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!
.. to everybody except Casa Addams, many users on the Clie Source forums (whom obviously have brains as big as their PDAs,) and that other idiot who is bundling ScummVM with warez LucasArts games on UseNet. This is somewhat of an open plea, although we do not really expect morons who have done something so idiotic to listen. Sorry for this open message being so harsh guys, but do you not realise that by associating and bundling ScummVM **with** pirated copies ("Abandonware" or otherwise) of LucasArts games, you're basically giving them even more excuse to take legal action against us (and bring possible financial ruin on the developers of this program :)... I'm especially disappointed in chrilith who has almost certainly guaranteed that, unless we feel very forgiving, there will never be an official Palm port of ScummVM integrated into CVS. If you appreciate what we are doing, and have done, then do not abuse it. Otherwise you are damaging the reputation, and possible legal status of both ScummVM and its developers. I've seen some VERY ridiculous comments on the Clie Source forums to the effect that LucasArts do not sell these games anymore. With the exception of some versions (specifically Zak256 and LoomCD), this is stupid. Most LucasArts games can be ordered in collection packs from Amazon or the LucasArts store (if you live in America.). Heck, I saw a bunch of LucasArts classic adventures in Electronic Boutique when I was Christmas Shopping. * * * In other news, Curse of Monkey Island support is progressing nicely! Be sure to try out the latest Daily Builds if you like living on the wild side (but of course do not file bug reports on CMI support).
First, a quick note that the problems with the Clie Source forum have been resolved, and the Clie/Palm port will be merged into CVS as soon as chrilith has updated his port to work with 0.3.0's OSystem architecture. A quick update on CMI (COMI/Monkey3) support. Within just several weeks, remarkable progress has been made on support for this game, but work will likely be slowed for the next week as various developers are otherwise occupied. Currently, except for some bugs that make the Cannon scene rather difficult and unstable, it is possible to play some way into Part II of the game. The current main issues remaining include a bug with flObject allocation (causes a crash in some dialog sequences), some script termination issues (causes various game-crippling crashes in the cannon scene and several Part II puzzles) and the various problems with the opening cannon puzzle. As usual, please remember this work is still experimental, and please do not file any bug reports regarding it. Patches, however, are very welcome! :)
Hey all. I (Ender) am interested in finding out if any ScummVM users will be present at Linux.conf.au '03 here in Perth... if you'll be there, drop a post in the forum. If there are a few people going we might get together for Pizza or something afterwards, or maybe chuck together a last minute spontaneous Classic Gaming BOF (if somebody else wants to organise it, I'm a terrible person for that kind of stuff :) Blonk.
If you're a Linux user, Happy Penguin are running a [series of polls](http://happypenguin.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=17) to determine the best games in a ton of categories. Go vote for your favourite emulators, what you think the most promising project is, et cetera... Hopefully some of those votes might even be for us :)
Over at the Linux Game Tome (http://happypenguin.org), ScummVM has been voted [Best Emulator](http://happypenguin.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=549). Thanks to anybody who voted for us. In other news, Curse of Monkey Island support is stabilizing. While there are still a number of small graphical glitches, currently we are down to two known gameplay-critical bugs and a number of other 'inconveniences' and cases of incorrect behavior. We hope to be able to announce Curse of Monkey Island completable very soon. A lot of people have been asking where we are going from here. Here is a brief (very subject to change!) guide to our next few targets: *February 2003: Curse of Monkey Island completable *Feb - Mar 2003: Regression testing/bugfixes for other supported games *Feb - Mar 2003: Completion of the Launcher functionality (tabbed option dialogs, etc) *Early March 03: CVS Freeze, Regression testing, 0.4.0 release *March onwards: V1/V2 game support (Maniac Mansion, non-FmTowns Zak, EGA Loom, etc.) As usual, this is but a rough guideline depending on both progress and free time for our developers. If you want to help, and know how to use CVS and a compiler... either fix bugs, or regression test! We are very much looking for people to test CVS with games other than ComI and look for critical bugs that were not present in 0.3.0b, then attempt to try different versions of CVS and locate at least the day when the bug started occurring. This allows us to more easily determine what changes have caused problems, without spending weeks blindly guessing. Needless to say, if you find a critical bug that IS also present in 0.3.0b, check for a bug report. If one isn't present, please submit one!
