SCUMM stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion and is a scripting language developed at LucasArts (known at the time as Lucasfilm Games) to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion.It is somewhere between a game engine and a programming language, allowing designers to create locations, items and dialogue sequences without coding in the actual language the game source code would end up in. This also meant that the game's script and data files could be re-used across various platforms.
1 History
The original version was written by Aric Wilmunder and Ron Gilbert in 1987 with later versions were enhanced by Aric Wilmunder (aka the Scumm Lord).
SCUMM was subsequently reused in many later LucasArts adventure games being both updated and rewritten several times. There were eight versions of the SCUMM engine, known simply as "version 1", "version 2", etc.
LucasArts finally abandonded the SCUMM engine in 1998 when they switched to GrimE for the game Grim Fandango.
2 Design
Most SCUMM games feature a verb-object design paradigm. The player-controlled character has an inventory, and the game world is littered with objects with which the player can interact, using a variety of verbs - a large collection of these featured in the early games, but by The Curse of Monkey Island these had been whittled down to "Look at", "Use" (which was context sensitive and could produce various actions - Pick up, push, pull, etc.) and "Talk to".
Puzzles generally involve using the right verb action with the appropriate object - "use cookie cutter with another rubber tree", for example.
"Talk to" produces dialogue sequences, in which the player selects from a list of pre-defined questions or comments, and the character they are talking to replies with a pre-defined response.
The notable exception to this general paradigm is LOOM, which does not use the standard verb / object paradigm, but does feature dialogue sequences.
3 Versions
3.1 Version 1
- Maniac Mansion ( Commodore 64Commodore 64 C64 CBM 64 was a popular home computer of the 1980s. Announced by Commodore Business Machines (founded and owned by Jack Tramiel) in January 1982 and released in September of that year at a price of US$595, it offered unprecedented value (sou version)
- Zak McKracken and the Alien MindbendersZak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1988, published by LucasArts (known at the time as LucasFilm Games). It was the second game to use the SCUMM engine, after Maniac Mansion. The plot follows Zak, (Commodore 64 version)
3.2 Version 2
- Maniac Mansion ( PCIBM PC compatible refers to a class of computers which make up the vast majority of smaller computers ( microcomputers) on the market today. They are based (without IBM's participation) on the original IBM PC. They use the Intel x86 architecture and are c version)
- Zak McKracken and the Alien MindbendersZak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1988, published by LucasArts (known at the time as LucasFilm Games). It was the second game to use the SCUMM engine, after Maniac Mansion. The plot follows Zak, (original PC version)
3.3 Version 3
- Indiana Jones and the Last CrusadeIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1989, published by Lucasfilm Games (now LucasArts). It was the third game to use the SCUMM engine. The plot closely follows, and expands upon, the film of the same na ( VGA PC version)
- Zak McKracken and the Alien MindbendersZak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1988, published by LucasArts (known at the time as LucasFilm Games). It was the second game to use the SCUMM engine, after Maniac Mansion. The plot follows Zak, (VGA remake for FM Towns system)
- LOOM (original PC version)
