SCUMM/Game Enhancements
Introduction
ScummVM adds a number of little enhancements/workarounds to several SCUMM games, sometimes based on the behavior in other versions of the same game. Since some have expressed the desire to restore the original behavior, some games now have a Enable game-specific enhancements setting.
Note that disabling this option will still not necessarily make the game behave exactly like the original. Sometimes ScummVM's implementation of a feature always differed slightly from the original, sometimes workarounds are for game-breaking bugs, some workarounds are already optional, and some just aren't covered by the setting yet. That said, here is a list of the enhancements that it currently covers, indicating both when the enhancement was first added and when it was made optional.
Maniac Mansion
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
1.3.0 | - | All | Bugfix | Fix a script oversight if the door bell rings while Ted captures the player entering his room, which would cause some strange, unexpected behavior. |
2.0.0 | - | All | Bugfix | Prevent Purple Tentacle from appearing again and staying in the lab, even though its has been chased out. This could be triggered when the player enters the lab within 45 minutes of first entering the mansion. |
2.0.0 | - | All | Bugfix [Blocker] | Force the power back on, if entering the lab while Dr. Fred has the power turned off to repair the Zom-B-Matic. Otherwise, the power could never return, bringing to an unintended dead-end. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | NES | Audio | Fix Wendy's music not being properly stopped. Her music could suddenly resume even though her CD player was turned off. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | V1, V2 | Bugfix [Blocker] | Fix a sudden and complete freeze of the cutscene where Purple Tentacle is bullying Sandy in the lab (French version only). |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | V1, V2 | [Content restoration?] | Make it possible to click on the sentence line to execute a command, like the manual says. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | V1 | Cosmetic | Fix a typo ("tring" where it should be "trying") in Syd's biography in the English version. This typo does not appear in later - or earlier - versions. |
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
0.10.0 | - | All | Bugfix [Blocker/Usability?] | While going outside with an incomplete space suit on Mars, ignore a character turn animation which made it very difficult to quickly return to safety. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | FM Towns | Cosmetic | Fix animation glitch that causes the bird in Lima to disappear once you're done using the blue crystal on it. |
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
"Macintosh" refers to the old 16-color version. "VGA" also includes the later Macintosh port, but not the FM Towns version.
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
0.6.0 | - | FM Towns | Bugfix [Blocker] | Make the biplane controls usable again in the FM Towns version. This enhancement is always enabled, since this part of the game is almost unplayable, otherwise. |
1.4.0 | - | All | Bugfix | Properly allocate IQ points for some puzzles where some original versions would get some conditions wrong. |
1.4.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Cosmetic | Fix Henry Sr. appearing as a giant, in the releases where it's supposedly possible to reach the front of Castle Brunwald again after freeing him from his room. |
1.8.0 | - | FM Towns | Audio | Add missing music in Venice. The original had no CD audio music for this scene, but it had a Euphony track which wasn't properly enabled. |
2.5.0 | 2.6.0 | Macintosh | Cosmetic | All text is drawn using the font's defined character spacing. The original would sometimes add an extra pixel. |
2.5.0 | 2.6.0 | Macintosh | Cosmetic | Palette effects are emulated in black-and-white mode, and not just in color mode. This is visible in several scenes, perhaps most noticeably the lightning around Castle Brunwald. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | VGA | Cosmetic | Fix some unusual cyan and magenta horizontal lines when Indy meets Elsa in Berlin. (This was already fixed in the FM Towns version, and ScummVM uses a similar fix.) |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | FM Towns | Cosmetic | Fix the color of the Nazis' uniforms while exploring the corridors of Castle Brunwald. They're green in the rest of the game, but the FM Towns version still had the EGA grey palette override in this part of the game. (The VGA version fixed this.) |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | FM Towns | Cosmetic | Fix Indy's subtitle color when he talks to his father before escaping from the zeppelin with the biplane. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | FM Towns | Cosmetic | Clear some verb leftovers at the bottom of the screen in the same zeppelin cutscene. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | All | Cosmetic | Restore the missing first frame of animation when Indy makes a wise or poor choice for the Grail. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | VGA, FM Towns | Cosmetic | Fix an original small glitch around the tapestry that's inside one of the first rooms of Castle Brunwald. An unusual vertical line was drawn in the middle of the room. |
Loom
"Macintosh" refers to the old 16-color version. "VGA talkie" also includes the later Macintosh port, but not the FM Towns version.
