SCUMM

WOW! It's been a year since I last posted here, but there hasn't been much of interest to talk about. At least, nothing I'm ready to share just yet. But now it looks like ScummVM and DOSBox are facing some competition on the SCUMMy side.

DREAMM (DOS Retro Emulation Arena for Maniac Mansion) is an emulator specifically dedicated to playing LucasArts games originally released for DOS, Windows, and FM-TOWNS. It's developed by Aaron Giles, whom you may recognize as the guy who ported several SCUMM games to the classic Mac OS. He also did official Windows ports of all of those games, though only a few were actually released. The games that got released on Steam back in 2009? Those ports were based on his work.

A major difference between ScummVM and DREAMM is that while ScummVM replaces the original interpreters, DREAMM still requires them, as it emulates the games at the CPU level. Also, some Star Wars games (none of which use SCUMM and thus won't be supported by ScummVM) are also...

I've just been informed on Mixnmojo of a set of utilities called Nutcracker. It's a set of tools for editing resources in SCUMM games. Its decompiler outputs code that very closely matches that of the original SCUMM syntax, as shown in the official SCUMM documentation. If this were an IDE, it'd be really useful. Right now, v5 and v6 are supported.

I've now started work on new decompilations of compatible games here.

Nutcracker
Download the latest binary release here
Here's an example script from Secret of Monkey Island:

Here's my first SCUMM-related discovery!

One of the things you need to keep track of in Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is your characters' CashCard balance. Just like reality!

The best way for Zak to replenish his savings is to play the lottery, which only he can do. You can rig the odds in your favor by reading the Lott-O-Dictor on the King's ship. Note the number, then go back to San Francisco. You can go back by inputting the button combination or giving an artifact to the king - but don't worry, you can get the artifacts back if you choose the latter.

Once Zak's back home, he can go to Lou's Loans and buy a lottery ticket. Input the number that was on the Lott-O-Dictor. Eventually, the numbers will be picked, and Zak will win $10000! If only it were that easy in real life...

But how many times can Zak do this? The answer is five. You see, every time you win big, the game remembers. Once you've won the lottery five times, Lou will pay up one last time, and...