ScummVM is not a machine emulator: it is a free reimplementation of the game engines themselves. Started in 2001 by Ludvig Strigeus, the project began with SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion), the engine behind the LucasArts adventures, before absorbing dozens of other engines over the years. ScummVM contains no game code: it replays the data files of an original game you must own, replacing the period executable with a modern program.
The benefit is twofold: games run natively on recent hardware, with no DOS or Windows 9x to emulate, and they gain modern comfort — fullscreen, filtering, saves, subtitles, language selection. It is today the gateway to most of the point & click catalogue: the LucasArts adventures (Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Indiana Jones), the Sierra ones (King's Quest, Space Quest, Gabriel Knight), Revolution Software (Beneath a Steel Sky, Broken Sword), Simon the Sorcerer, Discworld, and several hundred other titles.
The ResidualVM project, which tackled the late-90s 3D adventures (Grim Fandango, Myst III), has been merged into ScummVM: this is why the .residualvm extension is also recognised on Recalbox.
| Project | ScummVM |
| Original author | Ludvig Strigeus |
| First release | 2001 |
| Game type | Adventure, point & click |
| License | GPL-2.0 |
| Controller | Mandatory |
| Mouse | Mandatory (the controller drives the pointer) |
Recalbox ships with eight free or freeware adventure games already installed on this system: Beneath a Steel Sky, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Lure Of The Temptress and Soltys, in several languages. See the Included games page.
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libretro scummvm | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| ScummVM | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Both implementations are available on every board. The Libretro scummvm core is used by default: it runs inside RetroArch and therefore benefits from shaders, overlays and the controller configuration shared by all systems. The standalone ScummVM is offered as a second choice; it is the original ScummVM program, useful when a game misbehaves in the libretro core. Both accept exactly the same files, so switching emulator in the game options is enough to compare.
Netplay is not available on this system and RetroAchievements are not supported. CRT output is handled by both emulators.
See also the ScummVM guide and its FAQ.
No BIOS is mandatory. The two files below are optional: they are the Roland MT-32 synthesiser ROMs, which restore the original MT-32 soundtrack of the games that offered one.
| File name | Description | MD5 | Emulators |
|---|---|---|---|
MT32_CONTROL.ROM |
Roland MT-32 control ROM (optional) | 5626206284b22c2734f3e9efefcd2675 | Libretro scummvm, ScummVM |
MT32_PCM.ROM |
Roland MT-32 PCM sample ROM (optional) | 89e42e386e82e0cacb4a2704a03706ca | Libretro scummvm, ScummVM |
Place the files like this:
/recalbox/share/bios/scummvm/
├── MT32_CONTROL.ROM
└── MT32_PCM.ROM
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/scummvm/
Supported extensions: .scummvm .residualvm — identical for both emulators.
On this system, a game is not a file but a folder. Create a folder whose name ends with .scummvm (that name is what shows up in the interface), copy all the game data files into it, and add a small text file that also carries the .scummvm extension:
/recalbox/share/roms/scummvm/
├── Beneath a Steel Sky (English).scummvm/
│ ├── sky.dnr
│ ├── sky.dsk
│ └── sky.scummvm
└── Flight of the Amazon Queen (Français).scummvm/
├── queen.1c
└── queen.scummvm
That text file holds the ScummVM identifier of the game, in the form engine:game, optionally followed by the language: queen:queen:fr. The engine and game identifiers are listed game by game by the ScummVM project on its official site.
The 3D adventures inherited from ResidualVM are laid out the same way, with a folder and a file using the
.residualvmextension.
ScummVM refuses to start a game whose data files are incomplete or in a variant it does not recognise. Always copy the whole content of the original game into the folder, without renaming anything.