thief.sav

3.16) Riven game notes

Left Click: Move/action
Arrow Keys: Movement
Page Up: Look up
Page Down: Look down
Space: Pause the game
Esc: Skip cutscene
F5: Menu
Ctrl-o: Load game
Ctrl-s: Save game

Riven will autosave to slot 0 if no save or an autosave is present in slot 0.

3.17) Simon the Sorcerer games notes

If you have the dual version of Simon the Sorcerer 1 or 2 on CD, you will find the Windows version in the main directory of the CD and the DOS version in the DOS directory of the CD.

3.18) Starship Titanic game notes

For the purposes of solving the starfield puzzle, only mouse clicks, L and Tab are really needed, though the action glyph in the PET can be used instead of Tab.

3.19) The Curse of Monkey Island notes

For this game, you will need the comi.la0, comi.la1 and comi.la2 files. The comi.la0 file can be found on either CD, but since they are identical it doesn't matter which one of them you use.

In addition, you will need to create a "resource" subdirectory containing all of the files from -both- "resource" subdirectories on the two CDs. Some of the files appear on both CDs, but again they're identical.

3.20) The Feeble Files notes

Amiga/Macintosh: You need to install a small pack of cutscenes that are missing in both of these versions of The Feeble Files. It's called "The Feeble Files - Omni TV and epilogue cutscenes for the Amiga and Macintosh versions" and you can get it here:

https://www.scummvm.org/games/#feeble

Windows: If you have the Windows version of The Feeble Files, there are several things to note.

Many of the files necessary for the game are stored in an InstallShield file called data1.cab, which ScummVM is unable to unpack. You will need to use the original installer or i5comp to unpack the contents of this file. The i5comp decompression tool, can be found via a search on the internet.

To use the speech files with ScummVM, they need to be renamed as follows:

  • Rename voices.wav on CD1 to voices1.wav
  • Rename voices.wav on CD2 to voices2.wav
  • Rename voices.wav on CD3 to voices3.wav
  • Rename voices.wav on CD4 to voices4.wav

3.21) The Legend of Kyrandia notes

To run The Legend of Kyrandia under ScummVM you need the kyra.dat file. The file should already be included in official ScummVM packages. In case ScummVM complains that the file is missing you can find it on the Downloads page of the ScummVM website. Note that the current Windows release of ScummVM should contain the file embedded into the executable, thus you only need to grab it in case ScummVM complains about the file being missing.

3.22) Troll's Tale notes

The original game came in a PC booter disk, therefore it is necessary to dump the contents of that disk in an image file and name it "troll.img" to be able to play the game under ScummVM.

3.23) Winnie the Pooh notes

It is possible to import saved games from the original interpreter of the game into ScummVM.

There is extensive mouse support for the game under ScummVM, even though there wasn't any mouse support in the original game. Menu items can be selected using the mouse, and it is possible to move to other locations using the mouse as well. When the mouse cursor is hovered on the edges of the screen, it changes color to red if it is possible to walk towards that direction. The player can then simply click on the edges of the game's screen to change location, similar to many adventure games, which is simpler and more straightforward than moving around using the menu.

3.24) Sierra AGI games: Predictive Input Dialog

The Predictive Input Dialog is a ScummVM aid for running AGI engine games (which notoriously require command line input) on devices with limited keyboard support. In these situations, since typing with emulated keyboards is quite tedious, commands can be entered quickly and easily via the Predictive Input Dialog.

In order to enable predictive input in AGI games, you need to copy the pred.dic file in the ScummVM extras directory or the directory of the game you wish to play. This dictionary has been created by parsing through all known AGI games and contains the maximum set of common words.

If the dictionary is detected, the Predictive Input Dialog is displayed either when you click on the command line area (wherever keyboard input is required, even in dialog boxes), or in some ports by pressing a designated hot key.

The predictive input dialog operates in three modes, switchable by the (*)Pre/123/Abc button. The primary input method is the predictive mode (Pre) which resembles the way "fast typing" is performed at phones. The alphabet is divided into 9 sets which naturally map to the 9 number keys of the numeric keypad (0 is space). To type in a word, you press once the number of the set which contains the letter of the word you intend to type, then move on to the next. For example, to type the command look, you should press 5665. As you gradually type the intended word's numeric code, the dictionary is accessed for known words matching your input up to that point. As you press more keys, the prediction converges to the correct word. This is why the printed word may change dramatically between key presses. There exist situations though where more than one words share the same numeric representation. For example the words quit and suit map to the same number, namely 7848. In these cases the (#)next button lights up. By pressing it, you can cycle through the list of words sharing the same code and finally accept the correct one by pressing (0)space or the Ok button.

The second input method (123) is the numeric input: Each key you press is entered verbatim as a number.

The third input method (Abc) is the Multi-tap Alpha input mode. This mode is intended for entering free text, without assistance from the dictionary scheme of predictive (Pre) mode. The text is entered one letter at the time. For each letter first press the number of the set which contains the letter you want, then use the (#)next button to cycle through the letters and repeat with another number. For example, to enter the word look you must press the following: 5##6##6##5#

The dialog is fully usable with the mouse, but a few provisions have been made in some ScummVM ports to make its use more comfortable by naturally mapping the functionality to the numeric keypad. Also, the dialog's buttons can be navigated with the arrow and the enter keys.

3.25) Sierra SCI games: Simultaneous speech and subtitles

Certain CD versions of Sierra SCI games had both speech and text resources. Some have an option to toggle between the two, but there are some cases where there wasn't any option to enable both simultaneously. In ScummVM, it is possible to enjoy a combined mode, where both speech and text are shown at the same time. This mode can be toggled in the ScummVM audio options, but each game has different behavior in-game regarding speech and text toggling.

The CD games where speech and subtitles can be shown simultaneously are:

  • EcoQuest 1 CD
  • Freddy Pharkas CD
  • Gabriel Knight CD
  • King's Quest 6 CD
  • King's Quest VII CD
  • Laura Bow 2 CD
  • Leisure Suit Larry 6 CD
  • Leisure Suit Larry 6 (hires) CD
  • Police Quest 4 CD
  • Shivers CD
  • Space Quest 4 CD
  • Space Quest 6 CD Torin's Passage CD

EcoQuest 1 CD: Speech and text can be toggled via the game's "Mode" option in the options dialog, or via ScummVM's audio options.

Freddy Pharkas CD: There is no in-game option to toggle speech and text. Only ScummVM's audio options can be used to toggle this feature. Note that some spoken dialog is missing from the game texts.

Gabriel Knight CD: Speech and text can be toggled via the "Text" and "Voice" buttons in the game's settings dialog, or via ScummVM's audio options.

King's Quest 6 CD: Speech and text can be toggled via the "Mode" button in the options dialog (with an extra "Dual" setting added in ScummVM), or via ScummVM's audio options.

King's Quest VII CD: There is no in-game option to toggle speech and text. Only ScummVM's audio options can be used to toggle this feature. Note that the subtitles were disabled in the official release of this game, so some subtitles may be wrong or missing.

Laura Bow 2 CD: Speech and text can be toggled via the "Mode" button in the options dialog (with an extra "Dual" setting added in ScummVM), or via ScummVM's audio options.

Leisure Suit Larry 6 CD: Either speech only or speech and text can be selected. There is no in-game option to toggle text only. Only ScummVM's audio options can be used to enable the text only mode.

Leisure Suit Larry 6 (hires) CD: Text can be toggled by selecting the "Text On/Off" option from the in-game "Game" menu, or via ScummVM's audio options. Speech cannot be disabled.

Police Quest 4 CD: Either speech only or text only can be selected from the game's settings dialog. Only ScummVM's audio options can be used to enable text+speech mode.

Shivers CD: Text can be toggled by selecting the "Text" option from the game's settings dialog, or via ScummVM's audio options. Note that only videos have subtitles in this game.

Space Quest 4 CD: Speech and text can be toggled via the "Display Mode" button in the options dialog, or via ScummVM's audio options.

