ScummVM sails onto the Raspberry Pi
By way of a Pi Day gift, we’ve news that ScummVM, a popular collection of game engines allowing gamers to play point-and-click adventure games, has now been ported over to the Raspberry Pi, allowing some of the greatest games ever made to be playable on the Raspberry Pi.
The Secret of Monkey Island
Created by LucasArts in 1987, the SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) game engine powered many of the top point-and-click adventure games at the end of the ’80s and beginning of the ’90s. From The Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle to Broken Sword, this period was arguably the pinnacle of the genre’s popularity.
Full Throttle
When the popularity of point-and-click games started to wane, as they were superseded by more graphically advanced games, a group of developers created ScummVM to allow people to continue playing these old games on newer systems. By replacing the system-specific executable files, as long as you have the original data files you can run the games on a variety of systems. Many of the original game designers have helped the project and allowed their games to be released for free, including Beneath a Steel Sky. ScummVM has been ported to everything from modern OSes to games consoles, handheld consoles, and even phones.
A cyber-punk dystopia Beneath a Steel Sky.
In 1990 LucasFilm Games released The Secret of Monkey Island. When I first played the tale of Guybrush Threepwood and his battle with the evil pirate LeChuck, it was like playing a cartoon. It started a love affair with point-and-click adventures that continues to this day. Recently Tim Schaffer, one of the creators of Monkey Island, ran a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised over $3.5m for a point-and-click game proving that they are still popular today.
Now that ScummVM is available on the Raspberry Pi I’m looking forward to firing it up and heading to the Scumm Bar once more for some grog, travelling through time to fight the purple tentacle, and battling the templars to ancient treasure.
Having a well deserved pint of grog at the Scumm Bar
31 comments
Vanfanel
Hi. I did this port. Specific Raspberry Pi GPU support on Scummvm has been around for years now by means of my dispmanx graphics backend class and the bit-rotten and abandoned SDL1, but this official port uses SDL2, which in turn uses GLES on a dispmanx EGL rendering context and needs SDL2 version 2.0.4 to run correctly: any prior version will show input problems.
So, all in all, we need an SDL 2.0.4 package in Raspbian: I I count on people to be able to build SDL 2.0.4 on their own as it’s very easy and a natural GNU/Linux usage routine, but it would make things easier anyway.
Ben
SDL compile, if only us RaspberryPi users knew how to do such things. Hopefully someone will make an apt-get or Menu-Preferences-Add/Remove Software type thing.
Ben
So downloaded, Extracted via the default GUI program to a folder.
Found the readme RaspPi info
——–
ScummVM Raspberry Pi README
——————————————————————————-
The Raspberry Pi version is linked against the following GNU/Linux libraries
that may or may not be already installed on a Raspberry Pi GNU/Linux system
and hence needs them installed in your system before running ScummVM on it:
-SDL2, version 2.0.4 recommended. See notes on this below.
-libVorbis, for OGG music needed by some engines and the fantastic
enhanced music packs by James Woodcock.
-libJPEG, needed by some engines.
-libPNG, needed by some engines.
So, if you are in Raspbian, for example, you can install these, except
SDL 2.0.4 by doing:
sudo apt-get install libvorbis0a libjpeg62-turbo libpng12-0
You can look at the other library dependencies by running ldd on the
scummvm executable. They are standard GNU Linux, C++ and Raspberry Pi
Video Core IV libraries that should come installed with your system.
Notes on SDL2 version 2.0.4
—————————
This version of ScummVM is built against SDL2, and stable version 2.0.4 is
recommended. Previous versions could have mouse input bugs on the Pi.
Using SDL 1.x on the Pi is buggy, even if a hacky dispmanx (native 2D API)
backend exists, it’s not recommended at all.
If your GNU/Linux distribution for Raspberry Pi does not have an SDL2 2.0.4
binary package available, you have to build it yourself.
You can follow these simple steps to get the sources and run the configure
script:
cd ~
wget https://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL2-2.0.4.tar.gz
tar zxvf SDL2-2.0.4.tar.gz
cd SDL2-2.0.4
./configure –host=armv7l-raspberry-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –disable-pulseaudio –disable-esd –disable-video-mir –disable-video-wayland –disable-video-x11 –disable-video-opengl
If you had no errors, you can do the actual building and install:
make -j4
sudo make install
——
Eric
For newbies like me:
If you copy/paste the commands you might get the error “invalid variable name: -host”
use – – (no space between them) to pass the switches.
Ex: ./configure –host etc///
Paul
This is what it should be
./configure –host=armv7l-raspberry-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –disable-pulseaudio –disable-esd –disable-video-mir –disable-video-wayland –disable-video-x11 –disable-video-opengl
cameron
On top of the default Raspbian install I needed to install a couple more packages before building libSDL:
sudo apt-get libasound2-dev libudev-dev
libasound2-dev was required to get ALSA (sound) support and libudev was required for the mouse to work when running ScummVM from the console.
Jools
Looks like SDL 2.0.4 has other input problems on the RPI though – https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/issues/1297
John M
Does this new port solve the screen tearing issues in other ports of scummvm I’ve seen on the RPI?
Vanfanel
Yes. I won’t release anything with screen tearing! :)
John Massengale
You are my hero!
