Incline ScummVM 2.1.0 released

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ScummVM Team is thrilled to announce the release of ScummVM version 2.1.0. This release is the culmination of nearly two years worth of work, adding 16 new games based on 8 engines, a Nintendo Switch port and nearly 500 bug fixes. All this done by the hard work of 147 contributors across 8,493 commits.

The newly supported games are:

• Blade Runner
• Duckman: The Graphic Adventures of a Private Dick
• Hoyle Bridge
• Hoyle Children's Collection
• Hoyle Classic Games
• Hoyle Solitaire
• Hyperspace Delivery Boy!
• Might and Magic IV - Clouds of Xeen
• Might and Magic V - Darkside of Xeen
• Might and Magic - World of Xeen
• Might and Magic - Swords of Xeen
• Mission Supernova Part 1
• Mission Supernova Part 2
• Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness
• The Prince and the Coward
• Versailles 1685

In addition, we enhanced the Android and iOS ports considerably. You will also notice the new GUI facelift, improved Roland MT-32 sound emulation, a new pixel-perfect stretching mode, Text-to-Speech support on macOS and Linux, and last but not least, support for synchronizing saves and downloading game data from cloud-based file services (see the up-to-date list of the platforms in our user manual)

As usual, we have improved many of the existing engines: added support for the 25th Myst Anniversary releases, fixed more than 100 original SCI script bugs that have plagued Sierra games for decades, added support for Amiga and FM-TOWNS versions of Eye of the Beholder, improved audio quality in Humongous Entertainment games and added lip sync to the newer LucasArts adventure titles, squashed tons of bugs in Starship Titanic and Bud Tucker. The list goes on and on, and you may see the comprehensive change log here.

Have no more tears in rain and grab this electric release. Windows and macOS users may get the auto-update when starting ScummVM.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

This could be good news for me since I always wanted to play M&M 3-5 but hated the mouse lag & stutter under DOSBox. Will try it soon.

 

[Siveon]

Is SCUMMVM just gonna be better dosbox soon, lel.

 

[taxalot]

What's the actual advantage of using ScummVM over Dosbox ?

 

[FeelTheRads]

For supported games, it's easier to setup and it can probably be faster and apparently they also fix engine bugs.

But it's not like you can really use ScummVM for anything besides the supported games. So it won't be "better than DOSBox". They have different scopes.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Nice to see Blade Runner added!

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Ooh, Hyperspace Delivery Boy! I'd almost forgotten about that game!

 

[jfrisby]

Looks like they never finished the Prince and the Coward English translation

 

[index.php]

Looks like they never finished the Prince and the Coward English translation

jfrisby they just posted this:

 

[Boleskine]

Today we chat with the team lead of SCUMMVM, a wonderful bit of sofware designed to preserve adventure games, recreating the engines and enhancing the games we love with patches, bug fixes and improvements to make them playable on modern platforms.

 

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Oct 9, 2021: Twenty years ago today...
Posted by sev

Twenty years ago today, on Tue Oct 9 16:30:12 2001, Ludvig Strigeus pushed the initial revision of the ScummVM code, which was version 0.0.1 of the project. Time flew quickly and, fast-forward to the present day, we are proudly releasing ScummVM 2.5.0 “Twenty years ago today…”

The list of changes is tremendous.

First of all, this is the first release that supports 2.5D games (almost 3D), thanks to the merger with ResidualVM. With this release we announce support for Grim Fandango, The Longest Journey and Myst 3: Exile. This is why we jumped straight to 2.5 in our versioning. Please note that only desktop platforms currently support these games and other platforms may or may not gain the support later depending on their capabilities.

