Scummvm Games Emulator For Mac
This post-apocalyptic adventure game from LucasArts follows a tough-as-nails biker named Ben, leader of the Polecats, a motorcycle gang. WINDOWS AND LINUX: In game press F5, CTRL+F5, or if you are using a laptop, and both previous options didn't work try pressing Fn+F5. MAC OSX: In game.
ScummVM stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (VM stands for virtual machine). ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files
| Emulator | Rom Folder | Extension | BIOS | Controller Config |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ScummVM | scummvm | see below | none | hardcoded |
Emulator: ScummVM
ROMs
Accepted File Extensions: This is a tricky question as ScummVM has its own particular filesets and method of loading- but when all is said and done .sh .svm are the filetypes EmulationStation will read.
ScummVM is very different to most romsets in that there are a set of files for each game.
See the list here: http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Datafiles
Place your folders of game files in:
List ScummVM games in EmulationStation
Place an .svm file in the ROM folder for each game which you want to appear in EmulationStation.
The .svm file contains the short name of the game. This can be used to directly launch that game without starting the ScummVM GUI first.
The list of short names is at: https://www.scummvm.org/compatibility
The Recalbox documentation uses .scummvm files instead of .svm files.
Example
The game Day of the Tentacle has the shortname tentacle and requires files:
MONSTER.SOUTENTACLE.000TENTACLE.001
Create a directory /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/scummvm/Day of the Tentacle and place the game files in it.
Create a launcher file with the same name as the directory: /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/scummvm/Day of the Tentacle/Day of the Tentacle.svm
This laucher file Day of the Tentacle.svm contains the shortname tentacle
You can create the launcher file like:
The final file layout is:
Restarting EmulationStation will show the name Day of the Tentacle which is used to launch the game.
Quick Start
- Quit running rom without saving : Alt + X or Alt + Q
- After you've added files to the scummvm rom folder, open up the +LAUNCH GUI
- then hold down shift and click 'Mass Add..'
- Navigate to the scummvm folder and select it to add all of your files
- quit out of the GUI
- Press F4 to get out of emulationstation
- Type
emulationstationto re-launch emulationstation
- navigate to scummvm and your games will be there on the list and you'll have no need for a GUI
Troubleshooting
FUZZY MENU?
You can open the options in the scummvm launcher and change the graphics mode to opengl and it will make the menu and your games clear and crisp! There are also other rendering modes as well that can be changed.
Video Tutorial:
| WORK IN PROGRESS, HELP NEEDED |
| If you want to contribute, send us a sample of text you'd write for the new manual, and we will consider adding you an account. You can work on the manual in the Wiki, but if you prefer, supplying us with HTML or TeX sources is fine, too (we will then translate them for the Wiki). You can have a look at our TODO page for a list of tasks that need to be done. |
- 1Using the Launcher to configure ScummVM
- 2Using the configuration file to configure ScummVM
- 2.2Game specific settings
Using the Launcher to configure ScummVM
The ScummVM Launcher gives us a graphical method for changing the settings that it uses to run games. There are two ways to do this: firstly by changing the default settings (which games will follow unless told otherwise), secondly by configuring an individual game to use settings that are different from the defaults. To begin with we will look at changing the default settings. To do this, click on the 'Options' button on the right-hand side of the Launcher window. There are many options, and they are separated into tabs: we shall look at each tab in turn.
