SymbianOS FAQ

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Here are a few Frequently Asked Questions for our SymbianOS builds, if your question is unanswered feel free to ask them on the Forums, but please try to be as specific as possible by listing the phone type, model, brand, ScummVM build & the describe the situation of the problem.

Any chance of a port to Epoc32/S50?

I own a Psion 5MX. Is a port to this old platform considered? Or did the architecture change too much between Epoc32 and S60? That platform has just too little memory and is to slow. For comparison: the S60 running at 103 MHZ is almost too slow, and 8-11 mb of free memory is not enough either. And also the MX is in greyscale.

How to install on devices with <4MB diskspace left (N-Gage and others)?

To get it to install please try the following:

  • download the correct Symbian installer binary for your phone
  • extract the files with UnMakeSIS.exe to a temp folder
  • copy the entire System folder and Document folder to your MemoryCard or internal disk
  • create the dir C:\documents\EScummVM\ (this is where the config file is stored)
  • run it & enjoy!


I feel adventurous, can I build ScummVM for SymbianOS myself?

Sure, this is possible, but not as easy as doing this on Linux or Windows. Building EScummVM yourself using the UIQ 2.1/UIQ 3.x/Nokia S60 SDK/Nokia S80 SDK/Nokia S90 SDK framework is not an easy task! Lets just say the frameworks needs quite some time to set up and take a while to get used to. If you choose to continue you will need some or all of the items on this page. Please check the README included in the source package for the information you need to get started on this perilous endeavor.

What can I do when my game X keeps crashing with an Out of Memory error?

Because of a new automatic build script we can now make a great number of specific builds for each phone type. We have decided to make versions of ScummVM with only one engine compiled in, so there is more memory left to run the game(s). These special versions can be found on the cvsbuilds page. If you keep having problems you can give one of these versions a try. Be advised that you can only play the game(s) that go with that specific engine! You can install these new versions over the old ScummVM versions, just choose 'Replace' during the installation process. Your configuration file will not be overwritten. You can now see what engine(s) are built in at the top of the About screen in the application.

How can I switch between Joy/Key/Cursor and Shrink/Zoom/Upscale modes for different devices?

UIQ3 devices: To the top right (holding the phone portrait) you four icons, from the top they are

  • Toggle control mode, in control mode you can change textinput , screen orientation and screen scaling
  • Mouse button, toggles between left, right and no button when tapping the screen. If no button is selected, 7 & Space works as left mouse button and 9 & Enter works as the right mouse button.
  • Esc, tap this to simulate ESC key beeing pressed. Same funtiontionaly on devices with 'C' key.
  • Virtual keyboard toggle, toggles the virtual keyboard, if not enabled when selecting '1'/'7' in control mode.
  • When Virtual keyboard is enabled you have more onscreen keys available
  • Enter key
  • Backspace
  • Arrow Up/Down to scroll the keys available
  • Virtual keyboard, tap letters to simulate keypresses.

S60 and UIQ3 devices: (Control Key = Green Phone key, to activate/deactivate control mode in SDL)

  • 1 = change Input Mode: Joystick | Keyboard | Cursor
  • 2 = change Video Mode: Landscape | Portrait
  • 3 = change Orientation Mode for Landscape: 90° Left | 90° Right
  • 4 = Toggle between stretched and non-stretched modes
  • 7 = Text/Multitap input
  • 8 = Cursor input
  • 9 = Joystick input
  • Up/Down = Alter global volume when not in 1-1 VGA mode. Pan around in VGA 1-1 Mode

S80 devices:

  • Side key 1 = Fire Joystick 1 button (JoyMode)
  • Side key 2 = Fire Joystick 2 button (JoyMode) or change Video Mode: Upscaled | Normal (CursorMode)
  • Side key 3 = change Input Mode: Joystick | Cursor

S90 devices: (Control Key = OK, pressed simultaneously with other keys to activate the mode changes in SDL)

  • OK+1 = change Input Mode: Joystick | Cursor
  • OK+2 = change Video Mode: Upscaled | Normal

What are these Joystick, Keyboard and Cursor modes anyway?

Joystick mode sends SDL joystick events to ScummVM which acts as a mouse control in ScummVM. Cursor mode sends keyboard arrows instead, so for example it can be used to navigate through directorylist (one hand use perhaps!?) or save games etc. Keyboard mode is only available for S60 and enables multi-tap to enter text characters in save dialogs. These modes are implemented at the underlying SDL level, so this determines the types of events that ScummVM receives from SDL.

What are these Shrinked, Zoomed and Upscaled modes anyway?

Shrink displays the game on your screen but in a shrinked way, either in Portrait or Landscape mode, so not all the pixels can be seen. Zoom mode uses the maximum resolution of your phone displaying a smaller part of the game zoomed at 1:1 pixels. For scrolling in S60 Zoom mode: 0+Cursor keys to scroll around, 0+Ok button to center view. Upscale tries to fill the larger screens on S80/S90 devices in a better way for low resolution games. Currently it uses a pixel interpolation upscaling routine.

Why does ScummVM on S60 not react when I press two buttons at the same time?

Try leaving the application by pressing the App button. Then press and hold the App button and switch back to ScummVM and see if it helps. Multikeypress is a known problem on S60 devices. So sometimes it is reset to no multiple keypresses and then the system key won't work.