| 20170401a.content | ||
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**Update:** we were unable to reserve the plumbervm.org domain and thus, with a heavy heart, we decided to abandon our rebranding effort and go back to our old name. Long live ScummVM!
The issue of the name of ScummVM has been raised many times since we started to add engines for non-SCUMM games. Until now we decided to keep the original name. However, the addition today of an engine for *Plumbers Don't Wear Ties* changes everything. Due to its fame and reputation for being one of the best video game ever, it naturally becomes the flagship of what we stand for. Thus we have finally decided to change our name. We are now **PlumberVM**! We used the name ScummVM for over 15 years, and this is with sadness that we say goodbye to it. It is a well known name and we do not underestimate the effort it will take to get the same recognition for our new name. Thus we are calling on your help to spread the news. In the short term this will inevitably lead to some disruption and confusion. But in the long term we are convinced that this is the right decision. With your support we will conquer the world! Starting from the sewers. With the change of name we have also decided to expand even more the scope of our project. Last year we decided to accept engines for RPG games in addition to adventure games. Now we are also accepting any games that feature a plumber. Work has already started on the little known *Super Mario Bros.*, and we have big plans for the future. We will have a big announcement soon, so stay tuned. On a final note, it will take time for us to update all the places where our name appears. We have started today with our main website and you will notice in the next few days the change spreading to our social media accounts, wiki, forum and the pages not yet updated on our web site. We are also working on releasing PlumberVM 2.0 with the addition of two new supported games: *Plumbers Don't Wear Ties* and *Full Pipe*. This will happen as soon as the last few bugs in our engines for *Plumbers Don't Wear Ties* and *Full Pipe* have been squashed. Hopefully we won't find mutant turtles during testing. Squashing those is a real pain! |
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| 20170505.content | ||
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Today Google announced the accepted projects for this year's Summer of Code. We are pleased to say that ScummVM will be mentoring two wizard students who will have one mission: casting the Super Sludge Nova spell. Effects include adding support for two new engines, and the cooldown period is 12 weeks: * Joseph-Eugene Winzer (a.k.a. Joefish) will be working on adding support for the ***[Mission Supernova](http://outpost.simplicity.de)*** game. * Simei Yin will work on porting the ***[Sludge engine](https://opensludge.github.io)*** to ScummVM. We extend a warm welcome to our students for what we hope will be a productive and interesting summer! You can follow their progress throughout the summer on the [ScummVM Blogs](http://planet.scummvm.org). |
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| 20170617.content | ||
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Last year, we added support for three of Sierra's Hi-Res Adventure games: *Mystery House* (#1), *Mission: Asteroid* (#0) and *Wizard and the Princess* (#2). We're proud to announce that three more Apple II games are now playable in ScummVM and ready for testing: *Ulysses and the Golden Fleece* (#4), *Time Zone* (#5) and *The Dark Crystal* (#6).
For *Ulysses and the Golden Fleece*, we currently support the Load 'N' Go budget release. For *Time Zone* and *The Dark Crystal* we support the disk images that can be found on some of the [Sierra collection CDs](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/SCI/Game_Collections). The [Datafiles wiki page](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Datafiles) has been updated with the required filenames for the disk images. If you own one of those classics, grab the latest [daily build](/downloads/#daily) and try it out! If you encounter an issue, please post a bug report following our [testing guidelines](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Release_Testing). And while you're at it, please take some [screenshots!](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Screenshots) You may be wondering what happened to *Hi-Res Adventure #3: Cranston Manor*. Unfortunately, we still have not been able to locate a copy of this game after looking for it for over a year. If you own it, we'd love to [hear from you](/contact/)! |
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| 20171122.content | ||
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The day has finally arrived to wrap up the current ScummVM release cycle! ScummVM 2.0 is one of our biggest new releases to date and adds support for 23 games:
* *Cranston Manor* * *Full Pipe* * *Gabriel Knight* * *Gabriel Knight 2* * *King's Quest VII* * *King's Questions* * *Leisure Suit Larry 6 (hi-res)* * *Leisure Suit Larry 7* * *Lighthouse* * *Mixed-Up Mother Goose Deluxe* * *Phantasmagoria* * *Phantasmagoria 2* * *Plumbers Don't Wear Ties* * *Police Quest 4* * *RAMA* * *Riven: The Sequel to Myst* * *Shivers* * *Space Quest 6* * *Starship Titanic* * *The Dark Crystal* * *Time Zone* * *Torin's Passage* * *Ulysses and the Golden Fleece* This release also includes significant new enhancements and bug fixes across many engines, so go ahead and play through an old classic you’ve been missing even if it’s not on this list! Grab a [daily build](/downloads/#daily) of ScummVM for testing, and make sure to follow our [guidelines for release testing](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Release_Testing). **Windows users**, please use a [Kirben daily build](http://scummvm.org/downloads/scummvm-win32.exe) instead of a Buildbot daily build. Report any bugs you encounter to our [bug tracker](https://bugs.scummvm.org/), and once you’ve finished a playthrough, [fill out our test results form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiAycQmgaBEDsb0KNpZrNAaqBtilZe4SHWRDYcykeKqLHFvg/viewform). You can [track testing progress on the wiki](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Release_Testing/2.0.0) as it happens. Happy gaming! |
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| 20180423.content | ||
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Today Google announced the accepted projects for this year's Summer of Code. We are pleased and excited to say that ScummVM will be mentoring three students while ResidualVM will also have one student. All four of them will work on game engines: * Andrii Prykhodko (a.k.a. whiterandrek) will be working on adding support for the ***[Pink Panther: Passport to Peril](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pink_Panther:_Passport_to_Peril)*** and ***[Pink Panther: Hokus Pokus Pink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pink_Panther:_Hokus_Pokus_Pink)*** games to ScummVM. * Joseph-Eugene Winzer (a.k.a. Joefish) will be working on adding support for ***[The Immortal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immortal_(video_game))*** game to ScummVM. * Matthew Stewart will be working on the engine used by ***[Star Trek: 25th Anniversary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_25th_Anniversary_(computer_game))*** and ***[Star Trek: Judgment Rites](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Judgment_Rites)***. The focus for the GSoC period will be on the first game. * Liu Zhaosong (a.k.a. Douglas\_GSoC) will be working on improving the Stark engine, used for ***[The Longest Journey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Longest_Journey)*** video game, in ResidualVM. Please welcome with us our four adventurous students for what we hope will be a productive and interesting summer! And you can follow their progress throughout the summer on the [ScummVM Blogs](http://planet.scummvm.org). |
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| 20190513.content | ||
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Last week Google announced the accepted projects for this year's Summer of Code. We are pleased and excited to say that ScummVM will be mentoring four students this year. All four of them will work on game engines: * Andrii Prykhodko (a.k.a. whiterandrek) is back and will be working on adding support for the ***[Red Comrades 1: Save the Galaxy](https://www.mobygames.com/game/red-comrades-save-the-galaxy-reloaded)*** and ***[Red Comrades 2: For the Great Justice](https://www.mobygames.com/game/red-comrades-2)*** games to ScummVM. * Nipun Garg will be working on adding support for ***[Hyperspace Delivery Boy!](https://www.mobygames.com/game/hyperspace-delivery-boy)*** game to ScummVM. * Jaromír Wysoglad (a.k.a. Jarda) will be working on the second part of the ***[Mission Supernova](http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/mission-supernova/)*** game. * Antonio Román Cerezo (a.k.a. Kyranet) will be working on implementing networking in ScummVM for the ***[Moonbase Commander](http://www.mobygames.com/game/moonbase-commander)*** game. Please welcome with us our four adventurous students for what we hope will be a productive and interesting summer! And as always you can follow their progress throughout the summer on the [ScummVM Blogs](http://planet.scummvm.org). |
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| 20190630.content | ||
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You arrive in a dark cave, in the mysterious land of Mordavia... Gear up your hero and face your old foe, the insidious Ad Avis! If you feel overwhelmed by this quest, you can always chill out with a game from the Hoyle collection!