Mia
I wouldl ove if you could guide me to find out what is wrong with my installation.
I’ve treid to install this on a brand new raspbian image sd card, on a raspberry pi 3.
I’ve made the build. When I start ./scummvm from terminal or startx it just shows the interface (fullscreen) and the mouse cursor locket at upper left part of the screen. I can do nothing, no keyboard or mouse input works.
I like to use this, but this is driving me crazy for the last few hours :(
Eugene Sandulenko
ScummVM is not an emulator. Please change the wording if possible. Officially it is “collection of game engines”. We do have a handful emulators as part of ScummVM, but those are for emulating sound hardware.
Helen Lynn
Our apologies – I’ve amended the text.
Ben
Download screen is seeing me as MacOSX recommended and I’m using default Epiphany, latest updates today.
Is it touch screen enabled for the RaspPI like the Android version have. I’ve been enjoying my Discworlds on my Android tablets over the years :-)
beta-tester
i don’t understand exactly, what is so new on that news.
i use SummVM aleady since years to play my Monkey Islands 1, 2, 3 and others.
why is that information new now. ScummVM was running for years on a RPi… so it was ported already.
did i misunderstood something?
Adam
Does anyone know if there is a way to update from. 1.7 inside of the raspbian loader? I can’t find anything about it.
Ben
With the official release of SCUMMVM 1.8, RasperryPI became an official port.(it is in the chanhe logs) I assume that is actually Raspian on RaspberryPI? As it is obviously OS dependant?
Which I assume means there is somebody maintaining it for the Raspian/RaspberryPI and the PI intricacies officially now?
joyrider3774
downloaded the binaries, builded and installed SDL (really nothing to it just followed exact instructions as mentioned in readme). downloaded a the free games from the scummvm site and then just ran the binarie.
Started fine and seems to run without a problem.
@ben Touchscreen of offical pi screen does not seem to work with it as far as i can tell, but all i tried was just starting it while a mouse was attached and does not pick up touches from the touchscreen
Jonathan Pallant
Pfft.
Everyone knows that Sam and Max Hit The Road was the best SCUMM game ever written!
I have the CD version somewhere, with full dialog. I must dig it out again.
Kostis
Oh, wait, did you say “dig”? “The Dig”? That’s what you meant by best game ever, right?
Mike C.
That should really say “Sails onto Raspbian” Because there’s been a RISC OS port for years.
GermanNewbie
Hi,
i am a german newbie. Can anybody explain what i should do after i´ve installed and configure SDL 2.0.4? How can i install the scummvm 1.8 package? Is it possible in Ubuntu Mate for the raspberry pi2?
Can anybody make a Manual (for newbies) from the first step til i can play a game on rpi2 (for example broken sword 2.5)?
Thanks a lot and sorry for my bad english… :)
solar3000
I remember Monkey Island and Full Throttle!
I played those in 1994 when I was at University. That about explains my grades.
galactimouse
I managed to intstall this and get it running but when I run the scummvm executable, the system seems to freeze: there is no mouse pointer and it doesn’t respond to the keyboard… any idea what I’m doing wrong?
Mia
I have the exact same issue, any help would be appreciated!
Micha
Same issue here…sorry but before these SDL-/controlproblems are not cleared out, this is not usable release.
Mia
agreed!
Micha
Before I destroy something with this release:
If I try to build SDL 2.0.4 – is there a possibility that I am not able to use RetroPie’s controls anymore, or that RetroPie does not work anymore as it should normally ?
Or do I misunderstand something in the link some comments above?
Micha
More informations please: after sudo make install, is there anything we need to do? How do I check if SDL 2-2.0.4 is installed correct? Raspbians softwaremanager shows as marked package ‘libsdl2-2.0.0-2.0.2+dfsg1-6’…shouldn’t it be something with 2.0.4?
Is 2.0.4 now installed side-by-side with an older version, replaced this an older version?
I got no errors, but as written above, ScummVM freezes completely and only turning power off helps :(
Richard Owen
This announcement was premature. Scummvm for RPi does not work, it freezes as several posters announce above. The RPi is not ‘official’ for scummvm, as seen on their web site. There are install problems with various parts, and the instructions above and elsewhere are non-functional. e.g. package libjpeg62-turbo cannot be found. I manage an application for Windows and I know how difficult it is, but with the more fractured nature of Linux, it’s no wonder that the software requires enthusiasts to get each instance working. Many getting-started-on-pi guides for various software and hardware are usually written from the ground up on specific versions of OS, which is just about the only way to ensure predictability. So I guess we have to wait for someone who knows what they are doing with scummvm to create a step-by-step guide from a particular version of every package. This is some way from the early days of the PC when you could just copy a game folder and have some fun!
Vanfanel
To everyone having input problems with scummvm 1.8.0 Raspberry Pi binaries using SDL2, you need libudev-dev installed before building SDL2/Scummvm.
I omitted that from the readme because it’s a direct dependency of SDL2 on the Pi to get input working without stinky X server dependecies. Sorry for the missing detail.
@richard owen: libjpeg62-turbo is found here. Do an apt-get update before retrying.
Also yes, this is no DOS. “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto”: we have shared libraries and modern programs depend on them. There are MANY benefits from this to list, and it’s only a matter of knowing what your binaries are linked against, or build your own binaries which is usually very easy.
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