In addition to these 3 games and engines, we officially support 10 more new engines and subengines that add compatibility with the following games:

• Little Big Adventure
  
• Red Comrades 1: Save the Galaxy
  
• Red Comrades 2: For the Great Justice
  
• Transylvania
  
• Crimson Crown
  
• OO-Topos
  
• Glulx interactive fiction games
  
• Private Eye
  
• AGS Games versions 2.5+
  
• Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy
  
• The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time
  
• Crusader: No Remorse
  
• L-ZONE
  
• Spaceship Warlock

We love localized game releases and multiple platform versions, thus with this release, we enhanced the support for Lure of the Temptress Konami release, Blue Force Spanish, Ringworld Spanish, Amazon: Guardians of Eden Spanish, Mystery House French, Russian translations of Sierra AGI games, Elvira 1 Japanese PC-98, Bargon Attack Russian, Woodruff Russian, Eye of the Beholder Japanese Sega-CD, Legend of Kyrandia Hebrew, Legend of Kyrandia 2 Hebrew, Legend of Kyrandia 3 Simplified Chinese, Inherit the Earth PC-98 Japanese, Gabriel Knight 1 Macintosh, Xeen Russian to name but a few. Notably, Macintosh b/w versions of Loom and Indy 3 are now also supported.

Besides the new games and game versions, ScummVM 2.5.0 brings many notable improvements and new features. We have completed a major rework of the GUI: We now support Unicode characters everywhere. The GUI also adapts to high resolutions used in HiDPI screens. The Nintendo DS port has been significantly rewritten. We added GOG and Steam achievements to a large number of Wintermute games and enabled KeyMapper in more games. Thanks to the work of one of our GSoC students, we have now added an option for text-to-speech to the games Sfinx, Soltys and The Griffon Legend.

You may find all of this goodness available to a number of platforms on our downloads page, or let the autoupdater kick in on Macintosh and Windows.

We wish you great adventuring, happy puzzle-solving and exciting journeys to RPG worlds, and hope to see you around in the coming years.

And by the way, GOG.com is running a special promo tied to the release and our anniversary, where you can buy many ScummVM-supported games at a discount.

 

[Boleskine]

https://obscuritory.com/essay/macromedia-director-in-scummvm/

Hands-on with Macromedia Director in ScummVM
October 30, 2021 Phil Salvador


As far as emulators go, ScummVM is in a class of its own. Back when ScummVM was first under development twenty years ago (!), it was meant to emulate games created with the SCUMM engine, a toolset by the developer LucasArts that powered their famous adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Day of the Tentacle.

Since then, ScummVM has broadened considerably in scope. ScummVM now emulates over 200 games, including other adventure game engines, like Sierra On-Line’s Adventure Game Interpreter; individual titles like The 7th Guest; and even unrelated vintage software like the Living Books interactive children’s book series by Brøderbund. The ability to run these games on modern platforms using a free, lightweight, open-source program — without needing to emulate an entire computer operating system — has made ScummVM a boon for video game preservation. In fact, several game publishers have turned to ScummVM when re-releasing their old games!

But ScummVM is about to get even bigger. Earlier this year, ScummVM added experimental support for Macromedia Director, one of the most widely used development tools from the CD-ROM multimedia era. This is a big deal, so big that it got press coverage, including an article that I spoke with Ars Technica for in August.

This month, to celebrate the project’s twentieth anniversary, the ScummVM team released ScummVM 2.5.0, the first version to officially support Macromedia Director games. There’s a lot of work to be done still, but I wanted to document where it stands right now — why it’s a big deal, how well it works, and what comes next.

Long article, skimmed through it, thought some of you might be interested.

 

[agris]

Thanks, I grew up playing some of those at a relatives house, before we had a computer of our own. I had forgotten all about them.

 

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Seek the truth

After more than 10 years of development, the ScummVM Team is pleased to announce support for the psychological-horror adventure game Sanitarium.

Grab your CD version or a digital release and immerse yourself in a story full of nightmares and mysteries.

If you don't own the game we have a demo available.

You will need the latest daily build. As always, please submit the bug reports to our issue tracker.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Interesting, I didn't think they were that close the last time I checked. Guess as soon as they got the items to appear properly everything else went into place.

 

[catfood]

Seek the truth

After more than 10 years of development, the ScummVM Team is pleased to announce support for the psychological-horror adventure game Sanitarium.

Grab your CD version or a digital release and immerse yourself in a story full of nightmares and mysteries.

If you don't own the game we have a demo available.