The ScummVM team is proud to announce support for the following games, which are ready for public testing: * Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness (aka QFG4) * Hoyle Classic Games * Hoyle Bridge * Hoyle Children's Collection * Hoyle Solitaire Both the CD and floppy versions of QFG4 are supported. Do note that the poker game of Hoyle Classic Games is not supported yet. So, break out your copies, or buy QFG4 digitally on [GOG](https://www.gog.com/game/quest_for_glory), and grab the [latest development build](https://buildbot.scummvm.org/#/snapshots) of ScummVM for your preferred platform. Any problems found should be reported on our [Issue Tracker](https://bugs.scummvm.org/). |
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| 20190904.content | ||
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The ScummVM team is thrilled to announce support for one of John Romero’s creations, the game *Hyperspace Delivery Boy!* All known versions are supported, including Linux, Windows and PocketPC. If you don’t own a copy, you can get the demo from our [demos section](/demos/)
So grab your copy of the game and help us with testing it using the [latest development build](https://buildbot.scummvm.org/#/snapshots) of ScummVM. If your version of the game is not recognized or if you find any bugs, please report them on our [issue tracker](https://bugs.scummvm.org). And as always, have fun! |
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| 20200222.content | ||
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It is the 14th time when ScummVM is accepted as an organization for Google Summer of Code, and we're going with our sister project ResidualVM. The Summer of Code is a yearly event organized by Google to encourage students to contribute to open source projects. Open source organizations provide mentors and projects to work on, while Google give some money to participating students. You can find more information on the [official web site](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com). We also have some information on [our wiki](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Summer_of_Code), and in particular [project rules](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Summer_of_Code/Project_Rules) that applicants will need to follow. If you feel adventurous, and would like to contribute to one of the largest game preservation projects, we are eagerly waiting for you! Have a look at [our ideas page](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Summer_of_Code/GSoC_Ideas_2020). Of course, you are also very welcome to bring your own idea (though it must be our projects-related)! The deadline for the student proposals is March 31st, and on April 27th accepted students will be announced. You are welcome to join [our Discord server](https://discord.gg/4cDsMNtcpG) and ask any questions of #scummvm-gsoc channel. Looking forward to your applications! |
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| 20200331.content | ||
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The ScummVM Team is pleased to announce a new bugfix release for the 2.1 series - ScummVM 2.1.2, codenamed “Fixing Powerful Windows”. You will notice that this time, our [downloads page](/downloads/) is not exactly extensive. Don't worry, we are not touching ScummVM's (quite incredible) portability here.
ScummVM 2.1.2 is a maintenance release intended for Windows and Mac OS X, providing some [bug fixes](https://downloads.scummvm.org/frs/scummvm/2.1.2/ReleaseNotes.html) for those platforms. Since all other platforms are not affected, you don't need to worry about a seemingly missing update for now. While browsing the downloads page, you probably noticed a new entry there, especially when browsing our website using a PC running Ubuntu: ScummVM is now officially available at the [Snap Store](https://snapcraft.io/scummvm)! Thanks to the ongoing support from Alan "popey" Pope and Alan Griffiths, the Snap Store release of ScummVM is now on-par with our other Linux releases. Compared to the traditonal way of distribution software on Linux, we have a lot more freedom in terms of new releases using the Snap Store. The moment we release a new version of ScummVM, you will receive it as an automated update. The ScummVM Snap comes in two flavours. The "stable" channel contains our official releases which makes it a great choice for most users. In case you want to explore the latest and greatest features of our current development versions, simply follow the "edge" channel and get an updated build each and every day! We also have some pretty neat additions to the Snap Package in mind - but more on that later. Enjoy, and have fun! |
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| 20200504.content | ||