Space Quest 6 CD: Speech and text can be toggled via the "Speech" and "Text" buttons in the game's settings dialog, or via ScummVM's audio options.

Torin's Passage CD: Text can be toggled by selecting "Closed Captioning" from the in-game "Game" menu. Speech can be disabled by selecting "Audio Mixer" from the in-game "Game" menu and setting the speech volume to zero.

3.26) Zork games notes

To run the supported Zork games (Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands and Zork: Grand Inquisitor) you need to copy some (extra) data to its corresponding destination.

3.26.1) Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands

Download the Liberation(tm) fonts package https://releases.pagure.org/liberation-fonts/liberation-fonts-ttf-2.00.1.tar.gz and unpack all the ttf files into your ScummVM extras directory. Alternatively, download the GNU FreeFont TTF package https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/freefont/freefont-ttf.zip and unzip all the ttf files from the sfd directory into your ScummVM extras directory, though at the time of writing these fonts cause some text rendering issues. Download the subtitles patch https://www.thezorklibrary.com/installguides/znpatch.zip and unzip the addon directory into the game root directory

3.26.2) Zork: Grand Inquisitor

Download the Liberation(tm) fonts package https://releases.pagure.org/liberation-fonts/liberation-fonts-ttf-2.00.1.tar.gz and unpack all the ttf files into your ScummVM extras directory. Alternatively, download the GNU FreeFont TTF package https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/freefont/freefont-ttf.zip and unzip all the ttf files from the sfd directory into your ScummVM extras directory, though at the time of writing these fonts cause some text rendering issues.

3.27) Commodore64 games notes

Both Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken run but Maniac Mansion is not yet playable. Simply name the D64 disks "maniac1.d64" and "maniac2.d64" respectively "zak1.d64" and "zak2.d64", then ScummVM should be able to automatically detect the game if you point it at the right directory.

Alternatively, you can use extract_mm_c64 from the tools package to extract the data files. But then the game will not be properly autodetected by ScummVM, and you must make sure that the platform is set to Commodore64. We recommend using the much simpler approach described in the previous paragraph.

3.28) Macintosh games notes

All LucasArts SCUMM based adventures, except COMI, also exist in versions for the Macintosh. ScummVM can use most (all?) of them, however, in some cases some additional work is required. First off, if you are not using a Macintosh for this, accessing the CD/floppy data might be tricky. The reason for this is that the mac uses a special disk format called HFS which other systems usually do not support. However, there are various free tools which allow reading such HFS volumes. For example HFSExplorer for Windows and hfsutils for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.

Most of the newer games on the Macintosh shipped with only a single data file (note that in some cases this data file was made invisible, so you may need extra tools in order to copy it). ScummVM is able to directly use such a data file; simply point ScummVM at the directory containing it, and it should work (just like with every other supported game).

We also provide a tool called extract_scumm_mac in the tools package to extract the data from these data files, but this is neither required nor recommended.

For further information on copying Macintosh game files to your hard disk see:

https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/HOWTO-Mac_Games

4.0) Supported Platforms

ScummVM has been ported to run on many platforms and operating systems. Links to these ports can be found either on the ScummVM web page or by a Google search. Many thanks to our porters for their efforts. If you have a port of ScummVM and wish to commit it into the master git, feel free to contact us!

Supported platforms include (but are not limited to):

  • UNIX (Linux, Solaris, IRIX, *BSD, ...)
  • Windows
  • Windows CE
  • Windows Mobile (including Smartphones and PocketPCs)
  • Mac OS X
  • AmigaOS
  • Android
  • Atari/FreeMiNT
  • BeOS
  • Dreamcast
  • GP2x
  • Haiku
  • iPhone (also includes iPod Touch and iPad)
  • Maemo (Nokia Internet tablet N810)
  • Nintendo 64
  • Nintendo DS
  • Nintendo GameCube
  • Nintendo Wii
  • OpenPandora
  • OS/2
  • PlayStation 2
  • PlayStation 3
  • PlayStation Portable
  • PlayStation Vita
  • Raspberry Pi
  • RISC OS
  • Symbian
  • WebOS

The Dreamcast port does not support The Curse of Monkey Island, nor The Dig. The Nintendo DS port does not support Full Throttle, The Dig, or The Curse of Monkey Island. For more platform specific limitations, please refer to our Wiki:

https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Platforms

In the Macintosh port, the right mouse button is emulated via Cmd-Click (that is, you click the mouse button while holding the Command/Apple/Propeller key).

There are unofficial ports to a variety of platforms, including the Xbox, and Xbox 360. Please note that these are not made by us, so we neither endorse nor can we support them. Use at your own risk!

5.0) Running ScummVM

Please note that by default, ScummVM will save games in the directory it is executed from, so you should refrain from running it from more than one location. Further information, including how to specify a specific save directory to avoid this issue, are in section 6.0.

ScummVM can be launched directly by running the executable. In this case, the built-in launcher will activate. From this, you can add games (click 'Add Game'), or launch games which have already been configured. Games can also be added in mass quantities. By pressing shift + 'Add Game' (Note that the image turns to 'Mass Add'), you can then specify a directory to start in, and ScummVM will attempt to detect games in all subdirectories of that directory.

ScummVM can also be launched into a game directly using Command Line arguments -- see the next section.

5.1) Command Line Options

Usage: scummvm [OPTIONS]... [GAME]

[GAME]                   Short name of game to load. For example, 'monkey'
                          for Monkey Island. This can be either a built-in
                          gameid, or a user configured target.

-v, --version            Display ScummVM version information and exit
-h, --help               Display a brief help text and exit
-z, --list-games         Display list of supported games and exit
-t, --list-targets       Display list of configured targets and exit
--list-saves             Display a list of saved games for the target specified
                          with --game=TARGET, or all targets if none is specified
-a, --add                Add all games from current or specified directory.
                          If --game=ID is passed only the game with id ID is
                          added. See also --detect.
                          Use --path=PATH to specify a directory.
--detect                 Display a list of games with their ID from current or
                          specified directory without adding it to the config.
                          Use --path=PATH to specify a directory.
--game=ID                In combination with --add or --detect only adds or attempts to
                          detect the game with id ID.
--auto-detect            Display a list of games from current or specified directory
                          and start the first one. Use --path=PATH to specify
                          a directory.
--recursive              In combination with --add or --detect recurse down all
                          subdirectories
--console                Enable the console window (default: enabled) (Windows only)

-c, --config=CONFIG      Use alternate configuration file
-p, --path=PATH          Path to where the game is installed
-x, --save-slot[=NUM]    Saved game slot to load (default: autosave)
-f, --fullscreen         Force full-screen mode
-F, --no-fullscreen      Force windowed mode
-g, --gfx-mode=MODE      Select graphics scaler (see also section 5.3)
--stretch-mode=MODE      Select stretch mode (center, integral, fit, stretch)
--filtering              Force filtered graphics mode
--no-filtering           Force unfiltered graphics mode


--gui-theme=THEME        Select GUI theme (default, modern, classic)
--themepath=PATH         Path to where GUI themes are stored
--list-themes            Display list of all usable GUI themes
-e, --music-driver=MODE  Select music driver (see also section 7.0)
--list-audio-devices     List all available audio devices
-q, --language=LANG      Select game's language (see also section 5.5)
-m, --music-volume=NUM   Set the music volume, 0-255 (default: 192)
-s, --sfx-volume=NUM     Set the sfx volume, 0-255 (default: 192)
-r, --speech-volume=NUM  Set the voice volume, 0-255 (default: 192)
--midi-gain=NUM          Set the gain for MIDI playback, 0-1000 (default: 100)
                          (only supported by some MIDI drivers)
-n, --subtitles          Enable subtitles (use with games that have voice)
-b, --boot-param=NUM     Pass number to the boot script (boot param)
-d, --debuglevel=NUM     Set debug verbosity level
--debugflags=FLAGS       Enable engine specific debug flags
                          (separated by commas)
-u, --dump-scripts       Enable script dumping if a directory called 'dumps'
                          exists in the current directory

