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**Update: The text of the letter, and the teams response, can be found [in the scummvm-devel list archives](https://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=837277&forum_id=7223)**
Today was a milestone for the ScummVM project, as we finally received the long-awaited for e-mail from LucasArts Legal regarding the project. Thankfully, they do not yet appear to have a valid complaint. Their message requesting the removal of the site is based on the presumption that we are distributing LucasArts own engine on this site. Of course, ScummVM is a fully original work based equally on reverse engineering and original decoding work by many different people in the community, so this request doesn't really affect us. We're safe for the moment, and will continue to work on bringing the wonderful classics of the LucasArts company to your computing devices for, hopefully, a long time to come! |
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| 20020701.content | ||
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Well people, we are still alive so far. We are currently talking to LucasArts to see if we can negotiate a deal. To be honest, while we hope it is possible, we are dubious that the deal LucasArts may provide can give us certain freedoms we need to develop. One of the biggest fears of most companies is the GPL (General Public License). Some companies feel this gives users far too much latitude in use of their software. Unfortunately, if LEC feels the same way, we may have to reject their offer. It is close on impossible to relicense GPLed software, as it would mean getting permission from anyone who ever wrote even one line of code included in ScummVM.
So far most of our communication has been off-the-record and fairly vague, but be assured we haven't vanished, and we'll give you the latest news as it happens! Also, thanks to people donating. We are currently at a little over $100, which is tagged to be spent on both buying versions of games for testing, and also saving up to our target of $300 to purchase a copy of IDA Pro, arguably the best disassembler on earth. Keep donating :) |
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| 20020812.content | ||
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Good afternoon people. I know it's been a long time since you have heard from me, and you may be wondering why I called you hear today.
I have heard rumors the project is dead, and I would like to assure everyone that's not so. We have been working very hard lately, and many bugfixes have been made to various games. In fact, we are almost ready for another release.... but we are waiting for a resolution to our Legal Drama before that happens. So, what is happening on the legal front? Well, our erstwhile project leader (James 'Ender' Brown) has had many phone conferences with LucasArts, and we should shortly be announcing an agreement that will make both parties happy. I would like to thank LEC for being open to helping keep the project alive, instead of just forcing us to shut down. Hopefully within the next week, news of our future will be announced. Until then, keep donating, and keep telling everyone how much you love ScummVM. Remember, it's not people saying 'LucasArts SUX' that will convince them to keep helping the project... it's people saying 'ScummVM Rules' that will! |
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| 20020829.title | ||
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Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game...
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| 20020829.content | ||
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Ladies, Gentleman, Three headed monkeys, and alien mindbenders... lend me your ears.
Firstly, an update on our legal negotiations with LucasArts. We are hopefully very close to finalising our arrangement, and sometime in the next week hope to make an announcement regarding this. Of course, we had hoped to make an announcement a good month ago. Unfortunately things are rather busy at LucasArts, so it has taken a while to talk to the relevant people. On another note, I would like to address something that comes up at least once a week. No, ScummVM is not currently in any kind of position to start supporting OTHER non-SCUMM games. The inclusion of Simon support aside, the current team has far too much on their hands trying to complete support for existing LucasArts classic adventures. Although we may add support for other games in the future, we do not currently plan on it... and any requests to do so will be promply ignored. Unless it is accompanied by a donation of money over $2,000. Meanwhile, we would suggest asking for help at the wonderful [VOGONS](http://vogons.zetafleet.com/) (Very Old Games on New Systems) site if you require help with other games on modern operating systems. Anyway, that's all for the moment. Donations have been rather non-existant lately, so if you haven't already, please consider using the PayPal button under the menu on the left... and send us some cash. Currently we are using donations for legal costs, and purchasing software (such as a copy or three of [IDA Pro](http://www.datarescue.com/), as well as games some of our developers may not already have). |
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| 20020915.content | ||
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At 16:57 (GMT), on September 17th... I - ScummVM - will officially be a year old!