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Today, Google announced the projects accepted for this year's [Google Summer of Code](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/), a yearly event with the goal to encourage students to participate in open source projects. For many students, it's the first time working in a collaborative environment. We are especially delighted to announce that the ScummVM Team will support and mentor four fellow adventurers during their journey. Dylan Servilla and Nathanael Gentry will both work on our *Director* engine. While Dylan's goal is to help with Lingo-related stuff like factories, Nathanael will start working on rendering routines. Both will eventually lead us to support at least [*Spaceship Warlock*](https://www.mobygames.com/game/spaceship-warlock) and [*The Journeyman Project*](https://www.mobygames.com/game/journeyman-project). We want ScummVM to be easily accessible to as many people as possible. This obviously includes localisation to help removing language barriers. This year, Aryan Rawlani will help improving support for languages written from right to left ('RTL') as well as adding proper Unicode support to the ScummVM GUI. Imagine ScummVM being available in every possible language one day and you might understand how important Aryan's work is. Besides that, Aryan will also work on the mechanics we use to detect your games in order to improve reliability and performance, which includes deep rework on how our plugin system works. During GSoC, ScummVM also acts as an umbrella organisation for its sister project [ResidualVM](https://www.residualvm.org). Gunnar Birke will work on implementing support for the Wintermute 3D engine to ResidualVM. Wintermute 3D is the - you guessed it - 3D counterpart to the Wintermute engine supported by ScummVM which is only able to play 2D games due to the project's scope. Adding support for Wintermute 3D to ResidualVM will eventually allow you to run games like [*Alpha Polaris*](https://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/alpha-polaris). Brace yourselves - Summer 2020 is coming. Prepare for supporting our students on their glorious adventure. When your watch begins, follow their process on the [ScummVM Planet](https://planet.scummvm.org/). |
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| 20200514.content | ||
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Get your season (of docs) pass ready! We are excited to announce that ScummVM has been accepted as a participant of [Google Season of Docs 2020](https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs). One of the most important parts of every open source project is its documentation. Good documentation is vital for making the project accessible to both end users and new developers wanting to have a deeper look into the project's internals so they can start contributing on their own. Season of Docs, a recent initiative by Google to connect technical writers with open source projects. The program offers a great way to gain practical project experience, as well as explore the world of free software and the great communities that evolve around them. For ScummVM this is a wonderful opportunity to improve our documentation. You can check out our [ideas page](https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Season_of_Docs/GSoD_Ideas) or if you want to bring up your own ideas - get in touch with us on our [Discord server](https://discord.gg/6TBm9hJ). We've had a lot of successful student projects as part of Google's Summer of Code in previous years - we’re looking forward to carrying that success into Google's Season of Docs and inspire you to work with us and add your very own success. The deadline for proposals is July 9. Please make sure to read the program timeline, guidelines and FAQ on [the Season of Docs website](https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs) for additional information. |
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| 20200825.content | ||
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ScummVM Team is proud to announce support for a small freeware RPG game named <i>The Griffon Legend</i>. It was [originally](http://syn9.thehideoutgames.com/index_backup.php) written in the FreeBASIC programming language by Daniel "Syn9" Kennedy and later ported by Dmitry Smagin to the GCW0 console, which we base this port on.
The original story says: >500 years after the Griffon-Dragon war, the Dragons have returned to reclaim their empire. Cities are falling, everyone is dying, and the lone Griffon Knight Fayne is caught up in the middle of it all. Since the game is freeware, you may grab a copy directly from our game [downloads page](https://www.scummvm.org/games/) or from the [original site](http://syn9.thehideoutgames.com/index_backup.php?table=griffonlegend). You will need the latest [development build](https://buildbot.scummvm.org/#/snapshots) to play it. Of course, if you encounter any bugs, please submit them to [our bug tracker](https://bugs.scummvm.org/). |
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| 20200927.content | ||
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A new release of ScummVM is ready. This is a thrilling one because we are embracing adventure games as far back as 1976! That’s right, the infamous _Colossal Cave Adventure_, the very first Interactive Fiction game, is now supported by ScummVM.