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
0.5.0 | 2.7.0 | All except VGA talkie | [Content restoration] | Restore a missing line from the shepherds when trying to use the stealth draft on them. |
0.6.0 | - | VGA talkie | Cosmetic [Audio?] | Fix a script error causing the lens workers' conversation to become very out of sync. |
0.8.0 | 2.6.0 | VGA talkie | Cosmetic | Chaos no longer introduces herself as "Choas". |
2.5.0 | 2.6.0 | Macintosh | Cosmetic | Palette effects are emulated in black-and-white mode, and not just in color mode. This is visible in the scene where the dragon finds Rusty asleep. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | EGA, Amiga, Atari ST | Bugfix | Don't allow Bobbin to simply walk through the locked cell door when clicking just below it. This was fixed in later versions of the game, though not always in the same way. ScummVM imitates the behavior of the VGA talkie version. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | EGA, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST | [Continuity error] | If you use the Reflection draft on Rusty before examining him for the first time, show a close-up on him wearing Bobbin's cloak. This bug was fixed in later versions |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | All except VGA talkie | Cosmetic | Trying to leave the plateau before encountering Rusty's ghost no longer causes the ghost to teleport. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | VGA talkie | Cosmetic | Fix the timing when Bishop Mandible uses the distaff so that it lights up four times, just like in other versions. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | VGA talkie | Cosmetic | Correct the subtitle color (from white to green) on one line in the scene where you first overhear Bishop Mandible. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | VGA talkie | Bugfix | After you exit the caves you can go back by clicking on the cave opening, just like in the other versions. (It was still possible to go back, but you had to click on a thin sliver below the cave opening.) |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | All except VGA talkie | Cosmetic | The fire animation runs at the same speed throughout. Originally it sped up along with the rest of the game while the messenger nymph was flying. Strangely, this bug does not happen in the EGA demos, and in the VGA talkie the fire isn't animated at all. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | EGA, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST | Cosmetic | Prevent Bobbin from walking through one of the staircases inside the dragon's cave, when he has entered the room from the other stairs in the ground. This issue was present in the earliest 16-color releases, but appears to have been fixed in the official v1.2 and later versions. |
The Secret of Monkey Island
"Enhanced" refers to the 256-color version with icons for inventory. Most obviously the VGA CD version, but sometimes also the Macintosh, SEGA and FM Towns versions.
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
0.6.0 | - | Sega | Cosmetic [Usability?] | The original Sega CD release enabled so-called Shadow mode in its palette for all scenes, making the whole game extremely dark. ScummVM just ignores this, using a brightness setting that's similar to the other releases. |
0.6.0 | 2.7.0 | FM Towns | Cosmetic | Render the verb font with the same "3D" effect as the other releases. The original FM Towns interpreter had a bug which disabled that effect and made the font much thinner than intended. |
2.5.0 | 2.6.0 | Enhanced | Cosmetic [Content restoration] | Add the animated cigar smoke present in earlier versions to the captain Smirk close-up. In the VGA floppy version (I don't have the EGA version) the smoke was apparently only shown when playing the game from hard disk, not when playing it from the floppies. For whatever reason, the CD version only kept the latter behavior. |
2.5.0 | 2.6.0 | Enhanced | Content restoration | Only change the description of the Mêlée Island clock tower between visits to the room, like in earlier versions. Not every time the clock is examined. |
2.5.0 | 2.6.0 | Enhanced | Content restoration | Restore a few lines of Lemonhead dialog to the scene where he examines the small idol. These lines were present in earlier versions. This affects the English, German, Italian, and Spanish versions. The game is also available in French, but no version has been located with the old lines intact. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | EGA, VGA | Cosmetic | Fix incorrect "à" character in the font that's used on the copy protection screen of the French floppy versions. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | Enhanced | Cosmetic [Audio?] | Don't stop the background sound when showing the close-up of captain Smirk. This imitates the behavior of the Special Edition. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Cosmetic [Continuity error] | Don't show the Jolly Roger during the Sea Monkey cutscenes, once Guybrush has picked it up from the crow's nest. (This continuity error was only fixed in some versions of the VGA floppy release.) |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | Enhanced | Cosmetic [Continuity error] | Use the same subtitle color for all the lines said by the ghost priest when Guybrush enters the church in the last part of the game. