Retrogame engine ScummVM turns 20 years old, gets an update

(Image credit: LucasArts)

Preservation visualise ScummVM—named aft the Script Creation Utility For Maniac Mansion, the engine ill-used in LucasArts' classic adventure games—was launched on Oct 9, 2001. At first, it was about reimplementing games ready-made in SCUMM like Secret of Monkey Island so they could run on platforms they weren't designed for. Since then, the ScummVM team let broadened their remit and reverse-engineered all kinds of games, from Plumbers Don't Wear out Ties to Leaf blade Runner.

On the occasion of its 20th birthday, ScummVM updated to version 2.5.0 and now supports 2.5D games. Grim Fandango, The Longest Journey, and Myst 3: Exile are now supported on desktop platforms, and compatibility has been added for several much games including Little Big Adventure, The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time, Private Centre, and Reformist: No Remorse.

With this version the GUI has received "a major make over", support for certain localised versions of games has been enhanced, and other improvements have been made that you can read all but in the blog mail service and release notes.

"We wish you great adventuring," the ScummVM team writes, "well-chosen puzzle-solving and exciting journeys to RPG worlds, and hope to see you around in the coming years."

If you'd like to have sex more close to their sour, Richard Cobbett profiled the ScummVM team in 2017 for the article How ScummVM is keeping adventure games alive, ace genuine game at a time.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a encipher wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former euphony journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's initiative radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Shake Theme Scattergun, The Proud Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was published in 2015, He emended PC Gamer Independent from 2017 to 2018, and in reality did play every Warhammer videogame.