Are your ready for some nostalgia?

Raise your hand, everyone who remembers Monkey Island, Sam & Max - Hit the road, and Day of the Tentacle! Does it bring back memories? Would you wish to relive those old adventures again? Keep reading, because here comes a tip to bring the classics back!

In recent years, several publishers have noticed that there is a market for the good old adventure games and you can again buy them in digital form. For example, at GOG.com or on Steam you can, for a nice sum, get versions that work on modern machines. Some of them have also received a makeover, in nice remastered editions, including Monkey Island.

However, if you already have the games in your collection, you can actually play them without having to buy them again. Or how about playing on, for example, your phone or tablet? Not all the games are available there in a new form. The trick is to use emulation, and the program we’re talking about is called ScummVM.

What is ScummVM?

In short, ScummVM replaces the original program file from the relevant game, so you can play it on systems it was originally never released on. The reason this works is that the old adventure games are created as script files, which are played through a game engine. It’s this game engine ScummVM replaces, and today ScummVM has been developed to support many such game engines.

It naturally started with LucasArts’ SCUMM (Monkey Island 1-3, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Indiana Jones - Fate of Atlantis, etc.), and then followed SIERRA’s AGI and SCI (King’s Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, etc.). Today, several other game engines are also supported, and a full overview of compatible games can be found on their website.

4 steps to memory lane

• Download ScummVM for the desired platform. (They support, among other things, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, PS3, Android, and many more).
• Find the original files from the game you want to play, and place them somewhere you can find them again (for example, in a nostalgia folder)
• Add the game to ScummVM. If you wish, you have the opportunity to change various settings here. You can also do this later, if necessary.
• Select the game from the list, and start your journey back to the past.

Is it worth it?

Why use ScummVM when I can play it through Steam or from GOG.com, you might ask? It might be just as good if you’re only playing on a PC. But with ScummVM you can also bring your favorite games over to, for example, your Android tablet, and that is worth taking a look at. It doesn’t hurt with a little Monkey Island on the bus or train, when you’re out traveling.