Besides that (and about 1594 other IF games), we now added 3 more game engines and extended another 4, thus adding the following games to the supported list: * _Blazing Dragons_ * _Eye of the Beholder - Sega CD version_ * _Griffon Legend_ * _Interactive Fiction games_ * _Operation Stealth_ * _Police Quest: SWAT_ * _Prince and the Coward, English translation_ * _Ultima IV - Quest of the Avatar_ * _Ultima VI - The False Prophet_ * _Ultima VIII - Pagan_ As you can see, we continue our exploration into the world of RPGs. Other notable changes are: a fully rewritten MorphOS port; a new subsystem for automatic saves present in nearly every engine we support; Right-To-Left display support in our GUI; updated MT-32 emulation code and Discord Rich Presence. We now support additional different game versions, and have noticeable improvements to Illusions, Kyra, Lab, Queen, Titanic, Xeen and ZVision engines. There is also improved support for Maniac Mansion, NES and Apple //gs versions. As usual, we continue fixing original SCI script bugs in over 30 games and added Roland D-110 soundtrack support to these games. Of course, you can find the comprehensive Release Notes [here](https://downloads.scummvm.org/frs/scummvm/2.2.0/ReleaseNotes.html). Grab your copy from [our downloads page](https://www.scummvm.org/downloads), or, on Windows or macOS, let the automatic updater fetch it for you. In addition, we will be releasing a new Android port into the Beta Channel and will need your help with testing. That would be great for us to get your feedback at [the Android Port subforum](https://forums.scummvm.org/viewforum.php?f=17). Time to dive into a nice Interactive Fiction or fry some monsters in Ultima with a Blazing Fire, if you’re a dragon of course. |
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| 20210311.title | ||
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Google Summer of Code 2021: On
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| 20210518.content | ||
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Yesterday, Google announced the list of students accepted for this new edition of the [Google Summer of Code](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/). We are very proud to welcome 6 students this year who will be working on various parts of the project during the upcoming months. * Aashwin Vaish (aka av_dx) will improve the GUI by adding a graphical interface for game library management, so that games are displayed with cover art thumbnails, grouping options and various filtering fields * a-yyg (aka a/) will be working on writing a new engine for Faery Tale Adventure II, based on original sources kindly provided by The Dreamers Guild * Crane yang (aka sheep) will join the effort to improve the current Director engine * Divyam Ahuja (aka Hikigaya) will be working on finishing the implementation of some engines which are currently stalled, with a priority on MacVenture and Avalanche engines * Dylan Servilla (aka djsrv) will also work on the Director engine, continuing his previous GSoC work and aiming to reach Director 2-4 support * taylorzhancher (twan) will focus on adding Text To Speech functionality to various games to improve the gaming experience of people having troubles reading texts on screen We haven't had the opportunity to support and mentor 6 GSoC students since 2008. So, let's celebrate and give a particularly warm welcome to the 2021 GSoC students! |
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| 20220819.content | ||
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_Soldier Boyz_ is the newest supported game of the [Hypno engine](https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Hypno), and it’s ready for public testing!
Released in 1997 by Hypnotix and published by DreamCatcher Interactive and MCPA Interactive, this full-motion rail shooter is based on the 1995 film of the same name. The game starts when the daughter of an American billionaire is kidnapped by a group of Vietnamese terrorists. Then, it’s up to Major Howard Toliver, ex-Marine and highly decorated Vietnam veteran, to gather a deadly team for the dangerous mission of rescuing her. He recruits six prison inmates serving life sentences for a chance at a full presidential pardon. Keep the body count rising to survive five territories by playing as each Soldier Boy (and Girl), but beware and don’t waste a “friendly” since they provide vital survival information! ScummVM currently supports the English release of the game (which is the only one we know about) and features more responsive controls than the original. We couldn't find a demo but there is [a trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COKWms0UBL8). Please [contact us](https://www.scummvm.org/contact/) if you have a demo or any other release. To play the game with ScummVM, you will need a [daily development build](https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/#daily). As always, please submit your bug reports to our [issue tracker](https://bugs.scummvm.org/). |
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| 20230509.content | ||
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On Thursday Google announced the list of participants accepted for this year's [Google Summer of Code](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/) and we are happy to report that 5 contributors have been accepted to work on various parts of the ScummVM project this summer. * Ankush Dutt will work on an automated system for packaging freeware games with ScummVM for various platforms. The project includes two main objectives: help create standalone game packages bundled with ScummVM, and implement a new mechanism to let users download and install freeware games directly from the ScummVM launcher. You can follow the progress for this task on [Ankush’s GSoC blog](https://blogs.scummvm.org/ankushdutt/). * Harishankar Kumar will work on improving Director 4 Compatibility. The goal is to reach full support for Total Distortion & The Journeyman Project. You can follow the progress for this task on [Harishankar’s GSoC blog](https://blogs.scummvm.org/hsk/). * Kartik Agarwala (aka hax0kartik) will work on porting the CRAB engine to ScummVM. The CRAB engine was developed by Pyrodactyl Games and was used in several of the games which the studio released, most notably [Unrest](https://www.mobygames.com/game/74307/unrest/), a story-driven adventure RPG set in ancient India. You can follow the progress for this task on [Kartik’s GSoC blog](https://blogs.scummvm.org/hax0kartik/). * Abhinav Chennubhotla (aka PhoenixFlame101) will work on a system for verifying game file integrity, validating their checksums against those present in a central database. It will also let users contribute the checksums of game files not on the database. You can follow the progress for this task on [Abhinav’s GSoC blog](https://blogs.scummvm.org/phoenixflame101/). * Wyatt Radkiewicz (aka eklipsed) will work on a smaller project to optimize color blending code for the AGS engine thus making games more smooth and run better, especially on lower-end systems. You can follow the progress for this task on [Wyatt’s GSoC blog](https://blogs.scummvm.org/eklipsed/). Please give them a warm welcome, and visit our [Discord server](https://discord.gg/4cDsMNtcpG) if you want to discuss those projects. After a four week Community Bounding period, the coding period will start on May 29 and you can expect regular updates on these projects on their respective blogs. The team is very excited about the upcoming weeks – and we hope you are as well. |
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| 20231214.content | ||
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The end of the year is almost upon us, along with a new release of ScummVM. So here's a quick update for one of the more ambitious sub-projects that has been percolating along in the background: Macromedia Director support! For those who aren't aware, Macromedia Director was a popular framework used for thousands of games, educational titles, catalogues, art pieces, and other multimedia works.
