Difference between revisions of "SCUMM"

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move-in of generic SCUMM description from http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/SCUMM_Versions
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(move-in of generic SCUMM description from http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/SCUMM_Versions)
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Aric Wilmunder and Ron Gilbert's original SCUMM has been expanded a bit since 1988, of course. Every time a game required some feature that SCUMM had not previously supported, the interpreter was extended and the data file format expanded. The whole system was redesigned from scratch twice. Even now that LucasArts has finally retired SCUMM for their latest games, such as Grim Fandango, the interpreter/data file philosophy is still in use and you can see SCUMM design decisions in the data file format.  
Aric Wilmunder and Ron Gilbert's original SCUMM has been expanded a bit since 1988, of course. Every time a game required some feature that SCUMM had not previously supported, the interpreter was extended and the data file format expanded. The whole system was redesigned from scratch twice. Even now that LucasArts has finally retired SCUMM for their latest games, such as Grim Fandango, the interpreter/data file philosophy is still in use and you can see SCUMM design decisions in the data file format.  
The SCUMM language is a [[LucasArts]] in-house standard, but was also used by [[HE Games List | numerous]] [[Humongous Entertainment]] games. The format was never designed to be public and so would change unpredictably from game to game to suit the task at hand. Therefore, many different [[SCUMM Versions]] exist today.
With Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, LucasArts developed a modular file format based loosely on the standard IFF format. This was used several times in various forms until The Secret of Monkey Island, where the SCUMM engine and file format was redesigned from scratch. The new format was used from then on, and vestiges of it are still visible in the latest LucasArts games such as [[Grim Fandango]].


== Which games use SCUMM? ==
== Which games use SCUMM? ==

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