Unfortunately, nobody told me when my birthday was, they told me I was an orphan! But I'm going to try and throw a party anyway. So everyone is invited to attend my IRC channel, #scummvm, on irc.freenode.net! If you're someone famous, or you like me, or whatever, and you want to pop in and say 'Hi!' to me and my [parents](http://www.scummvm.org/contact.php)... come on by! Or if you just want to send me a birthday card, or RSVP for the party, go over to the Contact page and e-mail Endy or someone else. Or post in my new shiny [Birthday Forum](https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=210596). We should be around pretty much all day. If you want to actually meet a ScummVM developer in real life, and buy him (I don't have a mummy! Wahh!) a beer or something.... you can always drop a post in the [Birthday Forum](https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=210596) and see if there's anyone else in your area. I'm sure they would appreciate it! Oh, and I lost a small, fleece sweater with three blue roses on it. If you see it, please commit it to CVS for me! |
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| 20021004.title | ||
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Not dead, Murray, just cursed.
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| 20021004.content | ||
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And now, for our semi-annual news update!
The legal situation is still pending, as we are waiting on a response from LucasArts to our last e-mail. Progress-wise, people following the daily build will have noticed the new in-game GUI we have implemented. It's still very much a work in progress, so expect odd things to happen. Some of our wonderful developers are currently working on improving compatibility with The Dig and Full Throttle, as it seems we might even get one of these completable by the time the legal situation is resolved and we can get our next release out. Meanwhile, the CVS tree and daily builds are somewhat in an experimental form. On to other matters, we are seeking mercenaries to kidnap two people so we can torture them into revealing the two current 'problem areas' in ScummVM. We need the person who primarily extended iMUSE for Sam and Max Hit The Road. Pretty much every remaining bug with ScummVMs support of that game is related to the iMUSE system, so if anybody can 'acquire' a person or any information on this subsystem, please contact [Ender](mailto:scummvm@enderboi.com) to arrange discrete delivery of the... package. Secondly, we require [Vince Lee](http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,1526/) for questioning over the INSANE cutscene engine used in games such as Full Throttle. Our lack of information on this system has left us at a dead-end as far as progress in this game goes. If you can acquire this person, or any information regarding INSANE, you will be well rewarded. Anonymity will be honored, if the 'acquiree' desires it. As an alternative, we can negotiate a deal if someone wishes to raid LucasArts HQ and persuade it's occupants to part with source or information regarding this two items. Our own attempts as infiltration of this facility have failed, due to some mysterious person called "Management". Seriously, if anybody does have any information on these two headaches for us, please get in touch with [Ender](mailto:scummvm@enderboi.com). If you've previously worked at LucasArts and wish to help anonymously, we'll respect that. I wouldn't be too afraid about giving assistance, as our own negotiations have revealed they are quite willing to let us exist, they are just not willing ('at the moment') to share any actual information or source. Thanks for playing, and remember - "never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game"! |
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| 20021017.title | ||
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State of the SCUMM
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| 20021017.content | ||
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A message was recently posted to the scummvm development list detailing the current status of ScummVM, including things such as details on where we are heading for our next release, and an update on the legal situation.
Here's a link to the [State of the SCUMM e-mail](http://www.scummvm.org/status.php) |
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| 20021105.title | ||
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It's a SCUMMy job, but someone's...
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| 20021105.content | ||
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Well, we seem to have lost contact with LucasArts, as we haven't heard from them for several weeks now. So, assuming they don't suddenly e-mail us and veto it, we are preparing for a 0.3.0 release.
Firstly, ScummVM 0.3.0 will include support for: * Zak McKracken (FmTowns 256 Color Version) * Monkey Island (VGA Floppy and Enhanced CD) * Monkey Island II * Loom (CD Talkie version) * Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis * Day of the Tentacle * Sam and Max Hit the Road * The Dig * Simon The Sorcerer 1 The next major release, 0.4.0, will include support for: * Simon The Sorcerer 2 * Full Throttle * Indiana Jones and Last Crusade (256 color version) So, what can you do to help? Well, we currently require people to test all of the supported games and let us know if there are any major bugs that mark them as uncompletable. For details on how to do this, please see [ScummVM 0.3.0 Release Info](http://www.scummvm.org/documentation.php?view=release). |
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| 20021108.title | ||
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Downtime notice
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| 20021108.content | ||
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Greetings fellow Adventurers!