## New Games For Testing First off, the upcoming 2.8.0 release will have some new supported games, and we need your help testing them! * _Alice: An Interactive Museum_ * _Ape Odyssey_ * _Classical Cats_ * _Gadget: Invention, Travel and Adventure_ * _The Cute Machine_ * _The Dark Eye_ * _Wrath of the Gods_ You will need the data files from the games' original install media, and a [daily build](https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/#daily) of ScummVM. For Macintosh editions, you will need to run the disc images through [Dumper Companion](https://www.scummvm.org/dumper-companion) in order to extract a complete copy of the files. In the case of The Dark Eye, you will also need the files created by the installer. As always, if you run into issues, please let us know on the [issue tracker](https://bugs.scummvm.org/). If your favorite isn't in the supported list, don't despair! ScummVM can open Director titles from 1995 and earlier, so grab the latest [daily build](https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/#daily) and give it a try. Titles released after 1995 tend to use Director versions that aren't supported yet. If you get stuck, reach out on the [issue tracker](https://bugs.scummvm.org/) and we can try and help. If you've encountered a Director title that isn't recognized by ScummVM, that's great! Please let us know on the [issue tracker](https://bugs.scummvm.org/) so the title can be added to the detection list. ## Engine versions As of the time of writing, ScummVM can detect **1595** different titles based on Director, with the following counts by Director version: | D0 | D1 | D2 | D3 | D4 | D5 | D6 | D7 | D8 | D9 | D10 | D11 | |----|----|----|-----|-----|-----|-----|----|-----|----|-----|-----| | 12 | 1 | 14 | 288 | 602 | 262 | 194 | 97 | 138 | 31 | 36 | 4 | ScummVM 2.8.0 will be the first release to include preliminary support for the D5 version of Director! A lot of work has gone into overhauling the codebase to support multiple cast libraries, however there is still plenty of work to be done adding Lingo functions and Xtras. Adding support for a new Director version is a tricky process. First we need to check for any changes to the movie file format, then add in any new engine and Lingo features, and finally start working through issues in a bunch of candidate games. Because of the difficulty of keeping track of facts vs. assumptions, we only enable features for an engine version once they have been confirmed with testing. This is why D6 and higher games will not open at all, even if the code we have would somewhat work. Support for the D2, D3 and D4 versions of Director has steadily improved. We are building up a suite of unit tests, both for Lingo and for the various drawing modes in the renderer. Most of the remaining bugs are related to undefined or incidental behavior: consider how two types in Lingo are compared, or the precise order that events are processed in, or how functions respond when you pass them nonsense data? All of these things are relied upon by thousands of Director products! And ScummVM must support all of them as closely as possible. ## XLibs Macromedia provided a C API with Director, which proved to be very popular for adding new engine features. There are hundreds of XObject and Xtra libraries in circulation, and each has to be reverse engineered and added as code to ScummVM. As of the time of writing, we have added support for **63** of these libraries. A common use case is video; Director includes the ability to play back QuickTime videos as a sprite, but computers of the day would struggle with the added overhead of Director's renderer if the video resolution was larger than a postage stamp. To work around this, several XLibs exist to play back video as an accelerated overlay. Quite a few D3 and D4 titles are missing video playback due to this type of XLib, and we plan on creating a common method of supporting these. The good news is that most uncommon XLibs did only one or two things, and are pretty easy to add initial support for. Part of the XLib format is a list of docstrings explaining each of the functions; there is a script in `/devtools` which can turn these docstrings into stubbed C++ code, saving a lot of hassle. --- That's about it! We have some very dedicated volunteers scouring every corner of the globe for obscure Director titles and testing them; if that sounds like your bag, you can visit them in the #engine-director channel of the [ScummVM Discord](https://discord.gg/4cDsMNtcpG). Until next time! |
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| 20231230.content | ||
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English
We are proud to announce the last release of the year 2023. Please welcome ScummVM 2.8.0 – “Mysteries, Mammoths, and Muppets”.
