I guess Mossy would cover it in his next news round-up anyway, but I thought this might be interesting for some a bit earlier.

It seems that release 1.2.0 of ScummVM not only covers SCUMM, AGI, and several other games, but they have also added SCI as well, which should probably make it the engine with the most Sierra titles on its compatibility list.

If it wasn't already before, I think ScummVM just became the one-stop adventure engine.

I really hope they manage to add GrimE as well someday, because I'd love to play Grim Fandango again (yeah, I know of GrimX, but I think it isn't fit for playing the whole game).

Anyway, happy nostalgia!

M.I.K.e wrote:

I hope this too. A few months back I committed to playing using GrimX and got quite far before having quite a few problems. I really want to play the whole game again!

M.I.K.e wrote:

This was discussed many times on the ScummVM boards, and the developers have said that Scumm won't support 3D Engines.
But there's something else coming.

The latest Update afaik is, that Residual will support multiple engines, as does ScummVM, to not only support Grim Fandango and Monkey Island 4, but also Little Big Adventure, Broken Sword 3 and other games of this kind.

Mungo wrote:


Of course I've heard of Residual (I had tested it long before it became the core of GrimX), but I didn't know that it has its own repository on Sourceforge now. So thanks for the link.

I have to admit that I don't really like the way Grim Fandango controls, but the story is just way to good to skip it.

This is quite an amazing thing to hear as I used to be PASSIONATE about FreeSCI. I did a port of it aaaages ago when it's support wasn't so good. I remember the guys behind it had lots of work to do because they not only reverse-engineered Sierra's code, but also had to work out ways to reproduce all of the functions without borrowing any code or algorythms. I think one guy did a PhD or something on how he had legally done all of the pathfinding code. I'm not that smart, but have a great deal of respect for all the work that has gone in to make most SCI games work!

Hopefully I can find an iPhone version (should be able to) because I seriously dont use computers anymore (just my iPod Touch... I have a MacBook Pro packed away somewhere.)

The only wish I have for ScummVM now is The Longest Journey. I didn't discover it until a few years ago, but I bought it from Steam (using Crossover, no Mac version on there.) It is such a beautiful game! Sierra and Lucas Arts dominated & made some awesome games, but TLJ is the best point and click adventure ever made IMO. I love how artistic it is... I also think the characters were developed extremely well. I want it on my iPod Touch!

Not bagging on the American point and clicks (I think they have rightfully dominated the market because they are damn good) but I feel games from different countries such as Broken Sword, BASS and TLJ bring a refreshing feel, deeper stories and a less generic vibe (again not bagging Sierra/Lucas Arts or American culture.) Maybe I'm just weird, but I feel different countries can show their cultural differences through games... something I often think about when playing.

Anyway big off-topic rant... great news, I'm happy!

While I've heard of The Longest Journey, I never played it, so I checked out the Wikipedia article. From the screenshots it looks as if it's a combination of pre-rendered backgrounds with 3D characters, similar to Grim Fandango.
In that case it's the same issue that Mungo mentioned for Grim Fandango: It seems that ScummVM will never support games with 3D graphics.

There might be hope that Residual supports it eventually. But even progress on Grim Fandango is slow and supporting it totally different engine sounds like a lot of work. So the best advice is: Don't hold your breath.

But it might be an idea that I check out The Longest Journey to see what I missed all those years.

Anyway, ScummVM still rocks!

Thanks for the info Mike, I think you are right... 2d backgrounds with 3d models/lighting. Dreamfall (TLJ 2) is all in 3D.

My (very wishful) hope is that like Broken Sword/Beneath a Steel Sky/Monkey Island, we see TLJ ported to the iPhone by the original developers. I doubt this will ever happen, but meh.

Grim Fandango! What's it like? Never played... but a mate had it (although his dog ate this security code thingy that was needed for licensing so I never got to play it. Any options for playing it on an iPod Touch?

Grim Fandango is set in a stage between death and the afterlife. The game has four parts, with each happening on the Day of the Dead in sequential years (thus the music is part Mexican, part Jazz).
You play Manny Calavera, who must have been rather bad in life, because he has to spend several years selling tickets to the afterlife to the newly deceased. What ticket you get depends on how well you behaved during your lifetime. The best option is a "Number 9" ticket, which basically is for an express train that takes minutes, while the worst thing is a walking stick and you have to journey 4 years on foot.
After he sends out poor Mercedes Colomar on foot although she should have gotten a Number 9 ticket, Manny finds out that someone seems to be stealing those tickets and he tries to travel after Mercedes to save her.

Due to the setting there are a lot of strange jokes, e.g. because they are already dead, people don't get shot, they get "sprouted", i.e. they are shot with a special gun and then flowers start to grow.

The controls are a bit like in the old Resident Evil games (without the fighting; sprouting only happens in cutscenes).
Since I played the German version, I'm not sure about the voice talent in the original one. But despite German versions often having shitty voice tracks, this one was spot on, with the German voice of ALF as Manny. The music is mostly excellent.

I don't care much about the controls (would have preferred a point-and-click interface), but you get a strange, yet compelling background, interesting characters, and a story mix of fun and mystery with a slight love story thrown in.

If you need more information and a different take, read this review.

Sounds great... any news on Residual? Looks like the SVN progress hasn't been all that hot since 2009 however it looks like my best hope for getting the game to work on my iPod in the possible future.

Anybody compiled it for iPhone? Seems like the kind of app that could do so out of the box (mostly C, SDL for sound/graphics...etc.) Just need somebody to code in the touch controls (I'm guessing.) Be fun to at least check out the game...

What kind of bugs does the current version have?

jetboy wrote:


I tried the latest version quite recently. Everything was near enough fine for me until I got to a certain point in the game and there was a weird jump, almost like I somehow skipped out a portion of the game. It's a difficult one to explain, for anyone who has played the game, I was coming out of one of the offices at the DOD and was in the same location, just a different point in the game. It was rather frustrating so be warned if you're going to commit to playing the game. I'll reload my last save later and pinpoint the exact moment it happens!