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Running A Game From The ScummVM Launcher
Running A Game From The ScummVM Launcher
Start Button
Make sure the desired game is selected on ScummVM's list and press 'Start'. You can also press
'Load' to restart the game from a previously saved state.
Note this command is dependent on your system. You may have to specify exactly where
ScummVM is installed to, for example in Windows:
c:\games\scummvm\scummvm.exe samnmax
Or in Unix:
/home/username/scummvm/scummvm samnmax
The short game name you see at the end of the command line ("samnmax" in this case) specifies
which game is started. It either corresponds to a user-defined target (i.e. one that has been added
using the Launcher: this is the case in the example above), or to a built-in gameid. A brief list of the
latter can be found in the supported games section.
There are many different options that can be specified to make ScummVM run the game just the
way you want, and these are listed in the table below. The meaning of most long options (that is,
those options starting with a double-dash) can be inverted by prefixing them with "no-". For
example, "--no-aspect-ratio" will turn aspect ratio correction off. This is useful if you want to
override a setting in the configuration file.
Short
Long
Description
-v
--version
Display ScummVM version information and exit
-h
--help
Display a brief help text and exit
-z
--list-games
Display list of supported games and exit
-c
--config=CONFIG Use alternate configuration file
-p
--path=PATH
Path to where the game is installed
-f
--fullscreen
Force full-screen mode
-F
--no-fullscreen
Force windowed mode
Running Full Throttle from CD, fullscreen and with subtitles enabled (Win32)
C:\Games\LucasArts\scummvm.exe -f -n -pD:\resource\ ft
Running Full Throttle from CD, fullscreen and with subtitles enabled (Unix)
/path/to/scummvm -f -n -p/cdrom/resource/ ft
Hotkeys
ScummVM supports various in-game hotkeys. The table below summarizes the hotkeys common to
all games. Hotkeys specific to a game are listed in the Game specific instructions section.
Note far mac users: recent keyboards on the macintosh computers map the function keys to some
system features by default (e.g. sound volume). To use these keys as function keys, e.g. F5, you
need to use the fn key in addition to the function key, e.g. fn-F5. Alternatively you can change the
default behavior of these keys in the System Preferences (toggle on "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as
standard function keys" in the Keyboard & Mouse panel).
Hotkey
Description
Ctrl-F5
Displays the Global Menu (see also Global Main Menu (GMM)).
Cmd-q
Quit (Mac OS X)
Ctrl-q
Quit (other unices including Linux)
Ctrl-z OR
Quit (other platforms)
Alt-x
Crtl-u
Mute all sounds
Ctrl-m
Toggle mouse capture
Ctrl-Alt 1-8 Switch between graphics filters (see also Graphic filters)
Ctrl-Alt + and
Increase/Decrease the scale factor (see also Graphic filters)
Ctrl-Alt a
Toggle aspect-ratio correction on/off (see also Graphics settings)
Alt-Enter
Toggles between full screen and windowed mode
Make a screenshot (SDL backend only, which includes Windows, Mac OS X, other
Alt-s
Unices and Linux)
Controls
Personal Computers
These instructions concern any computer that has a keyboard and a mouse (e.g. running Windows,
Mac OS, Linux). As for most applications running on computers, you will need the mouse and the
keyboard to control ScummVM and the games. When you are in the Launcher you can configure
ScummVM and games as well as start games, all with the mouse. When running a game there are a
number of hotkeys to which ScummVM will respond (e.g. to save a game, take a snapshot, quit
ScummVM).
The games supported by ScummVM are point-and-click games. This means that you need to use the
mouse to control them. In some of the games (e.g. the older AGI games) you may also need to use
the keyboard to type actions to perform (e.g. "look door"). The exact controls for each game depend
on the game. For example, in most LucasArts games you can click on a verb to perform an action or
use a shortcut (e.g. press t for talk), but the Curse of Monkey Island has a different control system
from the other games. Usually you can find the instructions on how to control a specific game in the
manual that came with it.
Copy protection
The ScummVM team does not condone piracy. However, there are cases where the game
companies (such as LucasArts) themselves bundled 'cracked' executables with their games -- in
these cases the data files still contain the copy protection scripts, but the interpreter bypasses them
(similar to what an illegally cracked version might do, only that here the producer of the game did
it). There is no way for us to tell the difference between legitimate and pirated data files, so for the
games where we know that a cracked version of the original interpreter was sold at some point,
ScummVM will always have to bypass the copy protection.
In some cases ScummVM will still show the copy protection screen. Try entering any answer.
Chances are that it will work.
ScummVM will skip copy protection in the following games:
Maniac Mansion
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Loom (EGA)
The Secret of Monkey Island (VGA)
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Lure of the Temptress
bypassed with kind permission from Revolution Software.
Description
Load game state
Save game stat
Starts the debugger
Toggle fast mode
Runs in really REALLY fast mode
Switch between 'Speech only', 'Speech and Subtitles' and 'Subtitles only'
Show/hide the debugging console
Music volume, down/up
Text speed, slower/faster
Displays a save/load box (see ScummVM in-game menu).
Displays the original save/load box, if the game has one (see ScummVM in-game menu).
Displays IQ points (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of
Atlantis)
Pauses
Skips current line of text in some games
Simulate left mouse button press
Simulate right mouse button press
A more detailed description of this menu is available on the ScummVM Interface page.
Day of the Tentacles easter egg
At one point in the game, you come across a computer that allows you to play the original Maniac
Mansion as an easter egg. ScummVM supports this, with a few caveats:
ScummVM will scan your configuration file for a game that's in a 'Maniac' sub-folder of
your Day of the Tentacle folder. If you've copied the data files from the CD version, this
should already be the case but you have to add the game to ScummVM as well.
To return to Day of the Tentacle, press F5 and select "Return to Launcher".
This means that you could in theory use any game as the easter egg. Indeed, there is a
"secret" configuration setting, "easter_egg", to override the ID of the game to run. Be aware,
though, that not all games support returning to the launcher, and setting it up to use Day of
the Tentacle itself as the easter egg game is not recommended.
Hotkey
Description
Ctrl-d Starts the debugger
Ctrl-f Toggle fast mode
p
Pauses
Configuration
This game has some specific configuration settings described in the Configuration section.
Dragon History
Use left mouse button click to walk and right mouse button click to use an item or talk. You can
also use any mouse button click to skip the current spoken sentence. In addition the following
hotkeys are supported:
Hotkey
Description
F5
Display Global Main Menu
i
Show inventory
m
Show map
Escape Skip the intro, exit map/inventory
q
Turn on/off quick walking
Future Wars
Hotkey
Description
F1
Examine
F2
Take
F3
Inventory
F4
Use
F5
Activate
F6
Speak
F9
"Activate" menu
F10
"Use" menu
Escape Show command menu
Nippon Safes
Hotkey
Description
Ctrl-d Starts the debugger
l
Load game
s
Save game
Hotkey
Description
Ctrl 0-9 Load game state
Alt 0-9 Save game state
Ctrl-d Starts the debugger
Teen Agent
Hotkey
Description
F5
Display Global Main Menu