ScummVM does not emulate anything: it replaces the executable of the point-and-click adventure games of the 80s and 90s, letting you play them on machines they were never written for. You supply the game data files, ScummVM does the rest.
The name comes from the SCUMM engine (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion), built by Lucasfilm Games in 1987 for Maniac Mansion and reused for every LucasArts classic afterwards. ScummVM now supports many more engines: Sierra, Revolution, Westwood, Coktel Vision…
Recalbox 10.1 ships ScummVM 2.8.1, as a Libretro core (the default) and as a standalone build, on every board. A mouse is required on this system.
Four free games are already installed: Beneath a Steel Sky, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Lure of the Tempress and Soltys. Use them as a template.
A ScummVM game takes the form of a folder with the .scummvm extension, containing the game files plus a small text file telling ScummVM which game it is.
engine:game)./recalbox/share/roms/scummvm, create a folder named <Long name>.scummvm and copy all the game files into it.<game>.scummvm — the part to the right of the colon in the identifier — containing the full identifier.Example with Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars, whose identifier is sword1:sword1:
┣ 📁 scummvm
┃ ┣ 📁 Broken Sword 1.scummvm
┃ ┃ ┣ 🗒 sword1.scummvm
┃ ┃ ┣ 🗒 … the game files
The sword1.scummvm file contains a single line:
sword1:sword1
The folder name is what shows up in the game list.
A third part can be added to the identifier to force the language on multilingual games:
sword1:sword1:fr
That is how the pre-installed games are configured: lure:lure:fr for the French version of Lure of the Tempress, cge:soltys:es for the Spanish version of Soltys.
The scraper recognises games by the folder name: use the exact long name given by ScummVM. A few titles are still mismatched and need a shortened name:
Discworld II
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The Legend of Kyrandia Book 3
The Legend of Kyrandia Hand of Fate
So Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure will be recognised if the folder is named Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.scummvm.
Some games — Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis in particular — need extra fonts. Put them in:
/recalbox/share/bios/scummvm/
They are then automatically used by all your games.
Games of that era often sound far better with Roland MT-32 synthesis. ScummVM can emulate it, provided you supply the machine's two ROMs, placed in the same folder as the fonts:
/recalbox/share/bios/scummvm/
├── MT32_CONTROL.ROM (MD5 5626206284b22c2734f3e9efefcd2675)
└── MT32_PCM.ROM (MD5 89e42e386e82e0cacb4a2704a03706ca)
Those MD5 signatures are checked: only this version of the ROMs is accepted. The BIOS checker will confirm it.
You then need to ask for the MT-32 in ScummVM's configuration (music_driver=mt32, mt32_device=mt32).
/recalbox/share/saves/scummvm/
No: support varies from game to game and improves with every ScummVM release. The official compatibility list is the reference — it tells you whether each game is completable.