Work has been slow lately, but recently with the addition of Super Dooper Secret Project Number Six, development has started to pick back up with a lot of code cleanup and some fairly important bugfixes. Expect a new release eventually. In other news, there has been a surge in interest of a Playstation 2 port again. I (Ender) am quite willing to do one if people donate at least US$75 (see that little button under the menu) to purchase a modchip. It shouldn't take long, and one of you - our loyal users - has already volunteered to install it for me if I do manage to obtain one. If we find there is enough interest (which will obviously depend on the donation status :), we will start an official port ASAP.
Last Friday, March 14th, our fellow ScummVM developer and friend, Felix Jakschitsch (known to many under his nickname *yot*), committed suicide at the young age of 19. We are completely shocked by this, and do not know or understand what drove him into this. It is a sorrowful world in which a cheerful, intelligent and helpful man is put in a situation in which he sees no other way to escape than taking his own life. We are sad to lose our valued friend. He contributed important work to ScummVM, including much of the Zak256 support. His loss is felt deeply by all of us, and we extend our condolence to his family and close friends, whose grief we share. If you want to leave a message to his friends and family, there is a [guestbook available](http://www.cbg2003.de/). Also here is a news paper article telling more details (use babelfish if you don't speak german). Felix, we miss you and will never forget you.
We've received a number of e-mails lately asking if any work is happening on ScummVM. We would like to reassure people that do -not- follow CVS that yes, a lot of work is happening. We are currently gearing up for the release of 0.4.0, which should be happening within a few weeks. I'd like to ask people who feel like living dangerously to try out CVS and Daily Builds, and let us know of any problems we should be aware of. In the 'Documentation' section on the left, you will see a 'ScummVM 0.4.0 Checklist'. Games that have been tested without any problems are marked there - please test the games that are not marked tested and let us know your results on the Forum **(Update: That's the General forum)**. Remember to include the date you downloaded the build you completed the game with. At the moment we are focusing on earlier EGA games (Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, LoomEGA, Indy3EGA), although Beneath a Steel Sky support is progressing at a slow but steady pace. Somebody also recently donated a Playstation 2 modchip to the team, so expect a native PS2 port as soon as Ender has it installed (ScummVM already runs fine under Playstation2 Linux). A reminder to those that are interested in our latest progress, you can always sign up to the cvs-logs mailing list. Click the 'Project Home' link on the left, and browse to the 'Lists' page. This list will receive an e-mail every time there is a new change to the source-code, so be warned it can be rather technical and high-traffic. As an alternative you can just play with CVS Checkouts or Daily Builds and discover anything new yourself :)
Five months after our last release, 0.3.0b, and over 2500 CVS commits/adds later, the ScummVM team proudly presents ScummVM 0.4.0. The following is an overview of what's new in 0.4.0: *Curse of Monkey Island (comi) support (experimental) *Added support for the EGA versions of Loom, Monkey Island and Indy3 *Improved music support in Indy3 and the floppy versions of Monkey Island *Many Simon the Sorcerer 1 & 2 improvements and fixes *Very pre-alpha Beneath a Steel Sky code. Don't expect it to do anything (in fact it is disabled in the 0.4.0 release, but you can get it by compiling ScummVM yourself). *Even more pre-alpha support for enhanced versions of V2 SCUMM games (Maniac Mansion and Zak) *Preliminary support for early Humongous Entertainment titles (very experimental) *New debug console and several GUI/Launcher enhancements *New Save/Load code (easier to expand while retaining compatibility) *Dreamcast port now works with new games added for 0.3.0b *New official PalmOS port *Various minor and not so minor SCUMM game fixes *Large memory leak fixed for The Dig/COMI *SMUSH code optimised, frame dropping added for slower machines *Code cleanups The source code, as well as binaries for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, PocketPC, Solaris and PalmOS are already available at our [download page](/downloads/). Other binaries for MorphOS, Dreamcast and others, will follow shortly. *We hope you will enjoy the best ScummVM ever!*