You will need the latest daily build. As always, please submit the bug reports to our issue tracker.

FINALLY! Only took them more than 10 years.

EDIT: well the game hangs when I climb the stairs towards the angel. Guess I'll have to wait for a more stable release.

 

[Tweed]

Quantum Gate support when?

 

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Jan 2, 2022: New year with Californium(*)
Posted by sev, rootfather

Several months have passed since our monumental 2.5.0 release, and now the ScummVM Team is thrilled to announce the release of the bugfix release, 2.5.1 codenamed “Californium”*.

The most notable changes are: we added scalers in OpenGL mode (those AdvMame, HQ etc things), fixed several bugs in The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes, made the sound for Sam & Max more accurate, improved graphics for some Macintosh SCUMM games, implemented more renderers for The Longest Journey, made many enhancements to Little Big Adventure and we fixed the dreaded bug on World of Xeen startup.

The comprehensive list of changes can be found here.

You may find the download at the usual place on our downloads page. Due to a slight delay regarding the release for macOS, the auto-updater will be released within the next couple of days – stay tuned!

Enjoy ScummVM in 2022!

* The average atomic mass of Californium (atomic number 98) is 251.

 

[Duraframe300]

Jan 2, 2022: New year with Californium(*)
Posted by sev, rootfather

Several months have passed since our monumental 2.5.0 release, and now the ScummVM Team is thrilled to announce the release of the bugfix release, 2.5.1 codenamed “Californium”*.

The most notable changes are: we added scalers in OpenGL mode (those AdvMame, HQ etc things), fixed several bugs in The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes, made the sound for Sam & Max more accurate, improved graphics for some Macintosh SCUMM games, implemented more renderers for The Longest Journey, made many enhancements to Little Big Adventure and we fixed the dreaded bug on World of Xeen startup.

The comprehensive list of changes can be found here.

You may find the download at the usual place on our downloads page. Due to a slight delay regarding the release for macOS, the auto-updater will be released within the next couple of days – stay tuned!

Enjoy ScummVM in 2022!

* The average atomic mass of Californium (atomic number 98) is 251.

Bit disappointing tbh after looking at it. The scaler selection is barebones and missing popular ones.

 

[ghostdog]

For supported games, it's easier to setup and it can probably be faster and apparently they also fix engine bugs.

But it's not like you can really use ScummVM for anything besides the supported games. So it won't be "better than DOSBox". They have different scopes.

Since it's basically a recreation of the engine and not emulation, it usually provides a much smoother experience.

 

[Rincewind]

For supported games, it's easier to setup and it can probably be faster and apparently they also fix engine bugs.

But it's not like you can really use ScummVM for anything besides the supported games. So it won't be "better than DOSBox". They have different scopes.

Since it's basically a recreation of the engine and not emulation, it usually provides a much smoother experience.

Also, ScummVM provides bugfixes for many of the supported games, and it allows certain sound driver combinations for DOS games that are not possible in the originals (e.g. Roland MT-32 music with Adlib sound effects for Monkey Island (the best combo)).

 

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Aug 1, 2022: ScummVM 2.6.0 or: Insane Escapism
Posted by The ScummVM Team

Free your mind for yet another ScummVM release!

Eight newly supported games on 6 engines will plunge you into a variety of different settings. Are you able to escape from an alien-infested planet? What about challenging the Lord of the Dead in the Underworld? And have you ever explored the deepest depth of your psyche to see if you really know yourself?

Find out in one of the following titles:

• Sanitarium
• Hades Challenge
• Marvel Comics Spider-Man: The Sinister Six
• The 11th Hour
• Clandestiny
• Tender Loving Care (CD-ROM Editions)
• Uncle Henry's Playhouse
• Wetlands
• Chewy: Esc from F5

Besides adding new games, we are always focused on improving already supported games. Once again, we managed to squash quite a few bugs from various engines. It is always impressive to see bugs getting fixed in engines that are more than 20 years old!