Graphics tab
The graphics tab allows us to change various things about the way the games are displayed on screen when played.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Graphics mode | This allows us to change the graphic filter that ScummVM uses (e.g. to scale the game to a bigger resolution). The option has no effect on games whose original resolution is higher than 320x200 or 320x240 (e.g. 640x480) - such games should be configured separately. See the Graphic filters section of the manual for more detail |
| Render mode | This allows us to change the render mode that ScummVM uses. See the Render Modes section of the manual for more detail |
| Aspect ratio correction | Most games supported by ScummVM were designed to be played at a screen resolution of 320x200 using rectangular pixels (higher than they were wide). Most modern systems however are using square pixels, which means that the image appears to be squeezed vertically and the characters look wider and shorter than they should. If this option is checked, ScummVM corrects for this by stretching the game window to a resolution of 320x240 which with square pixels looks the same as 320x200 on old monitors. As with Graphic filters, this takes a little processing power to achieve. We can combine this with a Graphic filter, and for example with a scaling of x2 the window size will be 640x480 instead of 640x400. |
| Fullscreen mode | Switches between playing games in a window, or playing them in fullscreen mode. Switch between the two using Alt-Enter while in a game. |
Audio tab
The audio tab in the options allows us to change various things about the way that sound is outputted in ScummVM games.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Music driver | This is the method that ScummVM uses to output MIDI music. For more details, see the section on music drivers. |
| AdLib Emulator | This is the emulator used by ScummVM to generate the music when the AdLib music driver is selected. Two emulators are currently available. MAME OPL emulator was the emulator that was used up to version 0.13.1. More recently the DOSBox OPL emulator has been added (but is still experimental). |
| Output rate | This is the sample rate at which ScummVM plays back sounds (including music if using an emulation music driver, such as the AdLib music driver). For more information, see the Output sample rate section |
| Text and Speech | For games with digitized speech, this control allows the user to decide whether to play the game with speech and without any subtitles, with subtitles displaying the words spoken in the digitized speech but not the speech, or with both. |
| Subtitle speed | This allows the user to adjust the length of time that the subtitles are displayed on screen: the lower the speed is set, the longer the subtitles appear for. |
Volume tab
The volume tab allows us to set the relative volumes for the various different types of sound that ScummVM plays.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Music volume | The volume of the music played back in games. This is usually MIDI music played back with one of the music drivers, but some games use digitized music. |
| SFX volume | The volume of the sound effects within the games. |
| Speech volume | The volume of the digitized speech in the game, if it has any. |
| Mute All | Mute all sounds. |
MIDI tab
The MIDI tab lets us change various settings about the MIDI music played back in games.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Soundfont | Some music drivers require you to provide them with a Soundfont, which contains samples of instruments for the device to play back. This setting allows you to choose one. |
| Mixed AdLib/MIDI mode | Some games contain sound effects that are exclusive to the AdLib soundtrack. For these games, you may wish to use this mode in order to combine MIDI music with AdLib sound effects. |
| True Roland MT-32 (disable GM emulation) | ScummVM will treat your device as a real MT-32. Because the instrument mappings and system exclusive commands of the MT-32 vary from those of General MIDI devices, you should only enable this option if you are using an actual Roland MT-32, LAPC-I, CM-64, CM-32L, CM-500, or GS device with an MT-32 map. |
| Enable Roland GS Mode | ScummVM will initialize your GS-compatible device with settings that mimic the MT-32's reverb, (lack of) chorus, pitch bend sensitivity, etc. If it is specified in conjunction with True Roland MT-32 (above), ScummVM will select the MT-32-compatible map and drumset on your GS device. This setting works better than default GM or GS emulation with games that do not have custom instrument mappings (Loom and The Secret of Monkey Island). You should only specify both settings if you are using a GS device that has an MT-32 map, e.g. SC-55, SC-88, SC-8820, etc. Please note that Roland GS Mode is automatically disabled in both Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit the Road, since they use General MIDI natively. If neither of the above settings is enabled, ScummVM will initialize your device in General MIDI mode and use GM emulation in games with MT-32 soundtracks. |
| MIDI gain | The relative volume of the general MIDI music. This is only supported by some of the music drivers. |
Paths tab
This part of the options lets the user tell ScummVM where to look for particular files
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Save Path | This is the default folder in which ScummVM will store saved games. If this is not set, saved games will generally be stored in the current directory. Exceptions to this include:
|
| Extra Path | This is the folder that ScummVM will look in for various 'extra' files. These could include one or more of:
|
| Theme Path | The folder that additional themes for the ScummVM Launcher are stored in. |
Misc tab
The Misc tab contains options that don't belong on any of the other tabs.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Theme | Click on this button to change the visual appearance of the ScummVM Launcher |
| GUI Renderer | This settings defines how the ScummVM GUI is rendered. The two options are to use either the normal renderer or an antialiased renderer. |
| Autosave | In some games (namely Beneath a Steel Sky, Flight of the Amazon Queen and all SCUMM games), ScummVM will automatically save the game every few minutes. For the SCUMM engine, it will save in Slot 0. This saved game can be loaded again using Ctrl-0 or the F5 menu. Use this control to adjust the time period that ScummVM waits between saves; the default setting is 5 minutes. |
Using the configuration file to configure ScummVM
When you change a setting in the ScummVM Launcher (see Using the Launcher to configure ScummVM), all it does is add a line to the configuration file. This is a plain text file which stores all the settings for ScummVM. It is possible to edit this file directly, and some settings can only be changed this way. A description of the configuration file is available in the User Manual Appendix.