--cdrom=NUM              CD drive to play CD audio from (default: 0 = first
                          drive)
--joystick[=NUM]         Enable joystick input (default: 0 = first joystick)
--platform=WORD          Specify platform of game (allowed values: 2gs, 3do,
                          acorn, amiga, atari, c64, fmtowns, mac, nes, pc,
                          pce, segacd, windows)
--savepath=PATH          Path to where saved games are stored
--extrapath=PATH         Extra path to additional game data
--soundfont=FILE         Select the SoundFont for MIDI playback (Only
                          supported by some MIDI drivers)
--multi-midi             Enable combination of AdLib and native MIDI
--native-mt32            True Roland MT-32 (disable GM emulation)
--enable-gs              Enable Roland GS mode for MIDI playback
--output-rate=RATE       Select output sample rate in Hz (e.g. 22050)
--opl-driver=DRIVER      Select AdLib (OPL) emulator (db, mame, nuked)
--aspect-ratio           Enable aspect ratio correction
--render-mode=MODE       Enable additional render modes (hercGreen, hercAmber,
                          cga, ega, vga, amiga, fmtowns, pc9821, pc9801, 2gs,
                          atari, macintosh)

--alt-intro              Use alternative intro for CD versions of Beneath a
                          Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen
--copy-protection        Enable copy protection in games, when
                          ScummVM disables it by default.
--talkspeed=NUM          Set talk delay for SCUMM games, or talk speed for
                          other games (default: 60)
--demo-mode              Start demo mode of Maniac Mansion (Classic version)
--tempo=NUM              Set music tempo (in percent, 50-200) for SCUMM games
                          (default: 100)

The meaning of most long options (that is, those options starting with a double-dash) can be inverted by prefixing them with "no-". For example, --no-aspect-ratio will turn aspect ratio correction off. This is useful if you want to override a setting in the configuration file.

The short game name ('game target') you see at the end of the command line specifies which game is started. It either corresponds to an arbitrary user defined target (from the configuration file), or to a built-in gameid. A brief list of the latter can be found in section 3.0.

Examples:

  • Win32:
    Running Monkey Island, fullscreen, from a hard disk:
    C:\Games\LucasArts\scummvm.exe -f -pC:\Games\LucasArts\monkey\ monkey
    Running Full Throttle from CD, fullscreen and with subtitles enabled:
    C:\Games\LucasArts\scummvm.exe -f -n -pD:\resource\ ft

  • Unix:
    Running Monkey Island, fullscreen, from a hard disk:
    /path/to/scummvm -f -p/games/LucasArts/monkey/ monkey
    Running Full Throttle from CD, fullscreen and with subtitles enabled:
    /path/to/scummvm -f -n -p/cdrom/resource/ ft

5.2) Global Menu

The Global Menu is a general menu which is available to all of the game engines by pressing Ctrl-F5. From this menu there are the following buttons: Resume, Options, About, Return to Launcher, and Quit. Selecting Options will display a dialog where basic audio settings, such as volume levels, can be adjusted. Selecting 'Return to Launcher' will close the current game and return the user back to the ScummVM Launcher, where another game may be selected to play.

Note: Returning to the Launcher is not supported by all of the engines, and the button will be disabled in the Global Menu if it is not supported.

Engines which currently support returning to the Launcher are:

AGI
AGOS
CINE
COMPOSER
CRUISE
DRACI
DRASCULA
GOB
GROOVIE
HUGO
KYRA
LURE
MADE
MOHAWK
PARALLACTION
QUEEN
SAGA
SCI
SCUMM
SKY
SWORD1
SWORD2
TEENAGENT
TITANIC
TOUCHE
TSAGE
TUCKER
ZVISION

5.3) Graphics filters

ScummVM offers several anti-aliasing filters to attempt to improve visual quality. These are the same filters used in many other emulators, such as MAME. These filters take the original game graphics, and scale it by a certain fixed factor (usually 2x or 3x) before displaying them to you. So for example, if the game originally run at a resolution of 320x200 (typical for most of the SCUMM games), then using a filter with scale factor 2x will effectively yield 640x400 graphics. Likewise with a 3x filter you will get 960x600.

They are:

1x         - No filtering, no scaling. Fastest.
2x         - No filtering, factor 2x (default for non 640x480 games).
3x         - No filtering, factor 3x.
2xsai      - 2xSAI filter, factor 2x.
super2xsai - Enhanced 2xSAI filtering, factor 2x.
supereagle - Less blurry than 2xSAI, but slower. Factor 2x.
advmame2x  - Doesn't rely on blurring like 2xSAI, fast. Factor 2x.
advmame3x  - Doesn't rely on blurring like 2xSAI, fast. Factor 3x.
hq2x       - Very nice high quality filter but slow. Factor 2x.
hq3x       - Very nice high quality filter but slow. Factor 3x.
tv2x       - Interlace filter, tries to emulate a TV. Factor 2x.
dotmatrix  - Dot matrix effect. Factor 2x.

To select a graphics filter, select it in the Launcher, or pass its name via the '-g' option to scummvm, for example:

scummvm -gadvmame2x monkey2

Note #1: Not all backends support all (or even any) of the filters listed above; some may support additional ones. The filters listed above are those supported by the default SDL backend.

Note #2: Filters can be very slow when ScummVM is compiled in a debug configuration without optimizations. And there is always a speed impact when using any form of anti-aliasing/linear filtering.

Note #3: The FM-TOWNS version of Zak McKracken uses an original resolution of 320x240, hence for this game scalers will scale to 640x480 or 960x720. Likewise, games that originally were using 640x480 (such as Curse of Monkey Island or Broken Sword) will be scaled to 1280x960 and 1920x1440.

5.4) Hotkeys

ScummVM supports various in-game hotkeys. They differ between SCUMM games and other games.

  Common:
    Ctrl-F5                - Displays the Global Menu
    Cmd-q                  - Quit (Mac OS X)
    Ctrl-q                 - Quit (other unices including Linux)
    Alt-F4                 - Quit (Windows)
    Ctrl-z                 - Quit (other platforms)
    Ctrl-u                 - Mute all sounds
    Ctrl-m                 - Toggle mouse capture
    Ctrl-Alt 1-8           - Switch between graphics filters
    Ctrl-Alt + and -       - Increase/Decrease the scale factor
    Ctrl-Alt a             - Toggle aspect-ratio correction on/off
                             Most of the games use a 320x200 pixel
                             resolution, which may look squashed on
                             modern monitors. Aspect-ratio correction
                             stretches the image to use 320x240 pixels
                             instead, or a multiple thereof
    Ctrl-Alt f             - Enable/disable graphics filtering
    Ctrl-Alt s             - Cycle through scaling modes
    Alt-Enter              - Toggles full screen/windowed
    Alt-s                  - Make a screenshot (SDL backend only)
    Ctrl-F7                - Open virtual keyboard (if enabled)
                             This can also be triggered by a long press
                             of the middle mouse button or wheel.

