User Manual

WORK IN PROGRESS, HELP NEEDED

If you want to contribute, send us a sample of text you'd write for the new manual, and we will consider adding you an account. You can work on the manual in the Wiki, but if you prefer, working on the DocBook version or supplying us with HTML or TeX sources is fine, too (we will then translate them for the Wiki and into DocBook).

User's Guide

Introduction

What is ScummVM

ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables shipped with the game, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed!

Some of the adventures ScummVM supports include Adventure Soft's Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2; Revolution's Beneath A Steel Sky, Broken Sword 1 and Broken Sword 2; Flight of the Amazon Queen; Wyrmkeep's Inherit the Earth; Coktel Vision's Gobliiins; Westwood Studios' The Legend of Kyrandia and games based on LucasArts' SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) system such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and more. You can find a thorough list with details on which games are supported and how well on the compatibility page. ScummVM is continually improving, so check back often.

Among the systems on which you can play those games are Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Dreamcast, PocketPC, PalmOS, AmigaOS, BeOS, OS/2, PSP, PS2, SymbianOS/EPOC and many more.

At this time ScummVM should be considered beta software, and is still under heavy development. Be aware that whilst we attempt to make sure that many games can be completed with few major bugs, crashes can happen.

If you enjoy ScummVM feel free to donate some money to help us. This will help us buy utilities needed to develop ScummVM easier and quicker. If you cannot donate, help and contribute a patch!

Reporting bugs

To report a bug, please create a SourceForge account, then use our bug tracker to file a report (you can also reach it via the "Bug Tracking" link from our homepage. Please make sure the bug is reproducible, and still occurs in the latest daily build/current CVS version. Also check the list of known bugs (below) and the compatibility list on our website for that game, to ensure the issue is not already known.

Also, please do not report bugs on games that are not listed as being completable in Appendix: Supported games , or in the online compatibility list. We already <emphasis>know</emphasis> those games have bugs.

Please include the following information:

• ScummVM version (PLEASE test the latest CVS/Daily build)
• Bug details, including instructions on reproducing
• Language of game (English, German, ...)
• Version of game (talkie, floppy, ...)
• Platform and Compiler (Win32, Linux, FreeBSD, ...)
• Attach a save game if possible
• If this bug only occurred recently, please note the last version without the bug, and the first version including

the bug. That way we can fix it quicker by looking at the changes made.

This should only take you a little time but will make it much easier for us to process your bug report in a way that satisfies both you and us.

Contacting the developers

The easiest way to contact the ScummVM team is by submitting bug reports (see reporting-bugs) or by using our forums You can also join and email the scummvm-devel mailing list (see [1]). Or chat with us on IRC (channel #scummvm on irc.freenode.net).

Please do not ask us to support an unsupported game -- read our FAQ for an explanation.

Getting started

Requirements

TODO: List Requirements (in terms of required/optional libraries, CPU power, memory, ... In particular it would be nice if we could e.g. say what PalmOS devices support ScummVM; not necessarily a list of all supported Palm models, but more a list of what OS you need how much memory, colors, etc.)

ScummVM is known to run on the following systems:

• Unix-like (Linux, *BSD, Solaris, etc.)
• Windows
• Mac OS X
• Windows Mobile (WinCE / PocketPC / Smartphone)
• PalmOS
• Dreamcast
• MorphOS
• GP32
• GP2X
• Symbian based smartphones
• PlayStation 2
• PlayStation Portable
• Nintendo DS
• BeOS
• AmigaOS 4
• Atari/FreeMiNT
• Solaris
• OS/2
• Opie

Besides these, there have been many more inofficial ports in the past. Since they were not done by us, we can not say anything about their reliability, legality, or availability, nor can we provide support for them. Use them at your own risk!

Among those officially unsupported systems are:

• XBox
• RISC OS

If you plan to compile ScummVM yourself, you will need certain additional libraries. More on that in Compiling from sources.

How to obtain ScummVM

Basically you have two choices on how to get ScummVM: either you download one of the binaries we built for you (probably the most convenient way); or you can compiler it yourself from source. We strongly recommend to beginners to use our prebuilt binaries.

Binaries

You can download ScummVM from our downloads page: [2]. Go there with your favorite web browser and download the binary for your platform. If none is available, you may have to build ScummVM yourself, refer to the next section for instructions on how to do that.

We always ship prebuilt binaries of ScummVM for the following platforms (note that it can sometimes take a few days after a release for all binaries to be available):

• Linux (Fedora Core)
• Linux (Debian)
• Windows
• Mac OS X
• Windows Mobile (WinCE / PocketPC / Smartphone)
• Symbian
• Dreamcast
• PlayStation 2
• PlayStation Portable
• Nintendo DS
• GP2X

In addition to these, we try to provide more binaries, but which depends mostly on how many volunteers we can find to help us out. In the past we have shipped binaries for these systems:

• Linux (Mandrake)
• Linux (Slackware)
• Solaris
• BeOS
• AmigaOS 4
• MorphOS
• OS/2

Compiling from sources

TODO: (with more detail than now); pointer to the to-be-written "Developer's Guide to ScummVM"

• List all required libs; where to get them; how to install them
• List all optional libs etc.
• We could separate this by OS, or by compiler/dev system. I think the current split in the README (section 9.0) isn't too bad.

Installion

After you have obtained ScummVM as described in the previous section, you probably will want to install it on your system. The steps required for that differ between the various operating systems. In the following we try to cover all the systems we officially support.

Windows

From the downloads page, download either the Win32 .zip file or the Win32 .exe file. If you download the .zip file, you will need a program such as WinZip to open it. After opening the archive, copy it to the folder where you want to put it. If you download the .exe installer, you will get options where you want to install it. Choose the location to where you want to install it. Also, the installer places a shortcut in the Start Menu.

Mac OS X

From the downloads page, download the "Mac OS X Universal Binary" file. You will download a disk image (.dmg). To open it, double click on it and Disk Copy will mount the image. Once it is mounted, copy the files inside to a folder where you wish to store it.

PalmOS

From the downloads page, download the "PalmOS 5 binary" or the "PalmOS Tapwave Zodiac binary" and unzip the files to your computer. Using your hotsync tool, install the scummvm-frontend.prc and skin.pdb files to your device. Launch ScummVM to create the /PALM/Programs/ScummVM/ folders and subfolders on your memory card. Using a card reader, copy the engines you require to play your games to the /ScummVM/Mods/ folder on your card (scumm.engine for scumm games, queen.engine for FOTAQ, etc.)

Dreamcast

From the downloads page, download either the Dreamcast .zip file or the Nero image file. If you download the .zip file, you will need a program such as WinZip to open it. After opening the archive, copy it to the folder where you want to put it. The Nero image can be burned automatically to a CD using Nero Burning ROM or any other program that accepts NRG formatted disc images.

Appendix: Supported games

(well this already exists on the wiki, so just link to these pages, but also see the extra notes below)

Appendix: Tools

(describe each ScummVM command line tool in detail. Game pages might link to this.)