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | Enhanced | Cosmetic | Restore the intended color for the subtitles of the head of the navigator. It's supposed to be brown, as in all other editions, but the palette wasn't adjusted in this release. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | Enhanced (DOS and Macintosh) | Cosmetic | Fix the green, yellow and gray colors at Stan's Previously Owned Vessels. The most obvious example was the "striking yellow color" of the flower from the forest being suddenly greenish in this scene. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | Enhanced (DOS and Macintosh) | Cosmetic | Use approximately the same colors for the "important notice" about the sleeping dogs as in earlier versions. The new colors were hard to read, and probably not changed intentionally. (The sign is still using the some palette indexes as before, but the palette itself is different.) The SEGA version does not have this problem to begin with, and the FM Towns version solves the readability problem by adding an outline to the font. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | VGA | Cosmetic | Apply a similar background legibility fix for the Sierra-like "death" screen when Guybrush falls from the cliff on Monkey Island. It appears that the French VGA floppy release is the only version having this issue. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | Enhanced | Cosmetic | In Mêlée Island, make sure that the storekeeper closes the door before walking away from it, when Guybrush rings the bell. |
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
0.10.0 | - | All | Disallow pulling the rope on Dinky Island, if it's already in the player's inventory. This is what some later versions of the game did to prevent some glitches and bugs with this object. | |
2.0.0 | - | All | Audio | Fix several soundtracks playing at once if the player is moving faster than the scripts expect, in Scabb and Booty Island. |
2.1.0 | 2.6.0 | FM Towns | Content restoration | Restore part of the Elaine map piece puzzle that was skipped in this version, and this version alone. |
2.5.0 | 2.6.0 | Macintosh | [Audio?] | When there is no Mac-specific music (most notably towards the end of the game), play the Roland MT-32 music instead. The Macintosh instruments are a sufficient subset for this to work well. (2.5.0 is where this behavior was formalized. It worked before that, but only with certain audio drivers.) |
2.5.0 | 2.6.0 | All | [Content restoration] | Guybrush will speak when getting the map from Rapp Scallion. The game always printed the text, but since there is no delay between the messages you would only see the last one. The setting introduces a delay between them. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | Amiga | Cosmetic | Fix Guybrush being drawn with the wrong colors when using the stick on the dog outside the Governor's mansion. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | All | Cosmetic | Fix Captain Dread's head animation when Guybrush tries giving him an object and then immediately talks to him. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | All | [Content restoration] | Restore a missing reaction from Captain Dread when Guybrush has the four map pieces: Dread is actually meant to bring Guybrush back to Scabb Island, but an original script oversight prevented this from happening. This content restoration was already part of the Ultimate Talkie Edition, but ScummVM also fixes a dead-end in Regular Mode if you haven't picked up the model lighthouse lens before this. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Cosmetic | Fix a small glitch with the door in Largo's room, if one closes it just before using the voodoo doll on Largo. |
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
0.7.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Cosmetic | Fix the wall sprite being drawn over Indy when he stands at a specific place at the center of Atlantis. |
0.9.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Cosmetic [Content restoration] | When Indy finds orichalcum under some bones in Crete and he has already put some beads in the gold box, make sure that his first comment is not quickly interrupted by the second one. |
0.10.0 | 2.7.0 | Talkie | Bugfix | Fix Ubermann strangely counting "pregod8" and "pregod9" beads instead of "18" and "19", in some releases and languages. |
2.1.0 | - | Talkie | Bugfix [Audio?] | Fix a distorted speech sample when Indy gets caught in the submarine. This enhancement is always enabled, since the original produces some aggressive noise. (The FM Towns and some Macintosh talkie releases work around this by reusing a different line, instead.). |
2.5.0 | 2.6.0 | All | Cosmetic [Continuity error] | When skipping the intro, the window in Indy's office will be broken and Mr. Smith's coat will be on the desk, as if you had watched the whole thing. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | Talkie | Cosmetic | When Kerner uses the phone booth in New York, one of his printed lines may be quite different from what he's actually saying, in most of the English talkie releases. The fixed text is taken from the Macintosh 1994 talkie release. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | Talkie | Audio | Fix Sophia speaking with Indy's voice when looking at him. |
2.7.0 | - | All | Bugfix [Blocker] | Prevent Indy from being stuck in the room with the gold box and the elevator in Crete, if one quickly clicks on the right when entering the room. Since one could get completely stuck there, this enhancement is always enabled. |