The name of the config file and the location in which it is stored depend on the system you are running ScummVM on:
| Operating System | Location of config file |
|---|---|
| Windows Vista | UsersusernameAppDataRoamingScummVMscummvm.ini |
| Windows 2000/XP | Documents and SettingsusernameApplication DataScummVMscummvm.ini |
| Windows NT4 | <windir>ProfilesusernameApplication DataScummVMscummvm.ini |
| Windows 95/98/ME | <windir>scummvm.ini |
| Unix | $HOME/.scummvmrc |
| Mac OS X | $HOME/Library/Preferences/ScummVM Preferences |
| Others | scummvm.ini in the current directory |
Note: all Windows versions will use <windir>scummvm.ini if it already exists.
General config file settings
These parameters can either be set in the 'ScummVM' section of the config file, in which case they specify the default setting, or in the section for a particular game, in which case they override the default setting for that game. Config vim on mac.
| Keyword | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| path | string | The path in which a game's data files are stored |
| autosave_period | number | Number of seconds between autosaves (default: 300) |
| save_slot | number | The savegame number to load on startup |
| savepath | string | The path to which a game will store its saved games |
| versioninfo | string | The version of ScummVM that created the configuration file |
| gameid | string | The real id of a game. Useful if you have several versions of the same game, and want different aliases for them |
| description | string | The description of the game as it will appear in the launcher |
| language | string | Specify language (en, us, de, fr, it, pt, es, jp, zh, kr, se, gb, hb, cz, ru) |
| speech_mute | bool | If true, speech is muted |
| subtitles | bool | Set to true to enable subtitles |
| talkspeed | number | Text speed |
| fullscreen | bool | Fullscreen mode |
| aspect_ratio | bool | Enable aspect ratio correction |
| gfx_mode | string | Graphics mode (see Graphic filters) |
| confirm_exit | bool | Ask for confirmation by the user before quitting (SDL backend only) |
| cdrom | number | Number of CD-ROM unit to use for audio. If negative, don't even try to access the CD-ROM |
| joystick_num | number | Number of joystick device to use for input |
| music_driver | string | The music engine to use |
| output_rate | number | The output sample rate to use, in Hz (see Output sample rate) |
| alsa_port | string | Port to use for output when using the ALSA music driver |
| music_volume | number | The music volume setting (0-255) |
| multi_midi | bool | If true, enable combination AdLib and native MIDI |
| soundfont | string | The SoundFont to use for MIDI playback (only supported by some MIDI drivers) |
| native_mt32 | bool | If true, disable GM emulation and assume that there is a true Roland MT-32 available |
| enable_gs | bool | If true, enable Roland GS-specific features to enhance GM emulation. If native_mt32 is also true, the GS device will select an MT-32 map to play the correct instruments |
| sfx_volume | number | The sfx volume setting (0-255) |
| tempo | number | The music tempo (50-200) (default: 100) |
| speech_volume | number | The speech volume setting (0-255) |
| midi_gain | number | The MIDI gain (0-1000) (default: 100) (only supported by some MIDI drivers) |
| copy_protection | bool | Enable copy protection in certain games, in those cases where ScummVM disables it by default. |
| demo_mode | bool | Start demo in Maniac Mansion |
| alt_intro | bool | Use alternative intro for CD versions of Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen |
| boot_param | number | Pass this number to the boot script |
Game specific settings
These parameters will only have any effect in the section of the config file devoted to specific games.
Music & sound effects mute settings
Broken Sword 2, Flight of the Amazon Queen and Simon the Sorcerer 1 & 2 all allow use of the following settings:
| Keyword | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| music_mute | bool | If true, music is muted |
| sfx_mute | bool | If true, sound effects are muted |
Broken Sword 2 specific settings
| Keyword | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| gfx_details | number | Graphics details setting (0-3) |
| object_labels | bool | If true, object labels are enabled |
| reverse_stereo | bool | If true, stereo channels are reversed |
The Legend of Kyrandia specific settings
| Keyword | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| walkspeed | int | The walk speed (0-4) |
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