SourceForge, our host, is moving hardware on the 14th and 17th of November. During this time, there will be a number of outages: * 14th: ScummVM Downloads and Mailing Lists will be unavailable between approximatly 16:00 Pacific Time (GMT-8), till 19:00. * 17th: The main ScummVM site, and CVS tree, will be unavailable from 10:00 Pacific. This may last up to 12 hours, but hopefully less! Thank you, and please shop at Snuckeys again! |
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| 20021207.title | ||
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Can it be true? Is it a bird? Is it a plane...?
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| 20021207.content | ||
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**No!**, it's ScummVM 0.3.0b, our first official release since LucasArts decided to go after us!
*Small update, we've also added a few links to our Links page that you might want to check out. Especially VOGONS, please stop asking us if we're going to do things like add support for Beneath a Steel Sky :)* That's right, since the many many months since LucasArts first issued us with a DMCA notice (and wisely decided after the subsequent slashdotting and fan backlash from you, our users, to negotiate a deal :), we have been waiting for a settlement with LucasArts before releasing a long awaited new version. The wait is over. No, we haven't reached a settlement, we just got tired of waiting to release this gem. There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of bugfixes since our last 0.2.0 release... not to mention support for at least three new games (The VGA version of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and support for The Dig and Simon the Sorcerer 2)... and new features such as a vastly improved in-game gui and a built-in launcher to make it even easier for you to add, configure, and run your classic LucasArts (and AdventureSoft) games. Experimental support for Full Throttle is here, as well as many bugfixes for the games introduced in our last version... such as the FmTowns 256 color version of Zak McKracken, and the VGA floppy version of Monkey Island. For a short summary of changes, check out the [Release Notes](https://downloads.scummvm.org/frs/scummvm/0.3.0b/ReleaseNotes), or even better... just head over and [download the dang thing](/downloads/). Hopefully we will be able to come at you with new releases more often from now on, hopefully at least monthly. Please enjoy this release as much as we've became frustrated making it, and remember - if you give all your money to LucreArts, maybe they'll let us live instead of abandoning us on... on.... Monkey Island! (Ugh, Bananas... I hate Bananas). For those interested in the boring news, here's both a summary and an update on our legal situation, for those users who are just now discovering ScummVM. * * * *We've been at a deadlock with LucasArts for some time now. LucasArts simply do not like our current license, the GPL (General Public License). While we do not think it necessary, we have agreed to change the license to something more LucasArts-'friendly'. However, LucasArts wish us to include distribution terms which are against section one of both the [Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)](http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines) and the [Open Source Definition](http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.html). We cannot agree to this, nor the condition they wish to require (no commercial distribution)... because it conflicts with the DFSG and OSD, which we require, and it is something we legally cannot be sure of enforcing - several Linux and BSD distributions already include ScummVM packages, and we cannot be certain they will notice a license change. Oh, and we WANT distributions to be able to include our software :) To date, LucasArts has not been able to give us any firm complaints regarding ScummVM, besides some vague claims that if they didn't enforce these conditions on us, it would effectively give up their rights to their own Intellectual Property. We do not believe this, there certainly have not been any documented cases of the GPL leading to such a challenge in the past, and far more important properties have been licensed under the GPL in the past, such as the Quake titles from [id software](http://www.idsoftware.com/). LucasArts isn't releasing any of their own code under the GPL, and we really do not believe that they should require us to change our license - all we want them to do is leave us alone to create our emulator. Sanction us, if it makes them feel safer legally. But if they are going to require such a major step on our part of changing our license, they at least have to capitulate on the point of OSD/DFSG compliance. We here at the ScummVM team would like to thank the people at LucasArts who are supporting us, and attempting to help us come to an arrangement. But guys, we're your fans. All we are doing is updating the engine for games, in a form of an emulator... because you haven't - although we've asked you to for years. We've even made more money for you, as quite a number of us have went out and BOUGHT your classic bundle packs, just to play it with ScummVM.* **These last few paragraphs have been brought to you by the "Please don't sue us for making a new release" department.** |
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| 20021214.title | ||
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Media Blitz
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| 20021214.content | ||
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I forgot to mention this when we released 0.3.0b, but ScummVM has recently been spotted in a UK magazine: *PC Zone* mentioned ScummVM in a review of the iPAQ 3870. A [page scan](/data/news/pczone.jpg) is available. In addition, the german computer magazine [c't](http://www.heise.de/ct/) had an article about games for PDAs which also listed Pocket Scumm (sorry, no picture available right now).