Day of the Tentacle
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
1.0.0 | 2.6.0 | Talkie | Audio | Fix occasional bug where Bernard would use Laverne's voice when interacting with the chewing gum on the floor. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | All | Cosmetic | Fix some small graphical glitches with Bernard's Chron-O-John during the intro. The lid was slightly misaligned, and sometimes drawn mirrored. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | All | Content restoration | Restore a missing line from Dr. Fred when he receives a new diamond but Hoagie and/or Laverne haven't powered their units yet. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Cosmetic [Continuity error] | Make George Washington wear his chattering teeth in the cutscene where he comes back after Hoagie picks up the gold-plated quill pen, since he's always wearing them at this point of the game. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | Talkie | Cosmetic [Accessibility] | Bring some Sam & Max localized menu strings into DOTT CD, when pressing F5 with the original SCUMM interface. The LucasArts Windows interpreter from 2002 used hardcoded English strings for some of the settings, but translations were included in Sam & Max (which uses the same menu) and later titles. |
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
0.3.0 | - | All | Cosmetic | In the original, the "film noir" mode sometimes still draw things in color. ScummVM implements this differently, keeping everything always in black and white. |
0.5.0 | 2.6.0 | All | Cosmetic | Adjust the position of the green goop inside the tank in the Hall of Oddities. It was off by one pixel, allowing a few pixels of objects behind to be seen without having their color changed. |
0.7.0 | 2.6.0 | All | Cosmetic | The "Loading Sounds...Please Wait" screen when starting the game is skipped. |
0.7.0 | - | All | Cosmetic [Audio?] | At Dino Bungee National Memorial, pushing the button while the Wally and Rex dinosaurs were speaking restarted their speech instead of stopping it. |
0.8.0 | - | All | Cosmetic | Fix an original animation glitch when Max grabs the fishing line at World of Fish, when both subtitles and voice are enabled. |
2.6.0 | - | All | Cosmetic [Content restoration?] | Restore the missing animation where Bumpus threatens Sam with his taser near the end of the game, in the German releases. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | All | Cosmetic [Audio?] | Fix some intro animation speed issues in the German and Italian talkie versions, and adjust the timing of some intro subtitles to sync up better with the voices for all known versions. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | All | Cosmetic | When Bruno leaves Bumpusville, make sure he is properly erased from the screen. In the original, his heel gets stuck in the door. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Cosmetic | Fix two lines said by Sam but being misattributed to Max, while both characters wear the bigfoot costume and talk to Evelyn Morrison. (It appears that the English release was the only one not having this bug.) |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Cosmetic [Content restoration?] | Fix Max's comment being cut way too early, if one tries buying the pecan-flavored candies at Snuckey's while having no money. |
2.7.0 | - | Talkie | Cosmetic [Accessibility] | Display the official translations for some of the settings which are displayed in the F5 menu when the original SCUMM interface is enabled. Those translations were part of the original CD release, but the original Windows interpreter from 2002 would just override them with English strings. |
Full Throttle
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
2.6.0 | - | All | Audio | Fix the music temporarily stopping when going in and out of the bar a couple of times, at the beginning of the game. The 2017 remaster has a similar fix. |
2.7.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Bugfix [Cosmetic?] | Remove a placeholder string from the subtitles, when Ben looks at one of the small pictures above the piano in the Kickstand bar. French release only. The 2017 remaster has a similar fix. |
The Dig
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
0.11.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Content restoration | Restore some missing subtitles in some conversations between Low and Brink. |
1.5.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Audio | Fix the sound of trickling water in the spider lair not being properly stopped. |
2.5.0 | 2.7.0 | All | Content restoration | Restore a missing subtitle when Low finds the purpose of the crypt inside the tomb. |
The Curse of Monkey Island
Added | Optional | Version | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
0.9.0 | - | All | Bugfix [Blocker] | Fix a brief game hang when you meet Murray for the first time at the beginning of the game. (This could even cause the game to completely lock up on some platforms.) |
2.5.0 | - | All | Audio [Content restoration?] | In the Plunder Town theater, fix the music not being changed as it should when moving from backstage to the stage, after greasing the cannonballs. |
2.6.0 | 2.6.0 | All | Audio | Fix the music indefinitely playing if the ESC key is pressed early, when Guybrush gets on the Sea Cucumber for the first time. |