One of the main new features of ScummVM 2.6.0 is a completely new way to view your games in an amazing icon grid overview via our launcher. Accompanied by some very shiny artwork provided by our graphics artists, you are now able to show off your collection like never before. It almost looks and feels like a virtual shelf!

Check out the full Release Notes for a comprehensive summary of how our developers managed to make ScummVM even more amazing!

You can find all of this goodness available for a number of platforms on our downloads page. If you are using Windows, macOS or the Ubuntu Snap package, the autoupdater will assist you in updating to ScummVM 2.6.0.

As always, thank you for your continuous support — happy adventuring!

 

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Feb 26, 2023: ScummVM 2.7.0: The Real Slim Shader
Posted by The ScummVM Team

May I have your attention, please? May I have your attention, please?

We are proud to announce the first release of the year 2023. Please welcome ScummVM 2.7.0 – "The Real Slim Shader".

New games​

Once again, the number of available games increased substantially thanks to new engines, as well as incredible improvements across older engines.

With ScummVM 2.7.0, we officially announce support for the following games:

• Soldier Boyz
• Obsidian
• Pink Panther: Passport to Peril
• Pink Panther: Hokus Pokus Pink
• Adibou 2 "Environment", "Read/Count 4 & 5" and "Read/Count 6 & 7"
• Driller/Space Station Oblivion
• Halls of the Dead: Faery Tale Adventure II
• Chop Suey, Eastern Mind, and 16 other Director 3 and Director 4 titles

Improved support for Broken Sword series​

We vastly improved the detection method used for the Broken Sword series as well. Compared to the old detection method, this allows a much higher level of granularity, so we are now able to detect even the slightest differences between all the supported versions. We tried our very best to add all available game versions, but we need your help. If you notice that your version of Broken Sword 1 or 2 is not properly detected in ScummVM 2.7.0, please get in touch with us and report your version to our Bug Tracker!

New localizations​

One of our goals is to support as many localized game versions as possible, so people can enjoy the games in their native language. This time, we added support for the Chinese, Japanese and Korean versions of many games, including Beneath a Steel Sky, Inherit the Earth and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.

New and revived platforms​

Additionally, we proved ScummVM’s portability again by adding (or bringing back) support for numerous new platforms and devices:

• RetroMini RS90 (using OpenDingux)
• 1st generation Miyoo (New BittBoy, Pocket Go and PowKiddy Q90-V90-Q20) with TriForceX MiyooCFW
• Miyoo Mini
• KolibriOS
• 26-bit versions of RISC OS
• Nintendo 3DS

Of course, stable platforms deserve some love as well! We are very proud to announce that support for iOS and Android devices got vastly improved for 2.7.0! We don’t want to spoil everything that we have in mind for the future with these platforms, but stay tuned — it will be awesome.

Shader-based scalers​

Ah, yes, the release codename. Glad you asked. The new release provides a way to run your games with visual accuracy like you've never seen before. Do you remember the warm glow of CRTs shining on your face? Get that experience back thanks to the introduction of shader-based scalers!

ScummVM 2.7.0 already ships with a curated set of shaders we carefully hand-picked from LibRetro’s shader collection. A more comprehensive set is available as an additional download from within the application itself.

Pre-defined random number seeds​

Our speedrun community can now take advantage of a new feature that allows setting a predefined seed for ScummVM’s internal random number generator. Using a predefined seed now provides the ability to have reproducible runs over and over again. Pick a seed, set your route and you are good to go!

---

Check out the full Release Notes for a comprehensive summary of how our developers managed to create yet another amazing ScummVM release!

You can find all of this goodness available for a number of platforms on our downloads page. If you are using Windows, macOS, or either the Ubuntu Snap or Flatpack packages, the autoupdater will assist you in updating to ScummVM 2.7.0.

As always, thank you for your continued support and happy adventuring!

 

[unseeingeye]

• Halls of the Dead: Faery Tale Adventure II

I know what I'm doing as soon as I get home! Nice!!

 

[Unkillable Cat]

The addition of Driller (on many platforms too!) suggests they're trying to add the Freescape-games.

One down, seven to go.

EDIT: Forgot that they released two 3D Construction Kits.