SCUMMVM & LEGAL ROMS
ScummVM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion
Virtual Machine) is an ambitious reverse-engineered
project that runs the point-and-click adventure games
popular in the ’80s and ’90s. Particular attention is given
to LucasArts games, and by doing away with the need for
the original game executable, ScummVM is very multi-
platform. For those so inclined, ScummVM enables you to
upscale and smooth out the original graphics, and audio
power users can tweak the sound and MIDI systems.LEGAL ROMS
We’ve mentioned the illegality of ROM downloads numerous
times, but there are legitimate avenues. Machines like the
Commodore 64 and Amiga had thriving demo scenes with
tape-trading and magazine coverdiscs, and consoles like
the PlayStation and Dreamcast had magazine cover CDs.
Public archives are available online to preserve much of
this data.
Then there’s homebrew gaming, where hobbyists publish
unofficial titles for other enthusiasts, and traditionally this
software has been public domain. However, the easiest
form comes from game companies themselves, which
are using technologies such as DOSBox and ScummVM to
sell their old games on stores like Steam and GOG. Even if
there’s no Linux version for what you’re chasing, there’s still
a very good chance it will work under Wine or Proton.it was fun showing console peasants Metal Gear Solid in high
resolution (and “richer color”).
Ultimately, bleem! sales dried up, and Sony’s constant litigation
wore down both Connectix and bleem!, but these companies set
a legal precedent, and made emulation mainstream. Nowadays,
major game companies emulate their older games on newer
systems, even Sony itself (to a degree).
PL AYSTATION EMUL ATION TODAY
The PlayStation hardware was relatively simple compared to its
rivals, and there have been numerous emulators over the years.
No one talks about it being a mysterious puzzle to crack, but there
is one challenge that continues to plague PlayStation emulators
today—the BIOS. While there are open-source replacements,
compatibility isn’t brilliant, and most guides suggest just using
the proprietary Sony BIOS, despite the legal issues.
Starting with the purest open-source Linux option, your best
bet for now is PCSX. This should be in your repository, and comes
with its own BIOS replacement. However, if you get a real BIOS
(we’re not going to tell you where from), copy the file to “~/.
pcsx/bios/” and select it in the configuration. If games crash
immediately, open the “Configuration” menu, and try changing
the driver from OpenGL to XV under “Plugins and BIOS.”
We had mixed results with PCSX, and it didn’t work on all
our machines. Though it pains us to say it, the closed-source
ePSXe worked much better. Although it can make use of a BIOS
replacement, the official BIOS is still recommended, and save
states apparently won’t work if you switch between BIOSes
(though this may have changed in recent years). Its website at
http://www.epsxe.com provides a tarball with a binary pre-compiled
and almost ready to go, but you need to make it executable. Right-
click the file, choose “Properties,” and somewhere in your file
manager should be the option to change file permissions, where
you can flag it as executable. You should be able to just click
the file and have it run now, though you’ll want to set up basics
such as controls and video modes. The defaults aren’t great, and
ePSXe probably won’t automatically set up
your gamepad (at least, it didn’t for us).
RetroArch and Mednafen are two
other alternatives, though both
require a BIOS and a certain amount
of configuration. RetroArch
needs quite a few steps to get
PlayStation games working,
but there are plenty of guides
online to get you going.
Mednafen kept giving us
some very strange errors,
and eventually we headed back
to ePSXe in frustration.
For those willing to work
past the initial barriers, the
PlayStation library will be worth it. Sony was an upstart in the
console market, but trounced all its competitors, the PlayStation
becoming the biggest console of the ’90s. From Metal Gear Solid
to Gran Turismo to the Final Fantasy games, the number of
classics is just far too long to list.
PlayStation magazines also had coverdiscs filled with demos—
something that used to be almost the sole domain of PCs. This
fostered an underground coding scene in ways that companies
like Nintendo never could, thus the PlayStation library is colossal.
The work of Connectix and bleem! may have been lost over
time, but their precedent is not. Open-source BIOS replacements
are becoming increasingly popular, and emulators like DeSmuME
for the Nintendo DS and Citra for the 3DS just run immediately.
Before we go, there is one final twist to this saga. The recent
PlayStation Classic console, officially licensed by Sony, itself
uses an emulator to play old ROMs: ReARMed, an ARM port of
PCSX. Which is open source. But we don’t want to advertise that
too loudly, because reviews haven’t been great—most of us can
set up a better default configuration than Sony!Nearly all of LucasArts’ adventures are stone-cold classics.
Play them with ScummVM.maximumpc.com JUN 2019 MAXIMUMPC 33