For prosperity's sake: This article is almost two decades old and no longer reflects . . . anything. We apologize!

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An article by Remi Olsen, posted on March 07. 2003.



A year back we launched an article dealing with getting older LucasArts games to work with newer operating systems such as Windows XP, as well as Mac OS X and Linux. This is an updated version of that article, which take into accounts the recent upgrades made to the software that was designed to make playing those older games a lot easier - ScummVM.

ScummVM
So what is ScummVM? To keep it non-technical - it's basically a program that lets you run older SCUMM based games on different operating systems. What exactly is SCUMM? SCUMM is the scripting language used to develop all those classic LucasArts adventure games, from Maniac Mansion all the way through Curse of Monkey Island. And an operating system? Windows, Mac OS X and Linux are three typical operating systems. What makes ScummVM so cool is that it will let you run those classic adventures on other operating systems than Windows (although there obviously is a Windows version also, to cure all those XP pains). Are you a Mac user who has never had the chance to play Curse of Monkey Island? Now you can actually buy the PC version of the game and run it on your OS X machine through ScummVM. While not all of the games run flawlessly at the time of writing, compatability is getting a lot better. The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge are both 95% compatible, and can be played through without any problems. Curse of Monkey Island is up to 80% at the time of writing, and we expect compatability to get a lot better soon. The game is fully playable with just a few bugs though. ScummVM does come with a bare bones front-end now, though you'd be better off downloading one of the custom built, OS-specific ones. For Windows, the best option is:

LEC Quick & Easy (LQE)
LQE has multiple functions, and the part we'll look at first is the ScummVM front-end. (In fact, there's also a cut-down version of LQE called ScummVM Quick & Easy which only includes the ScummVM part of the application - use whichever version you'd like.) Typing in a long line of obscure text to get a game working can be a drag, and that's where LQE comes in. With an intuitive Windows interface, it lets you easily configure each game and run them with a click of a button. This should work on any Windows based system. Install ScummVM, install LQE in the same folder, start the app and you're ready to roll. For full guides, check out the Secret of Monkey Island guide here and the LeChuck's Revenge guide here.


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Comment from Ipop

This comment was deleted by the user.

Comment from Philip

This is... wow, this is simply wonderful. Wonderful, I say. FINALLY, idiots as myself can play Monkey Island 2 in it's full musical glory! Victory. Ah, so sweet. Thank you very much.

Comment from superqult

Jake: ScummVM is available for mac.

Comment from benjoyce

Isn't that supposed to be echoed off and cd-ed? By the way, I am happy cause everything runs under my XP, with safe and sound.:D

Comment from Erdan

Good point, RemiO. I guess I should've read the article before I posted the comment... *sheepish smile*. Anyway, I'll make it clear for the people who this article was intended for: a *.bat file is simply a *.txt file with the commands, with the extension modified -
In other words, create a *.txt file, write the commands, and then modify the extension to *.bat. It's THAT easy!

Comment from MrManager

Erdan - But do you expect the people who this article was intended for even know what a bat file is?

Comment from Erdan

I personally find more easy to use just ScummVM. Plus, "Typing in a long line of obscure text to get a game working" needn't be a drag... You only have to do it once if you create a *.bat file with the commands.
Example - To play MI1 with audio from the 2nd cd drive:

scummvm -c1 monkey1

If you put this command in a *.bat file, you only have to double click it to start the game, wherein the front-ends, you have to search for the game every single time. Now THAT can be a drag.

Note: The commands are explained in the ScummVM readme file

Comment from ThunderPeel2001

It's also worth noting that LEC Q+E (aka "LQE"!) will not work with Monkey Island 1 if you have the "Bounty Pack" version. Don't fret, this can easily be fixed by copying the MI1 directory to your harddrive and renaming "monkey.exe" to "monkey1.exe" and "monkey.000" to "monkey1.000".

Then everything should work fine!

Comment from bgbennyboy

Doing it that way will probably not play the cd tracks, use scummvm mode for now..

Comment from ThunderPeel2001

God dang double post! Sorry!

Comment from MrManager

Thanks, I love you too!

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