  SCUMM:
    Alt-x                  - Quit
    Ctrl 0-9 and Alt 0-9   - Load and save game state
    Ctrl-d                 - Starts the debugger
    Ctrl-f                 - Toggle fast mode
    Ctrl-g                 - Runs in really REALLY fast mode
    Ctrl-t                 - Switch between 'Speech only',
                             'Speech and Subtitles' and 'Subtitles only'
    Tilde (~)              - Show/hide the debugging console
    [ and ]                - Music volume, down/up
    - and +                - Text speed, slower/faster
    F5                     - Displays a save/load box
    Alt-F5                 - Displays the original save/load box, if the
                             game has one. You can save and load games using
                             this, however it is not intended for this purpose,
                             and may even crash ScummVM in some games.
    i                      - Displays IQ points (Indiana Jones and the Last
                             Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of
                             Atlantis)
    Space                  - Pauses
    Period (.)             - Skips current line of text in some games
    Enter                  - Simulate left mouse button press
    Tab                    - Simulate right mouse button press

  Beneath a Steel Sky:
    Ctrl-d                 - Starts the debugger
    Ctrl-f                 - Toggle fast mode
    Ctrl-g                 - Runs in really REALLY fast mode
    F5                     - Displays a save/load box
    Escape                 - Skips the game intro
    Period (.)             - Skips current line of text

  Broken Sword:
    F5 or Escape           - Displays save/load box

  Broken Sword II:
    Ctrl-d                 - Starts the debugger
    Ctrl-f                 - Toggle fast mode
    p                      - Pauses

  Dragon History:
    F5                     - Displays the Global Menu
    left click             - Walk, explore
    right click            - Use, talk
    move mouse up, i       - Inventory
    move mouse down, m     - Map
    Escape                 - Skip the intro, exit map/inventory
    any click              - Skip the currently dubbed sentence
    q                      - Quick walking on/off

  Flight of the Amazon Queen:
    Ctrl-d                 - Starts the debugger
    Ctrl-f                 - Toggle fast mode
    F1                     - Use Journal (saving/loading)
    F11                    - Quicksave
    F12                    - Quickload
    Escape                 - Skips cutscenes
    Space                  - Skips current line of text

  Future Wars:
    F1                     - Examine
    F2                     - Take
    F3                     - Inventory
    F4                     - Use
    F5                     - Activate
    F6                     - Speak
    F9                     - "Activate" menu
    F10                    - "Use" menu
    Escape                 - Bring on command menu

  Nippon Safes:
    Ctrl-d                 - Starts the debugger
    l                      - Load game
    s                      - Save game

  Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2:
    Ctrl 0-9 and Alt 0-9   - Load and save game state
    Ctrl-d                 - Starts the debugger
    Ctrl-f                 - Toggle fast mode
    F1 - F3                - Text speed, faster - slower
    F10                    - Shows all characters and objects you can
                             interact with
    Escape                 - Skip cutscenes
    - and +                - Music volume, down/up
    m                      - Music on/off
    s                      - Sound effects on/off
    b                      - Background sounds on/off
                             [Simon the Sorcerer 2 only]
    Pause                  - Pauses
    t                      - Switch between speech only and
                             combined speech and subtitles
                             [Simon the Sorcerer 1 CD (other than
                             English and German) and Simon the
                             Sorcerer 2 CD (all languages)]
    v                      - Switch between subtitles only and
                             combined speech and subtitles
                             [Simon the Sorcerer 2 CD only]

  Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack:
    Ctrl-d                 - Starts the debugger
    Ctrl-f                 - Toggle fast mode
    F12                    - High speed mode on/off in Swampy Adventures
    - and +                - Music volume, down/up
    m                      - Music on/off
    s                      - Sound effects on/off
    Pause                  - Pauses

  Starship Titanic:    
    Ctrl-c                 - Open up the developer's cheat room
    Ctrl-d                 - Open up the ScummVM Debugger
    Left click             - Move action
    Shift-Left click       - Edit room glyph chevrons and 
                              quick movement transitions
    Right click            - Edit room glyph chevrons 
                              and quick transitions
    Mouse wheel            - Scroll through items (inventory, etc) 
                              and conversation log
    Arrow keys             - Movement. Down arrow/back is only available if the
                              given view explicitly has a backwards movement 
                              available.        
    F1                     - Switch to Chat-O-Mat
    F2                     - Switch to Personal Baggage
    F3                     - Switch to Remote Thingummy
    F4                     - Switch to Designer Room Numbers (chevron list)
    F5                     - GMM save menu
    F6                     - Switch to Real Life
    F7                     - GMM restore menu

  Starship Titanic (Starfield Puzzle):
    Tab                    - Toggle between starmap and skyscape
    Mouse click:           - skyscape star selection and
                              starmap star fast travel
    Mouse movement         - starmap orientation
    SPACE                  - starmap stop movement
    z                      - starmap turn left
    x                      - starmap turn right
    Single quote (')       - starmap turn up
    Forward slash (/)      - starmap turn down
    Semicolon (;)          - starmap move forward
    Period (.)             - starmap move backward
    l                      - starmap lock coordinate
    d                      - starmap unlock coordinate
    
  The Feeble Files:
    Ctrl-d                 - Starts the debugger
    Ctrl-f                 - Toggle fast mode
    F7                     - Switch characters
    F9                     - Hitbox names on/off
    s                      - Sound effects on/off
    Pause                  - Pauses
    t                      - Switch between speech only and
                             combined speech and subtitles
    v                      - Switch between subtitles only and
                             combined speech and subtitles

  The Legend of Kyrandia:
    Ctrl 0-9 and Alt 0-9   - Load and save game state
    Ctrl-d                 - Starts the debugger

  TeenAgent
    F5                     - Displays the Global Menu

  Touche: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer:
    Ctrl-f                 - Toggle fast mode
    F5                     - Displays options
    F9                     - Turn fast walk mode on
    F10                    - Turn fast walk mode off
    Escape                 - Quit
    Space                  - Skips current line of text
    t                      - Switch between 'Voice only',
                             'Voice and Text' and 'Text only'

  Zork: Grand Inquisitor:
    Ctrl-s                 - Save
    Ctrl-r                 - Restore
    Ctrl-q                 - Quit
    Ctrl-p                 - Preferences
    F1                     - Help
    F5                     - Inventory
    F6                     - Spellbook
    F7                     - Score
    F8                     - Put away current object/forget spell
    F9                     - Extract coin (must have the coin bag)
    Space                  - Skips movies

  Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands:
    Ctrl-s                 - Save
    Ctrl-r                 - Restore
    Ctrl-q                 - Quit
    Ctrl-p                 - Preferences
    Space                  - Skips movies

Note that using Ctrl-f or Ctrl-g is not recommended: games can crash when being run faster than their normal speed, as scripts will lose synchronisation.

Note for WinCE users: Due to the limited keyboard input in most devices, a small subset of these hot keys are supported via key remapping and/or panel actions. Please consult the README-WinCE.txt file.

5.5) Language options

ScummVM includes a language option for Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, The Dig, The Curse of Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky and Broken Sword.

Note that with the exception of Beneath a Steel Sky, Broken Sword, multilanguage versions of Goblins games and Nippon Safes Inc., using this option does not change the language of the game (which usually is hardcoded), but rather is only used to select the appropriate font (e.g. for a German version of a game, one containing umlauts).

An exception are The Dig and The Curse of Monkey Island -- non-English versions can be set to 'English.' This however only affects subtitles; game speech will remain the same.

Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken
    en  - English (default)
    de  - German
    fr  - French
    it  - Italian
    es  - Spanish

The Dig
    jp  - Japanese
    zh  - Chinese
    kr  - Korean

The Curse of Monkey Island
    en  - English (default)
    de  - German
    fr  - French
    it  - Italian
    pt  - Portuguese
    es  - Spanish
    jp  - Japanese
    zh  - Chinese
    kr  - Korean

Beneath a Steel Sky
    gb  - English (Great Britain) (default)
    en  - English (USA)
    de  - German
    fr  - French
    it  - Italian
    pt  - Portuguese
    es  - Spanish
    se  - Swedish

Broken Sword
    en  - English (default)
    de  - German
    fr  - French
    it  - Italian
    es  - Spanish
    pt  - Portuguese
    cz  - Czech

6.0) Saved Games

Saved games are by default put in the current directory on some platforms and preset directories on others. You can specify the save in the config file by setting the savepath parameter. See the example config file later in this README.

The platforms that currently have a different default directory are:

Mac OS X:

$HOME/Documents/ScummVM Savegames/

Other unices:

We follow the XDG Base Directory Specification. This means by default saved games can be found in: $XDG_DATA_HOME/scummvm/saves/

If XDG_DATA_HOME is not defined or empty, ~/.local/share will be used as value of XDG_DATA_HOME in accordance with the specification.

If an earlier version of ScummVM was installed on your system, the previous default location of ~/.scummvm will be kept. This is detected based on the presence of the path ~/.scummvm.

