Preservation project ScummVM—named after the Script Creation Utility For Maniac Mansion, the engine used in LucasArts' classic adventure games—was launched on October 9, 2001. Initially, it was about reimplementing games made in SCUMM like Secret of Monkey Island so they could run on platforms they weren't designed for. Since then, the ScummVM team have broadened their remit and reverse-engineered all kinds of games, from Plumbers Don't Wear Ties to 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 more games including Little Big Adventure, The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time, Private Eye, and Crusader: No Remorse.
With this version the GUI has received "a major rework", support for certain localized versions of games has been enhanced, and other improvements have been made that you can read about in the blog post and release notes.
- The best way to play Diablo 1 on pretty much anything just got an update for a 20-year-old Apple OS that runs on a dead chipset, one lunatic somewhere presumably rejoices
- 23-year-old D&D RPG Neverwinter Nights just got a new update thanks to the 'unpaid software engineers' of its unkillable community
"We wish you great adventuring," the ScummVM team writes, "happy puzzle-solving and exciting journeys to RPG worlds, and hope to see you around in the coming years."
If you'd like to know more about their work, Richard Cobbett profiled the ScummVM team in 2017 for the article How ScummVM is keeping adventure games alive, one old game at a time.