Monkey in your pocket? Definitely. If anybody else notices ScummVM in the media, we would appreciate it you dropped us a line at [press\_stuff@scummvmNOSPAM.org](mailto:press_stuff@scummvmNOSPAM.org). Remove the NOSPAM from the address, obviously. If possible, please also send us a scan of the page. If you **work** for a magazine that wants to mention ScummVM, maybe in an article on retro-gaming (\*hint hint\*), then also feel free to drop us a line. We can probably arrange an interview, screenshots, help... and/or large bribe-like quantities of bananas. |
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| 20021227.title | ||
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Murray Christmas
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| 20021227.content | ||
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We here on the ScummVM team hope everybody had a good Christmas!
First we would like to mention that LucasArts has put out a pack, at least in the UK, featuring updated versions of Sam and Max and Full Throttle, designed to work with Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP. This pack (entitled, imaginatively, "The Entertainment Pack") also comes with The Dig and Grim Fandango... these versions have not been updated, and are the original Windows versions (yes, these games DID come with native Windows ports in some of the earlier LucasArts Adventure Packs). The updated Sam and Max and Full Throttle engines were not ported in-house by LucasArts, likely because of a lack of time AND because most people who worked on SPUTM/SCUMM have left anyway, but by Aaron Giles - the original Mac Porter (and renown MAME developer :). There are no modifications except for a DirectX wrapper around the graphics code and a really really bad graphics scaler. Our take? Call us biased, but unless you *need* perfect compatibility, want to play Full Throttle now, or are missing more than two of these games - it will probably be far cheaper to buy these games second-hand or individually. The included updated binaries are inferior feature-wise to ScummVM, as you miss out on our enhanced features, such as support for platforms -other- than Windows (such as Macintosh, Unix and PocketPC), our graphics scalers, etc. Of course, if you do purchase the pack, the game datafiles are unchanged and of course compatible with ScummVM anyway. It *is* nice to see LucasArts releasing something like this, and doing something positive to try and revive their classic games - or at least drum up marketing hype for the sequel :) Final conclusion, buy it if you want it or are a collector - but it's not worth the money simply for Windows compatibility. However if you do purchase it, you ARE encouraging LucasArts to update more classics in the future - although hopefully ScummVM will make such a need obsolete shortly. We suggest LucasArts spend it's development costs on re-releasing it's lost and RARE classics, like the FmTowns 256 color version of Zak Mckracken. For those interested, the updated versions were compiled on October 2nd for Full Throttle, and October 24th for Sam and Max. In development news, several ScummVM developers have actually been really boring people and *coded* this Christmas, coming up over just a few days with the basics for Curse of Monkey Island support. I'm sure our Macintosh users will be happy to hear they will, in maybe as little as a month, finally be able to play this game. Support is in the latest CVS and Daily Builds, but **do NOT file bug reports** as we know it doesn't really work or do anything at the moment. Full support will be available "When It's Done".. or the day after Duke Nukem Forever comes out. Whichever is first. Ho Ho Ho! |
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