Windows Vista/7:

\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\ScummVM\Saved games\

Windows 2000/XP:

\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\ScummVM\Saved games\

Windows NT4:

<windir>\Profiles\username\Application Data\ScummVM\Saved games\

Saved games are stored under a hidden area in Windows NT4/2000/XP/Vista/7, which can be accessed by running %APPDATA%\ScummVM\Saved Games or by enabling hidden files in Windows Explorer.

Note for Windows NT4/2000/XP/Vista/7 users: The default saved games location changed in ScummVM 1.5.0. The migration batch file can be used to copy saved games from the old default location, to the new default location.

6.1) Autosaves

For some games ScummVM will by default automatically save the current state every five minutes (adjustable via the autosave_period config setting). The default autosave slot for many engines is slot 0.

The games/engines listed below have autosave support.

  • AGI games
  • Beneath a Steel Sky
  • Bud Tucker in Double Trouble
  • COMPOSER games
  • Flight of the Amazon Queen
  • Myst
  • Riven
  • SCUMM games
  • The Legend of Kyrandia I (slot 999)
  • ZVISION games

For the SCUMM engine, this saved game can then be loaded again via Ctrl-0, or the F5 menu.

6.2) Converting Saved Games

Using saved games from original versions isn't supported by all game engines. Only the following games can use saved games from their original versions.

  • Elvira 1

    • Add 8 bytes (saved game name) to the start of the saved game file
    • Rename the saved game to elvira1.xxx
  • Elvira 2

    • Add 8 bytes (saved game name) to the start of the saved game file
    • Rename the saved game to elvira2-pc.xxx (DOS version) or elvira2.xxx (Other versions)
  • Myst

    • Rename the saved game to myst-xxx.mys
    • Saves from the masterpiece edition and the regular edition are interchangeable
  • Riven

    • Rename the saved game to riven-xxx.rvn
    • Saves from the CD and DVD edition are not interchangeable
  • Simon the Sorcerer 1

    • Rename the saved game to simon1.xxx
  • Simon the Sorcerer 2

    • Rename the saved game to simon2.xxx
  • Starship Titanic

    • Rename the saved game to titanic-win.xxx for saves from the English version and titanic-win-de.xxx for saves from the German version
    • Saved games between different languages are not interchangeable
  • The Feeble Files

    • Rename the saved game to feeble.xxx
  • Waxworks

    • Add 8 bytes (saved game name) to the start of the saved game file
    • Rename the saved game to waxworks-pc.xxx (DOS version) or waxworks.xxx (Other versions)

Where xxx is exact the saved game slot (i.e., 001) under ScummVM

6.3) Viewing/Loading saved games from the command line

--list-saves

This switch may be used to display a list of the current saved games of the specified target game and their corresponding save slots. If no target is specified, it lists saved games for all known target.

Usage: --list-saves --game=[TARGET], where [TARGET] is the target game.

Engines which currently support --list-saves are:

  • AGI
  • AGOS
  • CGE
  • CINE
  • CRUISE
  • DRACI
  • GROOVIE
  • HUGO
  • KYRA
  • LURE
  • MOHAWK
  • PARALLACTION
  • QUEEN
  • SAGA
  • SCI
  • SCUMM
  • SKY
  • SWORD1
  • SWORD2
  • TEENAGENT
  • TINSEL
  • TITANIC
  • TOON
  • TOUCHE
  • TSAGE
  • TUCKER
  • ZVISION

--save-slot/-x

This switch may be used to load a saved game directly from the command line.

Usage: --save-slot[SLOT] or -x[SLOT], where [SLOT] is the save slot number.

Engines which currently support --save-slot / -x are:

  • AGI
  • CGE
  • CINE
  • CRUISE
  • DRACI
  • GROOVIE
  • HUGO
  • KYRA
  • LURE
  • MOHAWK
  • QUEEN
  • SAGA
  • SCI
  • SCUMM
  • SKY
  • SWORD1
  • SWORD2
  • TEENAGENT
  • TINSEL
  • TITANIC
  • TOON
  • TOUCHE
  • TSAGE
  • TUCKER
  • ZVISION

7.0) Music and Sound

On most operating systems and for most games, ScummVM will by default use MT-32 or AdLib emulation for music playback. MIDI may not be available on all operating systems or may need manual configuration. If you want to use MIDI, you have several different choices of output, depending on your operating system and configuration.

null       - Null output. Don't play any music.

adlib      - Internal AdLib emulation
fluidsynth - FluidSynth MIDI emulation
mt32       - Internal MT-32 emulation
pcjr       - Internal PCjr emulation (only usable in SCUMM games)
pcspk      - Internal PC Speaker emulation
towns      - Internal FM-TOWNS YM2612 emulation
             (only usable in SCUMM FM-TOWNS games)

alsa       - Output using ALSA sequencer device. See below.
core       - CoreAudio sound, for Mac OS X users.
coremidi   - CoreMIDI sound, for Mac OS X users. Use only if you have
             a hardware MIDI synthesizer.
seq        - Use /dev/sequencer for MIDI, *nix users. See below.
timidity   - Connect to TiMidity++ MIDI server. See below.
windows    - Windows MIDI. Uses built-in sequencer, for Windows users

To select a sound driver, select it in the Launcher, or pass its name via the -e option to scummvm, for example:

scummvm -eadlib monkey2

7.1) AdLib emulation

By default an AdLib card will be emulated and ScummVM will output the music as sampled waves. This is the default mode for several games, and offers the best compatibility between machines and games.

7.2) FluidSynth MIDI emulation

If ScummVM was build with libfluidsynth support it will be able to play MIDI music through the FluidSynth driver. You will have to specify a SoundFont to use, however.

Since the default output volume from FluidSynth can be fairly low, ScummVM will set the gain by default to get a stronger signal. This can be further adjusted using the --midi-gain command-line option, or the midi_gain config file setting.

The setting can take any value from 0 through 1000, with the default being 100. (This corresponds to FluidSynth's gain settings of 0.0 through 10.0, which are presumably measured in decibel.)

NOTE: The processor requirements for FluidSynth can be fairly high in some cases. A fast CPU is recommended.

7.3) MT-32 emulation

Some games which contain MIDI music data also have improved tracks designed for the MT-32 sound module. ScummVM can now emulate this device, however you must provide original MT-32 ROMs to make it work:

MT32_PCM.ROM - IC21 (512KB)
MT32_CONTROL.ROM - IC26 (32KB) and IC27 (32KB), interleaved byte-wise

Place these ROMs in the game directory, in your extrapath, or in the directory where your ScummVM executable resides.

You don't need to specify --native-mt32 with this driver, as it automatically gets turned on.

NOTE: The processor requirements for the emulator are quite high; a fast CPU is strongly recommended.

7.4) MIDI emulation

Some games (such as Sam & Max) only contain MIDI music data. This once prevented music for these games from working on platforms that do not support MIDI, or soundcards that do not provide MIDI drivers (e.g. many soundcards will not play MIDI under Linux). ScummVM can now emulate MIDI mode using sampled waves and AdLib, FluidSynth MIDI emulation or MT-32 emulation using the -eadlib, -efluidsynth or -emt32 options respectively. However, if you are capable of using native MIDI, we recommend using one of the MIDI modes below for best sound.

7.5) Native MIDI support

Use the appropriate -e<mode> command line option from the list above to select your preferred MIDI device. For example, if you wish to use the Windows MIDI driver, use the -ewindows option.

7.5.1) Using MIDI options to customize Native MIDI output

ScummVM supports a variety of MIDI modes, depending on the capabilities of your MIDI device.

If --native-mt32 is specified, ScummVM will treat your device as a real MT-32. Because the instrument mappings and system exclusive commands of the MT-32 vary from those of General MIDI devices, you should only enable this option if you are using an actual Roland MT-32, LAPC-I, CM-64, CM-32L, CM-500, or GS device with an MT-32 map.

