I guess it's time for the usual, regular, monthly sign of life, *"Yes, we are alive. No, we still won't merge with FreeSCI. Yes, you can donate your Ferrari to me, I might reconsider then."* As usual, lots of small and big things happened, we might post some info in the not too distant future. In the meantime, I'd like to set a spotlight on a small but nifty detail, maybe it'll be of interest/use to some of you...: Some time ago, we added a [list of boot params](http://www.scummvm.org/documentation.php?view=bootparam) to our documentation section. Maybe you have already noticed it, if not, check it out. In case you don't know what a boot param is (shame on you!), I actually tried to explain it [on that page](http://www.scummvm.org/documentation.php?view=bootparam), so, have a look anyway ;-). If you think the explanation is not clear enough, drop me a line and tell me how to improve it. And if you really want to feel cool, you can even contribute a bit here and help us out by filling in some of the gaps in our boot param tables. Once again, see [the boot param page](http://www.scummvm.org/documentation.php?view=bootparam) for more information.
We now have an extensive list of boot params for Fate of Atlantis on our [boot params page](http://www.scummvm.org/documentation.php?view=bootparam). Many thanks to Laura Abbott who spent a lot of time to compose this list and then generously donated it to us. I am sure this will help us working on FOA issues in the future. In other news, Robert Kelsen has volunteered to work as a SlackWare packager, and has started by providing a [SlackWare binary of 0.7.0](https://downloads.scummvm.org/frs/scummvm/0.7.0/scummvm-0.7.0-slack-i486-1.tgz). Way to go, Rob! So, apparently, some people actually read our news section... I am astonished ;-). Thanks to all of you out there who contribute to ScummVM by providing us with useful feedback, and the occasional praise -- both really help keeping up interest in working on ScummVM!
We are pleased to announce the release of ScummVM 0.7.1. This update concentrates on fixing bugs from 0.7.0, especially in the Windows Mobile port (PocketPC / Smartphone). For more information check out the [release notes](https://downloads.scummvm.org/frs/scummvm/0.7.1/ReleaseNotes). As usual, you can download it from our [downloads page](/downloads/). On an unrelated side note, we received even more [boot params](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Boot_Params) from you, our dear users, in the past two weeks. Many thanks to those who contributed!
Although it will not be part of the official ScummVM program, some of our team members have been working on a little easter surprise for you all. Unfortunately, we're running a bit late. Expect something very sweet (especially for Linux and Mac people) soon...
Apart from previous hints, [more information](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Dragon) is now available about the ScummVM project [Dragon](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Dragon). Please note that Dragon is still very much an unreleased Work In Progress, but things have just started working and we're expecting to announce more about this project over the coming week.
On the downside, we really need to post news more regularly. On the upside, we have accumulated a lot to tell you about: **New Ports** *Ports are important for us -- that much we have in common with the good ol' pirates from Monkey Island. Of course in our case it's not the wet kind (with ships and stuff), but rather ports of ScummVM to different architectures. On that front, we have some pretty nice things coming up for the next ScummVM release, including an official PlayStation 2 port, as well as the AmigaOS port now being official, too. And with some luck maybe even the often requested EPOC/Symbian port will finally be a regular part of ScummVM (take a look at the relevant [patch tracker item](https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1188433&group_id=37116&atid=418822) if you are curious). **New games** *We added a new game engine, this time for Coktel's Gobliiins series. So far, Gobliiins 1 is completable. Work on the other parts (Gobliins 2, Goblins 3, and "The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble") has not yet begun, but at least Gobliins 2 seems to be similar to part 1, so we hope to have that in the foreseeable future, too. Regarding the other parts, we'll see... *Thanks to the hard work of some dedicated people we also finally support the (in)famous NES version of Maniac Mansion. Wow, that should be about the last LucasArts SCUMM game we were not supporting ... ;-) *Support for Humongous Entertainment's kids games is progressing well, the following titles can be completed with the current development version of ScummVM: *Freddi Fish 1 - 4 *Pajama Sam 1 & 2 *Putt-Putt (several titles) *Spy Fox 1 & 2 *Several arcade titles **New thumbs** *No, I didn't undergo plastic surgery (although another pair of thumbs sounds tempting...). Rather, we added support for thumbnails in SCUMM savegames. Pretty cool stuff, click [here for a screenshot](/data/news/20050511.png). Not too shabby, we think. And we actually have more really cool stuff in the works, stay tuned.
Due to a local space/time vortex which will in the future be located near Earth, the meaning of 'regularly' may be in flux. Stay tuned for further updates. And now, to current news: We're happy to report that Ron Gilbert, co-creator of Maniac Mansion and SCUMM, made a nice reference to ScummVM on his website ([Grumpy Gamer](http://grumpygamer.com/). Or so we hear from [Slashdot](http://games.slashdot.org/games/05/08/03/1641224.shtml?tid=207&tid=202&tid=203), which seems to have brought his site to its knees :) Please note, however, that the Nintendo DS port mentioned is not yet an official or supported port. So please don't contact us about it, because we can't help :) The contents of Rons latest post has been quoted in [this blogspot post](http://humaninbox.blogspot.com/2005/08/ron-gilbert-supports-illegitimate.html). For the record, we've given Ron the nod in our readme.txt since Wed Apr 17 17:31:05 2002 (UTC). We're also calling for testers to report problems with ['Inherit the Earth'](http://www.wyrmkeep.com/ite/) (details and purchase information behind the link!). Please use the bug tracker, and set the correct game under Group. Please only test with the **latest** CVS version. Thanks!
If you like screenshots as much as we do, you can play an integral role in demonstrating the capabilities of ScummVM with merely single still-frame image. Basically, we need you to submit screenshots for our screenshots gallery. We have an explanation of the proper way to do so [here](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Screenshots) in our wiki. So, if you've got a few minutes, an interesting save in the middle of a game, and you want to help, please feel free to take and submit a screenshot of it. As the wiki states, ScummVM should be in HQ2x mode with aspect ratio correction ON.
The last bastion of the screenshots camp has fallen. We have just received Zak v1 shots and that means that all is done. Thanks a lot to you, our fellow users, who took part in this saga. There are too many of you to mention, but you know who you are. We also need to test another couple of newly supported games. These are Maniac Mansion NES version and Zak McKracken Commodore 64. See sections 3.8 and 3.9 in our README on how to run these. We need to know whether these games are completable or not.
Hello, fellow users. Now it's time to help the ScummVM team bring out a new release of err... ScummVM. Ta-da! We have a large amount of changes, new features and bugfixes. Almost every aspect of the program was touched, tuned, altered. So we once again need to ask for testers of every game we support. We'd like to mention two completely new titles we support now. They are Inherit the Earth and Gobliiins (first one in the series). Please, pay attention to those too. Instructions on how to do the testing are located at our [Wiki page](http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Release_Testing). Please, stick to those and report on our mailing list, on #scummvm or in our forums.