## New games The team was quite busy working on new engines and enhancing existing ones. The list of supported games grew noticeably, and we now support these additions: * _Adibou 1_ * _Classical Cats_ * _The Dark Eye_ * _Dark Side_ * _Escape From Hell_ * _Gadget: Invention Travel and Adventure_ * _Gobliiins 5_ * _The Excavation of Hob's Barrow_ * _Kingdom: The Far Reaches_ * _Might and Magic Book One_ * _Muppet Treasure Island_ * _Nancy Drew: The Final Scene_ * _Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion_ * _Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill_ * _Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger_ * _Nancy Drew: Treasure in the Royal Tower_ * _Primordia_ * _Reah: Face the Unknown_ * _Schizm: Mysterious Journey_ * _Shardlight_ * _Strangeland_ * _Syberia_ and _Syberia II_ (macOS versions only) * _Technobabylon_ * _The Vampire Diaries_ * _Whispers of a Machine_ * _Wrath of the Gods_ and four other Director titles. * 14 AGS titles by _Stranga_ and _Cloak and Dagger_ All together, we’ve introduced 50 new games and five new engines. ## New platforms We are happy to see the RetroArch port being properly rewritten, and the port is now part of our source code. The Atari port has also been redone from scratch and now talks natively to the hardware, skipping SDL as an intermediate layer. That made many more games playable on the platform. The Atari FireBee port is still using the SDL library, though. ## Speed-optimized graphics Thanks to the work of one of the GSoC participants this year, Wyatt Radkiewicz (a.k.a. eklipsed), we now use CPU-specific SIMD instructions such as SSE, AVX2, and NEON for drawing graphics in the AGS engine and in some generic routines. This led to 4-14x speedup in drawing for many cases. ## Networking games This year, we merged with the [Backyard Sports Online](https://backyardsports.online/) project, which made it possible to play _Backyard Football_, _Backyard Baseball 2001_ and _Backyard Football 2002_ over the internet with other humans. Also, the _Moonbase Commander_ support is in active playtesting mode, though not yet ready for prime time. ## Notable engine enhancements The AGS engine has been brought up to version 3.6.0.53 from upstream. For many engines, we added support for numerous Chinese and Japanese game variants. Believe it or not, we implemented a lot of native GUI dialogs for SCUMM games, bringing them closer to the original experience. We also rewrote the sound code for the SCUMM Humongous Entertainment games, making them flawless. We performed a deep review of the _Broken Sword 1_ game engine, implementing some small, previously unnoticed things like scene transitions, in-game menu peculiarities, accurate fonts, idle animations, and more. Now, the game is absolutely faithful to the original. ---- The full [Release Notes](https://downloads.scummvm.org/frs/scummvm/2.8.0/ReleaseNotes.html) contain a comprehensive summary of the changes and enhancements; it is about 3 pages long with this release. On [our downloads page](https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/), you can find the downloads for various platforms. If you are using Windows, macOS, or either the Ubuntu Snap or Flatpack packages, the autoupdater will assist you in updating to ScummVM 2.8.0. Android port will follow up very shortly, as we are currently in the Open Beta phase. Play the games, and enjoy ScummVM! _Ah, one more thing…_ ScummVM is coming to [the Apple App Store for iPhones and iPads](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/scummvm/id6446184412). Please leave us with good reviews and report any problems on our [Discord server](https://discord.gg/4cDsMNtcpG), which includes an [iOS support channel](https://discord.com/channels/581224060529148060/1149456560922316911). |
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