If --enable-gs is specified, ScummVM will initialize your GS-compatible device with settings that mimic the MT-32's reverb, (lack of) chorus, pitch bend sensitivity, etc. If it is specified in conjunction with --native-mt32, ScummVM will select the MT-32-compatible map and drumset on your GS device. This setting works better than default GM or GS emulation with games that do not have custom instrument mappings (Loom and Monkey1). You should only specify both settings if you are using a GS device that has an MT-32 map, such as an SC-55, SC-88, SC-88 Pro, SC-8820, SC-8850, etc. Please note that --enable-gs is automatically disabled in both DOTT and Samnmax, since they use General MIDI natively.

If neither of the above settings is enabled, ScummVM will initialize your device in General MIDI mode and use GM emulation in games with MT-32 soundtracks.

Some games contain sound effects that are exclusive to the AdLib soundtrack. For these games, you may wish to specify --multi-midi in order to combine MIDI music with AdLib sound effects.

7.6) UNIX native, ALSA and dmedia sequencer support

If your soundcard driver supports a sequencer, you may set the environment variable SCUMMVM_MIDI to your sequencer device -- for example, to /dev/sequencer

If you have problems with not hearing audio in this configuration, you may need to set the environment variable SCUMMVM_MIDIPORT to 1 or 2. This selects the port on the selected sequencer to use. Then start scummvm with the -eseq parameter. This should work on several cards, and may offer better performance and quality than AdLib emulation. However, for those systems where sequencer support does not work, you can always fall back on AdLib emulation.

7.6.1) ALSA sequencer [UNIX ONLY]

If you have installed the ALSA driver with sequencer support, then you may set the environment variable SCUMMVM_PORT or the config file variable alsa_port to specify your sequencer port. If neither is set, the default behavior is to try both "65:0" and "17:0".

Here is a brief guide on how to use the ALSA sequencer with your soundcard. In all cases, to obtain a list of all the sequencer ports you have, try the command aconnect -o -l. This should give output similar to:

    client 14: 'Midi Through' [type=kernel]
        0 'Midi Through Port-0'
    client 16: 'SBLive! Value [CT4832]' [type=kernel]
        0 'EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART)'
    client 17: 'Emu10k1 WaveTable' [type=kernel]
        0 'Emu10k1 Port 0  '
        1 'Emu10k1 Port 1  '
        2 'Emu10k1 Port 2  '
        3 'Emu10k1 Port 3  '
    client 128: 'TiMidity' [type=user]
        0 'TiMidity port 0 '
        1 'TiMidity port 1 '
        2 'TiMidity port 2 '
        3 'TiMidity port 3 '

The most important bit here is that there are four WaveTable MIDI outputs located at 17:0, 17:1, 17:2 and 17:3, and four TiMidity ports located at 128:0, 128:1, 128:2 and 128:3.

If you have a FM-chip on your card, like the SB16, then you have to load the SoundFonts using the sbiload software. Example:

sbiload -p 17:0 /etc/std.o3 /etc/drums.o3

If you have a WaveTable capable sound card, you have to load a sbk or sf2 SoundFont using the sfxload or asfxload software. Example:

sfxload /path/to/8mbgmsfx.sf2

If you don't have a MIDI capable soundcard, there are two options: FluidSynth and TiMidity. We recommend FluidSynth, as on many systems TiMidity will 'lag' behind music. This is very noticeable in iMUSE-enabled games, which use fast and dynamic music transitions. Running TiMidity as root will allow it to setup real time priority, which may reduce music lag.

Asking TiMidity to become an ALSA sequencer:

timidity -iAqqq -B2,8 -Os1S -s 44100 &

(If you get distorted output with this setting, you can try dropping the -B2,8 or changing the value.)

Asking FluidSynth to become an ALSA sequencer (using SoundFonts):

fluidsynth -m alsa_seq /path/to/8mbgmsfx.sf2

Once either TiMidity or FluidSynth are running, use the 'aconnect -o -l' command as described earlier in this section.

7.6.2) IRIX dmedia sequencer: [UNIX ONLY]

If you are using IRIX and the dmedia driver with sequencer support, you can set the environment variable SCUMMVM_MIDIPORT or the config file variable dmedia_port to specify your sequencer port. The default is to use the first port.

To get a list of configured midi interfaces on your system, run "startmidi" without parameters. Example output:

  2 MIDI interfaces configured:
          Serial Port 2
          Software Synth

In this example, you can configure ScummVM to use the "Software Synth" instead of the default "Serial Port 2" by adding a line

dmedia_port=Software Synth

to your configuration file in the section [scummvm], or setting SCUMMVM_PORT=Software Synth in your environment.

7.7) TiMidity++ MIDI server support

If your system lacks any MIDI sequencer, but you still want better MIDI quality than default AdLib emulation can offer, you can try the TiMidity++ MIDI server. See http://timidity.sourceforge.net/ for download and install instructions.

First, you need to start a daemon:

timidity -ir 7777

Now you can start ScummVM and try selection TiMidity music output. By default, it will connect to localhost:7777, but you can change host/port via the TIMIDITY_HOST environment variable. You can also specify a "device number" using the SCUMMVM_MIDIPORT environment variable.

7.8) Using compressed audio files

7.8.1) Using MP3 files for CD audio

Use LAME or some other MP3 encoder to rip the cd audio tracks to files. Name the files track1.mp3 track2.mp3 etc. ScummVM must be compiled with MAD support to use this option. You will need to rip the file from the CD as a WAV file, then encode the MP3 files in constant bit rate. This can be done with the following LAME command line:

lame -t -q 0 -b 96 track1.wav track1.mp3

7.8.2) Using Ogg Vorbis files for CD audio

Use oggenc or some other vorbis encoder to encode the audio tracks to files. Name the files track1.ogg track2.ogg etc. ScummVM must be compiled with vorbis support to use this option. You will need to rip the files from the CD as a WAV file, then encode the vorbis files. This can be done with the following oggenc command line with the value after q specifying the desired quality from 0 to 10:

oggenc -q 5 track1.wav

7.8.3) Using Flac files for CD audio

Use flac or some other flac encoder to encode the audio tracks to files. Name the files track1.flac track2.flac etc. If your filesystem only allows three letter extensions, name the files track1.fla track2.fla etc. ScummVM must be compiled with flac support to use this option. You will need to rip the files from the CD as a WAV file, then encode the flac files. This can be done with the following flac command line:

flac --best track1.wav

Remember that the quality is always the same, varying encoder options will only affect the encoding time and resulting filesize.

7.8.4) Compressing MONSTER.SOU with MP3

You need LAME, and our compress_scumm_sou utility from the scummvm-tools package to perform this task, and ScummVM must be compiled with MAD support.

compress_scumm_sou monster.sou

Eventually you will have a much smaller monster.so3 file, copy this file to your game directory. You can safely remove the monster.sou file.

7.8.5) Compressing MONSTER.SOU with Ogg Vorbis

As above, but ScummVM must be compiled with OGG support. Run:

compress_scumm_sou --vorbis monster.sou

This should produce a smaller monster.sog file, which you should copy to your game directory. Ogg encoding may take a considerable longer amount of time than MP3, so have a good book handy.

7.8.6) Compressing MONSTER.SOU with Flac

As above, but ScummVM must be compiled with Flac support. Run:

compress_scumm_sou --flac monster.sou

This should produce a smaller monster.sof file, which you should copy to your game directory. Remember that the quality is always the same, varying encoder options will only affect the encoding time and resulting file size. Playing with the blocksize (-b <value>), has the biggest impact on the resulting file size -- 1152 seems to be a good value for those kind of soundfiles. Be sure to read the encoder documentation before you use other values.

7.8.7) Compressing music/sfx/speech in AGOS games

Use our compress_agos utility from the scummvm-tools package to perform this task. You can choose between multiple target formats, but note that you can only use each if ScummVM was compiled with the respective decoder support enabled.

  compress_agos effects     (For Acorn CD version of Simon 1)
  compress_agos simon       (For Acorn CD version of Simon 1)
  compress_agos effects.voc (For DOS CD version of Simon 1)
  compress_agos simon.voc   (For DOS CD version of Simon 1)
  compress_agos simon.wav   (For Windows CD version of Simon 1)
  compress_agos simon2.voc  (For DOS CD version of Simon 2)
  compress_agos simon2.wav  (For Windows CD version of Simon 2)
  compress_agos mac         (For Macintosh version of Simon 2)

  compress_agos voices1.wav (For Windows 2CD/4CD version of Feeble)
  compress_agos voices2.wav (For Windows 2CD/4CD version of Feeble)
  compress_agos voices3.wav (For Windows 4CD version of Feeble)
  compress_agos voices4.wav (For Windows 4CD version of Feeble)

  compress_agos Music       (For Windows version of Puzzle Pack)

For Ogg Vorbis add --vorbis to the options, i.e.

compress_agos --vorbis

For Flac add --flac and optional parameters, i.e.

compress_agos --flac

Eventually you will have a much smaller *.mp3, *.ogg or *.fla file, copy this file to your game directory. You can safely remove the old file.

7.8.8) Compressing speech/music in Broken Sword

The compress_sword1 tool from the scummvm-tools package can encode music and speech to MP3, Ogg Vorbis as well as Flac. The easiest way to encode the files is simply copying the executable into your BS1 directory (together with the lame encoder) and run it from there. This way, it will automatically encode everything to MP3. Afterwards, you can manually remove the SPEECH?.CLU files and the wave music files.

Running compress_sword1 --vorbis will compress the files using Ogg Vorbis instead of MP3.

Running compress_sword1 --flac will compress the files using Flac instead of MP3.

Use compress_sword1 --help to get a full list of the options.

7.8.9) Compressing speech/music in Broken Sword II

Use our compress_sword2 utility from the scummvm-tools package to perform this task. You can choose between multiple target formats, but note that you can only use each if ScummVM was compiled with the respective decoder support enabled.

  compress_sword2 speech1.clu
  compress_sword2 music1.clu

For Ogg Vorbis add --vorbis to the options, i.e.

compress_sword2 --vorbis

Eventually you will have a much smaller *.cl3 or *.clg file, copy this file to your game directory. You can safely remove the old file.

It is possible to use Flac compression by adding the --flac option. However, the resulting *.clf file will actually be larger than the original.

Please note that compress_sword2 will only work with the four speech/music files in Broken Sword II. It will not work with any of the other *.clu files, nor will it work with the speech files from Broken Sword.

7.9) Output sample rate

The output sample rate tells ScummVM how many sound samples to play per channel per second. There is much that could be said on this subject, but most of it would be irrelevant here. The short version is that for most games 22050 Hz is fine, but in some cases 44100 Hz is preferable. On extremely low-end systems you may want to use 11025 Hz, but it is unlikely that you have to worry about that.

To elaborate, most of the sounds ScummVM has to play were sampled at either 22050 Hz or 11025 Hz. Using a higher sample rate will not magically improve the quality of these sounds. Hence, 22050 Hz is fine.

Some games use CD audio. If you use compressed files for this, they are probably sampled at 44100 Hz, so for these games that may be a better choice of sample rate.

When using the AdLib, FM Towns, PC Speaker or IBM PCjr music drivers, ScummVM is responsible for generating the samples. Usually 22050 Hz will be plenty for these, but there is at least one piece of AdLib music in Beneath a Steel Sky that will sound a lot better at 44100 Hz.

Using frequencies in between is not recommended. For one thing, your sound card may not support it. In theory, ScummVM should fall back on a sensible frequency in that case, but don't count on it. More importantly, ScummVM has to resample all sounds to its output frequency. This is much easier to do well if the output frequency is a multiple of the original frequency.

8.0) Configuration file

By default, the configuration file is saved in, and loaded from:

Windows Vista/7:

\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\ScummVM\scummvm.ini

Windows 2000/XP:

\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\ScummVM\scummvm.ini

Windows NT4:

<windir>\Profiles\username\Application Data\ScummVM\scummvm.ini

Windows 95/98/ME:

<windir>\scummvm.ini

If an earlier version of ScummVM was installed under Windows, the previous default location of <windir>\scummvm.ini will be kept.

Unix:

We follow the XDG Base Directory Specification. This means our configuration can be found in: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/scummvm/scummvm.ini

If XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not defined or empty, ~/.config will be used as value for XDG_CONFIG_HOME in accordance with the specification.

If an earlier version of ScummVM was installed on your system, the previous default location of ~/.scummvmrc will be kept.

Mac OS X:

~/Library/Preferences/ScummVM Preferences (here, ~ refers to your home directory)

Others:

scummvm.ini in the current directory

An example config file looks as follows:

    [scummvm]
    gfx_mode=supereagle
    fullscreen=true
    savepath=C:\saves\

    [sky]
    path=C:\games\SteelSky\

    [germansky]
    gameid=sky
    language=de
    path=C:\games\SteelSky\
    description=Beneath a Steel Sky w/ German subtitles

    [germandott]
    gameid=tentacle
    path=C:\german\tentacle\
    description=German version of DOTT

    [tentacle]
    path=C:\tentacle\
    subtitles=true
    music_volume=40
    sfx_volume=255

    [loomcd]
    cdrom=1
    path=C:\loom\
    talkspeed=5
    savepath=C:\loom\saves\

    [monkey2]
    path=C:\amiga_mi2\
    music_driver=windows

8.1) Recognized configuration keywords

The following keywords are recognized:

path               string   The path to where a game's data files are
autosave_period    number   The seconds between autosaving (default: 300)
save_slot          number   The saved game number to load on startup.
savepath           string   The path to where a game will store its
                            saved games.
screenshotpath     string   The path to where screenshots are saved.
iconpath           string   The path to where to look for icons to use as
                            overlay for the ScummVM icon in the Windows
                            taskbar or macOS X Dock when running a game.
                            The icon files should be named after the game
                            ids and be in ico format on Windows or png
                            format on macOS X.
versioninfo        string   The version of the ScummVM that created the
                            configuration file.

gameid             string   The real id of a game. Useful if you have
                            several versions of the same game, and want
                            different aliases for them. See the example.
description        string   The description of the game as it will appear
                            in the launcher.

language           string   Specify language (en, us, de, fr, it, pt, es,
                            jp, zh, kr, se, gb, hb, cz, ru)
speech_mute        bool     If true, speech is muted
subtitles          bool     Set to true to enable subtitles.
talkspeed          number   Text delay in SCUMM games, or text speed in
                            other games.

fullscreen         bool     Fullscreen mode
aspect_ratio       bool     Enable aspect ratio correction
gfx_mode           string   Graphics mode (normal, 2x, 3x, 2xsai,
                            super2xsai, supereagle, advmame2x, advmame3x,
                            hq2x, hq3x, tv2x, dotmatrix, opengl)
filtering          bool     Enable graphics filtering

confirm_exit       bool     Ask for confirmation by the user before
                            quitting (SDL backend only).
console            bool     Enable the console window (default: enabled)
                            (Windows only).
cdrom              number   Number of CD-ROM unit to use for audio. If
                            negative, don't even try to access the CD-ROM.
joystick_num       number   Number of joystick device to use for input
controller_map_db  string   A custom controller mapping file to load to
                            complete default database (SDL backend only).
                            Otherwise, file gamecontrollerdb.txt will be
                            loaded from extrapath.
music_driver       string   The music engine to use.
opl_driver         string   The AdLib (OPL) emulator to use.
output_rate        number   The output sample rate to use, in Hz. Sensible
                            values are 11025, 22050 and 44100.
audio_buffer_size  number   Overrides the size of the audio buffer. The
                            value must be one of: 256 512 1024 2048 4096
                            8192 16384 32768. The default value is
                            calculated based on the output_rate to keep
                            audio latency below 45ms.
alsa_port          string   Port to use for output when using the
                            ALSA music driver.
music_volume       number   The music volume setting (0-255)
multi_midi         bool     If true, enable combination AdLib and native
                            MIDI.
soundfont          string   The SoundFont to use for MIDI playback. (Only
                            supported by some MIDI drivers.)
native_mt32        bool     If true, disable GM emulation and assume that
                            there is a true Roland MT-32 available.
enable_gs          bool     If true, enable Roland GS-specific features to
                            enhance GM emulation. If native_mt32 is also
                            true, the GS device will select an MT-32 map
                            to play the correct instruments.
sfx_volume         number   The sfx volume setting (0-255)
tempo              number   The music tempo (50-200) (default: 100)
speech_volume      number   The speech volume setting (0-255)
midi_gain          number   The MIDI gain (0-1000) (default: 100) (Only
                            supported by some MIDI drivers.)

copy_protection    bool     Enable copy protection in certain games, in
                            those cases where ScummVM disables it by
                            default.
demo_mode          bool     Start demo in Maniac Mansion
alt_intro          bool     Use alternative intro for CD versions of
                            Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon
                            Queen

boot_param         number   Pass this number to the boot script

Sierra games using the AGI engine add the following non-standard keywords:

originalsaveload   bool     If true, the original save/load screens are
                            used instead of the enhanced ScummVM ones
altamigapalette    bool     Use an alternative palette, common for all
                            Amiga games. This was the old behavior
mousesupport       bool     Enables mouse support. Allows to use mouse
                            for movement and in game menus

Sierra games using the SCI engine add the following non-standard keywords:

disable_dithering  bool     Remove dithering artifacts from EGA games
prefer_digitalsfx  bool     If true, digital sound effects are preferred
                            instead of synthesized ones
originalsaveload   bool     If true, the original save/load screens are
                            used instead of the enhanced ScummVM ones
native_fb01        bool     If true, the music driver for an IBM Music
                            Feature card or a Yamaha FB-01 FM synth module
                            is used for MIDI output
use_cdaudio        bool     Use CD audio instead of in-game audio,
                            when available
windows_cursors    bool     Use the Windows cursors (smaller and monochrome)
                            instead of the DOS ones (King's Quest 6)
silver_cursors     bool     Use the alternate set of silver cursors,
                            instead of the normal golden ones (Space Quest 4)

Broken Sword II adds the following non-standard keywords:

gfx_details        number   Graphics details setting (0-3)
music_mute         bool     If true, music is muted
object_labels      bool     If true, object labels are enabled
reverse_stereo     bool     If true, stereo channels are reversed
sfx_mute           bool     If true, sound effects are muted

Flight of the Amazon Queen adds the following non-standard keywords:

music_mute         bool     If true, music is muted
sfx_mute           bool     If true, sound effects are muted

Hopkins FBI adds the following non-standard keyword:

enable_gore        bool     If true, enable some optional gore content in
                            the game

Jones in the Fast Lane adds the following non-standard keyword:

music_mute         bool     If true, CD audio is used, if available,
                            instead of in-game audio

King's Quest VI Windows adds the following non-standard keyword:

windows_cursors    bool     If true, the original unscaled black and white
                            Windows cursors are used instead of the DOS
                            ones. If false, the DOS cursors are used in the
                            Windows version, upscaled to match the rest of
                            the upscaled graphics

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos adds the following non-standard keywords:

smooth_scrolling   bool     If true, scrolling is smoother when changing
                            from one screen to another
floating_cursors   bool     If true, the cursor changes when it floats to
                            the edge of the screen to a directional arrow.
                            The player can then click to walk towards that
                            direction.

Space Quest IV CD adds the following non-standard keyword:

silver_cursors     bool     If true, an alternate set of silver mouse
                            cursors is used instead of the original golden
                            ones

Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2 add the following non-standard keywords:

music_mute         bool     If true, music is muted
sfx_mute           bool     If true, sound effects are muted

Soltys adds the following non-standard keyword:

enable_color_blind bool     If true, original colors are replaced by a set
                            of greys

The Legend of Kyrandia adds the following non-standard keyword:

walkspeed          number   The walk speed (0-4)

The Legend of Kyrandia: The Hand of Fate adds the following non-standard keyword:

walkspeed          number   The walk speed (3 or 5, resp. fast or
                            slow)

The Legend of Kyrandia: Malcolm's Revenge adds the following non-standard keywords:

walkspeed          number   The walk speed (3 or 5, resp. fast or
                            slow)
studio_audience    bool     If true, applause and cheering sounds are heard
                            whenever Malcolm makes a joke
skip_support       bool     If true, the player can skip text and cutscenes
helium_mode        bool     If true, people sound like they've inhaled
                            Helium

The Neverhood adds the following non-standard keywords:

originalsaveload   bool     If true, the original save/load screens are
                            used instead of the enhanced ScummVM ones
skiphallofrecordsscenes     bool
                            If true, allows the player to skip
                            past the Hall of Records storyboard scenes
scalemakingofvideos  bool   If true, the making of videos are scaled, so that
                            they use the whole screen

The 7th Guest adds the following non-standard keyword:

fast_movie_speed   bool     If true, movies are played at an increased
                            speed, matching the speed of the iOS version.
                            Movies without sound are still played at their
                            normal speed, to avoid music synchronization
                            issues

Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands adds the following non-standard keywords:

originalsaveload   bool     If true, the original save/load screens are
                            used instead of the enhanced ScummVM ones
doublefps          bool     If true, game FPS are increased from 30 to 60
venusenabled       bool     If true, the in-game Venus help system is
                            enabled
noanimwhileturning bool     If true, animations are disabled while turning
                            in panoramic mode

Zork: Grand Inquisitor adds the following non-standard keywords:

originalsaveload   bool     If true, the original save/load screens are
                            used instead of the enhanced ScummVM ones
doublefps          bool     If true, game FPS are increased from 30 to 60
noanimwhileturning bool     If true, animations are disabled while turning
                            in panoramic mode
mpegmovies         bool     If true, the hires MPEG movies are used in the
                            DVD version of the game, instead of the lowres
                            AVI ones

8.2) Custom game options that can be toggled via the GUI

A lot of the custom game options in the previous section can be toggled via the GUI. If a custom option is available for a specific game, a new tab called "Engine" will appear when adding or editing the configuration of that game. If the custom options are not shown, the games in question will need to be run once or readded in the ScummVM launcher's game list. This will update the configuration of each entry, allowing the custom options to be shown.

9.0) Screenshots (SDL backend only)

On systems using the SDL backend (for example Windows, Mac or Linux) you can use alt+s to take snapshots (see section 5.4 - Hotkeys).

You can specify the directory in which you want the screenshots to be created in the config file. To do so add a screenshotpath value under the [scummvm] section:

[scummvm]
screenshotpath=/path/to/screenshots/

The default location, when no screenshot path is defined in the config file, depends on the OS:

  • Windows: In Users\username\My Pictures\ScummVM Screenshots.
  • macOS X: On the Desktop.
  • Other unices: In the XDG Pictures user directory, e.g. ~/Pictures/ScummVM Screenshots
  • Any other OS: In the current directory.

10.0) Compiling

For an up-to-date overview on how to compile ScummVM for various platforms, please consult our Wiki, in particular this page:

https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Compiling_ScummVM

If you are compiling for Windows, Linux or Mac OS X, you need SDL-1.2.2 or newer (older versions may work, but are unsupported), and a supported compiler. Several compilers, including GCC, mingw and recent versions of Microsoft Visual C++ are supported. If you wish to use MP3-compressed CD tracks or .SOU files, you will need to install the MAD library; likewise you will need the appropriate libraries for Ogg Vorbis and FLAC compressed sound. For compressed save states, zlib is required.

Some parts of ScummVM, particularly scalers, have highly optimized versions written in assembler. If you wish to use this option, you will need to install nasm assembler (see https://www.nasm.us/). Note that we currently only have x86 MMX optimized versions, and they will not compile on other processors.

On Windows, you can define USE_WINDBG and attach WinDbg to browse debug messages (see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/debugger/index).

11.0) Changelog

Please refer to our extensive Changelog here.

12.0) Credits

Please refer to our extensive Credits list here.


Good Luck and Happy Adventuring!
The ScummVM team.
https://www.scummvm.org/

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